How Appealing



Monday, July 8, 2019

“Trump’s labor secretary under pressure again over the deal he cut with Jeffrey Epstein”: David Smiley and Alex Daugherty of The Miami Herald have this report.

Julie K. Brown of The Miami Herald has an article headlined “With Jeffrey Epstein locked up, these are nervous times for his friends, enablers.”

Online at The Daily Beast, Vicky Ward has an essay titled “I Tried to Warn You About Sleazy Billionaire Jeffrey Epstein in 2003; When Vicky Ward profiled Jeffrey Epstein for Vanity Fair, allegations of his attempted seduction of two young sisters were excised from the final piece.”

And at his “Simple Justice” blog, Scott H. Greenfield has a post titled “Jeffrey Epstein Arrested; Constitution Tested.”

Posted at 9:48 PM by Howard Bashman



“Attorneys for Michelle Carter ask US Supreme Court to review her conviction in suicide case”: Danny McDonald of The Boston Globe has this report.

Doha Madani of NBC News reports that “Michelle Carter, who encouraged boyfriend’s suicide, appeals to Supreme Court; Lawyers for Carter argued that her conviction violated her constitutional right to freedom of speech.”

Zack Budryk of The Hill reports that “Woman convicted for telling boyfriend to commit suicide appeals case to Supreme Court.”

And Tasneem Nashrulla of BuzzFeed News reports that “Michelle Carter, Who Encouraged Her Boyfriend To Kill Himself, Wants The Supreme Court To Review Her Case; Carter’s lawyers said her manslaughter conviction for urging Conrad Roy through text messages to kill himself violates her First Amendment right to free speech.”

You can view the petition for writ of certiorari at this link.

Posted at 9:08 PM by Howard Bashman



“Trump Lied to the Supreme Court, and Four Justices Don’t Care; The White House insisted allegations that it wanted to add a citizenship question to the survey for political reasons were conspiracy theories, right up until the moment the president confirmed them”: Adam Serwer of The Atlantic has this report.

Posted at 9:00 PM by Howard Bashman



“By adding justices to the Arizona Supreme Court, did Ducey help the state — or help himself?” Maria Polletta of The Arizona Republic has this report.

Posted at 8:53 PM by Howard Bashman



“Federal court backs atheists, wiccans in Florida discrimination suit”: Alex Swoyer of The Washington Times has this report.

Dave Berman of Florida Today reports that “Federal appeals court: Brevard policy on invocations at commission meetings is unconstitutional.”

Jonathan Stempel of Reuters has a report headlined “Florida county cannot ban invocations by atheists: U.S. appeals court.”

And Jim Saunders of The News Service of Florida reports that “Court rules Brevard prayer practice unconstitutional.”

My earlier coverage of today’s Eleventh Circuit ruling can be accessed here.

Posted at 8:30 PM by Howard Bashman



“Barr Sees a Path to Legally Add Census Citizenship Question; Attorney general doesn’t explain how the Trump administration will get around high court ruling”: Sadie Gurman and Jess Bravin of The Wall Street Journal have this report.

Posted at 8:22 PM by Howard Bashman



“New York City Asks Supreme Court to Drop Gun Case; Request comes after city loosens restrictions on transporting firearms”: Corinne Ramey and Jess Bravin of The Wall Street Journal have this report.

Posted at 8:16 PM by Howard Bashman



“Affordable Care Act threatened as Trump administration, GOP states fight US House, Democratic states in court”: Richard Wolf of USA Today has this report.

Stephanie Armour of The Wall Street Journal reports that “Trump Hopes to Stem Tide of Legal Setbacks on Health Care; A hearing this week on a lawsuit to topple the Affordable Care Act is the latest test.”

Tom Howell Jr. of The Washington Times reports that “Democrats go on offense ahead of Obamacare showdown; Revive midterm strategy as health lawsuit, 2020 campaign heat up.”

Chuck Lindell of The Austin American-Statesman has an article headlined “In court, it’s red Texas vs. blue California for future of Obamacare.”

David Reich-Hale of Newsday reports that “Court battle over Affordable Care Act could affect millions of New Yorkers.”

Lydia Davenport and Laurel Brubaker Calkins of Bloomberg News report that “Obamacare’s Survival May Hinge on Some Technical Legal Questions.”

Joan Biskupic of CNN reports that “Affordable Care Act gears up for momentous test in court.”

Paul Demko of Politico reports that “Long-shot legal challenge could end Obamacare during the 2020 campaign; The lawsuit could jeopardize health care coverage for more than 20 million people insured through the 2010 health care law.”

Mary Ellen McIntire of Roll Call reports that “High-stakes lawsuit makes health care law a 2020 issue; Court hearing comes as Democrats have been debating their next steps beyond the 2010 law.”

Emma Platoff and Edgar Walters of The Texas Tribune report that “Texas is going to court to end Obamacare. It hasn’t produced a plan to replace it.”

And in commentary, The Washington Post has published an editorial titled “It’s time for an appeals court to right the ship on Obamacare.”

Posted at 8:14 PM by Howard Bashman



“The Fate of the Lemon Test: D.O.A. or Barely Surviving?” David L. Hudson Jr. has this essay online at the Freedom Forum Institute.

Posted at 7:52 PM by Howard Bashman



“Obamacare faces a death panel on Tuesday; Thousands of lives and the rule of law hang in the balance”: Ian Millhiser has this essay online at ThinkProgress.

Posted at 7:40 PM by Howard Bashman



“Democrats question absence of black or Hispanic nominees among Trump’s 41 circuit court judges”: Hailey Fuchs of The Washington Post has an article that begins, “The Senate has confirmed President Trump’s judicial nominees to the circuit courts at an unprecedented pace, giving the Republican more than 1 out of every 5 judges on the powerful appellate bench. Not one of the 41 judges is black or Hispanic. Five of the judges are Asian American.”

Posted at 7:38 PM by Howard Bashman



“Former DOJ Lawyer Says Census Drama Put Attorneys in ‘Completely Untenable’ Position; The government is abruptly switching legal teams after reversing course on the citizenship question”: Jeremy Stahl has this jurisprudence essay online at Slate.

Posted at 7:34 PM by Howard Bashman



“The Battle Over the Census Citizenship Question Is Now About Civil Rights”: Cristian Farias has this post online at The New Yorker.

Posted at 7:32 PM by Howard Bashman



“Trump officials tell one court Obamacare is failing and another it’s thriving”: Noam N. Levey has this article in today’s edition of The Los Angeles Times.

Posted at 5:15 PM by Howard Bashman



“Leo Strine, Delaware Supreme Court’s chief justice, to step down”: Xerxes Wilson of The News Journal of Wilmington, Delaware has this report.

Posted at 4:42 PM by Howard Bashman



“Florida County Fights for Right to Exclude Atheists From Prayer”: In March 2019, Izzy Kapnick of Courthouse News Service had an article that begins, “The 11th Circuit on Tuesday tackled the question of whether it is unconstitutional for county officials in Florida to ban people who don’t believe in God from delivering prayers at government meetings.”

Today. a unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit issued this decision holding that, “in selecting invocation speakers, the Commissioners may not categorically exclude from consideration speakers from a religion simply because they do not like the nature of its beliefs.”

Posted at 1:57 PM by Howard Bashman



“The President vs. the Chief Justice: Will Roberts let Trump get away with adding a citizenship question to the census?” Dahlia Lithwick has this jurisprudence essay online at Slate.

And online at The Washington Post, columnist Greg Sargent has an essay titled “Trump’s corruption is getting worse. He has a hidden enabler.” Aaron Blake has an essay titled “The Justice Department just pulled its lawyers from the census case. That could signal something ugly ahead.” And Jennifer Rubin has an essay titled “Sometimes a Justice Department lawyer must just say ‘no.’

Posted at 1:52 PM by Howard Bashman



View live, online UCI Law’s “9th Annual Supreme Court Term in Review”: Via this link, from 1:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. eastern time (10:30 a.m. to noon pacific time).

As noted here, this year’s panelists (in alphabetical order) are Jonathan Adler; Erwin Chemerinsky; Chris Geidner; Michele Goodwin; and Sarah Harrington. And, as always, Rick Hasen will serve as the event’s moderator.

Posted at 11:32 AM by Howard Bashman



“Texas v. U.S.: Why the Individual Mandate is Still Unconstitutional; Understanding NFIB v. Sebelius.” Randy Barnett and Josh Blackman have this post at “The Volokh Conspiracy,” along with a related post titled “NFIB v. Sebelius Already Addressed the ‘Injury in Fact’ Question in Texas v. U.S.; An important element of standing has already been decided by the Court.”

And Barnett alone has an additional post titled “My Concluding Thoughts on Severability in Texas v. U.S.: Severability doctrine & the ACA findings seem to support Judge O’Connor’s ruling.”

Posted at 11:28 AM by Howard Bashman



“As Democrats Demand Complete Mueller Report, Views Shift on Grand Jury Secrecy”: Adam Liptak will have this new installment of his “Sidebar” column in Tuesday’s edition of The New York Times.

Posted at 11:20 AM by Howard Bashman



“Fear And Loathing At The Supreme Court — What Is Chief Justice John Roberts Up To?” Nina Totenberg had this audio segment on today’s broadcast of NPR’s “Morning Edition.”

Posted at 8:36 AM by Howard Bashman



“The Census Case Could Provoke a Constitutional Crisis; President Trump has seldom been rebuked by the Supreme Court; The question now is how he’ll respond”: Law professor Garrett Epps has this essay online at The Atlantic.

Posted at 8:25 AM by Howard Bashman