“The White House is being weird about judicial nominations; An official says two nominees are being ‘actively considered’ even as the Judiciary Committee has already received their paperwork”: Patrick McNeil has this post at his “Nomination Notes” Substack site.

“The Conservative Legal Movement’s Post-Election Crashout Is Here, and It Is Spectacular; ‘The Senate is lost until 2032, so I hope Thomas and Alito got on their treadmills this morning’”: Jay Willis has this post at his “Balls & Strikes” Substack site.

“Feds move to dismiss case over 20,000 California ballots after Supreme Court denied appeal”: Kevin Rector and Brittny Mejia of The Los Angeles Times has this report.

You can access the court filing at this link.

“Prosecutors Vow to Keep Pursuing Death Penalty in California; Unless the next governor, Xavier Becerra, keeps commuting sentences, California’s death row is likely to slowly repopulate in the coming years”: Tim Arango and Laurel Rosenhall of The New York Times have this report.

“A Trump immigration fight progressive groups can get behind; The federal government found itself with unlikely bedfellows as it defended the authority to enforce worker protections for immigrant laborers”: Kelsey Reichmann of Courthouse News Service has this report.

“Texas appeals court cancels oral arguments in challenge to state hemp rules; The move clears the way for the three newly elected Democratic justices on the 15th Court of Appeals to hear the cases after they take office”: Zach Leggio of The Texas Tribune has this report.

“Time for Supreme Court to fix ‘race neutral’ discrimination; Asian American parents challenge policy designed to reduce their children’s enrollment in gifted programs”: Steven D. Anderson has this essay online at Fox News.

“What This Week’s Elections Mean for The Future of Elections: Democrats had a big night on Tuesday; What about democrats?” Jon Allsop has this essay online at The New Yorker.

“U.S. Attorney Who Oversaw Centerpiece of Trump’s Revenge Campaign Resigns; Jason Reding Quiñones joins what is expected to be a succession of departures at the Justice Department after the midterm elections, including that of the leader of the national security division”: Devlin Barrett, Glenn Thrush, and Alan Feuer of The New York Times have this report.

“Republicans rammed through Supreme Court nominees. Now Democrats will have the votes to stop them.” Seung Min Kim, Mary Clare Jalonick, and Lindsay Whitehurst of The Associated Press have this report.

“Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to teach spring seminar”: Ellie Symons of The Daily Texan has an article that begins, “Associate Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas will teach a course at UT’s School of Civic Leadership to 17 UT undergraduate students in spring 2027.”

“Senator-Governor Klobuchar and the Problem of the Received Wisdom”: Josh Blackman and Seth Barrett Tillman have this post at “The Volokh Conspiracy.”

“Texas’ Next Top Justice Wants to Return to ABA Accreditation”: Ryan Autullo of Bloomberg Law has this report.

According to the article, “Ellis also wants to withdraw a recent rule change from the high court allowing judges to publicly refrain from performing a wedding ceremony based upon a sincerely held religious belief without violating the judicial code of conduct.”

“This Trump move may actually help Democrats in their legal fight against him; The president’s proclivity to claim executive privilege could lead to court rulings that reshape the power of the presidency”: Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein of Politico have this report.

Judge Merryday on fonts: At this link, via Court Watch.

“Trump Lawyer Urges Appeals Court to Toss Hush-Money Case”: Patricia Hurtado and David Voreacos of Bloomberg News have this report.

And Erik Uebelacker of Courthouse News Service reports that “NY appellate judges question Trump’s latest bid to toss hush money conviction; ‘How would this go towards enriching the lives of American citizens?’ Justice Troy Webber asked Trump’s defense team, which claimed Trump’s conduct was protected under presidential immunity.”

The New York Supreme Court’s Appellate Division, First Department, has posted the video of today’s oral argument on YouTube.

“Prominent D.C. litigator dies at 65 while preparing for trial in Arizona; Dane Butswinkas’s career was filled with high-profile cases; He helped thwart Trump’s attempt to crush a prominent U.S. law firm”: Leonard Bernstein of The Washington Post has written this obituary.

“GOP’s losses will raise pressure on conservative Supreme Court justices to retire; The lame-duck session before January will probably be President Donald Trump’s last chance to get a high court nominee confirmed by the Senate”: Justin Jouvenal of The Washington Post has this report.

And Ryan King of The New York Post reports that “GOP Senate ready for lame duck Supreme Court confirmation — if Alito or Thomas change mind.”

“Alito and Thomas Can’t Retire Now; Such a nakedly political move would undercut any effort to preserve the high court’s independence”: Columnist James Taranto has this essay online at The Wall Street Journal.

“Republicans are set to violate more norms in pursuit of confirming Trump’s judicial nominees; Judiciary Committee Republicans are poised to bulldoze longstanding practices before they lose Senate control in January”: Patrick McNeil has this post at his “Nomination Notes” Substack site.

“Trump appears to nominate Justice James Sullivan, defeated in this week’s elections, to the Western District of Texas”: Patrick McNeil has this post at his “Nomination Notes” Substack site.

“Chief Justice of Pennsylvania Announces Passing of Former Chief Justice Ronald D. Castille”: Pennsylvania Chief Justice Debra Todd issued this statement today.

And DaniRae Renno of The Patriot-News of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania reports that “Former Pa. Supreme Court chief justice, military veteran dies at 82.”

“The looming constitutional showdowns — Investigations, the electoral college, the Supreme Court and pardons: The GOP collapse brings new volatility.” Columnist Jason Willick has this essay online at The Washington Post.

“Newsom commutes all 548 California death sentences in historic move”: Hannah Wiley, Sophia Bollag, and Bob Egelko of The San Francisco Chronicle have this report.

Taryn Luna and Sonja Sharp of The Los Angeles Times report that “Newsom moves to commute all California death sentences to life in prison without parole.”

And Laurel Rosenhall of The New York Times reports that “Newsom Commutes the Sentences of California’s 548 Death Row Inmates; Gov. Gavin Newsom, in one of his last acts, commuted the sentences of all prisoners with death sentences, calling capital punishment morally objectionable; That’s about a quarter of death sentences nationwide.”

“Why a Merciless Supreme Court Rebuke on Election Eve Matters; The justices took just hours to reject Trump’s bid to meddle in the election”: Adam Liptak has this new installment of his “The Docket” newsletter online at The New York Times.

“Justice Dept. Steps Up Criminal Investigation of Supreme Court Abortion Leak; Investigators, using subpoenas and other law enforcement powers, are accelerating an inquiry that takes the Trump administration into the inner workings of the court”: Jodi Kantor and Michael S. Schmidt of The New York Times have this report.

“Midterm Rout Closes Trump’s Window on the Supreme Court; Aging conservative justices now face the prospect that Republicans won’t control the confirmation process for many years”: James Romoser of The Wall Street Journal has this report.

And Jennifer Bendery of HuffPost reports that “Trump’s MAGA Makeover Of The Courts Is Over; With Democrats set to run the Senate, the president can no longer rely on the GOP to rubber-stamp judicial nominees who won’t say he lost in 2020.”

“How One Black Congressman Broke a Republican Gerrymander”: Zak Cheney-Rice has this post at the “Intelligencer” blog of New York magazine.

“Accountability for federal officer wrongdoing comes to a head at SCOTUS; As the Trump administration has made confrontations with federal agents more common, the Supreme Court will consider making it even harder to hold federal officers accountable for wrongdoing”: Kelsey Reichmann of Courthouse News Service has this report.

“Legal Ramifications of a Bluenami”: You can access today’s new episode of the “Advisory Opinions” podcast via this link and on YouTube.

“Democrats Can Now Fix the Supreme Court Without Reforming It”: Law professor Noah Feldman has this essay online at Bloomberg Opinion.

“Trump Finally Heads to Court to Overturn Hush-Money Conviction”: Patricia Hurtado and David Voreacos of Bloomberg News have this report.

“Dhillon Plans DOJ Civil Rights Exit After Democrats’ Sweep”: Ben Penn and Celine Castronuovo of Bloomberg Law have this report.

“Get Ready for the Great Democratic Judicial Blockade”: Law professor Aziz Huq has this Jurisprudence essay online at Slate.

“Why the Trump Election Interference Strategy Failed; After two years of conflict and fear, the election ran normally”: Bob Bauer has this post at the “Executive Functions” Substack site.

And online at Slate, law professor Richard L. Hasen has a Jurisprudence essay titled “Our Democracy Was Hanging by a Thread. Here’s the Real Reason It Held.”