“Biden’s committee to ‘reform’ the Supreme Court won’t fix the real problem in Washington; An ideological Congress can’t pass legislation on divisive issues, so it passes the buck to the Supreme Court”: Peter Morici has this essay online at MarketWatch.

“California Supreme Court takes a step toward abolishing cash bail at hearing”: Bob Egelko of The San Francisco Chronicle has this report.

And Maria Dinzeo of Courthouse News Service reports that “Fight Over Money Bail System Lands at California Supreme Court.”

“It’s time for the Supreme Court to curb one of its worst precedents”: Columnist George F. Will has this essay online at The Washington Post.

“Prominent Foley & Lardner attorney resigns after participating in Trump call trying to upend Georgia election”: Daniel Bice of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has this report.

And Dylan Jackson of The American Lawyer reports that “Foley & Lardner Partner Who Sat In on Trump’s Georgia Call Resigns From Firm; The abrupt resignation comes just a day after Foley & Lardner told Law.com that it was ‘concerned’ with reports of partner Cleta Mitchell’s participation in the call, in which President Donald Trump asked Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to ‘find votes.’“

“Congress Shouldn’t Be Able to Steal an Election; The 1887 law allowing legislators to dispute the vote needs an overhaul”: Law professor Noah Feldman has this essay online at Bloomberg Opinion.

Also online at Bloomberg Opinion, law professor Cass R. Sunstein has an essay titled “Vice President Pence Can Preside But Not Decide; When Congress counts electoral votes on Wednesday, he can play no more than a ceremonial role; That’s the law.”

“Paxton refuses to disclose full costs of taxpayer-funded Supreme Court election challenge”: Taylor Goldenstein of The Houston Chronicle has this report.

“8th Circuit affirms injunction against two Arkansas anti-abortion laws, but sends signal that the legal landscape could change”: Max Brantley of Arkansas Times has this report.

My earlier coverage of today’s Eighth Circuit ruling can be accessed here.

“Manufactured Finality in Arbitration Appeals: The Ninth Circuit held that plaintiffs can no longer voluntarily dismiss their claims and manufacture finality after a district court orders arbitration.” Bryan Lammon has this post at his “final decisions” blog.

“Duff to Retire as Administrative Office Director; Judge Mauskopf Named as Successor”: The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts issued this news release today about a related news release that the U.S. Supreme Court issued earlier today.

“‘Enemies of the People’ site reappears, threatens SCOTUS, Senate leader; denies Iran involvement.” Andrew Blake of The Washington Times has this report.

“Trump Lawyer on Call Is a Conservative Firebrand Aiding His Push to Overturn Election; Cleta Mitchell had been quietly helping President Trump’s attempt to subvert the election results when the recording of him pressuring Georgia elections officials was revealed”: Michael S. Schmidt and Kenneth P. Vogel have this article in today’s edition of The New York Times.

And in today’s edition of The Washington Post, Michael Kranish and Tom Hamburger have an article headlined “Cleta Mitchell, a key figure in president’s phone call, was an early backer of Trump’s election fraud claims.”

Eighth Circuit affirms federal district court’s injunctions prohibiting enforcement of Arkansas’ bans on abortion after 18 weeks or due to Down syndrome diagnosis: You can access today’s ruling of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit at this link.

Although the decision was unanimous, two judges on the panel each wrote separately (and joined the other’s opinion) calling on the U.S. Supreme Court to reevaluate its current abortion jurisprudence to give states more leeway to regulate or prohibit the procedure. Presumably Arkansas will be seeking U.S. Supreme Court review of today’s ruling.

“Pence’s Choice: Side With the Constitution or His Boss; The vice president will preside on Wednesday when Congress convenes to ratify Joe Biden’s victory; President Trump still seems to hold out hope that his loyal No. 2 could change the outcome.” Annie Karni and Maggie Haberman have this article in today’s edition of The New York Times.

“Appeals court signals it may block some California COVID-19 church restrictions”: Maura Dolan has this article in today’s edition of The Los Angeles Times.

Josh Gerstein of Politico reports that “9th Circuit skeptical of California church limits, but may uphold stay-home order.”

And Martin Macias Jr of Courthouse News Service reports that “Church Asks Ninth Circuit to Lift California’s Ban on Indoor Worship.”

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has posted on YouTube at this link the video of what appears to be a portion of yesterday’s oral argument of this appeal.

And in related news coverage, Caroline Enos of The Boston Globe reports that “Dozens of COVID-19 cases linked to Christmas Eve gatherings at Woburn church.”

“Biden’s Judicial Picks Should Include Lawyers Who Battled the Government in Court; The incoming president can bring some much-needed professional diversity to the federal bench”: Damon Root has this post online at Reason.

“Biden Considering Lawyer Who Defended Big Oil In Climate Suits For Solicitor General; David Frederick is a seasoned litigator with progressive victories under his belt, but some advocates say his work for Royal Dutch Shell should disqualify him”: Alexander C. Kaufman of HuffPost has this report.

“‘A lifetime of torture’: the story of the woman Trump is rushing to execute; Lisa Montgomery, the only woman on death row, was found guilty of an ‘especially heinous’ crime — but those who have looked deeply into her agonized life see it differently.” Ed Pilkington of The Guardian (UK) has this report.

“I lost a law school election to Josh Hawley. I moved on then, and he should now on Trump. He beat me for president of the Yale Law School Federalist Society by exploiting the rules. He should follow my example and not contest Trump’s loss.” Law professor Irina D. Manta has this essay online at USA Today.

“Inmate Revives Excessive Force Suit Over Beating, Pepper Spray”: Jacklyn Wille of Bloomberg Law has this report on a ruling that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit issued yesterday.

Two law students from the University of Virginia School of Law’s Appellate Litigation Clinic argued the appeal on the inmate’s behalf. In April 2020, Mike Fox of UVA Law had a profile of the law student who presented the main appellate oral argument on the inmate’s behalf titled “Student Led Voter Outreach Effort Before Law School; Jehanne McCullough ’21 Aspires To Advocate for Fellow Deaf Americans.”

“Milwaukee law firm ‘concerned’ by attorney’s role in Trump call trying to upend Georgia election results”: Daniel Bice of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has this report.

“Hawley, Cruz and their Senate cohort are the Constitution’s most dangerous domestic enemies”: Columnist George F. Will has this essay online at The Washington Post.

“Johnson wants Constitution changed to stop Democrats from adding SCOTUS justices”: Joe Sneve of The Argus Leader of Sioux Falls, South Dakota has this report.

“Who Is Lin Wood, The Pro-Trump Lawyer Spewing Conspiracies About Lizard Squads? The GOP has begun to distance itself from Lin Wood after some wild rants. But this QAnon-friendly conspiracy theorist is exactly where the party is headed.” Ryan Grenoble of HuffPost has this report.

“Arizona GOP chair takes her electors lawsuit directly to U.S. Supreme Court justice”: Howard Fischer of The Arizona Daily Star has this report.

“65 Names To Watch When Biden Picks Circuit Judges”: Law360 has this report.

“Trump and Republicans in Congress Could Still Jeopardize the Election”: Law professor Jeannie Suk Gersen has this post online at The New Yorker.

“Precedent and the Conservative Court”: Jeremy Rozansky has this article in the Winter 2021 issue of National Affairs.

“Supreme Court Case During the Pandemic? Landline Essential, Business Suit Optional; High-court advocates wrestle with how to argue their cases remotely; ‘I practice law better when dressed as a lawyer.'” Matt Grossman will have this front page article in Monday’s edition of The Wall Street Journal.

“Truth, Reconciliation, and Korematsu v. United States: A lesson from history in finding the truth when the Justice Department has been complicit in the cover-up.” You can access this week’s new installment of Slate’s “Amicus” podcast featuring Dahlia Lithwick via this link.

“Raffi Melkonian — Texas Appellate Litigator and #AppellateTwitter Dean”: You can access episode #003 of the new “How I Lawyer Podcast with Jonah Perlin” via this link. The podcast’s host is a law professor at the Georgetown University Law Center.

As an aside, I admire the ambitiousness of labelling podcast episode numbers with two leading zeros, which suggests that at least another 97 episodes will be forthcoming.

“Early vaccination in prisons, a public health priority, proves politically charged; Colorado Gov. Jared Polis discarded the recommendation of experts and downgraded inmates in his state’s plan”: Isaac Stanley-Becker has this front page article in today’s edition of The Washington Post.

“How the Pandemic Exposed the Failures of Capital Punishment: Will Trump’s execution spree, court shutdowns, and the toll of Covid-19 hasten the demise of the death penalty?” Liliana Segura and Jordan Smith of The Intercept have this report.

“Judiciary Gets No Relief in Latest Pandemic Funding Package”: Madison Alder of Bloomberg Law has an article that begins, “The federal judiciary got none of the $37 million in new emergency relief it requested from Congress to help manage coronavirus-related priorities and received less than what it requested in appropriations to fund operations for the remainder of the current fiscal year.”

“Appeals court dismisses Gohmert’s election suit against Pence”: John Kruzel of The Hill has this report on a one-paragraph, per curiam, unpublished decision that a unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued this evening.

Update: In other coverage, Josh Gerstein and Kyle Cheney of Politico report that “Federal appeals court tosses Gohmert suit aimed at overturning 2020 election results; It was the second legal ruling against Gohmert in two days.”

“U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson from Wisconsin to join 10 others from GOP in refusing to certify Electoral College results”: Bill Glauber of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has this report.

According to the article, “Johnson, up for reelection in 2022, is the only senator joining the effort whose state’s voters backed President-elect Joe Biden over President Donald Trump.”