“Judge Excuses 9/11 Defense Lawyer and Postpones Torture Testimony; The court will allow the lawyer to withdraw gradually from the case for health reasons while the Pentagon finds another death penalty expert”: Carol Rosenberg of The New York Times has this report.

“Law Clerks: A Jurisprudential Lens.” Law professor Perry Dane has posted this essay on SSRN.

In related discussion, at “Balkinization,” Mark Tushnet has a post titled “Law Clerks and Jurisprudence.”

And at “PrawfsBlawg,” Paul Horwitz has a post titled “Perry Dane on Law Clerks and Jurisprudence,” while Howard Wasserman has a post titled “More on Dane on law clerks.”

“The Consequences of Curtailing Cumulative Finality; Narrow approaches to cumulative finality can result in the inadvertent and needless loss of appellate rights”: Bryan Lammon has this post at his “final decisions” blog.

“U.S. Baseball to Face Suit by Fan Hit in the Face by Line Drive”: Peter Hayes of Bloomberg Law has a report (subscription required for full access) that begins, “A 12-year old girl who was seriously injured by a line drive at a baseball game got her claims against the U.S. Baseball Federation reinstated after a California appeals court held that the assumption of risk doctrine didn’t bar the suit.”

You can access yesterday’s ruling of California’s Second District Court of Appeal, Division Seven, at this link.

Access online the contents of the 2020 Winter Edition of Appellate Issues, a publication of the ABA Council of Appellate Lawyers: Via this link. The volume contains write-ups of many of the programs featured at the November 2019 Appellate Judges Education Institute Summit in Washington, DC.

Added bonus — I wrote one of the articles (but the table of contents doesn’t currently mention who wrote what, so good luck finding it).

“Iowa appeals court dismisses challenges to judicial selection law”: Stephen Gruber-Miller of The Des Moines Register has this report on today’s partially divided five-judge ruling of the Iowa Court of Appeals.

“Pensacola’s Bayview Park cross can stay, does not violate Constitution, appeals court rules”: Jim Little of The Pensacola News Journal has this report on a ruling that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit issued today.

“Florida Can’t Bar Ex-Felons From Voting Just Because They’re Poor, Appeals Court Rules; The opinion is a vehement rebuke of Florida Republicans’ voter suppression scheme”: Mark Joseph Stern has this jurisprudence essay online at Slate.

“Movie Studios Back Oracle in Supreme Court Fight Over Computer Code; The Motion Picture Association, minus Netflix, argues that software is ‘inherently different’ than works like movies and television shows — and so Google can’t defend theft of code as a ‘transformative’ fair use”: Eriq Gardner has this post at the “THR, Esq.” blog of The Hollywood Reporter.

“Trump Takes Up Call for Barr to ‘Clean House’ at Justice Dept.; With a series of retweets, President Trump kept up attacks on federal law enforcement agencies, despite pleas from the attorney general”: Eileen Sullivan of The New York Times has this report.

And John Wagner, Matt Zapotosky, and Devlin Barrett of The Washington Post report that “Against wishes of Barr, Trump fires off more tweets about the Justice Department.”

“Students for Fair Admissions Files Appeal Brief in Harvard Admissions Case”: Benjamin L. Fu and Dohyun Kim of The Harvard Crimson have this report.

My earlier coverage, including a link to the appellate brief, can be accessed here.

“Attorney General Barr blasts big tech, raising prospect that companies could be held liable for dangerous, viral content online”: Tony Romm of The Washington Post has this report.

Nandita Bose and Raphael Satter of Reuters report that “U.S. Attorney General questions need to shield big tech from liability for user posts.”

And Emily Birnbaum of The Hill reports that “Attorney General Barr threatens tech’s prized legal shield.”

“Limits on Florida’s Amendment 4 are unconstitutional, federal panel rules; The ruling, which was expected, sets up a legal fight that could lead to the U.S. Supreme Court”: Lawrence Mower of The Tampa Bay Times has this report.

Steve Lemongello of The Orlando Sentinel reports that “Felons who can’t afford fines and fees shouldn’t be stopped from voting in Florida, appeals court rules in limited decision.”

Arian Campo-Flores of The Wall Street Journal reports that “Court Blocks Florida Restrictions on Felons’ Voting Rights; Decision upholds injunction against state law narrowing eligibility under amendment that restored 1.4 million people to rolls.”

And Bobby Caina Calvan and Curt Anderson of The Associated Press have a report headlined “Court: Florida can’t bar felons from vote over fines, fees.”

You can access today’s per curiam ruling of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit at this link.

“Indian River County to appeal Virgin Trains case to U.S. Supreme Court; residents to raise $200K cost”: Joshua Solomon of the Treasure Coast Palm has this report.

If I am reading the article correctly — always a big “if” — the $200,000 will be going to pay for some combination of Kannon Shanmugam and former Fourth Circuit Judge J. Michael Luttig.

“Dueling interests, secrecy poison justice at the Supreme Court”: The Advocate of Baton Rouge, Louisiana has published this editorial.

“Post-impeachment, Trump declares himself the ‘chief law enforcement officer’ of America”: Toluse Olorunnipa and Beth Reinhard of The Washington Post have this report.

In commentary, online at The Washington Post, law professor Josh Blackman has an essay titled “Trump has the constitutional power to intervene in Roger Stone’s sentencing; The Constitution does not place a wall between the president and the Justice Department.”

At “The Volokh Conspiracy,” Blackman has this related blog post.

And on Twitter, law professor Marty Lederman offers this response to Blackman’s essay.

“Getting an abortion in ‘the most pro-life state in America’: Welcome to the Louisiana clinic at the center of the battle that could gut Roe v. Wade.” Anna North of Vox has this report.

“If a woman running for Texas Supreme Court is selfish, thank goodness for selfish women; Amy Clark Meachum got called out by her opponent for the strangest reason”: The Dallas Morning News has published this editorial.

“U.S. District Court judge from Kansas quits after harassment sanction”: Tim Carpenter of The Topeka Capital-Journal has this report.

Ariane de Vogue and Caroline Kelly of CNN report that “Kansas federal judge resigns after sexual misconduct allegations.”

And Vandana Rambaran and Bill Mears of Fox News report that “Kansas judge reprimanded for sexual harassment, affair with felon resigns.”

“Sexual harassment by judges operating with impunity shows courts need their own #MeToo; The branch of government charged with enforcing federal discrimination and harassment laws does not police its own”: Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette and Sarah Turberville recently had this essay online at NBC News.

“Trump Pushes for Presidential Power as Supreme Court Weighs CFPB’s Fate”: Greg Stohr of Bloomberg News has this report.

“Judge Weighs How to Keep Guantánamo’s 9/11 Trial on Track; At issue is a defense lawyer’s request to leave the case for health reasons; In court, the prosecutor opposed the move, saying there is no ‘medical emergency'”: Carol Rosenberg of The New York Times has this report.

“Please stop tweeting, Mr. President. It’s making it much more difficult for me to do your bidding!” Columnist Alexandra Petri recently had this essay online at The Washington Post.

“Wisconsin Supreme Court race will pit Daniel Kelly against Jill Karofsky”: Patrick Marley of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has this report.

“Barr has told those close to Trump he is considering quitting over the president’s tweets about Justice Dept. investigations”: Matt Zapotosky, Josh Dawsey, John Wagner, and Rachel Weiner of The Washington Post have this report.

“Trump’s DOJ urges Supreme Court to keep CFPB up and running”: Alison Frankel’s “On the Case” from Thomson Reuters News & Insight has this post.

“Weinstein’s Lawyer Wrote an Article Addressing Jurors. The Judge Is Unhappy. The film producer’s lawyer urged jurors to do ‘what they know is right,’ prompting the prosecution to complain of jury tampering.” Jan Ransom of The New York Times has this report.

“Affirmative Action Opponents Renew Their Battle Against Harvard; A group representing Asian-American students is appealing a judge’s ruling that Harvard did not explicitly discriminate against them by boosting other racial and ethnic groups”: Anemona Hartocollis of The New York Times has this report.

I have posted online at this link the Brief of Appellant that plaintiff Students for Fair Admissions filed today in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.

“Justice is supposed to be blind. Bill Barr can’t see that.” James B. Comey has this essay online at The Washington Post.

“Oracle and Google are about to face off in tech’s trial of the century”: Online at Fortune, Jeff John Roberts has a post that begins, “On March 24, the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear one of the most momentous tech cases in decades.”

“A Generation of Judges”: Ed Kilgore has contributed this item to a post titled “The Second Term: What Would Four More Years of Trump Look Like” at “The Intelligencer” blog of New York magazine.

“Don’t forget Justice Clarence Thomas in Black History Month celebrations; In remembering the legacy of extraordinary black Americans, why does Clarence Thomas always go ignored?” Ken Blackwell has this essay online at USA Today.

“After Another Harassment Revelation in the Judiciary, Congress Needs to Step In; Law clerks and other third branch staff should finally be protected by federal law”: The organization Fix the Court issued this news release earlier today.

“Federal judge in Kansas accused of sexual harassment submits his resignation”: Steve Vockrodt of The Kansas City Star has an article that begins, “Carlos Murguia, a federal judge in Kansas accused last year of sexual harassment of court employees, has submitted his resignation. The resignation is effective April 1, according to a memo from Julie Robinson, chief judge of the U.S. District of Kansas.”

You can access the letter of resignation at this link.

“Republicans Push Anti-Choice Constitutional Amendments to Circumvent Courts; The effort to change state constitutions, making it easier for Republican lawmakers to end legal abortion, continues apace in Iowa and Wisconsin”: Dennis Carter of Rewire.News has this report.