A good friend, according to a federal appeals court judge, “should strive to offer something different, new and important” to a discussion of legal issues.In an in chambers opinion, Judge Michael Y. Scudder Jr. of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals explained why he allowed three nonprofit organizations file separate friend-of-the-court briefs in a pending case.“To be sure, the fiction that an amicus acts as a neutral information broker, and not an advocate, is long gone,” Scudder wrote.However, he continued, “even a …