How Appealing



Wednesday, October 28, 2015

“Obama Administration Supports Transgender Student In Federal Appeals Court”: Chris Geidner of BuzzFeed News has this report.

Posted at 9:46 PM by Howard Bashman



“Court: Evangelists’ pig’s-head slurs deserved protection.” Tresa Baldas of The Detroit Free Press has this news update.

Jonathan Stempel of Reuters reports that “Christian evangelists win Michigan speech case over Arab festival.”

And at The Volokh Conspiracy,” Eugene Volokh has a post titled “Sixth Circuit rejects ‘heckler’s veto’ as to anti-Islam speech by ‘Bible Believers.’

My earlier coverage of today’s en banc Sixth Circuit ruling can be accessed here.

Posted at 8:22 PM by Howard Bashman



“Judge Critical of Past FCC Net Neutrality Efforts Draws Latest Case”: Brent Kendall has this post today at WSJ.com’s “Washington Wire” blog.

Posted at 7:46 PM by Howard Bashman



“When Is It Constitutional to Purge Black Jurors? As the U.S. Supreme Court considers Foster, the standards that govern peremptory challenges are back on the table.” Law professor Garrett Epps has this essay online today at The Atlantic.

Posted at 5:50 PM by Howard Bashman



“How 4 Federal Lawyers Paved the Way to Kill Osama bin Laden”: Charlie Savage will have this article in Thursday’s edition of The New York Times.

Posted at 4:33 PM by Howard Bashman



“SAC’s Martoma seeks reversal of U.S. insider trading conviction”: Nate Raymond of Reuters has a report that begins, “A U.S. appeals court wrestled on Wednesday with whether a recent appellate ruling that limited the scope of insider trading laws meant that the 2014 conviction of former SAC Capital Advisors portfolio manager Mathew Martoma should be reversed.”

And Bloomberg News reports that “SAC’s Mathew Martoma Seeks Freedom in Appeals Court Bid.”

Posted at 4:22 PM by Howard Bashman



“Anti-Muslim group wins appeal in Arab fest case”: Robert Snell of The Detroit News has an update that begins, “Christian evangelists who were kicked out of an Arab-American street festival in 2012 after carrying a pig’s head and telling Dearborn Muslims they would ‘burn in hell’ won their federal appeal Monday and will be awarded damages.”

And The Associated Press reports that “Christian activists win speech case tied to Arab festival.”

You can access today’s divided ruling* of the en banc U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit — in which the judges’ alignment cannot be characterized as along political lines — at this link.



* The en banc court’s vote was 8-to-5 when considering only the votes of those judges who joined fully in the majority opinion or who joined fully only in one or more dissenting opinions. Two additional judges joined the majority opinion in part and dissented in part. Their votes caused the Sixth Circuit to be divided 10-to-5 in certain respects and 9-to-6 or 8-to-7 in other respects. Should my vote counting be viewed as not merely cursory but inaccurate, readers are invited to share their more careful analysis of the en banc court’s voting breakdown.

Posted at 3:40 PM by Howard Bashman



“FAN 82 (First Amendment News) Smolla & Abrams to file First Amendment brief in Redskins trademark case”: Ronald K.L. Collins has this post today at “Concurring Opinions.”

Posted at 11:38 AM by Howard Bashman



What multiple of 17 are you? Starting today, for me the answer to that question begins with a 3.

And to think, it only took until my 51st birthday for me to realize that I share the same birthday as the Statue (or, as lawyers are wont to say, Statute) of Liberty. [Update: The original version of this post either contained a typo or else I was really intent on proving the point of the preceding parenthetical. In any event, thanks to those many readers who emailed to draw the typo to my attention.]

Posted at 11:09 AM by Howard Bashman



“Constitution Check: Is Obamacare headed for new trouble?” Lyle Denniston has this post today at the “Constitution Daily” blog of the National Constitution Center.

Posted at 11:07 AM by Howard Bashman