U.S. District Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow, whose husband and mother were killed inside her home by a disgruntled pro se litigant, will testify tomorrow morning before the Senate Judiciary Committee on the subject of security for judges: Tomorrow morning’s hearing, scheduled to get underway at 8:30 a.m., is titled “Protecting the Judiciary at Home and in the Courthouse.” C-SPAN2 plans to broadcast the hearing live once it gets underway, and a live webcast link may also be available at this page.
The Chicago Tribune reports today that “Federal judges feel left in dark over safety; Lefkow slayings spur plea for security help.”
And in The Chicago Sun-Times today, Washington bureau chief Lynn Sweet has an essay headlined “Maybe Lefkow’s story will teach lawmakers.”
In Wednesday’s edition of The Washington Post: Tomorrow’s newspaper will contain front page articles headlined “Senate Talks Continue As Fight on Judges Nears” and “A Likely Script for The ‘Nuclear Option.’”
“Beer case may come to a head; Ruling on wine sales is similar to alcohol distribution lawsuit”: This article appears today in The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
While I consider whether to do a mega-post linking to press coverage of yesterday’s ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court in the wine shipment cases, I’m pleased to advise that “SCOTUSblog” collects many news reports at this link.
For now, I will note that the case achieved the relatively rare Savage trifecta. Charlie Savage of The Boston Globe reports today that “Court allows direct out-of-state wine sales; Laws in 24 states affected by ruling.” His wife, Luiza Ch. Savage, reports today in The New York Sun that “Supreme Court Ruling Levels the Wine Field.” And in The Los Angeles Times, David G. Savage and Jerry Hirsch report that “Wine Sale Curbs Lifted; The Supreme Court strikes down laws that bar direct shipping to out-of-state consumers; It’s a victory for California vintners.”
Finally for now, fans of The Chicago Tribune‘s Jan Crawford Greenburg can view her appearance yesterday on PBS‘s “The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer” in a segment entitled “Supreme Court on Wine Shipments” via this link (transcript with links to audio and video).
In Wednesday’s edition of The New York Times: Tomorrow’s newspaper will contain an article headlined “In Senate, Heated Efforts to Avoid Filibuster Clash.”
And Neil A. Lewis will have an article headlined “In Appeals Court Nominee, Parallels to a Justice Whose Confirmation Stirred Emotions.”
“Justices to Decide if Disabled Inmates May Sue States for Damages”: This article appears today in The New York Times.
“Judges’ opinions reveal supporters and critics overstate their cases”: James Kuhnhenn of Knight Ridder Newspapers provides this report.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Wednesday will report that “Some senators work for compromise on judges; others gird for fight.”
Wednesday’s edition of The Chicago Tribune will contain articles headlined “Minority party’s rights, future of high court among issues at stake” and “Filibuster concept dates to Congress’ beginning.”
The Los Angeles Times provides a news update headlined “Attempts to Compromise on Filibusters Thwarted.”
And Jesse J. Holland of The Associated Press reports that “Judges lobby at White House, Capitol on eve of filibuster battle.”
“On filibustered judge, look at the real facts”: This editorial appeared yesterday in The Mobile Register.
Is this the proposed Senate filibuster deal? A contributor to the blog “Confirm Them” says it is.
“How Appealing” to host selected content from The Recorder of San Francisco, California: The Recorder describes itself as Northern California’s leading legal newspaper, and it is a publication of American Lawyer Media, Inc., the nation’s leading source of news and information for the legal industry.
Much of The Recorder’s content is available online only to subscribers. Beginning today, however, The Recorder will occasionally provide “How Appealing” with articles and commentary that are likely to be of interest to my readership.
To inaugurate this new feature, I’m pleased to offer an item that The Recorder published online today headlined “Judicial Profile: Jay Bybee; Controversial past doesn’t follow Bybee into courtroom.” The profile is written by Jeff Chorney, and it reveals (among many other much more interesting things) that Judge Bybee was born eleven years and one day before I was born.
On this evening’s broadcast of NPR‘s “All Things Considered“: The broadcast contained segments entitled “Filibuster Battle Nears in Senate“; “Profile: Judge Janice Rogers Brown“; and “Gay Marriage in Massachusetts, One Year Later.” RealPlayer is required to launch these audio segments.
“Asbestos bill work delayed in Senate judge battle”: Reuters provides this report.
“Senators in last bid to avert filibuster fight; Nelson, McCain and others struggle to design deal on judges”: Tom Curry, national affairs writer for MSNBC, provides this report.
“Justice, Politics, and the ‘Nuclear Option'”: This segment (featuring Ninth Circuit Judge Alex Kozinski among the guests) appeared on today’s broadcast of NPR‘s “Talk of the Nation.”
And today’s edition of USA Today contains articles headlined “GOP began reshaping courts under Reagan; Senators pursue vision this week in nominees fight” and “History, judges at stake in Senate; Skirmish over courts could begin today.”
“Sleepy Election Is Jolted by Evolution”: The New York Times contains this article today.
“Senate on cusp of grand showdown; Floor debate begins Wednesday that could lead to a vote on shutting down filibusters, a centuries-old tool of minority parties”: This article will appear Wednesday in The Christian Science Monitor.
Wednesday’s issue of Financial Times will report that “Senate to start judge debate.”
And today in The San Francisco Chronicle, U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) has an op-ed entitled “Freedom to disagree.”
“GOP Showcases Two Controversial Judges”: The Associated Press provides this report, along with a photograph of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, M.D. (R-TN) meeting today with D.C. Circuit nominee Janice Rogers Brown and Fifth Circuit nominee Priscilla R. Owen.
C-SPAN has made available online a video segment (RealPlayer required) from Justice Brown’s Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing.
Finally for now, the printed record of Justice Brown’s confirmation hearing can be accessed here, and the printed record of Justice Owen’s second confirmation hearing can be accessed here. Both of these documents are very large PDF files.
“Delaying Judgment: House Majority Leader Tom DeLay says the federal judiciary needs to be reined in; Montana District Judge Don Molloy isn’t taking the bait.” This interesting article appears in the current issue of The Missoula Independent.
Court watchers: Yesterday, law.com’s Supreme Court Monitor posted online an essay by David Lehrman entitled “Front Row Seat: Supreme Court observer sees history firsthand.”
And nearly one year ago, Chicago Reader published an interesting article headlined “Justice Junkies.”
“U.S. Senators Try to Head Off Showdown Over Judges”: Bloomberg News provides this report.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports today that “Reid’s performance gets thumbs up from most.”
The Dallas Morning News yesterday contained an article headlined “Christian conservatives fight filibusters; Citing values, groups toil in the trenches in a battle for the benches.”
Mother Jones yesterday posted online an essay by Bradford Plumer entitled “Majority Fools? Republicans are preparing to abolish the judicial filibuster; Will they end up regretting it?”
Today in The Washington Post, columnist Eugene Robinson has an op-ed entitled “Judges as Hired Hands.”
Yesterday, The Houston Chronicle contained an editorial entitled “The Senate should compromise on judicial nominations and avoid new limits on debate.”
And yesterday in The Star-Ledger of Newark, New Jersey, columnist John Farmer had an op-ed entitled “Filibuster debate has a ring of hypocrisy.”
The Baltimore Sun reports on brief filed on the newspaper’s behalf in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit: Today the newspaper contains an article headlined “Brief assails Ehrlich ban on pair of Sun journalists; Denial of access abridges rights, paper’s appeal says.” The article goes on to describe the brief as “comprehensive” and “compelling,” and notes that a failure to overturn the order appealed from would constitute a miscarriage of justice. [N.B. Only some of the preceding sentence is true.]
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, M.D. (R-TN) to appear with D.C. Circuit nominee Janice Rogers Brown and Fifth Circuit nominee Priscilla R. Owen: The appearance is scheduled to occur at 2 p.m. in Washington, DC, and C-SPAN2 plans to carry live coverage. You can access C-SPAN2 live online via this link. Update: Or maybe not.
This morning’s broadcast of “Washington Journal” contained much discussion of the so-called “nuclear option.” By clicking here, you can view a segment featuring “Wendy Long, Judicial Confirmation Network, & Ben Brandzel, MoveOn PAC.” And by clicking here, you can view this morning’s segment featuring “Rick Klein, Congressional Correspondent, Boston Globe.” RealPlayer is required to launch these video segments.
“Standards for Grandparents’ Visitation Eyed”: The Legal Intelligencer of Philadelphia today contains an article (subscription required) that begins, “Arguing over grandparents’ visitation rights, appellate lawyer Howard J. Bashman urged the state Supreme Court yesterday to make sure to give parents’ judgment the ‘special weight’ called for by the U.S. Supreme Court in grandparents’ rights litigation.”
The article goes on to note, “Bashman, representing the father of a 10-year-old boy, said it’s unconstitutional for the courts to override a fit parent’s decision about the proper amount of grandparent visitation simply by finding that it would be in the child’s best interest for more visitation to occur.”
The San Francisco Chronicle is reporting: Today’s newspaper contains articles headlined “In Massachusetts, gay weddings are now routine; Growing acceptance of same-sex nuptials on first anniversary” and “Satirical paper comes to town; Hundreds die laughing.”
And yesterday, Bob Egelko had an article headlined “New limit on review of asylum cases; Immigration judges’ decisions would be harder to overturn.”
“Judge disclosed Scrushy ties in ’03”: The Birmingham News contains this article today.
And The Associated Press reports that “Scrushy Judge Complained of Assignment.”
“Senate at the brink on judicial picks; GOP threatens to seek filibuster ban if tactic is used to block nominees”: This article appeared yesterday in The Sacramento Bee.
The San Francisco Chronicle today contains an editorial entitled “Showdown in the Senate.”
And this past Sunday in The Denver Post, John Aloysius Farrell had an essay entitled “Power check in Senate crucial.”
Today in The Wall Street Journal (pass-through links provided): Jess Bravin and Vanessa O’Connell have a front page article headlined “High Court Removes Barriers To Online Wine Sales; Judges Strike Down Limits On Out-of-State Wineries; ‘Just the Tip of the Iceberg.’”
Another front page article is headlined “In Judge Battle, Mr. Sekulow Plays A Delicate Role; Lawyer Rallies Evangelicals On Filibuster Issue, Keeps Them From Boiling Over; Lessons of the Schiavo Case.”
And the newspaper today also contains editorials entitled “In Vino Victory” and “FREE No More.” The second of those two editorials begins, “Judicial politics is in the news, so readers may want to know about the latest attack on the federal judiciary: No, not by Tom DeLay, but the assault from the left against judicial seminars.”
“Pryor’s first 15 months on bench extremism-free”: This article appeared Sunday in The Decatur (Ala.) Daily. The attempt at humor in the article’s first paragraph may strike some as offensive.
“Bipartisan group works on Senate filibuster deal; Compromise would let 5 Bush nominees have up-or-down vote”: CNN.com provides this report.
Available online from C-SPAN: You can access here a segment from yesterday described as “Rick Klein, Congressional Correspondent for the Boston Globe, discusses the judicial filibuster.”
And you can access here a segment from yesterday described as “Speakers Senator Harry Reid, (D-NV), AFSCME President Gerald McEntee, and others hold a rally against abuse of power in Washington, DC.”
RealPlayer is required to launch these video segments.
“McCain says deal on Bush nominees uncertain”: Thomas Ferraro of Reuters provides this report.
Available from National Review Online: Peter Kirsanow has an essay entitled “The Dems’ Post-Nuclear Nightmare: The problem of Janice Rogers Brown.”
And Clarke D. Forsythe has an essay entitled “Breaking the Rules: The Framers intended no more than a Senate majority to approve judges.”
Commentary available online from FindLaw: Joanna Grossman has an essay entitled “The One-Year Anniversary of Same-Sex Marriage in the United States: Some Thoughts on Recent Developments, and on the Future.”
And Louis Klarevas has an essay entitled “The Decision Dismissing the Lawsuit Against Vice President Dick Cheney: Why It Was Wrong, Both Legally and Logically.”
“This ruling leaves lover more than broken hearted”: The Boston Herald today contains an article that begins, “A North Shore man who suffered a fractured penis while making love with his girlfriend cannot sue her for recklessness because the couple were engaged in consensual sex, the state Appeals Court ruled yesterday.”
Yesterday’s ruling of the Appeals Court of Massachusetts can be accessed here.
“Owen in center of debate over judicial nominations”: This article appears today in The Houston Chronicle.
The Los Angeles Times today contains articles headlined “PR Skills May Decide Filibuster Showdown; In the coming battle, leaders of both parties are expected to play to the large portion of the American public that hasn’t taken sides” and “For One Evening, Ducking Debate; In an ever-rarer instance of bipartisan socializing, Senate Democrats and Republicans unite — briefly — over Bill Frist’s dinner table.”
The Washington Post reports that “Fight Is On at the Grass Roots; An Age-Old Procedural Maneuver Inspires Modern Activism.”
The Boston Globe reports that “Frist, Reid agree that efforts on judicial nominees failing; Democrats seek to retain filibuster.”
Newsday reports that “Reid breaks off talks with Frist.”
And The Providence (R.I.) Journal reports that “Chafee breaks with party on upcoming filibuster vote; The senator says he’ll oppose changing procedure to cut off debate if a compromise can’t be reached on judicial nominees.”
In commentary, The Oregonian today contains an editorial entitled “No nukes: If Senate Republicans invoke the ‘nuclear option’ to end filibusters on judicial choices, problems could mushroom.”
The St. Petersburg Times contains an editorial entitled “The Senate standoff: Moderates on both sides must help bring the showdown over judicial nominees to an end before the Senate is irreparably damaged.”
The San Antonio Express-News contains an editorial entitled “Judicial fight threatens checks and balances.”
The Virginian-Pilot contains an editorial entitled “Filibuster showdown benefits no one.”
The Dallas Morning News contains an editorial entitled “Filibuster Games: Vote on judicial nominees, or everybody loses.”
The Birmingham News contains an editorial entitled “Looking for a Pryor commitment.”
The Decatur Daily contains an editorial entitled “Federal bench can use a judge like Bill Pryor.”
The Kennebec (Me.) Journal contains an editorial entitled “Prospect of filibuster guides presidents who nominate judges.”
The Herald-Tribune of Sarasota, Florida contains an editorial entitled “Preserve the filibuster: Senate should respect precedent and bipartisan consensus.”
The Canton Repository contains an editorial entitled “Will Congress think long-term?”
The Washington Times contains an editorial entitled “Byrd’s the word.” Also in that newspaper today, Bruce Fein has an op-ed entitled “A tipoff judicial ruling,” while Tod Lindberg has an op-ed entitled “Let’s make a deal.”
In The Providence Journal, Law Professor Carl T. Bogus has an op-ed entitled “Filibuster fight: Maybe it’s about bad judges.”
And in The Chicago Sun-Times, Jesse Jackson has an op-ed entitled “Our entire way of life is at stake.”
