“Court weighs challenge to soot standards implementation”: Lawrence Hurley of Greenwire has an article that begins, “Federal appeals court judges appeared skeptical today about U.S. EPA’s argument that it is required under the Clean Air Act to use a less stringent implementation regime for fine particulates than it is for more coarse — and less dangerous — particles.”

“Ecuador court deals Chevron fresh blow in pollution case”: Reuters has this report.

Access live video online of today’s event in Rice University’s Centennial Lecture Series: “A Conversation With the Chief Justice.” Details are available at this link. And you can access the live video via this link.

The conversation with Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. is scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. eastern time.

“Robo-Calls Class Action Reinstated”: Pamela A. MacLean has this post at her “Trial Insider” blog.

You can access today’s ruling of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit at this link.

“Vulture funds vs Mexico: It’s on in $1 billion 5th Circuit appeal.” Alison Frankel’s “On the Case” from Thomson Reuters News & Insight has this report.

“Supreme Court halts turnover of secret IRA tapes”: The Associated Press has this report.

And at “SCOTUSblog,” Lyle Denniston has a post titled “British subpoenas blocked.”

“Opponents make a mockery of courts: Vander Plaats group ignores 200 years of tradition.” Today’s edition of The Des Moines Register contains an editorial that begins, “Leaders of the campaign to unseat Iowa Supreme Court Justice David Wiggins have shifted their emphasis to a new argument: The 2009 decision striking down the state’s marriage law was not only wrong but the court also went too far in ordering the state to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.”

“Politics and the Courts”: Today’s edition of The New York Times contains an editorial that begins, “The winner of the presidential election will have scores of federal judgeships to fill and the chance to shape the courts — even aside from potential Supreme Court vacancies should one or more of the current justices retire.”

“Time, Pen and Paper, and Now the Ear of the Supreme Court”: Adam Liptak has this new installment of his “Sidebar” column in today’s edition of The New York Times.

“Court leaves in place Montana caps on campaign contributions”: Reuters has a report that begins, “A federal appeals court on Tuesday ordered that a Montana law limiting campaign contributions to candidates for state office remain in effect at least through the general election in November.”

And Bloomberg News reports that “Montana Ruling on Unlimited Campaign Contributions Blocked.”

You can access yesterday’s ruling of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit at this link.

“Patent Trolls Be Gone: How to fix our broken system for stimulating invention.” Seventh Circuit Judge Richard A. Posner has this essay online at Slate.

The essay is the second in a new Slate series titled “View From Chicago,” in which “Richard and Eric Posner take turns weighing in.”

“GOP DOMA defense closes in on $1.5 million”: Carolyn Lochhead has this blog post online at The San Francisco Chronicle.

“Medical Marijuana Backers Ask Judges for Less Regulation”: Tom Schoenberg of Bloomberg News has this report.

In today’s edition of The Los Angeles Times, David G. Savage reports that “Medical marijuana advocates seek reclassification of drug; Plaintiffs urge a U.S. appeals court to require the government to take into account marijuana’s medical value and reclassify the drug.”

The San Francisco Chronicle reports today that “Pot backers advocate in federal court.”

David Ingram of Reuters reports that “U.S. marijuana supporters try out new court strategy.”

And The Associated Press reports that “Medical marijuana advocates want drug reclassified.”

“Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan to speak Friday at UT; Will speak as first Rose lecturer”: This article appears today in The Knoxville News Sentinel.

“Will Privacy Go to the Dogs?” In today’s edition of The New York Times, law professor Jeffrey A. Meyer has an op-ed that begins, “This Halloween, the United States Supreme Court will devote its day to dogs.”

“State Supreme Court to hear Shale law challenge today”: The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has this news update.

“Justice, Philadelphia style: Scalia gets two parking tickets.” This article appears today in The Philadelphia Inquirer.

And in related news, The Laramie Boomerang reports today that “UW books Supreme Court Justice visit.”

“Louisiana Supreme Court dismisses role of politics, race in ruling on chief judge”: John Simerman of The Times-Picayune of New Orleans has a news update that begins, “Louisiana Supreme Court Justice Bernette Johnson is legally entitled to be the court’s next leader, the court ruled Tuesday in a unanimous decision, ending several months of legal and political rancor. Johnson is now set to become the state’s first black chief justice.”

And The Associated Press has a report headlined “After spat, La. to have 1st black chief justice.”

You can access today’s ruling of the Supreme Court of Louisiana at this link.

Update: In other coverage, Bloomberg News reports that “Louisiana Supreme Court to Get First Black Chief Justice.”

“Kavanaugh Defies ‘Partisan Shock Trooper’ Label”: Brent Kendall and Peter Landers have this post at WSJ.com’s “Law Blog.”

“Ideological balance on bench at stake as election approaches”: Lawrence Hurley of Greenwire has this report.

“High court won’t block early voting in Ohio”: The Associated Press has this report.

Reuters reports that “Supreme Court denies Ohio’s request to curtail early voting.”

And at “SCOTUSblog,” Lyle Denniston has a post titled “Ohio rebuffed on early voting.”

You can access today’s order of the U.S. Supreme Court at this link.

Update: In other coverage, Adam Liptak of The New York Times has a news update headlined “Justices Reject Appeal Over Early Voting in Ohio.”

Robert Barnes of The Washington Post has a news update headlined “Supreme Court won’t get involved in Ohio dispute; all must be allowed to vote early.”

The Columbus Dispatch has a news update headlined “Supreme Court rejects Husted’s early voting appeal.”

The Cleveland Plain Dealer has a news update headlined “U.S. Supreme Court denies Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted’s appeal over early voting rules.”

And The Cincinnati Enquirer has a news update headlined “Supreme Court OK’s Ohio early voting.”

“Shirley and Megan Phelps-Roper brought this First Amendment facial challenge to an ordinance adopted by the city of Manchester to regulate the time and place of picketing at funerals and burials.” So begins an en banc ruling that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit issued today.

The second-to-last paragraph of today’s ruling offers the following summary of the outcome:

We conclude that the Phelps-Ropers have not shown in their facial challenge to Manchester’s amended ordinance that the city has imposed unconstitutional limits on the time, place, and manner of their picketing. Manchester only limits picketing and other protest activities within 300 feet of a funeral or burial service while it is occurring and for one hour before and after, and it survives First Amendment scrutiny because it serves a significant government interest, it is narrowly tailored, and it leaves open ample alternative channels for communication.

The original three-judge panel’s ruling in this case had reached an opposite result. My earlier coverage of that ruling can be accessed here.

Update: In early news coverage, The Associated Press has a report headlined “Appeals court: Town can restrict funeral protests.”

“Court throws out conviction of bin Laden driver”: The Associated Press has this report.

Bloomberg News reports that “Osama bin Laden Driver Hamdan Wins Appeals Court Reversal.”

And at “SCOTUSblog,” Lyle Denniston has a post titled “Hamdan conviction overturned.”

You can access today’s ruling of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit at this link.

Update: In other coverage, Terry Baynes of Reuters reports that “Appeals court reverses bin Laden driver’s conviction.”

And Josh Gerstein of Politico.com has a blog post titled “Court overturns conviction of bin Laden driver.”

“Supreme Court justice’s car ticketed by Philly’s Parking Authority”: At the “Constitution Daily” blog of the National Constitution Center, Scott Bomboy has a post that begins, “The Supreme Court is the highest court in the land, but no justice, even Antonin Scalia, is apparently safe on the streets of Philadelphia when it comes to its Parking Authority.”

Justice Antonin Scalia was in Philadelphia yesterday in connection with this event.

“Newest Minn. Supreme Court justice set to take oath in historic addition to state’s high court”: The Associated Press has this report.

“Court hears case on affirmative action”: The Daily Tar Heel contains this article today.

The Harvard Crimson reports today that “Ed School Affiliates Argue for University of Texas.”

The Stanford Daily contains an article headlined “Stanford administrators committed to affirmative action.” Yesterday, Stanford University issued a news release headlined “Legal brief from Stanford, other universities to be considered in affirmative action case; Stanford and 13 other private universities have submitted an amicus brief as part of the Supreme Court’s consideration of a high-profile university admissions case.”

Yesterday’s edition of The Daily Californian contains an article headlined “Affirmative Action: Student diversity impacted by race-neutral admissions policy.”

Today’s edition of The Daily Pennsylvanian contains an editorial entitled “Race matters, at least for now; Affirmative action is the only tried and true method to ensure diversity.”

The Brown Daily Herald contains an editorial entitled “Alums, athletes and affirmative action.”

In The Cavalier Daily, Sam Novack has an op-ed entitled “Admitting mistakes: The Supreme Court should overturn precedent by ruling that affirmative action merely perpetuates the inequalities it attempts to correct.”

In The Houstonian, Taylor Likens has an op-ed entitled “UT Austin’s affirmative action policy counterproductive, breeding casual racism.”

And online at National Journal, Mee Moua has an essay entitled “Why Affirmative Action Is Still Needed in College Admissions.”

“U.S. Supreme Court Justice Kagan to visit UT”: This article appears today in The Daily Beacon, the student newspaper of the University of Tennessee.

“Court to hear arguments in Calif. clean fuels case”: The Associated Press has a report that begins, “A federal appeals court will hear arguments in a case seeking to stop California’s first-in-the-nation mandate requiring petroleum refiners and ethanol producers to make cleaner fuels for millions of cars and trucks in the state.”

“Supreme Court balance hangs on election”: Bob Egelko has this article today in The San Francisco Chronicle.

“No heat-sensing searches for pot operations, court says”: Bill Rankin of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has a news update that begins, “The Georgia Supreme Court ruled Monday that state law enforcement cannot obtain search warrants to use thermal-imaging scans to detect indoor marijuana-growing operations. Georgia law allows for police to search for ‘tangible evidence,’ and heat patterns inside a home or garage do not fit that definition, the court said in a unanimous opinion.”

You can access today’s ruling of the Supreme Court of Georgia at this link.

“Justices To Review Voter Law In Arizona”: Adam Liptak will have this article Tuesday in The New York Times.

In Tuesday’s edition of The Los Angeles Times, David G. Savage will have an article headlined “Supreme Court will decide on Arizona voter ID law; The Supreme Court will weigh in on an anti-fraud provision that was adopted by the state in 2004 but struck down by a federal court.”

Richard Wolf of USA Today has a news update headlined “State voting-law cases test Supreme Court’s politics; State laws that make it tougher to register to vote or vote will provide a fresh test of the Supreme Court justices’ political mettle.”

The Arizona Republic has a news update headlined “Supreme Court to hear Ariz. voter-registration case.”

Howard Fischer of The Arizona Daily Star has a news update headlined “Supreme Court to review voter ID law in Arizona, other states.”

Warren Richey of The Christian Science Monitor reports that “Supreme Court to review Arizona law making would-be voters prove citizenship; Critics of the Arizona law argue that the state requirement clashed with the National Voter Registration Act; The US Supreme Court agreed to take up the case Monday.”

Terry Baynes of Reuters reports that “Supreme Court to weigh Arizona voter registration case.”

And Greg Stohr of Bloomberg News reports that “Voter Proof-of-Citizenship Law Gets Supreme Court Review.”

“Retired U.S. justice prods Congress, candidates on gun control”: David Ingram of Reuters has this report.

“Arlen Specter and the Supreme Court”: Jeffrey Toobin has this blog post online at The New Yorker.

“Free Speech, Yellow Pages & Ryan Seacrest”: At her “Trial Insider” blog, Pamela A. MacLean has a post that begins, “The 9th Circuit issued two First Amendment rulings Monday, holding in one that the Yellow Pages are fully protected by free speech rights, while billboards containing commercial messages are not.”

You can access these two rulings that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued today here (Yellow Pages) and here (billboards).

“Is the new economy driving the Court’s docket?” Ronald Mann has this post today at “SCOTUSblog.”