How Appealing



Saturday, May 9, 2020

“Prosecuting political corruption cases like Bridgegate is nearly impossible; Lawmakers, fancy lawyers and courts make it very hard to put crooked officials in prison”: Law professor Leah Litman has this essay online at The Washington Post.

Posted at 9:27 PM by Howard Bashman



“Did SCOTUS Partially Edit Out The Toilet Flush? I hear subtle differences.” Josh Blackman has this post at “The Volokh Conspiracy.”

Posted at 9:08 PM by Howard Bashman



“Fact check: The Supreme Court did not deem social distancing unconstitutional in 1866.” Molly Stellino of USA Today has this report.

Posted at 9:03 PM by Howard Bashman



“Aimee Stephens brought the first major trans rights case to the Supreme Court. She may not live to see the decision. Stephens has entered hospice care due to long-term health issues.” Katelyn Burns of Vox has this report.

Posted at 8:47 PM by Howard Bashman



“Kristen Biel lost her job after a cancer diagnosis, then died. The Supreme Court will decide if her lawsuit is valid.” Robert Barnes of The Washington Post has an article that begins, “Courts have long acknowledged an exception in the law that keeps ‘ministers’ of a faith from bringing employment discrimination claims against their religious employers, capped by a unanimous Supreme Court decision eight years ago.”

Posted at 8:40 PM by Howard Bashman



“The Left Is at War With the Little Sisters of the Poor; Let the nuns and the federal government reach a deal on contraception and Obamacare, as the Supreme Court asked them to”: Ramesh Ponnuru has this essay online at Bloomberg Opinion.

Posted at 3:00 PM by Howard Bashman



Reuters Investigates launches a special report titled “Shielded: The U.S. high court’s continual refinement of an obscure doctrine called qualified immunity has made it harder to hold police liable for excessive force.” Andrew Chung, Lawrence Hurley, Jackie Botts, Andrea Januta, and Guillermo Gomez have the lead article headlined “For cops who kill, special Supreme Court protection.”

In addition, Hurley and Chung have an article headlined “Before the court: A united front takes aim at qualified immunity.”

Hurley and Januta report that “When cops kill, redress is rare — except in famous cases.”

Januta and Botts have a report headlined “Taking the measure of qualified immunity: How Reuters analyzed the data.”

And a final item is headlined “Six takeaways from Reuters investigation of police violence and ‘qualified immunity.’

Posted at 2:46 PM by Howard Bashman



“Avoiding — but Not Disarming — the Finality Trap; Rather than disarm the finality trap, the Fifth Circuit found a way to avoid it: an odd, unintuitive, and unnecessary use of Rule 54(b).” Bryan Lammon has this important post at his “final decisions” blog.

Posted at 2:37 PM by Howard Bashman



“Justice Clarence Thomas Finds His Voice; The long-silent jurist makes some noise as the Supreme Court shifts to teleconferenced arguments”: Brent Kendall and Jess Bravin of The Wall Street Journal have this report.

Posted at 2:22 PM by Howard Bashman