“Some Fear Fallout From Preet Bharara’s Tension With Judges”: James B. Stewart will have this essay in Friday’s edition of The New York Times.

“Clashes Intensify Over Stalled Nomination of Loretta Lynch”: This article will appear in Friday’s edition of The New York Times.

“The key players in Obama’s appeal on deportation deferral program”: The Los Angeles Times has an article that begins, “State and federal lawyers on opposite sides of the immigration divide are set to square off in federal appeals court Friday before three judges who will decide whether to lift a temporary stay on President Obama’s executive action, which seeks to shield up to 5 million people from deportation.”

And The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports that “Federal judge who blocked Obama immigration order painted as unbiased.”

The oral argument from the injunction order will occur tomorrow morning before a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit sitting in New Orleans. When the oral argument audio becomes available online, I will link to it.

“3rd Circ. Rules Aaron’s Spying Classes Aren’t Too Broad”: Joe Van Acker of Law360.com has a report (subscription required for full access) that begins, “Consumers accusing Aaron’s Inc. and dozens of its franchisees of spying on them through leased computers were wrongly denied class certification by a federal judge who improperly determined that their proposed class couldn’t be ascertained because it was overly broad, the Third Circuit ruled Thursday.”

You can access today’s ruling of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit at this link. Circuit Judge Marjorie O. Rendell issued a concurring opinion calling on the Third Circuit “to retreat from our heightened ascertainability requirement in favor of following the historical meaning of ascertainability under Rule 23.”

“Candidates says $500,000 contribution will level the field in GOP primary for Supreme Court”: The Associated Press has a report that begins, “A candidate who received the largest single campaign contribution reported so far in Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court race said Thursday that the $500,000 will make him competitive in the May 19 Republican primary.”

“Five key arguments loom in gay marriage case”: Richard Wolf of USA Today has this report.

“Surf, Cry, Sue: Tort lawyers could burst class-action floodgates unless High Court acts.” This editorial will appear in Sunday’s edition of The Wall Street Journal. You can freely access the full text of the editorial via Google.

“Obama’s climate change policy appears to survive early court challenge”: David G. Savage of The Los Angeles Times has this report.

Coral Davenport of The New York Times reports that “Judges Skeptical of Challenge to Proposed E.P.A. Rule on Climate Change.”

Amy Harder of The Wall Street Journal reports that “Appeals Court Skeptical of Case Against EPA Climate Rule; Judges indicate a lawsuit is premature because the rule isn’t final.” You can freely access the full text of the article via Google.

And Andrew Zajac of Bloomberg News reports that “Obama Carbon Rule Foes Face Skeptical Judges on Early Filing.”

“Anita Hill Named Distinguished Faculty Member at Brandeis”: Bloomberg News has this report.

Yesterday, Brandeis University issued a news release titled “Anita Hill named University Professor.”

“Death Penalty For Tsarnaev Increasingly Unpopular, WBUR Poll Finds”: WBUR-FM of Boston has this report.

“As U.S. gay-marriage battle looms, attorneys fight over fees”: Joan Biskupic of Reuters has this report.

“U.S. judges raise doubts about early challenge for EPA carbon rules”: Reuters has this report.

You can access the audio of today’s oral argument before a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit via this link (57.6 MB mp3 audio file). Laurence H. Tribe presents oral argument approximately 40 minutes into the audio recording.

Update: In other coverage, Jeremy P. Jacobs of Greenwire reports that “Skeptical judges question attack on EPA’s proposed rule.”

“Accused Facebook fraud fugitive still missing, U.S. appeals court hears”: Nate Raymond of Reuters has this report.

“Ex-justice Orie Melvin sends out apology letters to state judiciary”: Paula Reed Ward of The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has this news update.

And Bobby Kerlik of The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review has a news update headlined “Joan Orie-Melvin sends second round of letters, more contrite, to judges.”

“Supreme Court Stops Government Mandate for Fifth Time in a Row; Ruling protects Pennsylvania Catholic Charities; nuns may be next”: The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty today issued this news release about an order that Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr. issued last night

The Associated Press today provides extensive coverage of the same-sex marriage cases pending before the U.S. Supreme Court: You can access reports headlined “Gay marriage issue complicates immigration, motherhood“; “Legally married at work, but not at home“; “California couple part of Tennessee gay marriage challenge“; “Together 35 years, waiting for the right to marry“; “Lack of legal rights makes raising 2 teens more stressful“; “A new baby pulled NY couple into Ohio gay marriage lawsuit“; and “Michigan gay marriage challenge began as adoption case.”

“Court skeptical of challenge to Obama’s climate change plan”: Sam Hananel of The Associated Press has this report.

“Va. Supreme Court allows Yelp to keep IDs of online critics private”: Frank Green of The Richmond Times-Dispatch has this news update.

The Washington Post has a news update headlined “Yelp won’t have to turn over names of anonymous users after court ruling.”

The Washington Times has a news update headlined “Yelp can keep negative reviewers’ IDs private, Va. Supreme Court rules.”

And The Associated Press reports that “Virginia court rules state judge lacked authority to order Yelp to divulge users’ identities.”

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

“The Absurd Charge that Conservatives Have Been Bullied in the Marriage Equality Cases”: David H. Gans has this post today at the “Text & History Blog” of the Constitutional Accountability Center.

“Mormon couple object to inclusion in U.S. Supreme Court gay marriage case”: Jennifer Dobner of The Salt Lake Tribune has this report concerning one of the most unusual amicus briefs filed in these cases.

Zeke J Miller and Haley Sweetland Edwards of Time magazine report that “New Strategy Against Gay Marriage Divides GOP 2016 Field; Activists want to take on the Supreme Court.”

And at the “Public Discourse” blog of The Witherspoon Institute, attorney Gene Schaerr has a post titled “Redefining Marriage Would Put Kids of Heterosexuals At Risk.”

“‘100 percent vindication’: Ladera Ranch air marshal fired for whistleblowing wins another ruling.” The Orange County Register has this report.

“State to highlight will of voters in gay marriage case”: Oralandar Brand-Williams of The Detroit News has this report, along with an article headlined “Gay couple’s marriage battle all about ‘our children.’”

“Stories of love, life, death in high court gay marriage case”: Mark Sherman of The Associated Press has this report.

“Justice Sandra Day O’Connor Honored for Promoting Civics Education”: Mark Walsh has this post today at the “School Law” blog of Education Week.

And at “The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times,” Tony Mauro has a post titled “Female Supreme Court Justices Unite in Tribute to Sandra Day O’Connor.” You can freely access the full text of the post via Google News.

“Fuller could still be impeached, despite dropped charges”: Mary Troyan of The Montgomery Advertiser has an article that begins, “U.S. District Judge Mark Fuller has completed a pretrial diversion program and no longer faces a misdemeanor battery charge, but federal judges and Congress are still free to target him for other disciplinary action, including impeachment.”

And that newspaper also has a related editorial titled “Fuller’s record expunged, but not concerns.”

“The right finds a fresh voice on same-sex marriage”: Robert Barnes of The Washington Post has this report.

And today’s broadcast of NPR’s “Morning Edition” contained an audio segment titled “A North Dakota Family Breaks The Silence On Gay Marriage.”

Access online the transcript of the Appellate Rules Hearing held in Washington, DC on April 1, 2015 to consider the pending proposed amendments to the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure: You can access the transcript via this link. The main topic of discussion was the proposed FRAP briefing word limit reduction.

Once I have read the transcript, I will likely have more to say on the subject. And beginning one week from today in Philadelphia, the Advisory Committee on Appellate Rules is scheduled to hold a two-day meeting. I am planning to attend and observe that meeting so that I can provide readers of this blog with a first-hand account of what occurs.

“S.C. Supreme Court agrees to hear multimillion dollar Episcopal lawsuit”: The Post and Courier of Charleston, South Carolina has this report.

“Obama nominates Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Wilhelmina Wright for federal judge seat”: The Minneapolis Star Tribune has this blog post.

“The Trials of John Roberts: Supreme Court cases on gay marriage and the Affordable Care Act test the chief justice’s commitment to judicial restraint.” Jeffrey Rosen has this essay online at The Atlantic.

“Speaking Truth to the Supreme Court”: Linda Greenhouse has this essay online today at The New York Times.