“Merrick Garland’s ex-law clerks: Supreme Court nominee a mentor, ideal boss.” Katherine Skiba of The Chicago Tribune has this report.

In Friday’s edition of The New York Times, David M. Herszenhorn will have a front page article headlined “Wisconsin Race Frames Dispute Over Supreme Court Nominee.”

And Jason Noble of The Des Moines Register reports that “U.S. Supreme court fight hits Iowa radio, TV, web.”

“Friends, neighbors hail Haywood nomination”: Pat Cloonan of The Herald-Standard of Uniontown, Pennsylvania has this report (via “CA3blog“).

“Immigration law can’t discriminate against ‘habitual drunkards,’ court rules”: Maura Dolan of The Los Angeles Times has this report.

And Bob Egelko of The San Francisco Chronicle reports that “Appeals court rules alcoholism an illness, not a moral defect.”

You can access today’s ruling of a divided three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit at this link.

“A Big, Unexpected Crack Just Formed In The GOP’s Wall Of Opposition To Merrick Garland”: Ian Millhiser of ThinkProgress has this post today.

“The Top Five Supreme Court Nomination Myths: If you think the court hasn’t always been a political place, you’re wrong.” Paul M. Collins Jr. and law professor Lori A. Ringhand have this jurisprudence essay online at Slate.

“Prof. Michael McConnell on Zubik Religious Freedom Restoration Act-contraceptive mandate oral argument”: Eugene Volokh has this post today at “The Volokh Conspiracy.”

“Process for filling Supreme Court vacancies damaged, appeals judge says”: Brian Bowling of The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review has this article reporting on remarks that Senior D.C. Circuit Judge Douglas H. Ginsburg delivered yesterday at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

“Judicial court finds former Justice Eakin guilty and fines him, but spares his pension”: Craig R. McCoy and Mark Fazlollah of The Philadelphia Inquirer have a news update that begins, “A judicial tribunal found disgraced former Justice J. Michael Eakin guilty of ethical misconduct in the Porngate scandal on Thursday and fined him $50,000, but allowed him to keep his $153,000 annual pension.”

Wallace McKelvey of The Patriot-News of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania reports that “Pa. Supreme Court Justice Eakin ordered to pay fine, keeps pension over emails.”

Brad Bumsted of The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports that “Court fines ex-Supreme Court Justice Eakin $50K over lewd emails.”

You can access today’s 28-page unanimous per curiam ruling of the Pennsylvania Court of Judicial Discipline at this link.

“Unresolved in Tyson, uninjured plaintiffs issue back to SCOTUS on Friday”: Alison Frankel’s “On the Case” from Thomson Reuters News & Insight has this report today.

“Joe Biden fights back over an old Supreme Court speech: ‘There is no Biden rule.'” Michael A. Memoli of The Los Angeles Times has this report.

Richard Wolf and Nicole Gaudiano of USA Today have an article headlined “Biden: Supreme Court vacancy helps ‘rich and powerful.’”

Reuters reports that “Biden makes the case for Obama’s Supreme Court nominee Garland.”

Ariane de Vogue of CNN.com has an article headlined “Joe Biden on Supreme Court nomination: There is no ‘Biden rule.’”

Sarah Wheaton and Edward-Isaac Dovere of Politico.com report that “Biden accuses GOP of threatening democracy in Supreme Court standoff; ‘Unless we can find common ground, how can the system designed by our founders function,’ the vice president says.”

And The Associated Press reports that “Susan Collins hopes for hearings on Supreme Court nominee; The Maine senator says she will meet with Judge Merrick Garland in the first week of April.”

“Blind Spots at D.C. Circuit Limit Garland’s Record”: Kimberly Robinson of Bloomberg BNA has this report.

And at The Washington Post, James Hohmann has a blog entry titled “Why the campaign to pressure Republicans to confirm Merrick Garland is failing.”

“Royall Descendant Cautions Against Forgetting History; Long before the current firestorm, the story of Isaac Royall, Jr. quietly lived on in his former house and surviving descendant”: Claire E. Parker of The Harvard Crimson has an article that begins, “Controversy erupted this year over Harvard Law School’s seal, which featured the crest of the once-slaveholding Royall family. But long before the current firestorm, the story of Isaac Royall, Jr. quietly lived on in his former Massachusetts house — now a museum — and his surviving descendants, who caution against forgetting the family’s history.”

In today’s mail: I received a copy of William W. Bedsworth‘s newest book, “Lawyers, Gubs and Monkeys — Laughing at the Law.”

Bedsworth serves as an Associate Justice on California’s Fourth District Court of Appeal. Longtime readers of this blog may recall that Bedsworth took part in this blog’s “20 questions for the appellate judge” feature way back in June 2004. You can access my interview of him at this link.

For as long as anyone can remember, Bedsworth has written a very clever law-related humor column titled “A Criminal Waste of Space.” Back when I was a slightly more conscientious law blogger, I would endeavor to link to the new installments of that column as they became freely accessible online. At some point, however, I stopped doing that, perhaps because the columns stopped being readily accessible online, or perhaps because something else blog-related or non-blog-related happened to demand my attention even more.

In any event, it appears that the more recent installments of Justice Bedsworth’s column have found a new home at the OC Lawyer web site of the Orange County (Calif.) Bar Association. But, if you like his stuff as much as I do, just buy his book (here or here), and you’ll be able to carry around for your reading enjoyment lots of his good work in one small convenient volume.

“Remarks by Vice President Joe Biden at Georgetown Law”: You can view Vice President Biden’s remarks live on YouTube via this link starting at noon eastern time today.

As I noted in this post from earlier this morning, the Vice President is expected to discuss the issue of U.S. Supreme Court confirmations.

“Would Justice Garland have to Recuse from a reargued Zubik v. Burwell?” Josh Blackman has this blog post today.

In my opinion, the answer to that question is “no,” for reasons that I look forward to explaining once I confirm which Major League Baseball team the nominee roots for.

“Deciphering Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland”: Ames C. Grawert has this post at “The Great Debate” blog of Reuters.

“Park Service to continue fight following Supreme Court ruling in Alaska hovercraft case”: Sam Friedman of The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner has this report.

“Unabomber Case Helped Hone Garland’s Legal Skills”: Jim Rowley of Bloomberg News has this report.

“Joe Biden to Make Case for a Full Supreme Court Bench”: Carl Hulse of The New York Times has this blog post.

The Associated Press reports that “Biden to point to record in Supreme Court fight.”

And Edward-Isaac Dovere of Politico.com reports that “Biden tries to clear his name on Supreme Court nominees.”