How Appealing



Wednesday, November 13, 2013

“NJ town settles high-profile housing bias lawsuit”: The Associated Press has a report that begins, “Officials in a southern New Jersey town approved a legal settlement Wednesday to end a high-profile housing discrimination case, just weeks before the U.S. Supreme Court was to hear arguments on it.”

Richard Wolf of USA Today reports that “Supreme Court showdown on housing bias blocked; A settlement of the housing discrimination lawsuit pleases civil rights groups and leaves the financial services industry scouting for another case.”

And Greg Stohr of Bloomberg News reports that “N.J. Housing-Bias Accord Scuttles U.S. Supreme Court Case.”

Posted at 8:54 PM by Howard Bashman



“Appeals court rehears Texas race-admissions case”: The Associated Press has a report that begins, “A federal appeals court has asked lawyers for the University of Texas to explain how they would decide that affirmative action is no longer necessary for minority students as part of lawsuit trying to ban the practice.”

The Texas Tribune reports that “Federal Judges Hear Arguments in Fisher Case — Again.”

And The Daily Texan has a news update headlined “Fifth Circuit hears oral arguments for Fisher v. UT case.”

Posted at 7:44 PM by Howard Bashman



“Tarek Mehanna terror convictions upheld by federal appeals court”: The Boston Globe has this news update.

The Boston Herald has a news update headlined “Court upholds 17-year sentence for Sudbury extremist.

Bloomberg News reports that “Al-Qaeda Translator Mehanna’s Conviction Upheld on Appeal.”

And The Associated Press reports that “Court upholds Mass. man’s terror conviction.”

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

Posted at 6:18 PM by Howard Bashman



“GOP filibuster of judges is a war, but it’s not a war on women”: Michael McGough has this essay online at The Los Angeles Times.

Posted at 4:18 PM by Howard Bashman



“Supreme Court weighs employer-union organizing deals”: Amanda Becker and Lawrence Hurley of Reuters have this report.

Greg Stohr of Bloomberg News reports that “Company Accords With Unions Questioned at U.S. High Court.”

And Jesse J. Holland of The Associated Press reports that “Court unlikely to say union-casino pact illegal.”

You can access at this link the transcript of today’s U.S. Supreme Court oral argument in Unite Here Local 355 v. Mulhall, No. 12-99.

Posted at 3:24 PM by Howard Bashman



“Greg Abbott to Justice Scalia: Let Texas enforce abortion law.” Chuck Lindell has this article today in The Austin American-Statesman.

Posted at 3:08 PM by Howard Bashman



“In Lavabit Appeal, U.S. Doubles Down on Access to Web Crypto Keys”: Kevin Poulsen has this post at Wired.com’s “Threat Level” blog.

Posted at 11:30 AM by Howard Bashman



Speaking of “more Scalias,” one was at the D.C. Circuit yesterday arguing a whale of an appeal: Yesterday, on the same day that U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) was confronting Democrats with the specter of “more Scalias,” a second Scalia actually was at the D.C. Circuit to argue the case of Sea World of Florida, LLC v. Perez.

On Monday, The Orlando Sentinel previewed the oral argument in an article headlined “SeaWorld returns to court in killer-whale safety case.”

And USA Today recently reported on the case in an article headlined “SeaWorld challenges ban on whale-trainer contact; Sea World is challenging a ban on contact with killer whales.”

You can download the audio of yesterday’s D.C. Circuit oral argument via this link (40.4MB mp3 audio file).

Posted at 8:54 AM by Howard Bashman



“Republicans Again Reject Obama Pick for Judiciary”: This article appears today in The New York Times.

The Los Angeles Times reports that “Republican filibuster blocks Obama appeals court nominee.”

The Wall Street Journal reports that “Senate Republicans Block Appeals-Court Nominee; Cornelia ‘Nina’ Pillard Fails to Clear Hurdle for Spot on D.C. Court of Appeals.” You can freely access the full text of the article via Google.

Stephen Dinan of The Washington Times reports that “GOP filibusters another Obama nominee for federal court; Vote could bring ‘nuclear option’ to change the rules back into play.”

The Associated Press reports that “GOP blocks key Obama court nominee in Senate vote.”

Thomas Ferraro of Reuters reports that “Senate Republicans block another Obama judicial nominee.”

Bloomberg News reports that “Senate Republicans Block Another Appellate-Court Nominee.”

CNN.com reports that “Republicans block another nominee to the D.C. Circuit.”

“The Note” blog of ABC News has a post titled “Senate Republicans Block Another Obama Nominee to D.C. Circuit Court.”

The Hill reports that “Reid lacks the votes to go nuclear.”

Politico.com has reports headlined “Senate blocks another Obama court pick” and “Chuck Grassley: More Scalias if Senate goes nuclear.”

And at “The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times,” Todd Ruger has a post titled “Senate Blocks Cornelia Pillard’s Nomination to D.C. Circuit.”

You can access the official roll call vote tally from yesterday’s failed U.S. Senate cloture vote at this link.

Posted at 8:45 AM by Howard Bashman



“Franks, 39 Colleagues File Court Brief to Overturn Obamacare for Violating Origination Clause of Constitution”: U.S. Congressman Trent Franks (R-AZ) issued this news release yesterday. You can view at this link the brief filed last Friday in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

In news coverage, The Hill yesterday had a blog post titled “House Republicans back new constitutional challenge to ObamaCare.”

And Roll Call yesterday had a blog post titled “40 House Republicans: Obamacare Has an Origination Problem.”

Posted at 8:23 AM by Howard Bashman