Programming note: On Wednesday morning, I will be presenting oral argument to an en banc panel of the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania in Harrisburg at the lovely new Pennsylvania Judicial Center.

Late last year, The Citizens’ Voice of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania reported on the trial court’s ruling in an article headlined “Judge awards millions to Dallas, Pittston Area from health trust.” You can access the appellate briefs that I filed on my client’s behalf in this case at the following links: Brief for Appellant; Reply Brief for Appellant.

Eventually, the video of the oral argument should be available online via the web site of the Pennsylvania Cable Network. I will link to the video when it becomes available.

My next post here is likely to appear sometime in the afternoon on 12/12/12.

Update: The oral argument seemed to go quite well. Now we await the court’s ruling.

“Abortion Clinic Presses to Stay Open”: Wednesday’s edition of The Wall Street Journal will contain an article that begins, “Mississippi’s only abortion clinic says it won’t be able to meet a requirement of a new state law that tightens regulations for abortion providers, and has asked a federal judge to prevent state officials from revoking its license.”

You can freely access the full text of the article via Google News.

“In prior visits, Scalia’s presence on campus ignited controversy”: The Daily Princetonian has this report.

“Have Gay Marriage Advocates Been Too Successful? Why their recent victories at the ballot box may hurt the chances for marriage equality before the Supreme Court.” Law professor John Culhane has this jurisprudence essay online at Slate.

“In a first, the Bill of Rights is set in stone; Comedian convinces Arizona to place monument near state capitol”: Tony Mauro has this article in the current issue of The National Law Journal.

“Religious colleges challenge health care law’s contraception rule”: Michael Doyle of McClatchy Newspapers has this report.

“Attorneys: Orie Melvin shouldn’t face criminal charges.” In today’s edition of The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Paula Reed Ward has an article that begins, “Defense attorneys for suspended state Supreme Court Justice Joan Orie Melvin argued in a legal filing Friday that the suspended jurist should not be facing criminal charges because activity by court employees is to be regulated only by the judiciary.”

“In what circumstances, if ever, does the common law duty of a commercial property owner to provide emergency first aid to invitees require the availability of an Automatic External Defibrillator for cases of sudden cardiac arrest?” Today, the majority on a divided three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued an order certifying that question for resolution by the Supreme Court of California. The dissenting judge would have held that California law imposes the duty in question under the circumstances of this case.

Update: At her “Trial Insider” blog, Pamela A. MacLean has a post titled “Does First Aid Include Providing Defibrillators?”

And Courthouse News Service reports that “Calif. High Court Pulled Into Target Liability Case.”

“New animal-cruelty indictments raise First Amendment questions”: Tony Mauro has this news analysis online at the First Amendment Center.

“ACLU asks OAS to probe Padilla case”: The Associated Press has a report that begins, “The American Civil Liberties Union is asking the Organization of American States’ human rights commission to investigate the U.S. government for allegedly violating the rights of convicted terrorism plotter Jose Padilla by labeling him an ‘enemy combatant’ a decade ago and subjecting him to interrogation that amounted to torture, including sleep and sensory deprivation in solitary confinement.”

You can access the ACLU’s petition at this link.

Update: In other coverage, Reuters reports that “‘Enemy combatant’ Padilla files human rights action against U.S. government.”

“U.S. appeals court strikes down state’s concealed-carry ban”: The Chicago Tribune has this news update.

The Chicago Sun-Times has a news update headlined “Federal appeals court tosses state ban on carrying concealed weapons.”

And The Associated Press reports that “Court strikes down Illinois concealed carry law.”

My earlier coverage of today’s Seventh Circuit ruling appears in the post immediately below.

Update: In other coverage, Bloomberg News reports that “Court Voids Illinois Loaded-Gun Ban Outside Home, Work.”

And Reuters reports that “Appeals court strikes down Illinois ban on handguns in public.”

Majority on divided three-judge Seventh Circuit panel invalidates under the Second Amendment an Illinois law forbidding most people from carrying a loaded gun in public: You can access today’s ruling of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit at this link.

Circuit Judge Richard A. Posner wrote the majority opinion, in which Circuit Judge Joel M. Flaum joined. Circuit Judge Ann Claire Williams issued a dissenting opinion.

Update: The majority opinion concludes: “we order our mandate stayed for 180 days to allow the Illinois legislature to craft a new gun law that will impose reasonable limitations, consistent with the public safety and the Second Amendment as interpreted in this opinion, on the carrying of guns in public.”

“For Marriage Equality, the Work’s Not Just in Court”: Evan Wolfson has this op-ed online today at The New York Times.

“Iowa Supreme Court to Hear Birth-Certificate Case Brought By Same-Sex Couple”: Ryan Koopmans has this post today at “On Brief: Iowa’s Appellate Blog.”

“Pushing same-sex marriage ahead”: Charles Lane has this op-ed today in The Washington Post.

And online at The New Republic, law professor Jeffrey Rosen has a blog post titled “Can Gay Marriage Supporters Count on Kennedy?”

“GOP mute as Supreme Court tackles gay marriage”: Josh Gerstein of Politico.com has this report.

“Edie Windsor, the Unlikely (and Ideal) Face of Same-Sex Marriage: An 82-year-old plaintiff, whose case may finally end the Defense of Marriage Act, looks back at her four-decade-long union to the love of her life.” Andrew Cohen has this essay online at The Atlantic.

“Appeal of $7.2 bln card-fee settlement deferred”: Erin Geiger Smith of Reuters has this report.

“Supreme Court Asked to Review $222K Landmark File-Sharing Case”: David Kravets has this post at Wired.com’s “Threat Level” blog.

“Scalia defends opposition to gay rights in response to question at Princeton”: This front page article appears today in The Daily Princetonian.