“Senate Panel Set to OK 2 Bush Nominees”: Jesse J. Holland of The Associated Press provides this report.

On today’s broadcast of NPR’s “Morning Edition”: The broadcast contained segments entitled “Judicial Nominations Could Trigger Filibuster Fight” (featuring Nina Totenberg) and “Jeffords Decides Not to Seek Fourth Term.” RealPlayer is required to launch these audio segments.

“Senator Frist and Representative DeLay’s Claims of Supreme Court Judicial Activism and Anti-Religion Bias: Why They Aren’t Persuasive.” FindLaw commentator Marci Hamilton has this essay today.

Bob Egelko is reporting: Today in The San Francisco Chronicle, he has an article headlined “State justices refuse PETA a hearing on the life of cows” that begins, “Whether the cows in a state milk board’s ads are really happy is apparently none of the California courts’ business.” And in other news, “Cough syrup no defense; Supreme Court upholds loss of license of girl, 16.”

The agenda for this morning’s executive business meeting of the Senate Judiciary Committee can be accessed here: Four nominees to the U.S. Courts of Appeals are on the agenda, and three are likely to be voted out of committee today.

“Schumer Blasts Proposed Hearings On Judges’ Conduct”: Luiza Ch. Savage has this article today in The New York Sun.

“Senate Scrap Over Judges Is Frist’s Fight; The majority leader’s presidential aspirations may influence action on a filibuster rule change”: The Los Angeles Times contains this article today.

The Boston Globe reports today that “Ad wars mount as Republicans ready ban on Senate filibusters.”

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that “Obama is reluctant to defend filibuster in judicial battle.”

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports that “Pryor sees rash use of religion by groups; Swats at filibusters disappoint, he says.”

The Times-Picayune reports that “GOP Senate freshmen push to end judicial filibusters; Democratic minority blocked Bush’s picks.”

The Denver Post reports that “Sen. Salazar, Focus spar over judicial nominations.”

The Rocky Mountain News reports that “Salazar slams Focus; Senator calls group’s political tactics over judges ‘un-Christian.’”

The Island Packet contains an article headlined “DeMint: GOP close to filibuster change.”

In commentary, The Philadelphia Daily News today contains an editorial entitled “Will Specter save the GOP from itself? Senator can keep the party from blowing itself up over the filibuster.”

The Allentown (Pa.) Morning Call contains an editorial entitled “Spirit of Senate bipartisanship would be obliterated with filibuster rule change.”

In The Washington Post, columnist David S. Broder has an op-ed entitled “The Appeal of A Court Fight.”

In The New York Times, columnist David Brooks has an op-ed entitled “Roe’s Birth, and Death.”

In The Chicago Tribune, columnist Steve Chapman has an op-ed entitled “The Republicans’ new perspective on the filibuster.”

In The Houston Chronicle, columnist Cragg Hines has an op-ed entitled “For Owen rerun, Specter takes up role of Bush shill.”

In The Denver Post, columnist David Harsanyi has an op-ed entitled “Sen. Salazar takes judicial turn.”

In The Chicago Sun-Times, columnist Robert Novak has an op-ed enititled “Liberals once sang different tune on filibusters.”

In The Louisville Courier-Journal, Joseph Phelps has an op-ed entitled “A tale of two churches.”

At Townhall.com, columnist Cal Thomas has an essay entitled “Religious ‘intolerance’ cuts both ways.”

And today in The Daily Texan, Kevin Jones has an op-ed entitled “Far right alienates moderate Christians.”

Finally for now, yesterday the organization People For the American Way issued both a news release entitled “Boyle Testimony Confirms Opponents’ Fears; PFAW Analysis of Judiciary Committee Hearing Shows Severe Lack of Credibility and Radical Record Make Boyle Unfit to Serve on Fourth Circuit” and a related report entitled “Committee Hearing Reinforces Case that Terrence Boyle is Unfit for Promotion to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.”

“Biotech patents an issue for court; Justices hear arguments involving S.D. entities”: This article appears today in The San Diego Union-Tribune.