“Senate Republicans likely to change custom that allows Democrats to block judicial choices”: Robert Barnes and Ed O’Keefe of The Washington Post have an article that begins, “Senate Republicans are threatening to change a custom that allows Democratic senators to block some judicial choices from their states, in an effort to speed along a conservative transformation of the federal judiciary.”

“U.S. District Judge Amul Thapar confirmed to federal appeals court seat”: Bill Estep of The Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader has this report.

Alex Swoyer of The Washington Times reports that “Senate confirms Judge Thapar to 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.”

Seung Min Kim of Politico.com reports that “Senate confirms Trump’s conservative pick for 6th Circuit Appeals court.”

And Zoe Tillman of BuzzFeed News reports that “The Senate Confirmed Trump’s First Lower Court Nominee.”

“Election Wars at the Supreme Court”: Linda Greenhouse has this essay online at The New York Times.

Programming note: This morning, I will be attending a meeting out-of-the-office concerning one of the appeals on which I am working. Additional posts will appear here this afternoon. As always while I am traveling, additional appellate-related retweets are likely to appear on this blog’s Twitter feed.

“Trial ordered to determine if Strip performer’s rights violated”: Cy Ryan of The Las Vegas Sun has this report on a ruling that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued today.

“Libertarian Legal Scholars Reject Trump Judicial Nominee’s Views on 14th Amendment”: Damon Root has this post at Reason.com’s “Hit & Run” blog (via “Above the Law“).

“Prosecutor not ruling out charges for ex-in-laws in Markel case”: Karl Etters of The Tallahassee Democrat has an article that begins, “A year ago today, one of Tallahassee’s most enthralling whodunits took an explosive turn when Sigfredo Garcia was arrested at a Miami-area gas station.”

“Court Considers Whether Trump Can Fire Consumer Regulator; Federal appeals court appears hesitant to rule CFPB’s structure is unconstitutional”: Yuka Hayashi and Brent Kendall of The Wall Street Journal have this report.

Sarah N. Lynch of Reuters reports that “U.S. regulator may have edge in court arguments on its structure.”

And Zoe Tillman of BuzzFeed News reports that “A Fight Over Presidential Power Is Working Its Way Towards The US Supreme Court.”

15 years of “How Appealing” — reader mail: Today’s email is from Mark Kernes, senior editor for Adult Video News:

How Appealing is one of my daily must-reads. It’s informative on a wide variety of subjects, and as a legal journalist, often alerts me to court decisions, lawsuits and other political/legal goings-on that I can further research and write about. Thank you SO MUCH for your blog

Mark, thank you for your kind email. It has been a pleasure to link to your work from time to time over the years, especially when I have found it online in a form that is safe-for-work for this blog’s readers. I will post another reader email tomorrow.

“Solicitor General to Supreme Court: New Jersey sports betting case not worth your while.” John Brennan of The Record of Hackensack, New Jersey has this report.

“How Trump plans to remake the lower courts”: Law professor Jonathan R. Nash has this essay online at The Hill.

“The Supreme Court’s Immigration Law Showdown: The justices will face a number of challenges that have tremendous implications for life in the Trump era.” Law professor Garrett Epps has this essay online today at The Atlantic.

Programming note: This evening, I will be attending the opening of a new exhibit titled “John Marshall: Patriot, Statesman, Chief Justice” at the National Constitution Center. Additional posts, including today’s 15th anniversary reader email, will appear here tonight.

“Q&A: How Did We End Up with this Far-Right Supreme Court?” This interview with Laura Kalman, author of the book “The Long Reach of the Sixties: LBJ, Nixon, and the Making of the Contemporary Supreme Court,” appears online at The National Book Review.

“This court case could have a huge impact on the future of a key consumer watchdog”: Jonnelle Marte of The Washington Post has this report.

Yuka Hayashi of The Wall Street Journal has an article headlined “Can Trump Fire Consumer Regulator? Federal appeals court to weigh whether president has authority to oust CFPB director.”

Dave Michaels of The Wall Street Journal reports that “Case to Examine Legitimacy of SEC’s In-House Courts; Wall Street’s top cop set up the tribunals years ago to speed up enforcement actions against firms.”

And Sarah N. Lynch of Reuters reports that “U.S. appeals court to hear cases that could weigh on Wall Street policing.”

Once the audio of today’s two en banc oral arguments of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit becomes available online, I will link to it.

Update: You can access the audio of today’s en banc D.C. Circuit oral argument in PHH Corp. v. CFPB via this link (44.0 MB mp3 audio file).

And you can access the audio of today’s en banc D.C. Circuit oral argument in Raymond J. Lucia Cos. v. SEC via this link (36.5 MB mp3 audio file).

“Sexual decisions between consenting adults take on a different color when the adults are law enforcement officers.” So concludes a unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in an interesting four-page decision issued today. Circuit Judge Edith H. Jones wrote the opinion.

“Federal Court Revives Wikimedia’s Challenge to N.S.A. Surveillance”: Charlie Savage of The New York Times has this report.

“Is Anthony Kennedy Ready to Put an End to Partisan Gerrymandering? The Supreme Court’s swing voter will decide the future of American elections.” Mark Joseph Stern has this jurisprudence essay online at Slate.

“Dylann Roof appeals conviction, death sentence in Emanuel AME Church massacre”: Andrew Knapp of The Post and Courier of Charleston, South Carolina has this report.

And Meg Kinnard of The Associated Press reports that “Condemned church shooter Roof seeks appellate court mercy.”

“Reach of Same-Sex Marriage Ruling Comes to Supreme Court”: Kimberly S. Robinson of Bloomberg BNA has this report.

“Court revives Wikimedia lawsuit against NSA”: Rachel Weiner of The Washington Post has this report.

Jonathan Stempel of Reuters has a report headlined “Wikipedia can pursue NSA surveillance lawsuit: U.S. appeals court.”

And The Associated Press has a report headlined “Appeals court: NSA surveillance challenge can move forward.”

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

“Why is the Third Circuit’s courthouse named for James Byrne?” Matthew Stiegler has this interesting post at his “CA3blog.”

“Kevin C. Newsom — Nominee to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit”: Daniel B. Tilley has this post at “The Vetting Room” blog.

15 years of “How Appealing” — reader mail: Today’s email is from Dale Schowengerdt, Solicitor General of Montana:

Congratulations on How Appealing’s 15th year! I give your blog more traffic than I do any other site, and have come to trust it as the go-to place for appellate news and insight. Thanks for all your hard work. You’ve done us all a great service.

Dale, thanks so very much for your kind email! Montana is still on my list of places to visit, so I am glad to learn that my blog is enjoyed there. I will post another reader email tomorrow.

“Two remarkable starts to oral argument”: Matthew Stiegler — who I had the pleasure of having lunch with today — recently had this post at his “CA3blog.”

“Justice Abella uses U.S. speech to take aim at ‘narcissistic populism'”: Colin Freeze of The Toronto Globe and Mail has this report.

Tonda MacCharles of The Toronto Star reports that “Supreme Court judge Abella worries about state of justice in world; Justice Rosalie Abella delivered a commencement speech after accepting an honorary degree from Brandeis University in Massachusetts that was part-biography, part call to action.”

And Abby Patkin of The Justice, the student newspaper of Brandeis University, reports that “Abella tells grads to be attuned to injustices.”

“The Grove Park Inn: The U.S. Supreme Court’s secret Cold War relocation facility in the mountains of North Carolina.” Atlas Obscura has this report.

The other meaning of “sets aside”: Alex Swoyer of The Washington Times reports that “Supreme Court sets aside case of Christian baker, same-sex wedding cake.”

“Supreme Court Ruling Could Hinder ‘Patent Trolls'”: Adam Liptak has this article in today’s edition of The New York Times.

And Joe Mullin of Ars Technica reports that “Supreme Court makes it much harder for patent trolls to sue in East Texas; Folks got sued in East Texas “‘just because they had a website’; Those days may be over.”

“Supreme Court Upholds Rejection Of North Carolina Congressional Districts”: Nina Totenberg had this audio segment on yesterday evening’s broadcast of NPR’s “All Things Considered.”

And on today’s broadcast of NPR’s “Morning Edition,” Totenberg had an audio segment titled “Supreme Court Rejects 2 N.C. Congressional Districts As Unconstitutional.”

“The deepening appellate divide over when copyright owners can sue”: Alison Frankel’s “On the Case” from Thomson Reuters News & Insight has this post.

“Clarence Thomas Joins Liberals, Shocks World: A strange Supreme Court alliance just struck a blow against racial gerrymandering in the United States.” Mark Joseph Stern has this jurisprudence essay online at Slate.

“Disagreeing With Rick Hasen on the North Carolina Case”: Richard Pildes has this post at the “Election Law Blog.”

Also at that blog, Justin Levitt has a post titled “NC redistricting, from someone not named Rick.”

“The case for renaming Boalt Hall”: Charles Reichmann has this essay online at The San Francisco Chronicle.

“The Supreme Court may just have given voting rights activists a powerful new tool”: Law professor Richard L. Hasen — author of the “Election Law Blog” — has this essay online at The Washington Post.