“Pennsylvania challenged over execution drugs secrecy in federal court; The Guardian, ACLU and three Pennsylvania newspapers have asked judge to unseal set of legal documents that contain hidden details about the source of state’s lethal injection drugs”: The Guardian (UK) has this report.

“Sotomayor says race still matters in America”: This article appears in today’s edition of The Tulsa World.

“Court won’t release costs of Gitmo camp”: Josh Gerstein of Politico.com has this blog post.

“72-Hour Wait for Abortion Is Enacted in Missouri”: In Friday’s edition of The New York Times, John Eligon will have an article that begins, “The Republican-controlled Missouri legislature has enacted one of the most stringent waiting periods for women seeking abortions, overriding a veto by the state’s Democratic governor, Jay Nixon.”

And The St. Louis Post-Dispatch has a news update headlined “Missouri’s waiting period for abortion becomes 72 hours after Nixon’s veto overridden.”

“Judge: Ohio won’t bust lying politicians.” The Cincinnati Enquirer has this news update.

And The Associated Press reports that “Federal judge rejects Ohio campaign statements law.”

At his “Election Law Blog,” Rick Hasen links to today’s ruling in a post you can access here.

“State Supreme Court ousts judge who made improper Web comments”: Arkansas News Bureau has this report.

And The Associated Press reports that “Judge posting online about Theron adoption ousted.”

You can access today’s ruling of the Supreme Court of Arkansas at this link.

“Supreme Court finds Legislature in contempt on education funding”: The Seattle Times has this report.

The Olympian of Olympia, Washington reports that “Court finds Legislature in contempt in school funding case.”

The Associated Press reports that “Washington lawmakers held in contempt on education.”

And Reuters reports that “Washington’s Supreme Court holds state in contempt over education.”

You can access today’s order of the Supreme Court of Washington at this link.

“Court won’t intervene in NFL’s concussion settlement”: The Philadelphia Inquirer has this news update.

Access online the Summer 2014 issue of “Appellate Issues,” the newsletter of the ABA’s Council of Appellate Lawyers: At this link.

Previous issues of the newsletter can be accessed via this link, including the Summer 2012 issue, which featured an interview with me.

“Stop the Anti-Obamacare Shenanigans”: Henry J. Aaron, David M. Cutler, and Peter R. Orszag have this Halbig v. Burwell-related op-ed in today’s edition of The New York Times.

In posts of interest at the “Civil Procedure & Federal Courts Blog“: Law professor Patricia W. Moore has recently had series of blog posts (click here and scroll down) on the proposed amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which go before the Judicial Conference next week (and which she opposes).

Professor Moore’s latest post, however, is titled “Third Circuit Oral Argument Held in GlaxoSmithKline Diversity Case,” noting the appeal that I argued yesterday.

“Voting rights cases may be headed back to Supreme Court”: Richard Wolf of USA Today has this report.

“Voter ID Laws May Worsen Voter Fraud: And is Texas’ law intentionally or merely incidentally racist?” Dahlia Lithwick has this jurisprudence essay online today at Slate.

“Reward in Markel case increases to $25,000”: Sean Rossman of The Tallahassee Democrat has this news update.

“Dispute over Duke Ellington royalties in court”: The Associated Press has a report that begins, “Jazz composer Duke Ellington’s grandson is urging New York’s highest court to reinstate his lawsuit seeking half the foreign royalties from Ellington’s music for his heirs.”

“Student and faculty memorial being held for Dan Markel”: WTXL-TV, Tallahassee’s ABC affiliate, has this report about a memorial scheduled for Tuesday, September 16th.

“New Jersey ban on ‘gay conversion therapy’ is upheld”: Jonathan Stempel of Reuters has this report.

And Tony Merevick of BuzzFeed reports that “Federal Appeals Court Upholds New Jersey’s Ban On Gay Conversion Therapy For Minors.”

Circuit Judge D. Brooks Smith wrote today’s ruling on behalf of a unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

Update: In other coverage, NJ.com reports that “N.J. gay-to-straight conversion therapy ban upheld by U.S. appeals court.”

And Bloomberg News reports that “New Jersey Ban on Gay-Conversion Therapy Upheld on Appeal.”

“There Is Nothing that Interpretation Just Is”: Law professor Cass R. Sunstein recently posted this paper online at SSRN (via “Legal Theory Blog“).

The paper’s abstract begins, “Some people believe that the very idea of interpretation requires judges to adopt a particular method for interpreting the Constitution.”

“If Judge Fuller won’t resign, the Chief Judge of the Circuit and the Circuit Judicial Council should strip him of handling cases for as long as the law allows”: Senior U.S. District Judge Richard G. Kopf has this post today at his “Hercules and the Umpire” blog.

Today’s edition of The Montgomery (Ala.) Advertiser contains an editorial titled “Mark Fuller can’t stay on bench.”

The Daily Beast reports that “The Ray Rice of Judges May Keep His Job; The wife of a federal judge in Alabama says he savagely beat her in a hotel room; So why will he probably return to the bench?”

At “The Brad Blog,” Brad Friedman has a post titled “NFL’s Ray Rice Loses Job for Knocking Out Wife, Federal Judge Mark Fuller Keeps Lifetime Appointment After Beating Wife Bloody.”

And at the “She the People” blog of The Washington Post, Diana Reese has an entry titled “From Ray Rice to a federal judge, is the system too lenient in domestic violence cases?”

“Sixth Circuit panel finds mandatory 15-year imprisonment term not grossly disproportionate for possession of shotgun shells”: Law professor Douglas A. Berman has this post today at his “Sentencing Law and Policy” blog about the ruling of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit today in an appeal in which Professor Berman filed a brief and presented oral argument as amicus for appellant.

Access online the audio of my oral argument yesterday before a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit: The court has posted the oral argument audio online at this link. I argued the appeal for plaintiffs-appellants, and Lisa S. Blatt argued the appeal on behalf of the defendant-appellee. The appellate briefs can be accessed via this earlier post.

The three-judge panel consisted of Circuit Judges D. Brooks Smith and Patty Shwartz and Senior Circuit Judge Jane R. Roth.

I previously linked to news coverage of the oral argument in this post from last night. One highlight of the audio — at one point during Ms. Blatt’s presentation she utters the words “Willie Fletcher.” Who says you shouldn’t seem too familiar with the federal judiciary during an oral argument?

A reader’s follow-up to my recent post discussing the prevalence of federal appellate judges born in Pennsylvania: If you want to be unique among federal appellate judges, being born in Saudi Arabia or Romania gives you a good head start.

Being born in Pennsylvania, on the other hand, simply won’t cut it. As I noted the other day, the Eleventh Circuit is now home to two judges who were born in Pennsylvania.

One of the nice things about this blog is once I head down a path of useless appellate-related trivia, there will be at least one reader (if not more) who is willing to delve even further. This time, reader Jeremy D Horowitz emailed:

Your blog post about the confirmation of Judge [Jill A. ] Pryor piqued my curiosity, so i checked the Federal Judicial Center’s judge database (www.fjc.gov). Turns out the Sixth Circuit also has two active judges born in Pennsylvania: David McKeague (born in Pittsburgh in 1946) and Deborah Cook (also born in Pittsburgh, in 1952).

For what it’s worth, I found three other Pennsylvania natives among the active judges (though I haven’t updated my copy of the database recently, so it’s possible there are more among the recent confirmees), all of whom were born in Philadelphia: Roger Gregory (4th Cir.), Edith Jones (5th Cir.), and William Fletcher (9th Cir.).

One recent addition from Pennsylvania: Carolyn McHugh (10th Cir., born in Abington, confirmed this past March).

For whatever reason, however, being born in Pennsylvania does not seem to have been a ticket to serving on the U.S. Supreme Court in recent memory.

For readers seeking to delve even deeper into the issue of judicial birthplaces, here are two additional questions: 1. What state was the place of birth of the most U.S. Court of Appeals judges currently serving?; and 2. What state was the place of birth of the most U.S. Court of Appeals judges who have served between the creation of the U.S. Courts of Appeals and the present time?

“The death penalty and the matter of factual innocence”: Senior U.S. District Judge Richard G. Kopf had this lengthy and interesting post yesterday at his “Hercules and the Umpire” blog. The post (which invited comments) has already generated 73 comments.

“Chief Justice John Roberts speaks at NU next Friday”: The Omaha World-Herald has a report that begins, “U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts will speak at the University of Nebraska College of Law on Sept. 19. Roberts will participate in a public conversation with William Jay Riley, chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.”

The event will be streamed live online, and you can access the video once the event gets underway via this link.

Update: The link to access streaming video of the Chief Justice’s remarks has been removed because I was incorrect in understanding that the live video feed would be made available to members of the general public.

“Missouri Republicans override Gov. Jay Nixon’s veto of 72-hour abortion waiting period”: The Kansas City Star has this news update.

The Associated Press reports that “Missouri enacts 72-hour abortion waiting period.”

And Reuters reports that “Missouri lawmakers override Governor’s veto on ’72-hour’ abortion law.”

“U.S. court revives Microsoft co-founder’s patent suit vs tech companies”: Reuters has this report.

Scott Graham of The Recorder reports that “Tech Giants Notch Win Under ‘Nautilus.’” You can access the full text of the article via Google News.

And Law360.com reports that “Ex-Microsoft Exec’s IP Suit Against Google, Apple Revived” (subscription required for full access).

You can access yesterday’s ruling of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit at this link.

“Stalled Georgia Judicial Nominee Presents a Dilemma for Senate Democrats”: Todd Ruger, now at Roll Call, has this report.

“Federal Appeals Court upholds dismissal of tobacco cases”: Jacksonville Business Journal has this report.

Daily Business Review reports that “588 Smoking Lawsuits Up in Smoke.” You can freely access the full text of the article via Google News.

And Law360.com reports that “Hundreds Of Engle Progeny Tobacco Suits Axed At 11th Circ.” (subscription required for full access).

You can access yesterday’s lengthy ruling of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit at this link.