“It’s Alive: Can Elena Kagan save the legal left?” Law professor Justin Driver has this essay in the July 8, 2010 issue of The New Republic.

“The Justice of Oz: As Elena Kagan shows, you need to lose your heart, brain, and courage to get on the Supreme Court.” Dahlia Lithwick has this jurisprudence essay online at Slate.

“New trial for Sharee Miller in notorious Internet-related murder case angers family of victim, Bruce Miller”: Back in August 2008, The Flint (Mich.) Journal published an article that begins, “There could be a sequel on the horizon to one of the steamiest murder trials in recent county history — one packed with sex, provocative e-mails and suicide. A federal judge on Wednesday ordered a new trial for Sharee Miller, who was convicted of manipulating an Internet lover to kill her husband here in 1999 before the man killed himself.”

Today, in a ruling that you can access here, the majority on a divided three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit affirmed that grant of a new trial.

In coverage of today’s ruling, The Associated Press reports that “Flint-area woman gets new trial in ’99 murder.”

And WJRT-TV’s ABC12 News reports that “Sharee Miller is getting a new trial.”

“GOP, Democratic solicitors general back Kagan”: The Associated Press has this report.

And at “The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times,” Tony Mauro has a post titled “Former SGs Endorse Kagan for Supreme Court.”

You can view the endorsement letter at this link.

Programming note: This afternoon, I will be arguing three related appeals before a three-judge panel of the Superior Court of Pennsylvania.

On February 11, 2010, The Legal Intelligencer — Philadelphia’s daily newspaper for lawyers — reported on the cases in an article by Amaris Elliott-Engel headlined “Scope of Prescription Drug Tort Lawsuits to Be Tested; Appeals Ct. to Mull Negligent Marketing Cause of Action.”

You can access the appellate briefs that I filed in these cases at the following links: Cochran (opening brief and reply brief); Owens (opening brief and reply brief); and Lance (opening brief and reply brief).

Additional posts will appear here later today.

“Obama slowly puts his mark on federal courts; Most cases never reach the Supreme Court, so appeals judges are crucial”: Tom Curry, national affairs writer for MSNBC, has this report.

And Rob Hotakainen of McClatchy Newspapers reports that “Obama pushes to diversify federal courts, but it’s a slow process.”