How Appealing



Wednesday, December 23, 2020

“Biden’s influence on federal judiciary may be limited despite liberals’ talk of ‘court-packing'”: Richard Wolf of USA Today has this report.

Posted at 10:22 PM by Howard Bashman



“Here’s the Pa. election lawsuit over mail ballots that could overturn a race — but not the presidency”: Jonathan Lai of The Philadelphia Inquirer has an article that begins, “A heated court fight over Pennsylvania mail ballots will determine who wins the election. And the decision could well ripple beyond 2020. The fight isn’t over the presidency, of course — Joe Biden is clearly the president-elect — but a state Senate seat in Western Pennsylvania that hinges on just a few dozen votes.”

Posted at 9:57 PM by Howard Bashman



“Trump lauded, then derided Barr. A look inside the attorney general’s tumultuous term.” Evan Perez, Katelyn Polantz, and Kara Scannell of CNN have this report.

Posted at 7:15 PM by Howard Bashman



“Abortion, gun control: conservatives steer pet cases towards supreme court with Barrett on bench; State officials are making strategic appeals and lower court judges are tailoring arguments in hopes of gaining a supreme court hearing for controversial cases.” Tom McCarthy of The Guardian (UK) has this report.

Posted at 7:08 PM by Howard Bashman



“States Square Off Over Taxing Remote Workers’ Income; Ruling by Supreme Court would have budget implications for states that have lost billions of dollars in tax revenue during pandemic”: Jimmy Vielkind of The Wall Street Journal has this report.

Posted at 7:05 PM by Howard Bashman



“The outlier: Brian Hagedorn explains why he breaks rank with other state Supreme Court conservatives.” Katelyn Ferral of The Capital Times of Madison, Wisconsin has this report.

Posted at 6:58 PM by Howard Bashman



“COVID Comes to Federal Death Row — It Is Time to Stop the Madness”: Austin Sarat has this essay online at Justia’s Verdict.

Posted at 5:06 PM by Howard Bashman



“A President Unhappy, Unleashed and Unpredictable; President Trump remains the most powerful man in the world, but powerless to achieve what he most wants: to avoid leaving office as a loser.” Maggie Haberman and Michael S. Schmidt of The New York Times have this report.

Posted at 4:56 PM by Howard Bashman



“Trump pardon list including Blackwater and GOP allies clashes with federal execution spree; Trump’s corrosive use of the pardon power and his rush to execute federal death row inmates will cement his presidency as one of the most unjust in history”: Law professor Jessica Levinson has this essay online at NBC News.

Posted at 1:32 PM by Howard Bashman



“Appellate court rejects Orrington church’s appeal on Janet Mills’ gathering limits”: Judy Harrison of The Bangor Daily News has an article that begins, “An Orrington church’s appeal challenging Gov. Janet Mills’ coronavirus-related gathering limits was rejected on technical grounds Tuesday by the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston.”

You can access yesterday’s ruling of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit at this link.

Posted at 11:32 AM by Howard Bashman



“Diversifying Appellate World Means Starting at the Beginning”: Kimberly Strawbridge Robinson and Perry Cooper of Bloomberg Law have this report.

Posted at 11:26 AM by Howard Bashman



“Mother Forbidden from Mentioning Her Own Name in Criticizing Custody Decision — and the Pa. S. Ct. Upholds This; The Pennsylvania Supreme Court 5-2 majority concludes that the injunction is ‘content-neutral,’ quite erroneously, I think”: Eugene Volokh has this post at “The Volokh Conspiracy” about a decision Pennsylvania’s highest court issued yesterday that Eugene thinks could be reviewed and reversed by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Yesterday’s ruling of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania consists of a majority opinion, a concurring opinion, and a dissenting opinion.

Posted at 11:05 AM by Howard Bashman



“Challenging police violence . . . while Black: African Americans bear an outsize burden of aggressive policing; And when they try to hold cops accountable for excessive force, the doctrine of qualified immunity reinforces the inequity.” Andrea Januta, Andrew Chung, Jaimi Dowdell, and Lawrence Hurley of Reuters have this report — part four of the Reuters Investigates series “Shielded: How an obscure legal doctrine called qualified immunity protects police accused of excessive force.”

Posted at 11:00 AM by Howard Bashman



“Houston judge Jesse McClure appointed to Texas Court of Criminal Appeals by Gov. Greg Abbott; McClure will replace Judge Michael Keasler, 78, who is retiring at the end of this year”: Emma Platoff of The Texas Tribune has this report.

Posted at 10:52 AM by Howard Bashman



“What Will It Take to Get a Black Woman on the Supreme Court? The fate of Biden’s campaign promise lies with Georgia.” Irin Carmon has this post at the “Intelligencer” blog of New York Magazine.

Posted at 10:44 AM by Howard Bashman



“Google Chrome Now Blocks Insecure Downloads from Secure Websites; Many Court Website are Insecure; Chrome now blocks download links on How Appealing from insecure court sites”: Josh Blackman has this noteworthy post at “The Volokh Conspiracy.”

For what it’s worth, I agree with Josh that court websites should feature up-to-date security settings. On the other hand, my installed version of Google Chrome claims to be the most current (Version 87), and I am not experiencing any issues with opening links posted at my blog to opinions found on court websites that Josh labels as insecure.

Posted at 9:38 AM by Howard Bashman