“Governor Abbott Appoints Farris To First Court of Appeals”: The Office of Texas Governor Greg Abbott today issued a news release that begins, “Governor Greg Abbott has appointed April Farris to the First Court of Appeals, effective January 1, 2021, for a term set to expire on December 31, 2022, or until her successor shall be duly elected and qualified.”

“Supreme Court Justices Can Get Vaccinated Now. The Rest Of The Courts Are On Their Own. Judges across the country are urging state officials to consider the federal courts for vaccine priority lists.” Zoe Tillman of BuzzFeed News has this report.

“Rutgers to name iconic residence hall for Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who started her career as a law professor there”: Susan Snyder of The Philadelphia Inquirer recently had this report.

“Texas v. Pennsylvania Would Have Upended the Electoral College; Texas’s innovative injury would allow any state to sue any other state, directly in the Supreme Court, for breach of its election laws”: Derek Muller has this post at the “Law & Liberty” blog.

“The List Is Here to Stay: Republican presidential candidates will likely use nominee lists to demonstrate their commitments to originalism and constitutional government.” James M. Patterson has this post at the “Law & Liberty” blog.

“The Life Story of Lisa Montgomery: Before committing the crime that landed her on death row, Lisa Montgomery had endured decades of abuse.” Lauren Gill has this jurisprudence essay online at Slate.

“AG: ‘No reason’ for special counsel on election, Biden’s son.” Michael Balsamo of The Associated Press has a report that begins, “Breaking with President Donald Trump, outgoing Attorney General William Barr said Monday he saw ‘no reason’ to appoint a special counsel to look into the president’s claims of election fraud or the tax investigation into the son of President-elect Joe Biden.”

“Four Types of Supreme Court Punts: (1) Run out the clock, (2) improve field position, (3) special team forces a turnover, and (4) the fake punt.” Josh Blackman has this post at “The Volokh Conspiracy.”

“Dr. Seuss Enterprises Wins Appeal In Dispute Over ‘Star Trek’ Mash Up”: Ashley Cullins has this post at the “THR, Esq.” blog of The Hollywood Reporter.

And Bianca Bruno of Courthouse News Service reports that “Seuss-Star Trek Mash-Up Crashes and Burns at Ninth Circuit.”

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

“7th Circuit reverses judgment against postal worker over juror coercion concerns”: Katie Stancombe of The Indiana Lawyer has this post about a ruling that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit issued Friday.

“5th Circ. Asks Texas High Court About Amazon ‘Seller’ Status”: Law360 has this report (subscription required) on an opinion that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued Friday certifying a question to the Supreme Court of Texas.

“‘I’m Haunted by What I Did’ as a Lawyer in the Trump Justice Department; No matter our intentions, lawyers like me were complicit; We owe the country our honesty about what we saw — and should do in the future”: Erica Newland has this essay online at The New York Times.

“Crow tribal police seek ‘equal footing’ in U.S. Supreme Court case”: Seaborn Larson of The Missoulian has this report.

“Trump campaign files Supreme Court petition over ‘illegally changed’ Pennsylvania balloting laws”: David Sherfinski and Dave Boyer of The Washington Times have this report.

Jill Colvin and Marc Levy of The Associated Press report that “Trump wants Supreme Court to overturn Pa. election results.”

Bradford Betz of Fox News reports that “Trump campaign takes fight over Penn. election, ballot laws to Supreme Court; President Trump still refuses to concede the outcome and continues to promote allegations that there was massive voter fraud.”

And Tucker Higgins of CNBC reports that “Trump campaign files long shot Supreme Court challenge to Biden’s Pennsylvania win.”

“10,000 Pennsylvania votes are in limbo. They won’t change the outcome. They could still have a huge impact.” Jonathan Lai has this article in today’s edition of The Philadelphia Inquirer.

“Shirley Abrahamson, longest-serving member of Wisconsin Supreme Court, dies at 87”: Patrick Marley of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has this report.

And Elizabeth Beyer of The Wisconsin State Journal reports that “Former Wisconsin Supreme Court Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson dies at 87.”

In September 2004, then-Chief Justice Abrahamson turned out to be the final participant in this blog’s “20 questions for the appellate judge” feature. You can access my interview with her from over 16 years ago at this link. Among other things, in the interview Abrahamson discussed Wisconsin’s diploma privilege, a means of becoming certified to practice law that has become the subject of renewed attention as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on administering the traditional bar exam.

“Trump campaign brings new U.S. Supreme Court challenge over Pennsylvania’s 2020 election”: Jonathan Lai of The Philadelphia Inquirer has this report on a new petition for writ of certiorari and related items submitted today to the U.S. Supreme Court.

According to the article, “President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to step in and overturn several decisions the Pennsylvania Supreme Court made regarding the 2020 election, saying the court overstepped its bounds and ‘the outcome of the election for the Presidency of the United States hangs in the balance.'”

Update: At his “Election Law Blog,” Rick Hasen has a post titled “Trump Campaign Files Ridiculous New Expedited Cert Petition, Seeking Supreme Court Order to Overturn PA Election Results, Relying on Fake Electors for Trump from PA as Reported by the Epoch Times” linking to the cert. petition and the related motion to expedite.

“NC elections board finally certifies chief justice results”: The Associated Press has this report.

According to the article, “Democrats will hold a 4-3 seat advantage over Republicans on the court in 2021, compared with their current 6-1 margin.”

“Amid Vaccine Rollout and Historic Hack, Trump Remains Focused on Reversing Election; The president has been largely out of sight, paying little public attention to any events other than his efforts to overturn Joe Biden’s victory”: Rebecca Ballhaus, Alex Leary, and Dustin Volz of The Wall Street Journal have this report.

“The Supreme Court might be finding its way to overturning ‘qualified immunity’; The unanimous Supreme Court decision in Tanzin v. Tanvir says people can sue government agents for damages when their rights are violated”: Anya Bidwell and Patrick Jaicomo have this essay online at USA Today.

“William Barr: ‘One Standard of Justice’; The departing attorney general talks about John Durham, Robert Mueller, Hunter Biden, Mike Flynn and the flak he’s taken from both parties.” Kimberley A. Strassel had this week’s installment of “The Weekend Interview” in yesterday’s edition of The Wall Street Journal.

“U.S. Appeals Court Judge Made Mark on Business Law; Ralph K. Winter, who has died at age 85, argued forcefully against federal constraints on corporations”: This obituary, written by James R. Hagerty, appeared in yesterday’s edition of The Wall Street Journal.

“A Conservative Justice in Wisconsin Says He Followed the Law, Not the Politics; Like officials in Arizona and Georgia, Justice Brian Hagedorn is a longtime Republican who is now under fire for ruling against President Trump’s challenges to the election”: Reid J. Epstein of The New York Times has this interview with Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Brian Hagedorn.

“Justices Put Off Ruling on Trump Plan for Unauthorized Immigrants and Census; The Supreme Court said a challenge to efforts to exclude unauthorized immigrants from the tabulations used to allocate House seats was premature”: Adam Liptak has this article in today’s edition of The New York Times.

In today’s edition of The Washington Post, Robert Barnes and Tara Bahrampour have an article headlined “Supreme Court won’t decide yet if Trump can exclude undocumented immigrants when allocating congressional seats.”

In today’s edition of The Los Angeles Times, David G. Savage has an article headlined “With punt, Supreme Court largely ends Trump census plan to exclude immigrants lacking documentation.”

Jess Bravin of The Wall Street Journal reports that “Supreme Court Puts Off Ruling on Whether Census Tally Should Include Immigrants in U.S. Illegally; Trump administration wanted to exclude group from population count, which is used for congressional redistricting.”

Richard Wolf of USA Today has an article headlined “Supreme Court: Challenge to Trump plan to exclude undocumented immigrants from census is premature.”

Stephen Dinan of The Washington Times reports that “Supreme Court puts off ruling on Census count that excludes illegal immigrants.”

Mark Sherman of The Associated Press reports that “High court rules challenge to Trump census plan is premature.”

Lawrence Hurley of Reuters reports that “U.S. Supreme Court throws out challenge to Trump census immigrant plan.”

Greg Stohr of Bloomberg News reports that “Top Court Rejects Challenge to Trump Census Bid as Premature.”

Pete Williams of NBC News reports that “Supreme Court throws out challenge to Trump census plan to exclude undocumented immigrants; ‘This case is riddled with contingencies and speculation,’ the court said in a short, unsigned opinion, referring to the states’ challenge.”

Ariane de Vogue and Veronica Stracqualursi of CNN report that “Supreme Court throws out challenge to Trump’s plan to exclude undocumented immigrants from census count.”

Tyler Olson, Bill Mears, and Shannon Bream of Fox News report that “Supreme Court dismisses case on excluding illegal immigrants from census count as ‘riddled’ with ‘speculation’; Trump issued memorandum that illegal immigrants not be counted for congressional representation.”

Zach Montellaro and Josh Gerstein of Politico report that “Supreme Court punts on Trump bid to exclude immigrants from census; The high court’s six Republican nominees ruled that the legal challenge to Trump’s order was ‘premature.’”

John Kruzel of The Hill reports that “Supreme Court tosses challenge to Trump’s immigrant census plan.”

Zoe Tillman of BuzzFeed News reports that “The Supreme Court Put Off Ruling On Trump’s Final Push To Use The Census To Target Undocumented Immigrants; The court’s conservative justices agreed with the administration that a legal challenge was ‘premature’; The liberal justices dissented.”

Alexandra Jones of Courthouse News Service reports that “Supreme Court Nixes NY Challenge to Trump’s Census Shake-Up.”

And on yesterday evening’s broadcast of NPR’s “All Things Considered,” Nina Totenberg had an audio segment titled “Supreme Court Dodges Trump’s Plan To Exclude Undocumented Immigrants From Census.”

“Looking at child slaves on cocoa farms, Supreme Court may extend legal ground for globalized U.S. firms; U.S. Supreme Court justices may step into a clash over human rights and the reach of U.S. companies in foreign countries”: Jim Spencer and Kristen Leigh Painter of The Minneapolis Star Tribune have this report.

“The Scalia/Garner canons: Departures from established law.” Neal Goldfarb has this post at his “LAWnLinguistics” blog.

“Gov. Lujan Grisham fills Supreme Court vacancy”: New Mexico’s Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham issued this news release today.

“Trump Discussed Naming Campaign Lawyer as Special Counsel on Election Fraud; In a meeting at the White House on Friday, the president weighed appointing Sidney Powell, who promoted conspiracy theories about rigged voting machines, to probe voter fraud”: Maggie Haberman and Zolan Kanno-Youngs of The New York Times have this report.

“How Amy Coney Barrett Is Already Making a Mark on the Court; Plus Michigan’s secretary of state and the real bellwethers for defending democracy”: You can access via this link this week’s new installment of Slate’s “Amicus” podcast in which, among other things, law professor Steve Vladek returns the favor by appearing on Dahlia’s podcast.

“The Supreme Court’s confusing new ‘religious liberty’ order, explained; The Court delays its religious liberty revolution for a truly odd reason”: Ian Millhiser has this essay online at Vox.

“California Church Asks Judge to Lift Pandemic Restrictions on Indoor Services”: Martin Macias Jr of Courthouse News Service has this report.

“Episode 2: Grumpy Muppets (with Dahlia Lithwick).” This week’s new installment of the “In Loco Parent(i)s” podcast with Karen and Steve Vladek, featuring their guest, Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick — who of course is herself the host of Slate’s “Amicus” podcast.

I have now listened to the first two episodes of the “In Loco Parent(i)s” podcast, and I have really enjoyed it and plan to be a devoted listener of future episodes. I totally agree with those who have observed that Karen Vladek has the perfect podcast voice. I’m hoping they can convince her to narrate the next season of “Serial” if that’s still a thing.

Because the “In Loco Parent(i)s” podcast focuses on lawyers raising children, I can’t help but recall that in August 2011 my wife, my son, and I had the pleasure of meeting Dahlia and her two sons for breakfast at Dahlia’s house in the Charlottesville, Virginia area while my family was on a college tour through the mid-Atlantic and southeast area that I summarized in this post.

Our visit to Charlottesville coincided with what remains one of the most memorable earthquakes to strike that area in recent times. Indeed, the visit with Dahlia was certainly a highlight of the trip, which otherwise involved trying to avoid one natural disaster after another — starting with the poor air quality in the Norfolk, Virginia area as a result of the Great Dismal Swamp fire; followed by the earthquake; culminating in the arrival of Hurricane Irene, which not only caused us to return home early from the Raleigh-Durham area of North Carolina but also ended up causing plenty of destruction in the Philadelphia area where we reside. Fun times!

For those who have made it this far, let me close this post by noting that I too made my first-ever podcast guest appearance this week (you can listen via this link) where I discussed the origins of this blog and talked about how I became an appellate lawyer and the path my legal career has taken — and even mentioned how wanting to have more time to spend with my family factored in to career-related decisions.

“Judicial Notice: December 18, 2020; Notable legal news from the week that was.” David Lat has this post at his “Original Jurisdiction” Substack site.

Ohio Supreme Court overturns order requiring man convicted of failing to pay child support to the mothers of his 11 children to “make all reasonable efforts to avoid impregnating a woman” while on probation: You can access today’s ruling of the Supreme Court of Ohio at this link.

Update: In news coverage, Jeff D. Gorman of Courthouse News Service reports that “Ohio Supreme Court Rules Man Can’t Be Ordered to Abstain From Procreation.”

“Divided Ohio Supreme Court kicks out groups’ suit on ‘bump stocks'”: Bill Bush of The Columbus Dispatch has this report on a 4-to-3 ruling that the Supreme Court of Ohio issued today.