“U.S. District Judge Dee Benson dies at age 72; The former PE major was appointed by presidents, chief justices and senators to a wide range of prestigious positions at the highest levels of the legal profession”: Doug Robinson of The Deseret News has written this obituary.

“Can states fire employees who leave for military duty? U.S. Supreme Court may decide.” Tara Copp of McClatchy DC has this report.

“Unfeathered Discretion”: You can access today’s new installment of the “Strict Scrutiny” podcast, featuring law professors Leah Litman and Melissa Murray, via this link.

“Judge Raul Arias-Marxuach — Nominee to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit”: Harsh Voruganti has this post at his blog, “The Vetting Room.”

“Which Ninth Circuit Judges Were Waiting For A Democratic President to Take Senior Status? James Phillips and I are working on an article about circuit judges who strategically time their taking of senior status.” Josh Blackman has this post at “The Volokh Conspiracy.”

“Justices take dim view of Trump effort to cut illegal immigrants from census count”: Stephen Dinan of The Washington Times has this report.

“Supreme Court seems skeptical of Trump’s census plan”: Mark Sherman of The Associated Press has this report.

Lawrence Hurley and Andrew Chung of Reuters report that “Conservative justices appear reluctant to immediately block Trump immigrant census plan.”

Greg Stohr of Bloomberg News reports that “Supreme Court Hints It Will Move Cautiously in Trump Census Clash.”

And Pete Williams of NBC News reports that “Supreme Court skeptical of Trump’s plan to exclude undocumented immigrants from census; Several justices, including some conservative ones, seemed to doubt that the president had such a sweeping power to modify the census results.”

“Some federal judges plan to retire when Trump exits. Will Biden be able to replace them?” Maura Dolan has this front page article in today’s edition of The Los Angeles Times.

“Richard Epstein’s Laffer Curve of Death”: Michael C. Dorf has this post at his blog, “Dorf on Law.”

“Supreme Court Takes Up Trump Plan to Exclude Unauthorized Immigrants in Redistricting; The administration’s efforts, which are subject to practical hurdles, would upset a constitutional consensus and could shift political power from Democratic states to Republican ones”: Adam Liptak of The New York Times has this report.

“‘They’ll freeze them out’: Democrats fear Senate Republicans will block Biden’s judges; McConnell could stymie the president-elect’s ability to get his judicial nominations confirmed.” Marianne LeVine of Politico has this report.

“Justice Barrett’s Vote Could Tilt the Supreme Court on Gun Rights; For years, conservative justices have said the court disfavors the Second Amendment; Justice Amy Coney Barrett is likely to shift the balance, and a case to help her do so may be knocking”: Adam Liptak will have this new installment of his “Sidebar” column in Tuesday’s edition of The New York Times.