“Packing the Courts”: In the Sunday Book Review section of this Sunday’s edition of The New York Times, Jeffrey Rosen will have this review of “The Federalist Society: How Conservatives Took the Law Back From Liberals,” by Michael Avery and Danielle McLaughlin.

Update: The authors of this book had an article in the April 15, 2013 issue of The Chronicle Review of The Chronicle of Higher Education headlined “How Conservatives Captured the Law.”

“Ask the author: Marcia Coyle on the Roberts Court.” “SCOTUSblog” has posted at this link Ronald Collins’s interview of Marcia Coyle.

“Grassley aims for GOP political spin on federal judiciary”: Doug Kendall has this post today at “The Great Debate” blog of Reuters.

In addition, in the May/June 2013 issue of The Environmental Forum, Kendall and Simon Lazarus have a cover story titled “Broken Circuit: A new breed of activism on the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit — for environmental cases second in importance only to the Supreme Court and the central venue for high-profile lawsuits — threatens decades of progress.” On the last page of the PDF document, linked immediately above, law professor Jonathan H. Adler has a response essay titled “The D.C. Circuit Is Hardly in Crisis.”

“DOJ Asks D.C. Circuit to Keep Surveillance Law Memo Secret”: Mike Scarcella has this post today at “The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times.”

“D.C. Circuit Grapples with Judicial Independence Case”: Zoe Tillman has this post today at “The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times.”

“Appeals Court Upholds Nashville Student Assignment Plan”: Mark Walsh has this post at the “School Law” blog of Education Week reporting on a ruling that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit issued today.

“Judge sets resentencing hearing for Joan Orie Melvin; Judge says he will address technicality, but sentence will not really change”: Paula Reed Ward of The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has a news update that begins, “The judge who sentenced a former state Supreme Court justice to three years house arrest has scheduled a resentencing hearing for Tuesday.”

And Adam Brandolph of The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review has a news update headlined “Judge says he will resentence former Justice Melvin next week ‘out of extreme caution.’”

“Female HLS Graduates Enter a Job Market Dominated by Men”: This article — part three in a three-part series — appears today in The Harvard Crimson.

“The N.L.R.B.’s Contested Poster”: Today’s edition of The New York Times contains an editorial that begins, “The subject of the latest outrageous ruling by the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is an 11-by-17-inch poster.”

“Federal court defends judicial conference at Georgia resort”: Jamie Dupree of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution had this post last night at his “Washington Insider” blog.

“‘Look, you may hate me’: 90 minutes with John Steele, porn troll; Says Judge Wright’s Star Trek references were ‘beneath the dignity of the court.'” Joe Mullin of Ars Technica has this interview.

“Man who stripped at Portland International Airport fights $1,000 fine from TSA”: This article appears today in The Oregonian. According to the article, the case could eventually reach the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

“‘Morning-After’ Pill Judge Won’t Delay Ruling for Appeal”: Bloomberg News has this report.

And The Associated Press reports that “Judge in NYC refuses to suspend his Plan B ruling.”

“Chamber Of Commerce Is Big Winner With Increasingly Conservative Supreme Court”: Sahil Kapur of TPM DC has this report.

En banc Federal Circuit issues decision addressing the patentability of a computer-assisted business method that reduces risks in financial situations: Today’s en banc ruling of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit begins with a one-paragraph per curiam opinion stating:

Upon consideration en banc, a majority of the court affirms the district court’s holding that the asserted method and computer-readable media claims are not directed to eligible subject matter under 35 U.S.C. sec. 101. An equally divided court affirms the district court’s holding that the asserted system claims are not directed to eligible subject matter under that statute.

In addition to that short per curiam opinion, six judges issued separate opinions.

Last month, Erin Geiger Smith of Reuters wrote about the case that the en banc Federal Circuit decided today in an article headlined “In gene case, Supreme Court to again address patent eligibility.”

“Appeals court rules that Righthaven lacked standing to sue over copyrights”: This article appears today in The Las Vegas Sun.

And Erin Geiger Smith of Reuters has an article headlined “Assignment to sue for copyright not enough for standing — appeals court.”

My earlier coverage of yesterday’s Ninth Circuit ruling appears at this link.

“High court’s hospital merger ruling could spur antitrust challenges”: Terry Baynes of Reuters has a report that begins, “A ruling this year by the U.S. Supreme Court in a hospital merger case could embolden federal regulators to bring more antitrust challenges against healthcare deals, said Sara Razi, a deputy assistant director at the Federal Trade Commission.”

“Altering a culture in which much of the bar had come to believe that briefing schedules were issued only to be automatically extended until convenient for counsel to file a brief was difficult.” The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit today issued an interesting per curiam ruling reminding counsel that repeated extensions of time in which to file a brief are disfavored, even for exceptional circumstances. Unlike many courts, however, the Second Circuit initially allows counsel to more or less set the original timetable for briefing an appeal.

“How Vacancies on the D.C. Circuit Court Are Swaying Policy in America: The court’s judges are obstructing appointments to a key regulatory body; But since the Senate won’t confirm Obama’s own judicial picks, the appointments will stay stuck.” Law professor Garrett Epps has this essay online today at The Atlantic.