A. Rickey moves from a Conglomerate discussion of expedited review of journal submissions to a promotion of software. I've dealt with some expedited reviews; they mean that instead of the usual week or more allotted to read and comment on an article, we need to vote on it within 24-48 hours, which can be annoying, particularly on weekends. We're fairly responsible about trying to give the same level of consideration to expedites that we would if they had come through the regular process. Still, with all discussion occurring over e-mail, I suspect that fans of a particular article have more trouble convincing those inclined to reject it -- and it only takes a couple reject votes even in the regular process for an article to be refused -- that they should reconsider its merits.

However, there's got to be a certain amount of fun in this when the submission comes from a judge, because then people who wish to clerk can wreak a little vengeance. From what I understand, one of the stressors of the judicial clerkship process is that offers expire quite quickly. One might apply to both appellate and district-level federal judges, to judges in desirable and not-so-desirable locations, and have the latter categories make "exploding offers" before the former. This puts applicants in the same position as authors of law review articles: should I go with this less-prestigious acceptance, or refuse and hold out for something better -- with the drawback that one may end up with no clerkship/ publication at all?