“Judge rules Alabama Confederate monument law is void; city of Birmingham didn’t break the law”: Ivana Hrynkiw of Alabama Media Group has this report.

And Brian Lyman of The Montgomery Advertiser reports that “Judge rules Alabama’s monument protection law unconstitutional.”

You can view yesterday’s ruling of the Circuit Court of Jefferson County, Alabama at this link.

Unanimous Ninth Circuit panel reverses dismissal of suit alleging that Domino’s Pizza’s website and mobile application were not fully accessible to a blind or visually impaired person in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act: You can access today’s ruling of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit at this link.

“Family’s fight for liquor license leads to Supreme Court”: Adrian Sainz and Mark Sherman of The Associated Press have this report.

“Apple loses bid to undo $440 million judgment in VirnetX patent case”: Jan Wolfe of Reuters has this report on a per curiam affirmance by judgment order that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued today.

“Supreme Court Concludes That Snatching a Necklace Is a Violent Felony”: Adam Liptak of The New York Times has this report.

Richard Wolf of USA Today has an article headlined “Tap, pinch, pull? Supreme Court says minimal force can raise minimum sentence for ‘violent’ criminals.”

And Barbara Leonard of Courthouse News Service reports that “High Court Lowers Force Threshold for Violent Robberies.”

“Court Blocks Trump Administration From Asking About Citizenship in Census”: Michael Wines of The New York Times has this report.

Corinne Ramey of The Wall Street Journal reports that “Federal Judge Rules Trump Administration Can’t Ask About Citizenship on Census; Commerce secretary’s addition of question for 2020 census was unlawful, judge rules.”

Richard Wolf of USA Today reports that “Judge strikes down Trump administration’s plan to add a citizenship question to 2020 Census.”

Stephen Dinan of The Washington Times reports that “Federal judge blocks citizenship question on 2020 census.”

Larry Neumeister of The Associated Press reports that “Judge bars citizenship question from 2020 census.”

Jonathan Stempel of Reuters reports that “Judge rejects citizenship question for 2020 U.S. census.”

Bob Van Voris and Chris Dolmetsch of Bloomberg News report that “Trump Citizenship Question on 2020 Census Blocked by Court.”

You can access today’s ruling of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York at this link.

Access today’s rulings of the U.S. Supreme Court in argued cases: The Court today issued rulings in two argued cases.

1. Justice Neil M. Gorsuch delivered the opinion for a unanimous Court (Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh not participating) in New Prime Inc. v. Oliveira, No. 17-340. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg issued a concurring opinion. You can access the oral argument via this link.

2. And Justice Clarence Thomas delivered the opinion of the Court in Stokeling v. United States, No. 17-5554. Justice Sonia Sotomayor issued a dissenting opinion, in which Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. and Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Elena Kagan joined. You can access the oral argument via this link.

“California Court of Appeal justice faces sexual misconduct charges”: Maura Dolan of The Los Angeles Times has this report.

Bob Egelko of The San Francisco Chronicle reports that “California judge accused of sexually harassing colleague and other women.”

And Brian Melley of NBC 4 Los Angeles reports that “Appeals Court Justice in LA Accused of Repeated Sexual Misconduct; An attorney for Johnson said he denies the allegations, passed a lie detector test about the most serious accusations and plans to present evidence from other colleagues and court employees in his defense.”

“Theories of State Constitutional Interpretation: Thoughts on reading Judge Sutton’s new book.” Orin Kerr has this post at “The Volokh Conspiracy.”

“The emerging divide between the Supreme Court’s Republicans; The Republican justices are at a crossroads”: Ian Millhiser has this essay online at ThinkProgress.

“Governor names second Miami appellate judge, Robert Luck, to Florida Supreme Court”: David Ovalle of The Miami Herald has this report.

Curt Anderson of The Associated Press reports that “DeSantis picks 2nd Miami appeals judge for Supreme Court.”

And Lloyd Dunkelberger of The News Service of Florida reports that “Robert J. Luck is new justice on Florida Supreme Court.”

“What’s taking the Supreme Court so long to act on hot-button cases?” Ariane de Vogue of CNN has this report.

“Panel Rules Against Airbnb Hosts Fighting Chicago Ordinance”: Lorraine Bailey of Courthouse News Service has this report on a ruling that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit issued today.

“Trump’s Emergency Powers Won’t Get Him a Wall; Congress has to approve any such action, just for starters”: Law professor Cass R. Sunstein has this essay online at Bloomberg Opinion.

“Philly judge blocks Trump efforts to roll back birth control mandate”: Jeremy Roebuck of The Philadelphia Inquirer has this report on a ruling that the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania issued today.

And Michelle Hackman of The Wall Street Journal reports that “Judge Blocks Rules Allowing Employers to Opt Out of Covering Birth Control; Trump administration had revised regulations to let companies with religious or moral objections not offer such insurance plans.”

“What Statistics Can’t Tell Us in the Fight over Affirmative Action at Harvard: A group seeking to ban affirmative action has sued Harvard for discriminating against Asian Americans; But the core issues won’t be resolved by statistics alone.” Professors Andrew Gelman and Sharad Goel and law professor Daniel E. Ho have this article online at the Boston Review.

“Trump’s DC Circuit Nominee — And Reported Supreme Court Contender — Wrote Inflammatory Op-Eds In College; Neomi Rao is nominated for Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s former seat on the DC Circuit”: Zoe Tillman of BuzzFeed News has this report.

And Stephanie Mencimer of Mother Jones reports that “Trump’s Nominee to Replace Kavanaugh Questioned Date Rape, Discrimination, and Climate Change; Neomi Rao, reportedly on Trump’s Supreme Court short list, hasn’t moved far from the radical stances of her college writings.”

“Trump’s New Birth Control Rules Are Going Into Effect In A Majority Of States Following A Judge’s Limited Ruling”: Ema O’Connor of BuzzFeed News has this report.

“Chief Justice Robots”: Law professor Eugene Volokh has this article forthcoming in the Duke Law Journal (via “The Volokh Conspiracy“).

My struggle to educate various U.S. Supreme Court justices on how to properly pronounce law professor William Baude‘s last name persists: One lesson of having an appellate blog that is on the verge of commemorating its 17th birthday is that sometimes it’s necessary to play the long game.

Now if there’s one problem that more law school professors would wish to have, it’s probably having U.S. Supreme Court justices mispronounce their last names at oral argument because those law professors have filed meaningful and thought-provoking amicus briefs in pending cases.

Professor Baude’s connection to “How Appealing” dates back nearly to this blog’s inception, to a time when he was “merely” a college student who was interested in law-related issues. To be sure, I probably labored under a misconception about how to properly pronounce Will’s last name for a vast majority of the time between then and now. But, thanks to the internet, I eventually learned that Will pronounces his last name “bode” — as in, “that pronunciation doesn’t BODE well for those hoping to pronounce Will’s last name correctly.”

My first attempt at correcting a Supreme Court justice’s mispronunciation of Will’s last name occurred on February 2, 2018 and involved Justice Neil M. Gorusuch’s mispronunciation of Will’s last name using what, if I had to guess, must be the most common mispronunciation of the name — “baud.”

Last Wednesday, both Justice Elena Kagan and attorney Seth P. Waxman decided to get in on the fun during the oral argument (audio here; transcript here) of Franchise Tax Bd. of Cal. v. Hyatt, No. 17-1299.

During last Wednesday’s oral argument, Will’s last name was mentioned a total of four times, the first two by Justice Kagan and the final two by attorney Waxman. Justice Kagan twice (mis)pronounced Will’s last name as though it rhymes with “Brody.” And perhaps taking his cue from Justice Kagan, Waxman also mispronounced Will’s last name nearly that very same way (although more like “bawdy“) in his two attempts. If you search for “Baude” via this oral argument resource from Oyez, you can hear the specific instances.

Perhaps the answer to having Will’s last name pronounced correctly the next time it arises during a U.S. Supreme Court oral argument rests with Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., for whom Will clerked at the Court. Having Chief Justice Roberts be the first to mention Will by his last name at oral argument might assure that others also pronounced Will’s last name correctly.

“Supreme Court Rebuffs Challenge to Trump’s Whitaker Appointment”: Greg Stohr of Bloomberg News has this report.

“OT2018 #14: ‘Decent Take.'” You can access today’s new installment of the “First Mondays” podcast, featuring Dan Epps, Leah Litman, and guest Danielle D’Onfro, via this link.

Access today’s Order List of the U.S. Supreme Court: At this link. The Court did not grant review in any new cases, but the Court called for the views of the Solicitor General in two cases.

And in White v. Kentucky, No. 17-9467, Justice Samuel A. Alito issued a dissent, in which Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil M. Gorsuch joined, from the Court’s entry of a GVR order.

“U.S. Supreme Court may decide public’s access to Great Lakes’ shorelines”: Keith Matheny of The Detroit Free Press has this report.

“U.S. Supreme Court to hear case on Rensselaer County election fraud; Legal saga continues in Edward G. McDonough civil rights lawsuit”: Steve Hughes of The Times Union of Albany, New York has this report.

“Graham ‘hell bent’ on filling next Supreme Court vacancy with conservative justice, amid Ginsburg health woes”: Gregg Re of Fox News has this report.

“Moyn and His Critics on Law Schools and Democracy”: Paul Horwitz has this post at “PrawfsBlawg.”

“The Republican Test at the Border: If Trump does declare a national emergency, a humanitarian crisis could become a constitutional one.” Amy Davidson Sorkin will have this Comment in the Talk of the Town section of the January 21, 2019 issue of The New Yorker.

And online at The New Yorker, Jeffrey Toobin has a post titled “Can Donald Trump Invoke Emergency Powers to Get His Wall?“

“Idaho ties to Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and her biographic movie: The justice’s early law career took on a case in Idaho, where the attorney’s family who she worked with still resides.” Shirah Matsuzawa of KTVB-TV in Boise, Idaho has this inartfully headlined article.

“Can Congress Void a Tribal Treaty Without Telling Anyone? What’s at issue in Herrera v. Wyoming.” Law professor Garrett Epps has this essay online at The Atlantic.

“Patricia Wald, First Woman to Preside Over D.C. Appeals Court, Dies at 90”: This obituary, written by Neil A. Lewis, appears in today’s edition of The New York Times.

“Supreme Court ruling has ‘wide ramifications’ here for border-crossing cases”: Curt Prendergast of The Arizona Daily Star has an article that begins, “Federal judges in Tucson are divided on how to interpret a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that put numerous criminal border-crossing cases in jeopardy.”

“Lisa Neubauer has fundraising edge over Brian Hagedorn in Wisconsin Supreme Court race”: Patrick Marley of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has this report.

“Women reign supreme: Historic female majority a milestone on Nevada’s high court.” Rachel Crosby of The Las Vegas Review-Journal has this report.

“New Plaintiff Joins Harvard Law Review Lawsuit, Along With Expanded Charges”: Connor W. K. Brown of The Harvard Crimson has this report.