How Appealing



Thursday, March 28, 2019

“Don’t Pack the Supreme Court, Democrats. You’d Live to Regret It. There are ways to pay back Republicans for rebuffing Merrick Garland that wouldn’t subvert the rule of law.” Law professor Noah Feldman has this essay online at Bloomberg Opinion.

Posted at 11:10 PM by Howard Bashman



“Supreme Court Stays Execution of Buddhist Inmate”: Adam Liptak of The New York Times has this report.

Keri Blakinger of The Houston Chronicle reports that “‘Texas 7’ lookout man gets last-minute stay of execution.”

Jennifer Emily of The Dallas Morning News reports that “Supreme Court blocks execution of Texas 7 lookout.”

Juan A. Lozano and Michael Graczyk of The Associated Press report that “‘Texas 7’ prison-break gang member gets execution reprieve.”

Jolie McCullough of The Texas Tribune reports that “In last-minute ruling, U.S. Supreme Court stops execution of ‘Texas Seven’ prisoner; Patrick Murphy was one of the escaped convicts sentenced to death for the murder of Irving police officer Aubrey Hawkins during a robbery; The high court stopped his execution because Texas officials wouldn’t let a Buddhist priest into the death chamber with him.”

And in commentary, online at ThinkProgress, Ian Millhiser has an essay titled “The Supreme Court suddenly developed a sense of basic human decency about religious liberty; Less than two months after an egregious assault on a Muslim inmate’s religious freedom, the Supreme Court reverses course.”

You can access this evening’s order of the U.S. Supreme Court at this link.

Posted at 10:53 PM by Howard Bashman



“At Last, Unpublished Superior Court Opinions Can Be Cited. Now What? Earlier this month, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court approved a long-gestating rule change that will allow lawyers to cite unpublished state Superior Court memorandum opinions for their persuasive value.” Zack Needles of The Legal Intelligencer has this article in which I am quoted.

Posted at 10:40 PM by Howard Bashman



Programming note: Greetings from Fayetteville, Arkansas, where in several hours I will be speaking at the 2019 Justice Donald L. Corbin Appellate Symposium. The program’s agenda can be accessed here. This afternoon, the program will feature a panel of Eighth Circuit judges, and Kannon Shanmugam will talk about something or the other to conclude day one of this two-day event.

I arrived in northwest Arkansas yesterday evening, and I am already enjoying my visit. Here’s a local courthouse photo I posted on Twitter yesterday. Due to my unfortunate inability to be in two places at the same time, this afternoon I will miss attending the Phillies home opener for the first time in many, many years. Apparently the team acquired a few noteworthy new players during the off-season.

Additional posts will appear here tonight. As always while I’m traveling, more frequent appellate-related retweets will appear on this blog’s Twitter feed.

Posted at 9:10 AM by Howard Bashman



“The Flood of Court Cases That Threaten Abortion: Republican presidents sought judges who could be counted on to oppose abortion; The voices of those judges come through clearly in cases now making their way to the Supreme Court.” Linda Greenhouse has this essay online at The New York Times.

Posted at 8:56 AM by Howard Bashman



“How Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor Helped Preserve Abortion Rights”: Evan Thomas has this post online at The New Yorker.

Posted at 8:54 AM by Howard Bashman