Regarding Chin and Parker at the original Appeal.
Parker is a political hack and was probably star struck having Clement in his courtroom.
Chin, on the other hand, has been a Labor Lawyer all his life and was mentored by one of the icons of Labor Law, the late Judith Vladeck. He was a very good lawyer and is a very good judge.
I am in a distinct minority out here who reads his questions to Kessler as aggressive (as is the wont of Appellate Judges) and provocative, even offensive, ("overwhelming evidence," etc), but he was actually giving Kessler an opening to say the things that Olson said in two paragraphs in his brief and that has been presented in this Amicus brief. Kessler could have turned the hearing on its ear at that moment, instead he lost his cool and arguably insulted the judges.
All Kessler had to say when Chin went down the "overwhelming evidence" road was something like:
"If it please the court, your Honor, you have hit the nail on the head. What Commissioner Goodell did was to repeatedly change the "evidence" that he was considering in his judgment of Brady. When one set of evidence didn't work out, he would root around and introduce another.
"[then, from the Feinberg brief] The Commissioner impermissibly ...created new substantive and procedural rights not contemplated by the CBA, to effectuate his “own brand of industrial justice... He reshaped the parties’ bargain to favor the NFL. This violates the most basic tenet of arbitration: the arbitrator’s authority is derivative of and subordinate to the contract. ...Thank you very much, your Honor, for the opportunity to address that point."
I don't expect people to agree with me and I don't want to get into another debate over this. 99% of you disagree with me. Fine. I accept that. No need to tell me that again.
But, if you expected Chin to ask a question like "Gee, Mr. Kessler, wasn't the commissioner making up new stuff as he went along," that's a pipe dream. Instead he suggested that there was "overwhelming evidence" against Brady and then sat back and waited to see what Kessler did with it. He threw up all over himself, when he could have made the Olson/Feinberg arguments.