How Appealing



Tuesday, March 13, 2012

“Immigration Case Challenges Justice Department’s Credibility”: In today’s edition of The Wall Street Journal, Jess Bravin has an article that begins, “The Justice Department said it was prepared to correct its possibly misleading statements that influenced a Supreme Court ruling against immigrants facing deportation.”

Several weeks ago, Adam Liptak had this tweet linking to a related ruling.

Posted at 11:57 AM by Howard Bashman



“The Case Against Rent Control: An Upper West Side landlord challenges a New York City institution.” Damon W. Root has this essay online today at Reason.

Posted at 10:52 AM by Howard Bashman



“Federal District Court Workload Increases in Fiscal Year 2011”: The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts issued this news release today.

You can access the entire 2011 annual report titled “Judicial Business of the United States Courts” — a report that also contains lots of appellate-related information and statistics — at this link.

Posted at 10:49 AM by Howard Bashman



“Wisconsin Supreme Court out of step with national standards on recusal”: Bill Lueders of the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism has this report.

Posted at 7:50 AM by Howard Bashman



“A Way Forward on Judicial Ethics”: Yesterday’s edition of The New York Times contained an editorial that begins, “Last Tuesday, an alliance of government watchdog groups delivered 100,000 signatures to the Supreme Court along with a letter from hundreds of law professors calling on the justices to voluntarily adopt the code of conduct that applies to all other federal judges and to reform how they handle requests for recusals.”

Posted at 7:48 AM by Howard Bashman



“Diversity schemes: Race-based admissions aren’t going away — even if the Supreme Court says they should.” Shikha Dalmia had this essay online recently at The Daily.

Posted at 7:45 AM by Howard Bashman



Monday, March 12, 2012

“Reid tees up Senate fight to confirm 17 judges”: The Los Angeles Times has this news update.

Jennifer Bendery of The Huffington Post reports that “Harry Reid Forces Action On Stalled Judicial Nominees.”

The Hill has a blog post titled “Sen. Lee slams Reid’s ‘political stunt’ on judicial nominees.”

And Tuesday’s edition of The Washington Times will contain an editorial entitled “Obama’s last-ditch appointments: Harry Reid moves to stack the judiciary.”

Posted at 11:09 PM by Howard Bashman



“Legal precedents to clash as health care law goes to high court; Justices to answer questions of federal limits”: This article will appear Tuesday in The Washington Times.

Posted at 10:28 PM by Howard Bashman



“Former Federal Prosecutor Wants Leak Suit Against DOJ Revived”: At “The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times,” Mike Scarcella has a post that begins, “A former prosecutor who was acquitted on obstruction charges wants a federal appeals court in Washington to restart his privacy suit against the U.S. Justice Department over allegations the government leaked information to a reporter.”

Posted at 9:03 PM by Howard Bashman



View online tomorrow’s debates on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act: At 9:30 a.m. eastern time tomorrow, the Washington Legal Foundation is hosting a program titled “Prepping For Judicial Surgery: A Crash Course on Healthcare Reform in the U.S. Supreme Court” featuring three illustrious participants.

And tomorrow night, starting at 9 p.m. eastern time, as detailed at this link, “The California Endowment, 89.3 KPCC and many of California’s most distinguished law schools are bringing together a bipartisan mix of renowned legal minds and policy experts to hear and argue the case that will decide the health status of millions.” A notice about this event that I received by email states that one of the judges will be “TV’s own ‘Judge Alex,'” which many readers of this blog may be disappointed to learn means this guy, not that guy.

Separately, Politico.com posted online yesterday a considerable amount of news coverage and commentary about the case. The news reports are headlined “Health law faces its biggest test“; “Backup plans if individual mandate is struck down“; and “Health care reform issues go beyond mandate.”

And in commentary at Politico.com, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius has an essay entitled “Affordable Care Act’s many benefits.” Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi has an essay entitled “Feds’ power grab must be stopped.” Scott Atlas, professor of radiology and chief of neuroradiology at the Stanford University Medical Center and senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, has an essay entitled “Striking ‘Obamacare’ a rejection of overreach.” And law professor Robert Schapiro has an essay entitled “ACA case reminiscent of 19th-century litigation.”

Posted at 5:40 PM by Howard Bashman



“Court tosses jury award in Katrina jail lawsuit”: The Associated Press has a report that begins, “A federal appeals court on Monday threw out a jury’s award of more than $650,000 to two Ohio tourists who were arrested in New Orleans on public drunkenness charges two days before Hurricane Katrina’s landfall and jailed for more than a month after the storm.”

Update: You can access today’s Fifth Circuit ruling at this link.

Posted at 4:48 PM by Howard Bashman



In Bashman news from Australia and elsewhere: Tuesday’s edition of The Bendigo Advertiser reports that “Bash man refused bail in Bendigo court.”

In news from Philadelphia, as reflected in these docket entries, the Superior Court of Pennsylvania today denied the generic defendants’ petition for permission to appeal from the trial court’s denial of their federal preemption-based preliminary objections (akin to a motion to dismiss) filed in the In Re: Reglan/Metoclopramide Litigation. I wrote plaintiffs’ answer in opposition to the petition for permission to appeal filed in the Superior Court. Earlier news coverage of the case can be accessed here.

And from Washington, DC comes word that the deadline for my client’s petition for writ of certiorari seeking review of the case that I argued and lost before the en banc U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit has been extended to May 3, 2012. Thanks to the Yale Law School Supreme Court Clinic and Mayer Brown LLP for agreeing to work on the case.

Posted at 4:32 PM by Howard Bashman



“Esteemed lawyer Paul Clement’s next challenge is arguing against health-care law”: This article appears today in The Washington Post.

Posted at 7:08 AM by Howard Bashman



Sunday, March 11, 2012

“Obama’s health care law: A trek, not a sprint.” The Associated Press has a report that begins, “It took only a year to set up Medicare. But if President Barack Obama’s health care law survives Supreme Court scrutiny, it will be nearly a decade before all its major pieces are in place.”

And today’s edition of The Los Angeles Times contains an editorial entitled “Mary Brown, ‘Obamacare’ foe — and broke: A woman whose case is before the Supreme Court is an exemplar of a problem the healthcare law was designed to address.”

Posted at 1:25 PM by Howard Bashman



Saturday, March 10, 2012

“The Numbers Don’t Lie: If you aren’t sure Citizens United gave rise to the super PACs, just follow the money.” Law professor Richard L. Hasen — author of the “Election Law Blog” — has this essay online at Slate.

Posted at 3:27 PM by Howard Bashman