“Showdown on Judicial Nominee Set for Next Week”: At “The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times,” David Ingram has a post that begins, “Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is following through on a plan to cut off debate on President Barack Obama’s most contentious circuit court nominee so far.”

And today’s edition of Investor’s Business Daily contains a related editorial entitled “Another Radical Judge.”

“Lawyer Learns that Roberts Speaks Only for Himself”: Tony Mauro has this post at “The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times.”

“‘I Believe’ tag fails test in court; Judge says S.C. religious plate based on discriminatory law”: Today’s edition of The Post and Courier of Charleston, South Carolina contains an article that begins, “A federal district court ruled Tuesday that the ‘I Believe’ license plate approved by the S.C. Legislature violates the constitutional separation of church and state and cannot be issued.” The newspaper has posted online this photograph of the rejected license plate.

The State of Columbia, South Carolina reports today that “Judge strikes down plate; Words on Christian cross ruled unconstitutional by federal jurist who says it promotes one religion over another.”

The Greenville News reports that “Legislation creating ‘I Believe’ license plans unconstitutional, judge rules.”

And The Associated Press reports that “Federal judge nixes SC license tag with cross.”

You can access yesterday’s ruling of the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina at this link.

“Class Actions Look for a Home”: Today in The Daily Journal of California, Lawrence Hurley has an article that begins, “In a major class action case, the U.S. Supreme Court looks likely to reverse a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that makes it easier to sue big companies in plaintiff-friendly California state courts.”

And Dow Jones Newswires report that “US Supreme Court Appears Set To Change Corporate Location Test.”

“Justice O’Connor’s Husband Dead at 79”: Tony Mauro has this post at “The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times.”

And The Associated Press reports that “Husband of retired Justice O’Connor dies.”

How much is a volume of the Georgetown Law Journal worth to you? To Texas prison inmate, it was worth strike three under the Prison Litigation Reform Act. A unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued this ruling yesterday.

“While the issue is difficult and close, we believe that the rule against juror impeachment cannot be applied so inflexibly as to bar juror testimony in those rare and grave cases where claims of racial or ethnic bias during jury deliberations implicate a defendant’s right to due process and an impartial jury.” An email from a juror to the attorney for a criminal defendant in a case tried in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Hampshire resulted in this rather interesting ruling yesterday from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.

“Court ruling issued on Eagle Mountain landfill”: The “Daily News Digest” blog of The Press-Enterprise of Riverside, California has a post that begins, “A three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a ruling [yesterday] on the proposed Eagle Mountain landfill near Joshua Tree National Park.”

At the recently restarted blog “How Green Is My Country,” Sarah Rispin has a post titled “Ninth Circuit Affirms Reversal of BLM Decision Allowing Landfill Next to Joshua Tree.”

At the “Native Intelligence” blog of LAObserved, Deanne Stillman has this post about the ruling.

And Kaiser Ventures has issued a news release titled “U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Announces Its Decision on the Eagle Mountain Land Exchange.”

You can access yesterday’s ruling of a divided three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit at this link.

Senior Circuit Judge Stephen S. Trott‘s dissenting opinion begins:

What sane person would want to attempt to acquire property for a landfill? Our well-meaning environmental laws have unintentionally made such an endeavor a fool’s errand. This case is yet another example of how daunting — if not impossible — such an adventure can be. Ulysses thought he encountered fearsome obstacles as he headed home to Ithaca on the Argo, but nothing that compares to the “due process” of unchecked environmental law. Not the Cyclops, not the Sirens, and not even Scylla and Charybdis can measure up to the obstacles Kaiser has faced in this endeavor.

The dissenting opinion begins on page 33 of yesterday’s ruling.

“From Justice Kennedy, a Lesson in Journalism”: Adam Liptak has this interesting front page article today in The New York Times.

“Pfizer and Kelo’s Ghost Town: Pfizer bugs out, long after the land grab.” This editorial appears today in The Wall Street Journal.

Related news coverage can be accessed here from The Hartford Courant and here, here, here, here, and here from The Day of New London, Connecticut.

“Justices Sympathetic to Applying Headquarters Standard to Corporate Jurisdiction”: Tony Mauro of The National Law Journal has this report.

You can access at this link the transcript of yesterday’s U.S. Supreme Court oral argument in Hertz Corp. v. Friend, No. 08-1107.

“Yoo’s lawyers warn of flood of political suits”: Bob Egelko has this article today in The San Francisco Chronicle.

And The Associated Press reports that “Former Bush aide seeks to toss torture memos suit.”

As noted in this post from yesterday morning, I have posted the appellate brief at this link.