“Justice Dept. Would Have Kept ‘Loyal’ Prosecutors; Aide Recommended Retaining ‘Bushies’ And Top Performers”: This article will appear Friday in The Washington Post.

And Friday’s edition of The New York Times will contain articles headlined “Rove Is Linked to Early Query Over Dismissals” and “President Turns to an Insider to Negotiate on Dismissals.”

“Confession at Guantanamo by 9/11 Mastermind May Aid Other Qaeda Defendants”: Adam Liptak will have this news analysis Friday in The New York Times.

Tomorrow’s newspaper will also contain an article headlined “In Tribunal Statement, Confessed 9/11 Plotter Burnishes His Image as a Soldier.”

The U.S. Senate this evening confirmed Thomas M. Hardiman to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit: The vote in favor of confirmation was 95-0.

On this evening’s broadcast of NPR’s “All Things Considered“: The broadcast contained audio segments entitled “Leahy, Senate Panel to Subpoena Bush Officials” and “Sifting Through Mohammed’s Confession to Plots” (RealPlayer required).

McClatchy Newspapers are reporting: Now available online are articles headlined “E-mails reveal involvement of Rove, Gonzales in firings of U.S. attorneys” and “Gonzales fights to keep his job.”

And in other news, “Senator says Mohammed claimed he was abused by interrogators” and “Detainee says he beheaded U.S. reporter.”

“It is the Court’s interpretation of the statute that commands that the debtor lose here, not the language Congress chose to use in the statute. As tempting as it would be to ignore the Supreme Court’s interpretation of the text in favor of the actual text, that is not our role at the circuit court level.” So writes Tenth Circuit Judge Timothy M. Tymkovich in a concurring opinion he issued today in a bankruptcy case.

The concurring opinion concludes:

In the end, Kelly is a textbook example of the Court ignoring the plain meaning of a statute to further competing policy goals with very good arguments on each side. It is not altogether clear the Court made the best choice. It appears nonetheless that Congress over the years has acquiesced in that interpretation, so perhaps this is a case of “no harm, no foul.” Even so, subject to the vagaries of stare decisis, the Supreme Court could and should correct its error by taking this case and narrowing the holding of Kelly to the statutory text.

The decision whose outcome Judge Tymkovich is criticizing is Kelly v. Robinson, 479 U.S. 36 (1986).

“SCOTUS-gate: What if Alberto Gonzales and Harriet Miers had been confirmed to the Supreme Court?” Dahlia Lithwick has this essay online at Slate.

In Friday’s edition of The Christian Science Monitor: Warren Richey will have an article headlined “The self-portrait of an Al Qaeda leader: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed put the murder of reporter Daniel Pearl on his long list of terrorist acts.”

And the newspaper will also contain an editorial entitled “Gun laws as a right to safety: A court refutes a 1939 Supreme Court ruling against gun rights, perhaps opening a Pandora’s box.”

“Starr 2 Argue 4 School Rules”: Jess Bravin has this post today at WSJ.com’s “Washington Wire” blog.

“Md. death penalty repeal rejected; In narrowest of votes, Senate committee defeats proposal backed by O’Malley”: The Baltimore Sun provides this news update.

And The Washington Post provides a news update headlined “Death Penalty Bill Fails in Committee.”

“It’s time to let the public tune in the voices of the Supreme Court”: Ronald K. L. Collins has this op-ed today in The Baltimore Sun. And, for what it’s worth, I agree.

“Officials: Mohammed Exaggerated Claims.” The AP provides this report.

“Federal court grants condemned Arizona man’s execution request”: David Kravets of The Associated Press provides this report.

“Suspect Confession?” This audio segment (RealPlayer required) featuring Carol Rosenberg of The Miami Herald appeared on today’s broadcast of the public radio program “Here & Now.”

“Mohammed Confession Questioned”: This audio segment (RealPlayer required) appeared on today’s broadcast of NPR’s “Day to Day.”

The method for citing to blog posts found in the 18th edition of The Bluebook “would completely ream someone like Howard Bashman”: So writes Cathy Gellis in a comment to this post by Christine Hurt at “Congomerate” (via “InstaPundit“).

Fortunately, on a literal understanding of that comment, the actual Howard Bashman emerges completely unscathed.

“The Rabbi and The Supreme Court Justice”: This post appeared yesterday at “Reb Barry’s Blogspace” (via a post today at “Religion Clause” titled “Scalia vs. Rabbi On Capital Punishment“).

Access online today’s “sexually oriented dancing” decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit: The ruling can be accessed here.

“Mismanagement of Justice”: This editorial appears today at National Review Online. In addition, Andrew C. McCarthy has an essay entitled “Playing Politics with Politics: The U.S.-attorneys controversy pits incompetence against hypocrisy.”

And at Salon.com, Sidney Blumenthal has an essay entitled “All roads lead to Rove: The White House political director was clearly at the center of the partisan plot to fire U.S. attorneys, despite the administration’s clumsy attempts to pretend otherwise.”

“Fire Power: The ruling that will bring back gun wars.” Law Professor Cass R. Sunstein has this essay online today at The New Republic. The essay concludes, “It is likely that, for the first time in many decades, the Supreme Court will be entering the Second Amendment fray. Its conclusions will tell us a great deal about the future of gun control–and also about the justices’ conception of their own place in American democracy.”

En banc Ninth Circuit holds that death row inmate can indeed “volunteer” for death: The September 18, 2006 installment of my weekly “On Appeal” column for law.com was headlined “When Can an Inmate ‘Volunteer’ for Death? 9th Circuit rejects a competent inmate’s decision to abandon legal challenge to his capital sentence.” Therein, I criticized a divided three-judge Ninth Circuit panel’s ruling that had rejected an Arizona death row inmate’s effort to withdraw all pending legal challenges to his death sentence.

And on Monday of this week, Adam Liptak of The New York Times covered the case in an installment of his weekly “Sidebar” column headlined “Another Kind of Appeal From Death Row: Kill Me” (TimesSelect temporary pass-through link).

Today, a fifteen-judge Ninth Circuit en banc panel, by a vote of 14-1, issued a decision that allows the death row inmate to withdraw the pending legal challenge to his death sentence. You can access today’s ruling at this link.

“Khalid Sheikh Mohammed: I beheaded American reporter.” CNN.com provides this report.

And The Associated Press reports that “9/11 Mastermind Admits Killing Reporter.”

Divided three-judge Eighth Circuit panel holds that Union Pacific Railroad is not liable for sexual discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as amended by the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 by failing to cover prescription contraception for its female employees: You can access today’s ruling at this link.

Bloomberg News is reporting: Now available online are articles headlined “Gonzales’s Hold on Job Slips Amid Furor Over Prosecutor Firings” and “Khalid Sheikh Mohammed Says He Was Sept. 11 Plotter.”

On today’s broadcast of NPR’s “Morning Edition“: The broadcast contained audio segments entitled “Court Rules Against Ill Woman in Medical Marijuana Case“; “Republican Senator Urges Gonzales to Resign“; “Voter Fraud: A Tough Crime to Prove“; “Mohammed Confession Leaves Room for Skepticism“; and “Analyzing an Al-Qaida Suspect’s Confession.”

RealPlayer is required to launch these audio segments.

“Patient loses court appeal for medical pot use; The court reaffirms the right of the U.S. government to prosecute patients and suppliers, even in states where marijuana is a legal medicine”: The Los Angeles Times contains this article today.

Today in The San Francisco Chronicle, Bob Egelko reports that “Medical pot user loses again in federal court.”

And in The Oakland Tribune, Josh Richman reports that “Court doesn’t buy medical marijuana; Despite sympathies, appellate judge rules federal law trumps Oakland woman’s needs.”

My earlier coverage of yesterday’s Ninth Circuit ruling appears at this link.

“9/11 planner confesses to many plots; He compares Al Qaeda operatives to American revolutionaries in his tribunal testimony”: This article appears today in The Los Angeles Times.

And USA Today reports that “Prisoner confesses 9/11 was his work; Transcript says he planned it ‘A to Z.’”

“Gay adoption push renewed”: The St. Petersburg Times today contains an article that begins, “Florida’s three-decades-old ban on allowing gays to adopt children is under attack once again.”

“Statements On Firings of Prosecutors Are Key Issue”: This front page article appears today in The Washington Post. The newspaper also contains an editorial entitled “The Reno Precedent: President Clinton’s attorney general fired all U.S. attorneys; So why is this different?” And Stephen Barr’s “Federal Diary” column is headlined “U.S. Attorneys’ Dismissals Cloud New Rating Systems.”

The Los Angeles Times today contains articles headlined “Gonzales gets rare rebuke from Bush; The president’s criticism of a trusted ally adds to debate over whether the attorney general should resign” and “Gonzales aide called prosecutor a ‘real problem’; After news reports of a widening corruption probe, D. Kyle Sampson sent an e-mail about replacing Carol Lam.”

In The Wall Street Journal, Jess Bravin has an article headlined “Still Vague: Why Were Prosecutors Fired? Accounts Don’t Clarify How Dismissals Became A Bush Team Priority” (free access).

USA Today reports that “GOP senator says Gonzales should be fired; Sununu joins the increasing criticism of attorney general.”

And The Washington Times reports that “Bush stands by firings, ‘not happy’ with process.” The newspaper also contains an editorial entitled “Weak knees at Justice.”

“Give Us Back Our Gun Law”: Cathy Lanier and Vincent Schiraldi have this op-ed today in The Washington Post.

“Media Fight Request to Close Parts of Israel Lobbyists’ Trial”: The Washington Post today contains an article that begins, “Defense lawyers and media organizations are objecting to what they say is a government effort to bar the public from the upcoming trial of two pro-Israel lobbyists charged with violating U.S. espionage laws.”

The Associated Press is reporting: An article reports that “Court Denies Evidence to 9/11 Families.” My earlier coverage appears here.

And in other news, “$9.9M Award Upheld for Mont. Art Expert.” My earlier coverage appears here.

“General Pace and Gay Soldiers”: This editorial appears today in The New York Times.

The New York Sun today contains an editorial entitled “Don’t Act, Don’t Tell.”

And in The Los Angeles Times, Nathaniel Frank has an op-ed entitled “The immorality of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’: A general’s disparagement of gays runs counter to public good and the evidence.”

“A Slow Death”: Today in The New York TImes, Senior U.S. District Judge Frederic Block of the Eastern District of New York has an op-ed that begins, “While New York State does not subscribe to the death penalty for the moment, the federal government does. Over the last few years there has been a surge in death penalty prosecutions authorized by the United States attorney general, both nationwide and in federal cases in New York. But these have resulted in disproportionately few death penalty verdicts, at enormous costs and burdens to the judicial system. A more prudent and realistic approach in the way the government seeks the death penalty is warranted.”

“Coming to Order: How the Supreme Court really works.” Law Professor John O. McGinnis has this essay today in The Wall Street Journal.