The very first installment of my monthly appellate-related Upon Further Review column appeared in the Dec. 11, 2000, issue of The Legal Intelligencer bearing the headline “The Unconstitutionality of Non-Precedential Appellate Rulings.” As coincidence would have it, the nation’s attention was then riveted on an appellate proceeding. The U.S. Supreme Court had heard oral argument in Bush v. Gore that same day and then issued its decision in the case at 10 p.m. the next day.

Zan Hale served as The Legal’s editor-in-chief back in December 2000, and she kindly gave the greenlight for this column to begin appearing in the publication on a monthly basis. Before the column was approved, I was asked to furnish a list of at least six potential column topics, to demonstrate that an appellate-related column could justify appearing monthly. And I was asked to propose potential titles for the column. I know that I proposed at least two titles—“Upon Further Review” and “How Appealing.” The first was chosen as the title for this column, while the second in May 2002 became the title of my nearly 19-year-old appellate blog.