‘CrossFit Meets Shooting’ in Judge VanDyke’s Off-Bench Hobby

Federal judges are people, too, and between panels last week at the Federalist Society’s annual lawyers convention, three offered rare glimpses into how they unwind from the stresses of the job.

Judge Lawrence VanDyke, of the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, said that outlet for him is competitive shooting, which he joked helps him get away from “stuffy” lawyers.

For Fifth Circuit Chief Judge Jennifer Elrod, it’s science fiction of all sorts. The Third Circuit’s Paul Matey looks to an American classic: baseball cards.

The discussions dubbed sidebars and hosted by law students were interspersed throughout more traditional legal fare during the three-day conference and showed a human side of a judiciary that at times can feel “insular,” VanDyke said.

Competitive shooting

VanDyke said competitive shooting is an “outlet” that allows him to hang up his robe and connect with “ordinary Americans.”

“It’s not with stuffy lawyers,” VanDyke said. “Nobody calls me ‘the judge.’”

It’s also “helpful to know something” about guns, VanDyke said, when deciding cases involving the Second Amendment.

VanDyke, who grew up in Montana and now sits in Reno, Nevada, said he began shooting at a young age with his family, but reconnected with the sport as an adult after he moved to Texas. Recently, he said he’s started competing in what’s known as tactical games, which he described as “CrossFit meets shooting.”

The appeals court judge also referenced his March video dissent in a case related to gun magazine capacity, where the judge displayed parts of handguns in his chambers, with an AK-47 gun mounted on the wall behind him.

VanDyke said during the discussions that the mounted gun seen in the video was not his own, but rather a government-owned AK-47 given to him by the General Services Administration to decorate his chambers.

“That is your gun. That is the people’s AK,” he said.

Baseball cards

Matey demonstrated the right way to open baseball cards, how to hold them — by the sides and never the edges — and described his evolution from a lukewarm New York Mets supporter to a Washington Nationals fan.

Matey said his collection consists of thousands of baseball cards spread across binders, boxes, cardboard holders, “and then just piles that randomly exist in my closet.”

He said that while people can draw analogies between the law and baseball, not everything has to be done as part of an intellectual pursuit.

“It’s just fun, and it’s okay to just have fun outside of our roles as members and citizens of the republic, and as stewards and custodians of the law,” Matey said.

Star Wars

Elrod began her presentation with a picture of a shelf in her Houston chambers, which she’s adorned with Lord of the Rings and Star Wars memorabilia. The shelf includes the recent addition of a hand-stitched Gandalf.

Elrod, who also participated in a separate artificial intelligence panel, was asked how she would approach drafting legislation for the Galactic Republic — particularly given the prominence of droids in Star Wars.

Elrod said she would take a rights-based approach, rather than a more hands-off innovation-driven model. Elrod said she much preferred the treatment of droids in Star Trek, where the show actually grapples with whether the Enterprise’s android crew member Data has civil rights.

As to lessons she’s taken from Star Wars, Elrod said that, unlike Princess Leia’s message to the Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, judges cannot let themselves believe they are the “only hope.”

“We must stay in our lanes. We’re not the only ones,” she said. “There are other branches. There are other people coming after us.”