“Columbia Student Detention Puts This Rural Louisiana Town in Spotlight; Jena residents find the attention from Mahmoud Khalil’s detention unusual and a bit perplexing”: Victoria Albert of The Wall Street Journal has this report.
“I Think Neil Gorsuch Is Lying About a ‘Religious Freedom’ Case Again; How did Gorsuch end up believing that Pride Puppy, a rhyming alphabet storybook about a lost dog at a pride parade, introduces children to bondage and sex workers? Let’s find out together!” Jay Willis has this essay online at Balls and Strikes, along with an essay titled “Let’s Take a Look at the Children’s Books Sam Alito Is So Afraid Of; Stories with LGBTQ characters only ‘indoctrinate’ children if you believe that LGBTQ people are not worthy of being treated with dignity and respect.”
“Judges Worry Trump Could Tell U.S. Marshals to Stop Protecting Them; The marshals are in an increasingly bitter conflict between two branches of government, even as funding for judges’ security has failed to keep pace with a steady rise in threats”: Mattathias Schwartz and Emily Bazelon of The New York Times have this report.
“Trump will almost certainly get away with banning trans people from the military; Trump’s lawyers asked the Supreme Court to reinstate his ban on trans military service, after a lower court blocked it”: Ian Millhiser has this essay online at Vox.
“This Supreme Court case could stall the charter school movement; A Catholic school in Oklahoma wants to join the state’s charter program; Charter advocates, beware”: Columnist George F. Will has this essay online at The Washington Post.
And online at The Atlantic, Adam Laats has an essay titled “Oklahoma Is Asking the Supreme Court to Ignore History; The Founders had disagreements about the role of religion in America’s public schools, but there was always one line they would not cross.”
“A Lesson Plan: Schools Should Respect Parental Authority; The Supreme Court will decide whether parents have the right to exempt their children from public school lessons that go against their religious beliefs.” Law professor Stephen L. Carter has this essay online at Bloomberg Opinion.
“US Courts Up Budget Requests for Security, Public Defenders; Judiciary seeks more security funds as threats to judges rise; Republicans mull targeting budget over nationwide rulings”: Jacqueline Thomsen and Suzanne Monyak of Bloomberg Law have this report.
“How the Trump Administration Flipped on Kilmar Abrego Garcia: Officials were developing a plan to get him back to the United States; Why did they stop?” Nick Miroff of The Atlantic has this report.
“Internal Documents Reveal Pervasive Pattern of Racial Discrimination at Harvard Law Review”: Aaron Sibarium of The Washington Free Beacon has this report.
“The Conservative Lawyer Defending a Firm from Donald Trump; Paul Clement complained that Big Law was becoming ‘increasingly woke’; Now he’s defending one firm’s right to do just that”: Ruth Marcus has this essay online at The New Yorker.
And at his “Original Jurisdiction” Substack site, David Lat recently had a post titled “Trump Executive Orders Expose — And Exploit — Biglaw Vulnerability; Some billion-dollar firms have feet of clay — which the executive orders were perfectly designed to smash.”
“Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan arrested by federal authorities at Courthouse”: Daniel Bice of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has an article that begins, “Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan was arrested April 25 by federal authorities who are investigating whether she tried to help an undocumented immigrant avoid arrest after he appeared in her courtroom last week, officials confirmed.”
“Trump Asks Supreme Court to Revive Ban on Transgender Troops; Lower courts had blocked the policy, saying it was not supported by evidence and violated equal protection principles”: Adam Liptak of The New York Times has this report.
You can access the emergency application at this link.
“Trump Initiatives Knocked Back in a New Round of Court Rulings; Fresh setbacks are latest frustrations for an administration hit with numerous legal challenges to its top policy priorities”: Mariah Timms and Jacob Gershman of The Wall Street Journal have this report.
“The lawyers pushing back on Trump’s campaign to corral big law firms: Big law firms stayed silent or cut deals as Trump sanctioned some firms; An increasingly vocal array of lawyers are challenging his moves.” Mark Berman of The Washington Post has this report.
“Trump admin must seek return of another man who was improperly deported to El Salvador, judge rules; A Trump-appointed judge ruled that the administration deported a 20-year-old Venezuelan man last month in violation of a legally binding, court-approved settlement agreement”: Josh Gerstein and Kyle Cheney of Politico have this report.
Mariah Timms of The Wall Street Journal reports that “Trump Administration Must Seek to Return Another Wrongly Deported Man, Judge Rules; A second ruling finds that the government wrongly sent a man to an El Salvador prison under wartime law despite legal protections.”
And Breanne Deppisch of Fox News reports that “Trump-appointed judge orders administration to return second deported migrant; Trump-appointed district judge ordered a 20-year-old immediately returned to the US, setting the stage for a high-profile compliance fight.”
“The Court Should Bless Religious Charters; St. Isidore Catholic Virtual School isn’t a state actor merely by dint of public funding”: Law professor Nicole Stelle Garnett will have this op-ed in Friday’s edition of The Wall Street Journal.
“Here’s Why the President Keeps Ignoring the Law; Trump knows he’s unlikely to face consequences; And he has enablers”: Law professor Noah Feldman has this essay online at Bloomberg Opinion.
“Supreme Court to Weigh Discrimination Standard for Some Special Education Cases”: Mark Walsh of Education Week has this report.
“US appeals court questions 97-year-old judge’s challenge to her suspension”: Blake Brittain of Reuters has this report.
You can access the audio of today’s oral argument before a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit via this link.
“The Supreme Court’s ‘Selective Proceduralism’ Would Suffocate the Constitution; The law allows for extraordinary interventions under extraordinary circumstances, such as when human beings face the possibility of lifetime incarceration without due process”: Adam Serwer of The Atlantic has this essay.
“West Virginia Supreme Court Justice Beth Walker to retire in June”: Lori Kersey of West Virginia Watch has this report.
“What the Supreme Court has already said about banishment; It called leaving people stateless a punishment worse than torture”: Law professor John D. Bessler has this essay online at The Washington Post.
“Trump administration moved Venezuelan to Texas for possible deportation despite judge’s order”: Luc Cohen of Reuters has this report.
“Bonus 145: How (We Think) Emergency Applications Work; Given how much of the Supreme Court’s work in recent years (okay, days) has been focused on emergency applications, it seemed worth attempting an explainer on how (we think) they’re handled.” Steve Vladeck has this post at his “One First” Substack site.
“Judges Appear Receptive to Blocking Trump’s Orders Targeting Big Law Firms; Perkins Coie and WilmerHale asked two federal judges on Wednesday to permanently put an end to President Trump’s threats to their businesses”: Zach Montague of The New York Times has this report.
“6 beers, 1 plane: Alaska Supreme Court upholds aircraft forfeiture in bootlegging case.” Patrick Gilchrist of Alaska Public Media has this report.
And James Brooks of Alaska Beacon reports that “Alaska’s seizure of a bootlegger’s plane was legal, Supreme Court says; A decision released Friday says ‘even a six-pack of beer causes grave societal harm.’”
You can access last Friday’s ruling of the Supreme Court of Alaska at this link.
“Whitmer selects Court of Appeals Judge Noah Hood to fill vacancy on Michigan Supreme Court”: Arpan Lobo of The Detroit Free Press has this report.
And Craig Mauger of The Detroit News reports that “Gov. Whitmer picks Detroiter for seat on Michigan Supreme Court.”
“One of the Most Complex Cases of the Supreme Court Term Is Also One of the Most Straightforward”: Robyn Nicole Sanders has this Jurisprudence essay online at Slate.
Also online at Slate, Mark Joseph Stern has a related Jurisprudence essay titled “How Sam Alito Inadvertently Revealed His Own Homophobia From the Bench.”
“The Supreme Court Has No Army; The judiciary has some tools to enforce presidential compliance, but their effectiveness depends ultimately on the vigilance of the American people”: Law professor Thomas P. Schmidt has this essay online at The Atlantic.
And online at USA Today, columnist Chris Brennan has an essay titled “Supreme Court reminds Trump to follow the law, signaling concern that he won’t; It’s not just the liberal Supreme Court justices; Even the conservatives are starting to worry about President Donald Trump.”
“When the Supreme Court Spoke With One Voice”: Jeffrey Toobin has this guest essay online at The New York Times.
“One thing the modern Supreme Court can agree on is disagreeing over religion”: Joan Biskupic of CNN has this report.
“The Dispatch Buys SCOTUSblog, a Supreme Court Mainstay; The Dispatch, a right-of-center political news and commentary start-up, plans to keep the legal news website available at no cost; Terms of the deal were not disclosed”: Benjamin Mullin of The New York Times has this report.
At “SCOTUSblog,” Amy Howe has a post titled “The Future of SCOTUSblog.”
And Steve Hayes, CEO and editor of The Dispatch, has a post titled “The Dispatch Acquires SCOTUSblog; We aim to become the definitive source for authoritative reporting and analysis of the rule of law.”
According to Hayes’s post, “In the coming weeks, we’ll announce additional talent — including a partnership with Original Jurisdiction founder and legal commentator David Lat — to help us grow SCOTUSblog’s capabilities, and these expanded offerings will be reserved for Dispatch members. We are also planning to develop products in the coming months for both a professional legal audience and the general public, given the increasing importance of understanding the Supreme Court in American life. And premium and lifetime members will be among the first to preview what we’re building.”
In other words, the David Lat/SCOTUSblog partnership that we’ve all been hoping for will soon be a reality, especially if you are a Dispatch member.
“Federal court temporarily blocks NC from taking steps to throw out ballots in Griffin-Riggs lawsuit; Federal courts will allow NC Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs to pursue her claim that her colleagues on the state’s highest court are violating voters’ constitutional rights by ruling in favor of election claims by Republican Judge Jefferson Griffin”: Will Doran of WRAL has this report.
And Lynn Bonner of NC Newsline reports that “US appeals court pauses NC elections board action in the Supreme Court election case.”
“Federal judges block NC Supreme Court election ‘cure’ process — for now”: Kyle Ingram of The News & Observer of Raleigh, North Carolina has this report.
And at his “Election Law Blog,” Rick Hasen has a post titled “4th Circuit, on 2-1 Vote, Halts Likely Unconstitutional ‘Cure’ Order in North Carolina Supreme Court Election Contest. What’s Next?”
You can access today’s order of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit at this link.
“The Situation: Contracting Detention to a Lawless State; What law lets the Trump administration store Venezuelans in El Salvadoran prisons?” Benjamin Wittes has this post at the “Lawfare” blog.