Tablet Magazine's profile of Seth Barrett Tillman provided a peek inside our working relationship. Due to the six-hour time difference between Houston and Dublin, we often have to chat at unusual times. Our sweet spot is around midnight Texas time, before I go to sleep, and early morning Ireland time, when Seth wakes up. During that window, there are few work or personal interruptions, and we can chat–as we often do–for lengthy periods about arcane legal questions that suddenly become timely.
Another timing quirk of our collaboration is the Sabbath. Seth and I are out of contact every week from when Shabbat begins in Dublin (around Sundown on Friday) to when Shabbat ends in Houston (about an hour after sundown on Saturday). During the winter, Shabbat begins as early as 4:00 p.m. in Ireland, so our communications cease on Friday morning around 8:00 a.m. Central Time. And quite often, big things tend to happen in the courts on Friday afternoons. We've had many briefs due on Fridays, so we have to file a day early on Thursday. (Somewhat related, we have had many briefs due on Jewish holidays; we also had to file early). Most recently, the Denver trial court ruled that President Trump was not an "Officer of the United States" on Friday after 5 p.m. local time. Seth remained unaware of that news till Saturday evening his time. Thankfully, I was in California that day, and was able to digest the opinion, and quickly blog about it, before I too had to sign off.
Tablet reported, "Blackman doesn't check or send email on Shabbat, meaning there is a 30-hour period each week when the two cannot be in communication." This is a new practice for me, and I wanted to write about it here.
