“How Not to Pick Judges”: Maya Sen will have this essay in the Sunday Review section of tomorrow’s edition of The New York Times.

Sen’s article, “How Judicial Qualification Ratings May Disadvantage Minority and Female Candidates,” appears in the Spring 2014 issue of the Journal of Law and Courts. You can freely access the entire article in PDF format via JSTOR.

“Religious Accommodation in the Age of Civil Rights”: Harvard Law School hosted this event last month.

You can access hours and hours of video from the conference on YouTube via this link.

“Obama Orders Policy Review on Executions”: This front page article appears in today’s edition of The New York Times.

Today’s edition of The Oklahoman contains a front page article headlined “Botched execution: Gov. Fallin labels investigation ‘independent’ though it’s led by state official present at lethal injection; Man to lead ‘independent’ investigation is Oklahoma state official who was acting in an official capacity at the lethal injection that went bad.”

Today’s edition of The Tulsa World contains a front page article headlined “Investigation into botched execution to be headed by former DOC worker; Gov. Fallin names Michael Thompson to direct investigation of botched execution.”

In today’s edition of The Arizona Republic, Michael Kiefer has a front page article headlined “What Oklahoma’s botched execution means for Arizona.”

And The Guardian (UK) reports that “Texas plans three executions as courts mull secrecy of lethal drugs; Next execution scheduled to use drugs of secret origin; Legal battle over prison officials’ secrecy nears decision.”

“Obamacare’s doom”: The Washington Post tonight has posted online an op-ed by columnist George F. Will that begins, “If the president wants to witness a refutation of his assertion that the survival of the Affordable Care Act is assured, come Thursday he should stroll the 13 blocks from his office to the nation’s second-most important court, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.”

“High court cross-state ruling leaves much unsettled for EPA”: Jeremy P. Jacobs and Daniel Lippman of Greenwire have this report.

“Supreme Court panel upholds $7.5 million judgment favoring Wynn against video magnate”: The Las Vegas Review-Journal has a news update that begins, “A panel of the Nevada Supreme Court has upheld a $7.5 million defamation judgment against soft-porn king Joe Francis on behalf of casino developer Steve Wynn.”

I have posted online at this link yesterday’s unpublished order of the Supreme Court of Nevada.

“Ruling on affirmative action ban now being argued in Utah same-sex marriage case”: Dennis Romboy of The Deseret News has a news update that begins, “State attorneys in Utah’s same-sex marriage fight are citing a new U.S. Supreme Court ruling that upholds Michigan’s ban on using race as a factor in college admissions to bolster their case.”

“Mining group seeks court review of coal dust rule”: The Associated Press has this report.

And Bloomberg News reports that “Black Lung Mine Rule Challenged by Murray Energy.”

“Summary Judgment and the Reasonable Jury Standard: A Proxy for a Judge’s Own View of the Sufficiency of the Evidence?” Law professor Suja A. Thomas has posted this short article online at SSRN.

“Oklahoma Damage Might Extend to Judicial Independence”: Today at “The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times,” Tony Mauro has a post that begins, “Judicial independence was another casualty of this week’s debacle over the execution of a convicted murderer in Oklahoma, advocates for fair courts said on Friday.”

“Who’s the ‘Bad Guy’ Here?” Pamela A. MacLean has this post today at her “Trial Insider” blog reporting on a dissent from the denial of rehearing en banc issued today that Circuit Judge Stephen Reinhardt wrote, in which only Chief Judge Alex Kozinski joined.

My earlier coverage of the ruling of a divided three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in the case, from October 2013, can be accessed here.

“U.S. juice maker POM rejects claim of misleading advertising”: Diane Bartz of Reuters has this report. According to the article, “Thomas Goldstein, arguing for POM Wonderful, said the advertisements which most concerned the Federal Trade Commission were discontinued in 2005 and others were halted in 2007.”

And at “The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times,” Jenna Greene has a post titled “Appellate Panel Grills Pom on Deceptive Ads.”

The case was argued today before a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. You can access the oral argument audio via this link (53.7 MB mp3 audio file).

Update: In other coverage, Brent Kendall of The Wall Street Journal has a news update headlined “Appeals Court Likely to Uphold FTC Ruling on Juice Maker Pom; Judges Questioned FT”s Decision to Bar Disease-Related Health Claims Without Two Randomized, Clinical Trials.”

“Airlines exempt from Sept. 11 environmental claim — U.S. court.” Reuters has this report on a ruling that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit issued today.

“Botched Oklahoma execution: Autopsy portion of inquiry into problematic lethal injection likely to take two to three months; No more Oklahoma lethal injections are likely until end of investigation into botched execution; The autopsy portion of inquiry is expected to take two to three months alone.” Rick Green of The Oklahoman has this news update.

And The Associated Press reports that “Unused dose of lethal cocktail to be tested.”

“Chief Justice denies allegations of improper contact with PMO”: Sean Fine of The Toronto Globe and Mail has a news update that begins, “Supreme Court Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin has categorically denied Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s extraordinary public assertion that she attempted to contact him about a court case.” In addition, law professor Errol Mendes has an essay titled “Attempt to smear Chief Justice an affront to our constitutional system.”

The Toronto Star has an article headlined “Feud with Supreme Court part of a pattern for Harper government; Is the Supreme Court picking a fight with the Conservative government, or is it the other way around?”

CBC News has a report headlined “Beverley McLachlin, PMO give duelling statements on Nadon appointment fight; PMO says Harper refused to take call from Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin.”

And The Canadian Press reports that “Harper says he did nothing wrong in nominating Marc Nadon to Supreme Court.”

“Statement of Prop 8 Defender Chuck Cooper”: Ed Whelan has this post today at National Review Online’s “Bench Memos” blog.

“FindTheBest may be first to gain from Supreme Court’s patent fee ruling; Startup wants back the $200k it spent to quash troll with a ‘matchmaking’ patent”: Joe Mullin of Ars Technica has this report.

“The race to bring NSA surveillance to the Supreme Court: There are at least three pending cases against the agency with a shot at making it all the way.” Adrianne Jeffries has this report online at The Verge.

“Legally Speaking: Saving Obamacare; A conversation with Donald B. Verrilli Jr., the 46th solicitor general of the United States.” This written interview appears in the May 2014 issue of California Lawyer magazine.

You can view the video of the complete interview on YouTube by clicking here.

“For Now, Justice Ginsburg’s ‘Pathmarking’ Doesn’t Include Retirement; As Senior Member of the Supreme Court’s Liberal Wing, She Strives to Make the Minority Heard”: Jess Bravin of The Wall Street Journal has this article.

In addition, at WSJ.com’s “Washington Wire” blog, Bravin has a post titled “Excerpts from WSJ Interview with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.”

“A Surge Forward on Marriage Equality”: This editorial will appear in Friday’s edition of The New York Times.

“States are now targets of ‘Citizens United'”: Byron Tau of Politico.com has this report today.

“5 Law Blogs To Add To Your Daily Routine”: Ama Sarfo of Law360.com tonight has this article (subscription required for full access), which includes “How Appealing” as first on its list of five law blogs to read on a daily basis.

“Harper alleges Supreme Court Chief Justice broke key rule with phone call”: Sean Fine of The Toronto Globe and Mail has this news update.

The Toronto Star has a news update headlined “PM refused to take ‘inadvisable, inappropriate’ call from chief justice, PMO says; An unprecedented rift between the Prime Minister’s Office and the Supreme Court of Canada — the executive and judicial branches of government — burst into the open Thursday evening.”

And The Ottawa Citizen has a news update headlined “PMO says Harper avoided ‘inappropriate’ call from chief justice on Nadon.”

“The New Aaron Swartz Documentary Looks Powerful; Here’s the Trailer”: Lily Hay Newman has this blog post online at Slate (linking to the movie trailer).

The movie’s web site can be accessed here. The film is scheduled for release on June 27, 2014.

“Blessings in Disguise: The religious-freedom battle.” Kelefa Sanneh has this Talk of the Town Comment in the May 5, 2014 issue of The New Yorker.

“New York court hears appeal of 9/11 detainees”: The Associated Press has this report.

“Convicted murderer Lockett was hit with Taser leading up to execution; State Corrections Department report details events leading up to Lockett’s execution”: The Oklahoman has this news update. You can view the report at this link.

The Tulsa World has reports headlined “Execution proceeded despite vein damage, report says” and “Officials refuse to say if they tried to revive Clayton Lockett.”

The New York Times has a news update headlined “Oklahoma Official Calls for Outside Review of Botched Execution.”

And The Associated Press reports that “Oklahoma took 51 minutes to find vein in execution.”

“Mary Yu becomes first Asian American, first gay on State Supreme Court”: SeattlePI.com has this report.

“Senate Confirms Nine Judges This Week”: Todd Ruger has this post today at “The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times.”

“Judges seem open to second-guessing FERC in N.Y. pipeline case”: Jeremy P. Jacobs of Greenwire has this report.

You can access the audio of today’s D.C. Circuit oral argument via this link (18.9 MB mp3 audio file).

“Commentary: From the bench to the podium.” Lyle Denniston has this post today at “SCOTUSblog.”

“Appeals Court: Book Publisher Must Face Self-Dealing Lawsuit; Suing romance novelists believe that Harlequin used foreign subsidiaries to create artificially low net receipts on eBooks.” Eriq Gardner has this post today at the “Hollywood, Esq.” blog of The Hollywood Reporter about a ruling that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit issued today.

“Legal Watchers Anticipate Supreme Court Decision On Vanderbilt Casino”: Interlochen (Mich.) Public Radio has this report today (via “Turtle Talk“).

Access online the audio of today’s Sixth Circuit oral argument in Sarah Jones v. Dirty World Entertainment et al., No. 13-5946: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit has posted online today’s oral argument of this case at this link (embedded audio).

This blog’s related posts from earlier today can be accessed here and here.

And The Associated Press reports that “Internet giants eye cheerleader’s defamation suit.”