How Appealing



Thursday, December 20, 2018

“Raise Your Hand if You Want to Judge Trump: If the president is impeached, what if, just as an experiment, the electorate gives acting like judges a whirl? But I mean the old-fashioned kind, without keggers with Squee.” Columnist Sarah Vowell has this essay online at The New York Times.

Posted at 5:11 PM by Howard Bashman



“Frank v. Gaos and the importance of actual injury”: Daryl L. Joseffer and Ashley C. Parrish have this post online at the U.S. Chamber Litigation Center.

Posted at 4:50 PM by Howard Bashman



“Diverging Supreme Court Trends May Leave Some Conservatives Out In the Cold”: Derek Muller has this post at the “Law and Liberty” blog.

Posted at 2:28 PM by Howard Bashman



“A Supreme Court Divided. On the Right. Is there a split among conservatives between ideology and the court’s long-term legitimacy?” Linda Greenhouse has this essay online at The New York Times.

Posted at 8:20 AM by Howard Bashman



Wednesday, December 19, 2018

“U. of Mary Washington could have done more to protect students from harassment, judges find”: Ann E. Marimow and Nick Anderson of The Washington Post have this report.

Adele Uphaus-Conner of The Free Lance-Star of Fredericksburg, Virginia reports that “Appeals court reinstates several claims made against UMW in 2015 sex-discrimination lawsuit.”

And Denise Lavoie of The Associated Press reports that “Court reinstates sex harassment suit against Virginia school.”

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.

Posted at 11:15 PM by Howard Bashman



“Ohio’s heartbeat bill aims to trigger Supreme Court battle. Here’s what that means.” Mary Kilpatrick of The Cleveland Plain Dealer has this report.

Posted at 10:32 PM by Howard Bashman



“The ACLU Takes Aim at Criminal-Defamation Laws; The civil-rights group is backing a test case arguing that New Hampshire’s statute violates the Constitution”: Conor Friedersdorf of The Atlantic has this report.

Posted at 8:24 PM by Howard Bashman



“The Most Effective Resistance Today Is Coming From the Courts; Republicans couldn’t repeal Obamacare in Congress, but judges keep trying”: Law professor Noah Feldman has this essay online at Bloomberg Opinion.

And online at The Nation, David Cole has an essay titled “Why the Decision Declaring Obamacare Unconstitutional Will Be Reversed; The only immediate effect of Judge Reed O’Connor’s fundamentally flawed ruling will be to underscore Republicans’ political weakness.”

Posted at 8:00 PM by Howard Bashman



“By gutting Obamacare, Judge Reed O’Connor handed Texas a win; It wasn’t the first time; The Texas Attorney General’s Office has made a habit of filing lawsuits against the federal government that land in O’Connor’s court”: Emma Platoff of The Texas Tribune has this report.

Posted at 7:44 PM by Howard Bashman



“Judge Who Invalidated Obamacare Has Been A ‘Go-To Judge’ For Republicans, Critics Say”: Ashley Lopez had this audio segment on this evening’s broadcast of NPR’s “All Things Considered.”

Posted at 7:37 PM by Howard Bashman



“Justice Kavanaugh Can’t Be Above Ethics Rules, Can He? The dismissal of complaints against him raises questions about how Congress can police the Supreme Court.” Law professor Noah Feldman has this essay online at Bloomberg Opinion.

Posted at 7:34 PM by Howard Bashman



“Republicans Say They Weren’t Intending For Obamacare To Get Tossed Out By The Courts, But Many Don’t Mind That It Did; A Texas judge tossed out the ACA, saying the repeal of the individual mandate in the tax law invalidated the whole thing; Republicans say it could be another opportunity to repeal Obamacare after lawmaker efforts failed”: Paul McLeod of BuzzFeed News has this report.

Posted at 4:40 PM by Howard Bashman



“Judge signals skepticism in Trump team’s bid to block Obamacare suit”: Sarah N. Lynch of Reuters has a report that begins, “A U.S. judge signaled skepticism on Wednesday toward a bid by President Donald Trump’s administration to block a lawsuit by the state of Maryland seeking to preserve the Obamacare law in a case that also challenges Trump’s appointment of Matthew Whitaker as acting attorney general.”

Posted at 3:50 PM by Howard Bashman



“Disciplinary Panel Forwards Kavanaugh Misconduct Complaints to Congress”: Paul Gordon has this post at the blog of People For the American Way.

Posted at 1:03 PM by Howard Bashman



“Trump judicial nominees, including St. Louis lawyer, in limbo as Congress draws to close”: Chuck Raasch of The St. Louis Post-Dispatch has this report.

Posted at 12:05 PM by Howard Bashman



“Women head to Illinois for pill abortions after Missouri begins enforcing pelvic exam rule”: Jack Suntrup has this article in today’s edition of The St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Posted at 12:03 PM by Howard Bashman



“Hawley gets plum committee assignments, including judiciary and homeland security”: Chuck Raasch of The St. Louis Post-Dispatch has this report.

Posted at 11:57 AM by Howard Bashman



“This case asks us to decide whether, under Texas law, a driver’s neurobiological response to a smartphone notification can be a cause in fact of a car crash.” So begins an opinion that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued yesterday in Meador v. Apple, Inc. The appellate court affirmed the district court’s dismissal of the case for failure to state a claim.

Posted at 10:52 AM by Howard Bashman



“Prosecutors win court fight over secret subpoena of a foreign company”: Devlin Barrett of The Washington Post has this report.

Ed Pilkington of The Guardian (UK) has an article headlined “Sealed v Sealed: ruling sheds light on mystery case thought to involve Mueller; Secretive dispute over subpoena revealed to concern an unnamed corporation, but many questions remain.”

David Glovin of Bloomberg News reports that “U.S. Prevails in Subpoena Fight Against Mystery Corporation.”

Katelyn Polantz of CNN reports that “Court orders company to comply with special counsel subpoena in mystery grand jury appeal.”

Gregg Re of Fox News reports that “Mystery company must comply with subpoena linked to Mueller probe, appellate court rules.”

Darren Samuelsohn and Josh Gerstein of Politico report that “Mueller appears victorious in mystery subpoena dispute; The ruling offers the intriguing detail that the entity fighting the Mueller subpoena is a foreign-owned company, not a specific individual, as many had speculated.”

Lydia Wheeler and Morgan Chalfant of The Hill report that “DC Circuit upholds mystery grand jury subpoena.”

And at the “Lawfare” blog, Scott R. Anderson and Quinta Jurecic have a post titled “What to Make of the Mystery Judgment in In re Grand Jury Subpoena.”

You can access yesterday’s per curiam judgment of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit at this link.

Posted at 8:47 AM by Howard Bashman



Tuesday, December 18, 2018

“In appeal, Poliquin asks court to block Golden’s certification as winner; Republican Rep. Bruce Poliquin is appealing last week’s decision by a federal judge rejecting his constitutional concerns over ranked-choice voting”: Kevin Miller of The Portland (Me.) Press Herald has this report.

Judy Harrison of The Bangor Daily News reports that “Poliquin asks court to stop Maine from certifying a winner in 2nd District race.”

Steve Collins of The Lewiston Sun Journal reports that “Bruce Poliquin asks appeals court to block state from declaring Jared Golden the winner.”

Marina Villeneuve of The Associated Press has a report headlined “Options dwindling, GOP congressman appeals to keep his seat.”

And Steve Mistler of Maine Public Radio reports that “Bruce Poliquin Moves To Block Certifying Jared Golden’s 2nd District Win.”

Posted at 8:30 PM by Howard Bashman



“More than 80 ethics complaints against Brett Kavanaugh dismissed because he’s now a Justice”: Christal Hayes of USA Today has this report.

Andrew Chung of Reuters reports that “U.S. judicial council tosses misconduct claims against Kavanaugh.”

Nina Totenberg of NPR reports that “Federal Panel Of Judges Dismisses All 83 Ethics Complaints Against Brett Kavanaugh.”

Samuel Chamberlain of Fox News reports that “Judicial panel dismisses misconduct complaints against Brett Kavanaugh.”

Lydia Wheeler and Brett Samuels of The Hill report that “Ethics complaints against Kavanaugh dismissed because they don’t apply to Supreme Court justices.”

And Zoe Tillman of BuzzFeed News reports that “All 83 Of The Ethics Complaints Against Justice Brett Kavanaugh Were Dismissed Because He’s On The Supreme Court Now; A panel of judges concluded that Kavanaugh is no longer covered by the judiciary’s disciplinary system now that he’s a Supreme Court justice.”

Posted at 7:50 PM by Howard Bashman