“Trump’s longest-waiting circuit court pick to get confirmation vote this week”: Alex Swoyer of The Washington Times has this report.

And Jennifer Bendery of HuffPost reports that “Mitch McConnell Bends The Rules Again To Confirm Trump’s Judges; He is going around Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin to put Michael Brennan into a lifetime court seat in her state.”

“7 things to know about Kurt Engelhardt, newest judge of 5th U.S. Circuit Court”: Drew Broach of The Times-Picayune of New Orleans has this report.

Bryn Stole of The New Orleans Advocate reports that “Senate confirms New Orleans federal Judge Kurt Engelhardt for 5th Circuit Court of Appeals promotion.”

Alex Swoyer of The Washington Times reports that “Senate confirms Trump’s 16th circuit court judge.” In the 16 years that this blog has been in existence, I apparently have been derelict in failing to report on the rulings of the 16th circuit.

“Senators grill Oregon federal prosecutor during judicial confirmation hearing”: Maxine Bernstein of The Oregonian has this report.

Alex Swoyer of The Washington Times reports that “GOP moves ahead with judicial nominee for the 9th Circuit over Democrats’ objections.”

Lawrence Hurley of Reuters reports that “Democrats press Trump nominee to influential appeals court.”

Tim Ryan of Courthouse News Service reports that “Ninth Circuit Nominee Apologizes for Past Writings on Diversity, Race.”

And Zoe Tillman of BuzzFeed News reports that “Republicans Have A Plan To Push Through Trump’s Judicial Nominees, And There’s Little Democrats Can Do To Stop Them; Democrats accuse Republicans of ceding too much power to Trump when it comes to judicial nominees.”

You can view the video of today’s U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing via this link.

As though mourning the demise of the blue slip, Ninth Circuit nominee Ryan Wesley Bounds choked back tears at least three times during the portion of his testimony that I watched this morning. No doubt thanks to the law enforcement background that they have in common, I couldn’t help but think of Deputy Andy Brennan from Twin Peaks, the paradigm of the empathetic lawman.

“Judicial Crisis Network’s new ad targets powerful women. Coincidence?” Alison Frankel’s “On the Case” from Thomson Reuters News & Insight has this post.

“Ninja Supreme Court Justice: Ruth Bader Ginsburg Has Fun With Fame; The star of the documentary ‘RBG’ has embraced her popularity as another tool in her effort to help women advance.” Melena Ryzik will have this article in the Arts & Leisure section of this upcoming Sunday’s edition of The New York Times.

“How Gender Bias Subtly Influences Supreme Court Decisions: New research suggests male justices are more receptive to appeals that line up with gender stereotypes.” Tom Jacobs of Pacific Standard has this report about a research paper titled “The Role of Gender Norms in Judicial Decision-Making at the U.S. Supreme Court: The Case of Male and Female Justices” by Shane A. Gleason, Jennifer J. Jones, and Jessica Rae McBean.

“Nevada Supreme Court hears arguments for using untested paralytic drug in death penalty case”: David Montero of The Los Angeles Times has this report.

David Ferrara of The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that “Inmate who wants to die awaits Nevada Supreme Court decision.”

And Scott Sonner of The Associated Press reports that “Nevada Supreme Court mulls allowing 1st execution since 2006.”

“Rare Federal Death Penalty Trial Begins for Two Accused of Yosemite Kidnappings, Murders”: The Associated Press had this report back in September 2006.

Next, in January 2007, Peter Y. Hong of The Los Angeles Times reported that “Federal jury finds businessmen guilty in kidnapping, killing of five.” And Greg Risling of The Associated Press reported that “2 Guilty in Calif. Reservoir Bodies Case.”

Today, a unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued this lengthy decision affirming the defendants’ convictions and resulting death sentences.

“Putting Justice Gorsuch to the Test of Three Legal Editing Programs”: Robert Ambrogi has this post at his “Law Sites” blog.

“Good Riddance to ‘Blue Slips'”: David Lat has this essay online at The New York Times.

“How a Supreme Court Decision This Spring Could Cut Union Rolls by 726,000; A new study says the expected outcome of the Janus case will shrink public-sector labor unions in 23 states”: Eric Morath has this post at the “Real Time Economics” blog of The Wall Street Journal.

View this morning’s U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee hearing for judicial nominees, including Ninth Circuit nominee Ryan Wesley Bounds: Via this link.

“Republicans Scramble for Ways to Rev Up Their Base”: At the “Daily Intelligencer” blog of New York magazine, Ed Kilgore has a post that begins, “The May 7 headline from the Washington Examiner is almost a shout: ‘Anthony Kennedy sends SCOTUS rumor mill into overdrive.'”

“Group strip searches of jail inmates appealed before 9th Circuit”: Maxine Bernstein of The Oregonian has this report on a case argued today before a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. You can view the oral argument video on YouTube via this link.

“ACLU, others urge appeals court to force cross off Lehigh County seal”: Tom Shortell of The Morning Call of Allentown, Pennsylvania has this report.

“#MeToo in the federal court system is doomed to fail”: Stacy N. Cammarano has this essay online at The Washington Post.

“Brian Hagedorn considering Supreme Court run”: Molly Beck of The Wisconsin State Journal has this report.

“El Chapo’s Lawyer Asks to Move Trial, Hoping to Avoid a ‘Spectacle'”: Alan Feuer of The New York Times has this report.

“Justices’ Personalities Shine Through in Opinions About Orders”: Kimberly Robinson of Bloomberg Law has this report.

“Interview: Benjamin Wittes.” The “High School SCOTUS” blog has this post.

On Sunday, “How Appealing” celebrated its 16th birthday, which makes this blog just a few months older than the author of the “High School SCOTUS” blog.

The “High School SCOTUS” blog itself is quickly approaching the two-month anniversary of its creation. If you haven’t been reading it closely thus far, here’s a post about Neil M. Gorsuch’s writings for The Columbia Spectator. For whatever reason, something I wrote for that same newspaper makes a cameo before that post’s end. And here’s an interview with Gabe Roth, founder of Fix the Court, in which he identifies the blogs he enjoys reading.

“GOP faces internal battle over changing Senate rules”: Alexander Bolton of The Hill has this report pertaining to the U.S. Senate‘s consideration of judicial nominees.

“President Donald Trump and Federal Bench Diversity”: Law professor Carl Tobias has this paper at Washington and Lee Law Review Online.

“Senate committee to consider Ryan Bounds’ 9th Circuit judicial nomination”: Maxine Bernstein of The Oregonian has this report. Tomorrow’s hearing for judicial nominees of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. eastern time.

“Antonin Scalia Law School Is Under Attack for Being Successful and Different”: John O. McGinnis has this post at the Law and Liberty blog.

“New CIA Documents Raise More Questions About Efficacy of The Agency’s Torture Program”: Emma Loop and Jason Leopold of BuzzFeed News have this report.

“A Scarlet Title IX Letter: A North Carolina court ruling could tarnish young people for life.” The Wall Street Journal has published this editorial.

“New York’s top court refuses to free chimps from cages”: Jonathan Stempel of Reuters has this report on an order denying review accompanied by a concurrence that the Court of Appeals of New York — that state’s highest court — issued today.

“Trump complains of biased courts, but they often support his policies”: Andrew Chung of Reuters has this report.

“Clarence Thomas’ Wife Is Spreading a Conspiracy About a Soros-Backed ‘Coup’; Just another day in the ethical mess at the Supreme Court”: Mark Joseph Stern has this jurisprudence essay online at Slate.

“What This Term’s SCOTUS Decisions Reveal About Neil Gorsuch: On the cases with less political valence the justices can ‘nerd out’ on legal theories and reveal their jurisprudential minds when they know their decisions won’t make the front pages.” Ilya Shapiro has this post at The Federalist.

“The Solicitor General’s Post-Factual World”: Leah Litman has this post at the “Take Care” blog.

“Originalism’s Legal Turn as a Libertarian Turn”: At the Law and Liberty blog, Jesse Merriam has a post that begins, “Over the last few weeks, Liberty Forum has featured several important and insightful essays on originalism, two of which I would like to explore here — partly as a way of seeking to understand Justice Gorsuch’s decision to concur with the four liberal Justices in an important immigration case, Sessions v. Dimaya.”

“Slicing and Dicing the Court’s 2017 Oral Arguments”: Adam Feldman has this post at his “Empirical SCOTUS” blog.

“Hodges, Shigley trade barbs in campaign to fill Court of Appeals seat”: Bill Rankin of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has this report.

“Netanyahu: Bennett is killing Supreme Court override bill.” Lahav Harkov of The Jerusalem Post has this report.