The “First Mondays” podcast may have seen its final episode: This announcement appeared on Twitter yesterday. The podcast just hasn’t been the same since law professor Ian Samuel began to have more pressing matters to deal with.

No word yet on whether Patreon subscribers of the podcast will launch a class action seeking refunds.

“The Lost History of FDR’s Court-Packing Scandal: Some Democrats are talking about adding justices to the bench; But new revelations show almost no one understands what really happened back in the 1930s.” Judge Glock* has this essay online at Politico Magazine.

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*Sadly, Judge Glock is not half jurist and half a living embodiment of the Second Amendment. As is the case with many Judges, this is not his first mention at “How Appealing.”

“An officer tased a bipolar patient. Did he violate a law protecting the disabled?” Maria Cramer of The Boston Globe had this article last month.

Today, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit issued this ruling in the case.

“Republicans Are Abolishing Judicial Appointment Norms Again; A former Obama staffer explains how he thinks Democrats could effectively respond”: Jeremy Stahl has this jurisprudence essay online at Slate.

“Brett Kavanaugh could decide how redistricting is done; Newest justice will be center of attention when court hears gerrymandering cases next month”: Todd Ruger of Roll Call has this report.

“Judge dismisses same-sex benefits lawsuit against city of Houston”: Nicole Hensley of The Houston Chronicle has this report.

And Emma Platoff of The Texas Tribune reports that “Houston judge tosses same-sex marriage benefits challenge, but plaintiffs pledge to appeal; A newly elected Democratic judge issued the decision in the latest turn of a 2013 legal challenge to Houston’s policy extending benefits to municipal employees’ same-sex spouses.”

“Anti-abortion activists push new bills at Iowa Capitol, preview battle over court picks”: Barbara Rodriguez and Stephen Gruber-Miller of The Des Moines Register have this report.

“Is Clarence Thomas headed out or just getting started?” Ariane de Vogue of CNN has this report.

“Former Metro police officer who tried to back Islamic State has some convictions overturned”: Rachel Weiner of The Washington Post has this report on a ruling that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit issued today.

“Supreme Court ruling has Florida police reassessing how they seize cars and cash; The 9-0 ruling struck at the heart of a practice derisively known as ‘policing for profit,’ where police can seize someone’s assets if they suspect it was involved in a crime”: Lawrence Mower and Zachary T. Sampson of The Tampa Bay Times have this report.

“Clarence Thomas wants to crush the free press just like Southern segregationists of the 1960s”: Columnist Will Bunch has this essay online at The Philadelphia Inquirer.

“Pa. Supreme Court won’t hear ex-Penn State president’s appeal in Jerry Sandusky case”: Charles Thompson of The Patriot-News of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania has this report.

Maddie Aiken of The Daily Collegian, the student newspaper of Penn State University, reports that “Graham Spanier’s appeal of conviction denied by Pennsylvania Supreme Court.”

And Mark Scolforo of The Associated Press reports that “Penn State ex-president Spanier’s request for appeal denied.”

You can access today’s order of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania at this link.

“American Democracy Is on the Supreme Court Docket; Three cases being heard this term could amplify the imbalance of power and influence in U.S. politics”: Matt Ford of The New Republic has this report.

“Clarence Thomas Has a Point About Free-Speech Law; The constitutional foundations of New York Times v. Sullivan are not looking all that firm”: Law professor Cass R. Sunstein has this essay online at Bloomberg Opinion.

“Gov. Greg Abbott appoints Brett Busby to Texas Supreme Court; Busby, a former U.S. Supreme Court clerk, replaces Justice Phil Johnson, who retired after 13 years on the high court”: Emma Platoff of The Texas Tribune has this report.

“In-Chambers Stare Decisis”: Mark Tushnet has this interesting post at the “Balkinization” blog.

“The Supreme Court May Not Save the President This Time”: Brianne J. Gorod has this post at the “Take Care” blog.

“Justice Thomas, originalism and the First Amendment”: Lyle Denniston has this post at the “Constitution Daily” blog of the National Constitution Center.

“After Texas’ second Supreme Court loss in a death penalty case, reform bill lands key GOP support; The chairs of two House committees signed on as joint authors of a bill that would set the method of determining if a capital murder defendant is intellectually disabled and therefore ineligible for execution”: Jolie McCullough of The Texas Tribune has this report.

“Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate loses influential backer”: Riley Vetterkind of The Wisconsin State Journal has an article that begins, “In an unusual move, the Wisconsin Realtors Association has pulled its endorsement of conservative-backed Supreme Court candidate Brian Hagedorn following reports revealing the candidate’s anti-gay views and actions.”

“A religious group wants the Supreme Court to overturn N.J.’s ban on gay conversion therapy”: Susan K. Livio of NJ Advance Media has this report.

“Supreme Court to decide if World War I memorial ‘Peace Cross’ can stand”: Caleb Parke of Fox News has this report.

“A child custody dispute will get a new hearing because the judge became Facebook friends with the mother before his ruling”: Bruce Vielmetti has this front page article in today’s edition of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Todd Richmond of The Associated Press has a report headlined “Wisconsin court: Judge’s Facebook friendship could show bias.”

And Joe Forward of WisBar News reports that “Facebook ‘Friending’ Between Judge and Litigant Created Risk of Bias.”

You can access yesterday’s ruling of the Court of Appeals of Wisconsin, District III, at this link.

“Powerful personal stories cut through the politics of the Wisconsin Supreme Court race”: Molly Beck and Patrick Marley of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel have this report.

“The Jurisprudence of Justice Anthony M. Kennedy: Four Decades of Influence.” Hastings Law Journal hosted this symposium earlier this month.

More recently, UC Hastings College of the Law has posted on YouTube four videos from that event: “Justice Kennedy and the First Amendment“; “Justice Kennedy and Due Process“; “Justice Kennedy’s Overall Impact“; and “Orin Kerr on Justice Kennedy and the Counter-Majoritarian Difficulty.”

Sadly, thus far the video of the session in which Justice Anthony M. Kennedy himself participated has not been posted online.

“Supreme Court Limits Civil Asset Forfeiture, Rules Excessive Fines Apply To States”: Nina Totenberg had this audio segment on today’s broadcast of NPR’s “Morning Edition.”

“Symposium To Discuss Future of Originalism; Event Features Re-Argument of Landmark Civil Liberties Case”: Mike Fox of the University of Virginia School of Law has this report.

“Court resuscitates Palestinians’ genocide case against Adelson in U.S.; The $34.5 billion case was previously dismissed by the lower US district court for the District of Columbia”: Yonah Jeremy Bob of The Jerusalem Post has this report.

Ari Feldman of The Forward reports that “Palestinian Lawsuit Alleging Genocidal Plot From Adelson And Other Mega-Donors Revived.”

Jonathan Stempel of Reuters reports that “Palestinians’ lawsuit in U.S. vs. Adelson, others is revived.”

And Andrew M Harris of Bloomberg News reports that “Court Says Adelson, Israeli Banks Must Defend Palestinians’ U.S. Suit.”

You can access Tuesday’s ruling of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit at this link.

“Trump is trashing the Constitution. Larry Hogan shows how Republicans should respond.” Columnist George F. Will has this essay online at The Washington Post.

“The Supreme Court just took a small step toward redressing a big constitutional outrage”: This editorial appears online at The Washington Post.

“Justices Against Unjust Forfeiture: The Supreme Court says state seizures can violate the Constitution.” This editorial will appear in Thursday’s edition of The Wall Street Journal.

“Laura Bush, Sally Field and a Supreme Court justice will headline the upcoming Bryan Series season”: John Newsom of The News & Record of Greensboro, North Carolina has an article that begins, “Former first lady Laura Bush and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer will lead off the next season of the Guilford College Bryan Series.”

“Trump’s attacks on the First Amendment and the press gain an ally in Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas; Thomas penned a concerning opinion encouraging his colleagues to revisit the landmark 1964 ruling in New York Times v. Sullivan”: Law professor Steve Vladeck has this essay online at NBC News.

“Today’s Law-School Graduates Can’t Speak the New Supreme Court’s Language: Originalism and textualism dominate the Supreme Court but are foreign to the legal academy.” Nicholas M. Gallagher has this essay online at National Review.

To the extent that this essay is arguing that originalism and textualism are not being taught at good law schools, the essay does not comport with what I am hearing and seeing. And to the extent the essay asks why Josh Blackman works at the South Texas College of Law Houston “rather than at a top-ten school,” many possible answers exist other than the legal academy’s supposed anti-conservative bias.

“Bill Cosby thanks Supreme Court for declining to take up woman’s defamation lawsuit”: Travis Andersen of The Boston Globe has this report.