How Appealing



Monday, May 8, 2006

“Senators further scrutinize court nominee”: In Tuesday’s edition of USA Today, Joan Biskupic will have an article that begins, “The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a rare second hearing for judicial nominee Brett Kavanaugh today, spurred by Democrats who have focused on the power of the court he would join and his background.”

Posted at 11:34 PM by Howard Bashman



“Rove prepares 20 judges”: Tuesday’s edition of The Hill will contain an article that begins, “Presidential adviser Karl Rove and White House counsel Harriet Miers yesterday told conservative activists and Senate staff that the administration would soon send the names of more than 20 judicial nominees to Capitol Hill for confirmation.”

Posted at 10:20 PM by Howard Bashman



“The Best Little Courthouse in Texas; Upset by patent rulings, tech companies push Congress for venue reform”: law.com provides this report.

Posted at 10:15 PM by Howard Bashman



“ABA Downgrades White House Aide’s Rating”: The Associated Press provides a report that begins, “The American Bar Association downgraded its rating of President Bush’s appellate court nominee Brett Kavanaugh after new interviews raised concerns about his courtroom experience and open-mindedness, the chairman of the peer-review panel said Monday.”

Relatedly, the White House today issued news releases entitled “Setting the Record Straight: The ABA Finds Brett Kavanaugh Is ‘Indeed Qualified to Serve on the Federal Bench’” and “Fact Sheet: Brett M. Kavanaugh: Nominee to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.”

Posted at 10:14 PM by Howard Bashman



“Moussaoui seeks new trial”: Lyle Denniston has this post today at “SCOTUSblog.”

And The Associated Press reports that “Moussaoui Asks to Withdraw Guilty Plea.”

Zacarias Moussaoui’s motion to withdraw his guilty plea can be accessed here.

One risk in Moussaoui’s strategy is that, for reasons I have previously explained here, he could potentially be subjected to the death penalty at any new proceeding.

Update: The federal district court’s order issued today denying Moussaoui’s motion to withdraw the guilty plea can be accessed here.

Posted at 4:32 PM by Howard Bashman



“Anonymous Lawyer”: If you loved the blog, now you can love the book — “Anonymous Lawyer: A Novel” — too, thanks to Amazon.com’s pre-order feature.

I’m reliably advised that I have the ability to designate two “How Appealing” readers to receive advance reading copies of the book “Anonymous Lawyer: A Novel” hot off the presses. If any readers have any clever thoughts concerning what sort of contest I should hold, please feel free to email me. Chances are quite good that I will designate one book for the person who proposes the most clever contest, and the other book for the contest’s winner. All decisions of the contest’s judge (me in both instances) are final. Although the book itself won’t appear on shelves until late July, the advance reading copies are ready to ship now, so contest ideas are officially being solicited at this time.

Posted at 4:05 PM by Howard Bashman



“Complaint Against Judge Has Broader Ramifications; Judicial panel says it lacks power to sanction L.A. jurist; Bill would create inspector general”: As I first noted yesterday in a post you can access here, Henry Weinstein had this very interesting article yesterday in The Los Angeles Times.

Late last month, the U.S. Courts’ Judicial Conference Committee to Review Circuit Council Conduct and Disability Orders issued the ruling that was the central focus yesterday’s Los Angeles Times article. I have obtained a copy of that ruling by a divided committee — “Judges Dolores K. Sloviter, Barefoot Sanders, and Pasco M. Bowman, II, have concurred in the opinion of the Committee. Judge Ralph K. Winter, Jr., issued a dissenting statement, also attached, in which Judge Carolyn R. Dimmick joins” — and have posted the complete ruling online at this link.

Posted at 2:44 PM by Howard Bashman



I hope that soon I will be able to announce which appellate judge will be the 21st interviewee in this blog’s “20 questions for the appellate judge” feature: On Saturday, in my post commemorating this blog’s four-year anniversary, I wrote that to mark the occasion I would be resuming this blog’s quite popular “20 questions for the appellate judge” interview series.

As was the case during the feature’s initial appearance, my intention is to have one “20 questions” interview appear each month. During the feature’s original incarnation, 20 different appellate judges were interviewed over 20 consecutive months. My hope is that the first installment of this interview feature’s new incarnation will appear in June 2006.

As before, participants in the feature will be obtained on a volunteer basis. At this time, I am only seeking a volunteer to participate in the “20 questions for the appellate judge” feature in June 2006. Next month, I will seek a volunteer to participate in July 2006, and so on. The very first federal or state appellate judge to volunteer to be the “20 questions for the appellate judge” interviewee for June 2006 will be the subject of my June 2006 interview. To volunteer, simply send me an email at appellateblog@hotmail.com. Once a volunteer comes forward, I will put up a post announcing who the interviewee for June 2006 will be and explaining that no other interview volunteers are being sought at this time.

The interview is conducted entirely in writing via email. I envision transmitting the 20 questions to the interviewee on June 1, 2006, and I would request that the answers be returned to me on or before Monday, June 19, 2006. The twenty previous installments of the “20 questions for the appellate judge” feature are archived at this link, and all future installments will be archived there too after they debut as a post here at “How Appealing.” Thanks again to all of the readers and judges who have persuaded me to resume this feature.

Posted at 2:33 PM by Howard Bashman



“If Roe v. Wade is overturned, is Del. ready?” Harry F. Themal has this op-ed today in The News Journal of Wilmington, Delaware.

Posted at 12:44 PM by Howard Bashman



“Ellen Maria Reasonover was convicted in 1983 of killing James Buckley. Reasonover served over 16 years in prison, and was released in 1999 after her petition for writ of habeas corpus was granted.” So begins an opinion that a unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit issued today affirming a federal district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of the defendants on Reasonover’s federal civil rights and state law claims arising from her wrongful conviction and imprisonment.

Earlier coverage of this matter is available online from The American Lawyer, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and Salon.com.

Posted at 11:44 AM by Howard Bashman



“My lawyer got me $1M, but I can’t talk about it; Ad, legal world fight over testimonials”: Yesterday’s issue of The Newark (N.J.) Star-Ledger contained this article.

Posted at 11:05 AM by Howard Bashman



“Blawg Review #56: Sex, Virtual Weddings, and Baseball.” Available here, at “PointofLaw.com.”

Posted at 8:50 AM by Howard Bashman



In today’s edition of The National Law Journal: Marcia Coyle reports that “Tobacco pact may light up high court; AGs seek to save massive settlement.”

And the Voir Dire column contains an item reporting that, at the recent judicial conference of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, Justice David H. Souter “cheerfully broke the news that Alito had issued his first Supreme Court opinion–and that the staunch conservative had reversed a criminal conviction in North Carolina. ‘A year from now will I read headlines, “No more Alitos?”‘ Souter wondered aloud.”

Posted at 8:45 AM by Howard Bashman



“Is the Stock Ownership Recusal Requirement Too Unforgiving?” The brand new installment of my weekly “On Appeal” column for law.com can be accessed at this link.

Posted at 7:28 AM by Howard Bashman



“Even if he wins, Lay is not off hook; Bank fraud, false statement charges looming”: Mary Flood has this article today in The Houston Chronicle.

Posted at 7:25 AM by Howard Bashman



“Bush Says He’d Like to Close Guantanamo”: The Associated Press provides a report that begins, “President Bush says he would like to close the detention center in Guantanamo in Cuba, but is waiting for a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on whether inmates can face military tribunals.” The complete transcript of President Bush’s interview with a correspondent from ARD German Television can be accessed here.

Posted at 7:20 AM by Howard Bashman



“Do-it-yourself defendants: Self-representation may help some gain favorable verdicts.” The Baltimore Sun today contains an article that begins, “Socrates and Joan of Arc did it. So did serial murderer Ted Bundy, Black Panther Bobby Seale, Long Island Rail Road murderer Colin Ferguson and, briefly, Zacarias Moussaoui, who was sentenced to life in prison last week for conspiring in the Sept. 11 attacks. They all defended themselves in court, a right that – with certain constitutional safeguards – is guaranteed in this country.”

Posted at 7:15 AM by Howard Bashman



“Reporters’ Subpoenas Amount To ‘War Against the Press'”: Today in The New York Sun, Josh Gerstein has an article that begins, “The Bush administration has opened a new front in its war on leaks with an aggressive and unusual move to force two San Francisco Chronicle reporters to identify their sources for stories about secret grand jury testimony from a federal investigation of steroid use in professional baseball.”

Posted at 6:58 AM by Howard Bashman



Philadelphia Phillies 9, San Francisco Giants 5: Thanks to a late arrival scheduled tomorrow for my son’s elementary school, he was able to accompany me to tonight’s Phillies game, where we saw both a victory for our home team and the 713th home run for Barry Bonds, putting him one shy of Babe Ruth’s record. There was no doubt about the home run; it glanced off an advertisement at the base of the upper deck in right field in Citizens Bank Park. Bonds had one more at bat to try for number 714, but he struck out.

Although Major League Baseball may not be planning to officially commemorate the tying or passing of Babe Ruth’s home run total, it was apparent that specially marked baseballs were used for Bonds’s final at bat of the evening. The ball boy gave a supply of specially marked baseballs to the home plate umpire at the start of Bonds’s final at bat, and then the ball boy took away the remaining specially marked baseballs, and replaced them with regular baseballs, following the strikeout.

Wraps of Sunday night’s game can be accessed here and here, while the box score is available at this link. Special coverage of home run 713 can be found here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Posted at 12:28 AM by Howard Bashman