Suits & Sentences applauds judicial writing that is crisp, clear and, when appropriate, colloquial. So let's hear it for Judge Brett Kavenaugh of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

In an otherwise routine opinion rendered Friday for a three-judge panel, Judge Kavenaugh dismissed an employment discrimination claim filed by a former Board of Broadcasting Governors employee. In so doing, the judge noted first an applicable legal standard erected in a case called Leedom v. Kyne, and then wrote:

"Given that very stringent standard, a Leedom v. Kyne claim is essentially a Hail Mary pass – and in
court as in football, the attempt rarely succeeds."

See how this touch of casual speech, while entirely appropriate, helps ease the reader's way through the decision. The metaphor is apt and it's not overwritten; there's no sense the 44-year-old judge is straining for ageless poetry here, but simply trying to make this decision understandable. It's no big deal -- it's only a few words, for Pete's sake -- but this easy touch accumulates.

Jerome H. Jones might have been OK if he had just stood still, holding his styrofoam cup full of ice.

Instead, clutching his cup, Jones went ahead and told District of Columbia police: "I ain't doing nothing. I'm just drinking." In a new ruling, authored by Judge Judith Rogers Brown, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals determined that statement was, under the circumstances, sufficient to justify a police search. And so now, Jones is sentenced to prison for the crime of unlawful possession of a firearm.

The scenario: On Oct. 15, 2005, Jones and 15 or so others were hanging around outside in a high-crime area of D.C. Police rolled up, and discovered what they called a "party atmosphere." The party people began dispersing, with Jones walking particularly quickly, carrying a cup and a brown paper bag. He showed no sign of having been drinking: no odor, no stumbling, no slurred speech, no visible bottle.

Nonetheless, having told the cop that he was "just drinking," Jones opened himself to search and seizure, because D.C. law prohibits outdoors drinking. Things went south, Jones pushed the cop and when he was searched he was found to be carrying a loaded large-caliber handgun. Also: a bottle of vodka and cranberry juice.

The appellate court determined the cop took reasonable, restrained investigative steps -- telling Jones to "come here" -- and that Jones opened himself up to what followed with his statement that could, arguably, have been an admission that he was violating the D.C. public drinking ordinance.