“Flake Holds Up Judicial Nominee, Won’t Say Why”: Todd Ruger of Roll Call has this report. According to the article, the nominee in question is Justice Britt C. Grant of the Supreme Court of Georgia, nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.

“A Jury May Have Sentenced a Man to Death Because He’s Gay. And the Justices Don’t Care.” Attorney Ría Tabacco Mar has this essay online at The New York Times.

And in local news coverage, Christopher Vondracek of The Rapid City (S.D.) Journal reports that “U.S. Supreme Court denies Rapid City murder appeal.”

“The Supreme Court punted on gerrymandering. But America’s redistricting problem can’t be fixed by judges. Instead of asking the judicial or legislative branches to come to the rescue, we need impartial third-party redistricting commissions.” Law professor Eric J. Segall has this essay online at NBC News.

“Sanctuary cities as the next nationwide injunction test case”: Steve Vladeck has this guest post at “SCOTUSblog.”

“Longtime umpire Rennert dies at 88; Fan favorite was known for distinctive strike calls”: Ed Eagle of MLB.com has this report.

The Oshkosh (Wis.) Northwestern reports that “Longtime MLB umpire Dutch Rennert of Oshkosh dies at 88.”

And Barry Petchesky of Deadspin has a post titled “Umpire Dutch Rennert Has Died, But His Strikeout Call Is Probably Still Echoing.”

“Seventh Circuit Adopts Harassment, Discrimination Policies”: Melissa Heelan Stanzione of Bloomberg Law has this report.

The updated policies can be viewed at this link.

“An Obamacare Case So Wrong It Has Provoked a Bipartisan Outcry”: Law professors Jonathan H. Adler and Abbe R. Gluck have this essay online at The New York Times.

“Democrats seek to bring redistricting case back to Supreme Court before 2020 elections”: Molly Beck and Bill Glauber of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel have this report.

“Gov. Pete Ricketts’ appointees now dominate Nebraska Supreme Court”: Emily Nitcher of The Omaha World-Herald has this report.

And Riley Johnson of The Lincoln (Neb.) Journal Star reports that “Newly appointed Lancaster County judge tapped for seat on Nebraska Supreme Court.”

“Richard A. Robinson Sworn In As Connecticut Supreme Court Chief Justice”: David Owens has this front page article in today’s edition of The Hartford Courant.

And in today’s edition of The Connecticut Post, Ken Dixon has a front page article headlined “State’s first black chief justice tells of overcoming racism.”

“The partisan gerrymander dispute goes on”: Lyle Denniston has this post at the “Constitution Daily” blog of the National Constitution Center.

“Case challenging Wisconsin’s ‘cocaine mom’ law is dismissed”: Amy Forliti of The Associated Press has this report on a ruling that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit issued yesterday.