We gave the Supreme Court eight years to prepare for today. We noted back then that it had been 20 years since the court had issued a Leap Day opinion, that the court wouldn’t be filing any opinions on February 29, 2016, and that, “if the court continues to file opinions only on Mondays and Thursdays, there won’t be another chance for a Leap Day filing until 2024.”
Well, Mondays and Thursdays remain the normal filing days, but the court issued no opinions today. This despite the fact that the court is apparently instead waiting until the last filing day — this coming Monday — to decide two December calendar cases: People v. Hardin and Niedermeier v. FCA US LLC.
Now the court needs to mark its calendar for Monday, February 29, 2044, the next Leap Day on a regular opinion filing day.
Horvitz & Levy, on the other hand, took the day’s significance seriously, making the traditional once-every-four-years trek to a neighborhood diner.