“Bush to nominate Gorsuch to Denver appeals court”: This article appears today in The Rocky Mountain News.

And The Denver Post reports today that “Gorsuch is pick for U.S. appeals court; The Denver-born lawyer, who’s long worked in D.C., holds strong views on the proper role of judges.”

“Luttig Steps Down From 4th Circuit”: law.com’s Tony Mauro provides this news update.

“Supreme Court Is Better Heard Than Seen”: Jerry Goldman, the director of the Oyez project, has this letter to the editor (free access) today in The Wall Street Journal. Although I have no connection to the Oyez site, I agree with Goldman that prompt release by the U.S. Supreme Court of oral argument audiotapes would suffice in lieu of televised coverage of oral arguments.

“Federal Appeals Court Judge Luttig Tapped for Boeing General Counsel”: Jess Bravin of The Wall Street Journal provides this news update (free access). My earlier coverage appears at this link.

“Sex Toys Tax-Deductible Down Under”: You may not be able to lawfully purchase them in Alabama, but — according to this post at “TaxProf Blog” — you might be able to claim a tax deduction for them in Australia if you happen to be employed in the right line of work.

“What the Moussaoui Sentence Teaches About ‘Mitigating’ Evidence”: FindLaw commentator Michael C. Dorf has this essay today.

Thirteen former law clerks to Fourth Circuit nominee Terrence W. Boyle issue a letter denouncing “shamefully personal” attacks against him: I have uploaded a copy of the letter at this link.

“Continuing Rehnquist’s Legacy; Former Aide to Direct Think Tank Named After Chief Justice”: This article appears today in The Washington Post.

“Bench Nominee Denies Role in Controversies; White House lawyer tells senators he learned about Abramoff, other issues from newspapers”: David G. Savage has this article today in The Los Angeles Times.

The Washington Times reports today that “Judicial nominee takes heat.”

And in The Washington Post, Dana Milbank’s Washington Sketch column today is headlined “Fealty to President and Precedent.”

BREAKING NEWS — Fourth Circuit Judge J. Michael Luttig resigns to become senior vice president and general counsel of The Boeing Company: Details are available in this press release, while a copy of Judge Luttig’s letter announcing his resignation, effective immediately, from the Fourth Circuit can be viewed both here and here. Thanks to “South Carolina Appellate Law Blog” for giving me the initial heads-up on this news.

And Jan Crawford Greenburg of The Chicago Tribune provides a news update headlined “Passed over Supreme Court hopeful resigns from bench.”

“Senators Renew Jousting Over Court Pick”: Neil A. Lewis will have this article Wednesday in The New York Times.

“New ‘Anti-Abortion Pill’ Kills Mother, Leaves Fetus Alive”: This article will appear in tomorrow’s issue of The Onion.

“Ax murderer’s execution postponed; Case is part of a national movement to stop lethal injections by raising civil rights claims about the way states carry them out”: The News Journal of Wilmington, Delaware provides this news update.

“Court Pick Deflects Questions On White House Controversies”: This article will appear Wednesday in The Washington Post.

Three recent law clerks to Fourth Circuit nominee Terrence W. Boyle condemn recent attacks on his nomination as “baseless”: A letter that those former law clerks sent today to various U.S. Senators can be accessed at this link.

“California Town Uses Eminent Domain To Block Wal-Mart”: Josh Gerstein has this article (pass-through link) today in The New York Sun.

“Filibuster more likely for Boyle”: Wednesday’s edition of The Hill will contain an article that begins, “Republican senators are welcoming the impending return of judicial nominations to the Senate floor as D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals nominee Brett Kavanaugh moves toward consideration and the White House readies a new list of judges to send to Capitol Hill.”

And Reuters reports that “Court nominee says didn’t know of torture, spying.”

“I do not Think it Means what you Think it Means: How Kripke and Wittgenstein’s Analysis on Rule Following Undermines Justice Scalia’s Textualism and Originalism.” Daniel Goldberg has this article (abstract with links for download) online at SSRN (via “Legal Theory Blog“).

Don’t mess with “Texas” [on your car’s license plate]: According to an opinion that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued today, “During the suppression hearing, the officers testified that they stopped the defendant because the word ‘TEXAS’ was partially covered by the license plate frame.” According to today’s ruling, that gave Texas police officers probable cause to stop the criminal defendant’s vehicle.

“‘Gang of 14’ to meet again as Senate weighs 2 judicial nominees”: James Kuhnhenn of Knight Ridder Newspapers provides this report.

“Senators spar over judicial nominee; Kavanaugh denies involvement in wiretapping, detainee policies”: CNN.com provides this report.

The Washington Post provides a news update headlined “Judicial Nominee Appears at Contentious Second Hearing.”

And T.R. Goldman of Legal Times reports that “Kavanaugh Comes Before Senate Judiciary Again; Democrats get their wish for another hearing on nominee to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit” (free access).

Via C-SPAN, you can view this afternoon’s judicial confirmation hearing online, on-demand by clicking here (RealPlayer required).

“Slate’s Jurisprudence: ‘War on Terror’ Surprises.” This audio segment (RealPlayer required) featuring Dahlia Lithwick appeared on today’s broadcast of NPR‘s “Day to Day.”

This afternoon’s Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing for D.C. Circuit nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh has recently concluded: Toward the end of the hearing, C-SPAN3 ended its coverage because the main C-SPAN network had begun televising the hearing after the House of Representatives recessed for the day. Once C-SPAN posts online archived video of today’s hearing, I will link to it.

The committee remains scheduled to vote on the nomination at the committee’s executive business meeting this Thursday.

“This appeal concerns the scope of copyright protection afforded artistic concert posters reproduced in reduced size in a biography of the musical group the Grateful Dead.” Today, a unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit holds, in an opinion that you can access here, that the reproductions constituted fair use.

William Patry, whose blog on copyright law you can access at this link, was counsel for the party asserting copyright infringement on appeal.

“Kavanaugh Denies Role in Detainee Policies”: The Associated Press provides this report.

Access online yesterday’s written statement of the Standing Committee on Federal Judiciary of the American Bar Association concerning the Nomination of Brett M. Kavanaugh to the D.C. Circuit: The statement (a 10-page PDF document) can be accessed here (via “Think Progress“).

“How can an insane man defend himself?” On February 15, 2004, Jessica McBride had this op-ed in The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel about Texas death row inmate Scott Louis Panetti.

Today, a unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued a decision affirming a federal district court’s denial of Panetti’s habeas petition in which the condemned prisoner asserts that he is mentally incompetent to be executed.

On remand from the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit affirms the district court’s order denying a preliminary injunction in FAIR v. Rumsfeld: Today’s non-precedential affirmance can be accessed at this link. The U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in the case is here. Senior Circuit Judge Ruggero J. Aldisert, the lone dissenter from the three-judge Third Circuit panel’s ruling that the U.S. Supreme Court reversed, entered today’s order for a unanimous panel.

“Cannibal Convicted of Murder in Retrial”: The Associated Press provides a report that begins, “A man who admitted killing and eating an acquaintance he met on the Internet was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison Tuesday following his retrial in a case that engrossed and appalled Germany.”

And BBC News reports that “German cannibal guilty of murder.”

View live, online this afternoon’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing for D.C. Circuit nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh: The first panel to testify consists of Senior Third Circuit Judge Walter K. Stapleton and Ninth Circuit Judge Alex Kozinski. Kavanaugh clerked for both before going on to clerk for Justice Anthony M. Kennedy. Kavanaugh will then testify before the committee. The agenda is here.

C-SPAN3 is carrying the hearing live, and you can view the hearing live, online in both RealPlayer and Windows Media Player formats.

Update: Senator Charles E. Schumer (D-NY), in his opening statement, is comparing Kavanaugh’s experience to the experience of others who have been confirmed to the D.C. Circuit. The Alliance for Justice has issued a document titled “The Kavanaugh Nomination: Nominee’s Experience Far Below Court Average” that begins, “Of the fifty-four judges who have served on the U.S. Court of Appeals for D.C. Circuit since its creation almost 111 years ago in 1893, only three have had less experience than Brett Kavanaugh: Kenneth Starr, Theodore Roosevelt appointee Charles Henry Robb and Reagan appointee Douglas Ginsburg.”

“We hold that appellants have failed to establish a prima facie case of discrimination, given that the enactment of the Negro League Plans did not constitute an adverse employment action and given that the two groups of players are not similarly situated.” Major League Baseball today achieved a victory in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in a class action brought by mostly Caucasian former MLB players who were asserting not only a claim under Title VII, but also claims for battery “by subjecting them to a dangerous regimen of cortisone shots and other drugs without their informed consent.”

Know your Supreme Court: The error in a recent Ninth Circuit decision that Eugene Volokh pointed out yesterday in this post at “The Volokh Conspiracy” (and later linked here by me) has today been eradicated from the annals of the law thanks to an order amending opinion that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has issued.

District court erred in holding that federal prosecutors engaged in unlawful vindictive prosecution when obtaining convictions for money laundering and illegally structuring financial transactions against an aggressive and successful criminal defense attorney from northern Indiana: You can access today’s ruling of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, written by Circuit Judge Terence T. Evans on behalf of a unanimous three-judge panel, at this link.

Two quick updates: (1) Thanks to all the readers who have emailed contest ideas for determining which reader of “How Appealing” will obtain an advance reading copy of the book “Anonymous Lawyer: A Novel.” I’m setting a deadline for contest ideas of 5 p.m. eastern time today, and ideas can be emailed to me at this blog’s email address, which is [email protected]. Complete details appear in this post from yesterday. The “How Appealing” reader who proposes the contest that I end up using will himself or herself also receive an advance reading copy of the book. All determinations of the contests’ judge (namely, me) are final.

(2) In connection with this blog’s popular “20 questions for the appellate judge” feature, scheduled to resume in June 2006, I am continuing to seek an interviewee. As during the feature’s initial 20-month run, interviewees are being sought on a purely volunteer basis, and the first federal or state court appellate judge to volunteer as the June 2006 interviewee will become the participant in next month’s interview. To volunteer, an appellate judge (or his or her authorized designee) merely needs to send me an email at this blog’s email address, [email protected]. Once someone has volunteered as next month’s interviewee, I will announce that the June 2006 “20 questions for the appellate judge” interview slot has been filled.

Law professor achieves at least the 35th best paper in UCLA Law Review write-on competition: Law Professor Eugene Volokh explains all in a post at “The Volokh Conspiracy” titled “What I Did This Spring Vacation.” Next year, perhaps he will retake the LSAT exam.