How Appealing



Monday, December 5, 2016

“Federal appeals court upholds Mohamed Mohamud conviction”: Maxine Bernstein of The Oregonian has this report.

The Associated Press reports that “Appeals court affirms conviction in Oregon car-bomb plot.”

Cyrus Farivar if Ars Technica has a report headlined “Court: Secret spying of would-be Christmas tree bomber was OK; ACLU slams ruling, says this surveillance violates the constitution.”

And at “The Volokh Conspiracy,” Orin Kerr has a post titled “9th Circuit upholds warrantless email surveillance of person in the U.S. communicating with foreigners abroad when the foreigners are the ‘targets.’

My earlier coverage of today’s Ninth Circuit ruling can be accessed here.

Posted at 10:12 PM by Howard Bashman



“Britain’s Supreme Court Hears Legal Challenge to ‘Brexit'”: Stephen Castle will have this article in Tuesday’s edition of The New York Times.

Posted at 8:44 PM by Howard Bashman



“Florida my be pondering ‘novel’ lethal injection change”: Dara Kam of The News Service of Florida has an article that begins, “In a move that would be certain to spur more litigation over the state’s already embattled death penalty, Florida corrections officials appear to be planning what could be a dramatic change to the triple-drug lethal injection process — including the use of a drug never before used for executions.”

Posted at 5:37 PM by Howard Bashman



“Prominent class action firm sues ‘professional objectors’ for racketeering”: Alison Frankel’s “On the Case” from Thomson Reuters News & Insight has this post today.

Posted at 5:22 PM by Howard Bashman



Eleventh Circuit “tentatively approve[s] posting oral argument recordings on its website” beginning in approximately sixth months: As first noted in a tweet today from the Free Law Project, the judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit have “tentatively approved posting oral argument recordings on its website.”

On May 26, 2016, Michael Lissner, executive director of Free Law Project, sent this letter to the Eleventh Circuit’s chief judge.

Following electronic discussions back and forth with that court’s staff, today Lissner received an email from David J. Smith, the Eleventh Circuit’s Clerk of Court, stating:

Mr. Lissner,

The Court has directed me to inform you that it has tentatively approved posting oral argument recordings on its website. However, appropriate revisions to the Court’s rules will first have to go through the rulemaking process, which is anticipated to take approximately six months. In the interim, any request you make for oral argument recordings in specific cases will be considered by the Court on a case-by-case basis.

Once the Eleventh Circuit begins posting audio of its oral arguments online, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit will have the “distinction” of being the only federal appellate court that fails to do so.

Posted at 2:35 PM by Howard Bashman



“The Big (Imaginary) Black Friday Bombing: How the case of conflicted teenager Mohamed Mohamud — convinced by the FBI he was bombing a Christmas tree lighting ceremony in Portland, Oregon — could determine whether the American government is allowed to spy wholesale on its citizens.” Nicolas Medina Mora and Mike Hayes of BuzzFeed News had this report back in November 2015.

Today, a unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued a decision, written by Circuit Judge John B. Owens, affirming the criminal conviction of Mohamed Osman Mohamud for attempting to detonate a large bomb during the annual Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony in Pioneer Courthouse Square in downtown Portland, Oregon.

In news coverage of the Ninth Circuit’s oral argument of the case, Maxine Bernstein of The Oregonian reported that “Warrantless surveillance in Portland holiday tree-lighting bomb plot challenged in court.”

Ian Duncan of The Baltimore Sun reported that “Appeals court hears challenge to use of NSA data in criminal cases.”

And Maria L La Ganga of The Guardian (UK) reported that “Attorneys debate use of warrantless surveillance in Portland bomb appeal; Mohamed Osman Mohamud case is first court review of a conviction based on law underpinning spy programs revealed by whistleblower Edward Snowden.”

Earlier, Jacob Axelrad of The Christian Science Monitor had an article headlined “Portland Christmas tree bomber gets 30 years as questions about arrest linger; The case of Mohamed Osman Mohamud, who attempted to detonate a fake bomb at a Portland Christmas tree lighting ceremony four years ago, comes as domestic terrorism appears to be shifting; The sort of FBI sting that snared him, however, will continue.”

Posted at 1:32 PM by Howard Bashman



“U.S. court puts Obamacare case on hold until Trump takes office”: Lawrence Hurley of Reuters has an article that begins, “A federal appeals court on Monday agreed to put on hold until after U.S. President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January the Obama administration’s appeal of a judge’s ruling favoring a Republican challenge to a key part of the Obamacare law.”

Posted at 1:14 PM by Howard Bashman



In the December 12, 2016 issue of The New Yorker: In the Talk of the Town section, Jeffrey Toobin has a Comment titled “The Real Voting Scandal of 2016: Jill Stein can’t call for the recount of uncast votes, but there were clearly thousands of them as a result of voter-suppression measures.”

Larissa MacFarquhar has an article headlined “The Ex-Con Scholars of Berkeley: Formerly incarcerated undergrads started a group on campus to offer mentoring, support, and advocacy to other former inmates.”

And Louis Menand has an A Critic at Large essay titled “Banned Books and Blockbusters: How the publishing industry took on the taboo” that begins, “Contrary to what, Googling around, you might assume, obscenity is not protected by the First Amendment.”

Posted at 11:16 AM by Howard Bashman



“Court Set to Overturn Texas Death Penalty Cases”: Kenneth Jost has this post at his blog, “Jost on Justice.”

Posted at 9:48 AM by Howard Bashman



“Trump has broad power to implement immigration policies: legal experts.” Mica Rosenberg and Julia Edwards Ainsley of Reuters have an article that begins, “President-elect Donald Trump will be able to make many of his promised changes in immigration policy unilaterally by exercising the same kind of executive powers he criticized President Barack Obama for using.”

Posted at 9:42 AM by Howard Bashman



“Democrats to give Trump Cabinet picks the Garland treatment; Delay tactics could sap momentum from the president’s first 100 days; ‘What goes around comes around,’ one lawmaker says”: Burgess Everett and Elana Schor of Politico.com have this report.

Posted at 9:40 AM by Howard Bashman



“Britain’s Supreme Court head says Brexit case about law, not wider politics”: Michael Holden and Estelle Shirbon of Reuters have this report.

And Jill Lawless of The Associated Press reports that “UK Supreme Court hears landmark challenge to Brexit plans.”

The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom is streaming live video of the oral argument on its web site via this link. And transcripts of the oral argument, updated twice daily, can be accessed via this link.

Posted at 9:36 AM by Howard Bashman



“Questions Of Race And Redistricting Return To The Supreme Court”: This audio segment featuring Nina Totenberg appeared on today’s broadcast of NPR’s “Morning Edition.”

Mark Sherman of The Associated Press reports that “Supreme Court takes up cases about race in redistricting.”

And online at The Atlantic, law professor Garrett Epps has an essay titled “Will the Supreme Court Limit Gerrymandering? The High Court will hear two cases related to a crucial issue — -how states draw their legislative districts.”

Posted at 9:28 AM by Howard Bashman



“Will the Election Help Normalize Business at the Supreme Court?” Adam Feldman has this post at his “Empirical SCOTUS” blog.

Posted at 8:04 AM by Howard Bashman