Prof. Stephanos Bibas nominated to the Third Circuit, but he also has some Fifth Circuit/fifth circuit connections: Before clerking for Justice Anthony M. Kennedy in OT 1997, Prof. Bibas clerked for Fifth Circuit Judge Patrick E. Higginbotham.

And a reader has emailed tonight to note that Bibas “is the fifth circuit nomination from OT 97 (Kethledge, Halligan, Srinivasan, Owens, Bibas).”

“Past food safety questions raised at BPI trial”: Mason Dockter of The Sioux City (Iowa) Journal has this report.

And at the “THR, Esq.” blog of The Hollywood Reporter, Eriq Gardner has posts titled “ABC Grills Beef Expert at ‘Pink Slime’ Trial; In a massive defamation case against the network, food scientists break down the makings of ‘lean finely textured beef.’”

“Justice Breyer: Supreme Court ‘boring’ without Scalia.” The New York Daily News has this gossip column.

“For Supreme Court justices, faith in law: In Harvard visit, Gorsuch, Breyer see stability in how cases are adjudicated.” Clea Simon of The Harvard Gazette has this report.

“My transgender son is graduating from high school. But his fight isn’t over.” Deirdre Grimm has this essay online at The Washington Post.

“Restoring credibility? Trump’s slate of 11 judicial nominees could shake up courts.” Steve Kurtz of FoxNews.com has this report.

“Penn Professor will be nominated to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit”: Dylan Reim of The Daily Pennsylvanian has this report.

And at his “CA3blog,” Matthew Stiegler has a post titled “A first look at Third Circuit nominee Stephanos Bibas.”

With Bibas slated to become a judge, perhaps it’s the perfect time to recall that Mike Judge was the creator of “Beavis and Butt-Head.”

So long as the Third Circuit can avoid the addition of any new judges (or judges sitting by designation) whose last name resembles Butt-Head, however, those of us whose level of humor sophistication resembles that of the title characters on the MTV series should be safe.

Previous “Beavis and Butt-Head” mentions from the past 15 years of “How Appealing” can be accessed via this link.

“President Trump nominates Allison Eid to fill Neil Gorsuch’s seat on 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals; Move would give conservative jurist higher visibility but could further swing Colorado’s high court to the left”: Mark K. Matthews of The Denver Post has this report.

“Stras nomination for federal appeals court must be blocked; The Minnesota Supreme Court justice has the track record of a conservative ideologue”: Beth Gendler has this essay online at The Minneapolis Star Tribune.

“Can the Justices decide the Trump immigration case swiftly? A lesson from 1981.” Lyle Denniston has this post at the “Constitution Daily” blog of the National Constitution Center.

“Chimps are not people, cannot be freed from custody: New York court.” Jonathan Stempel of Reuters has this report.

And Deepti Hajela of The Associated Press reports that “Appeals court says chimpanzees don’t have rights of people.”

You can access today’s ruling of the New York State Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Department, at this link.

“Ginsburg earns $204,000 from book of collected writings”: The Associated Press has this report.

And Zoe Tillman of BuzzFeed News reports that “The Supreme Court Justices Reported Millions Of Dollars In Assets In 2016.”

“Judges didn’t clearly indicate during the arguments how they might rule, though a clerk for US Circuit Judge Joseph Greenaway has advised that the state’s action be allowed to go forward, MLex has learned.” So reports Richard Vanderford of MLex in an article headlined “GlaxoSmithKline asks appeals court to kill Louisiana Flonase action.” The article is subscription-required and is not freely accessible online.

A “How Appealing” reader kindly brought the text of the article to my attention to highlight the highly unusual sentence contained therein, which I have reproduced as the title of this post. Before publishing this post, I spoke with reporter Vanderford to confirm that this sentence in fact appears in his article. He so confirmed, and he also noted that he attended the Third Circuit’s oral argument of this case in person yesterday in Philadelphia.

The article is far from clear concerning how Vanderford or MLex learned what recommendation a law clerk of Judge Greenaway may have made to his or her judge about the case. Of course, even those judges who welcome law clerk recommendations concerning how an appeal should be resolved remain fully capable of deciding the case in whatever way the judges think appropriate, without regard to a law clerk’s recommendation. It is unusual, to say the least, for the recommendation of an appellate judge’s law clerk concerning how a case should be decided to become public while the case is pending.

“A Celebration of Black Lawyers, Past and Present”: Vernon E. Jordan, Jr. has this post online at The New Yorker.

“James Comey’s Remarkable Story About Donald Trump”:Online at The New Yorker, Jeffrey Toobin has a post that begins, “President Trump appears to be guilty of obstruction of justice.”

Also online at The New Yorker, Nicholas Schmidle has a post titled “James Comey’s Intellectual History.”

“What the Judges Know About Trump”: Linda Greenhouse has this essay online at The New York Times.

“Court overturns summary judgement for FMCH in wrongful-birth suit”: Jeff Hunt of The Fort Madison (Iowa) Daily Democrat has this report.

And at “On Brief: Iowa’s Appellate Blog,” Rox Laird has a post titled “Iowa Supreme Court opens the courthouse doors to ‘wrongful birth’ lawsuits.”

You can access last Friday’s ruling of the Supreme Court of Iowa at this link.

“Trump aides tell him to keep Sessions as U.S. attorney general: sources.” Julia Edwards Ainsley of Reuters has this report.

“Maryland court to hear bid for new trial in ‘Serial’ murder case”: Ian Simpson of Reuters has this report.

And Brian Witte of The Associated Press reports that “‘Serial’ star, guilty of killing girlfriend, seeks new trial.”