“An appeals court blasts state’s early effort to end capital punishment and questions prison conditions of a former death row inmate”: Edmund H. Mahony of The Hartford Courant has this report.

And Kelan Lyons of The Connecticut Mirror reports that “2nd Circuit rules CT’s ‘special circumstances’ law for former death row inmates is unconstitutional.”

You can access today’s ruling of a two-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit at this link.

“Georgetown Law professor terminated after ‘reprehensible’ comments about Black students”: Lauren Lumpkin of The Washington Post has this report.

And Michael Levenson of The New York Times reports that “Georgetown Law Fires Professor for ‘Abhorrent’ Remarks About Black Students; The law school said Sandra A. Sellers, an adjunct professor, had been terminated, and David C. Batson, another adjunct, had been placed on administrative leave.”

Georgetown Law’s Dean William M. Treanor has issued two statements regarding this matter that you can access at this link.

“Our Lonely Chief Justice; A recent solitary dissent by John Roberts points to his isolation from the court’s other conservatives”: Linda Greenhouse has this essay online at The New York Times.

“When Rulings, Respectfully, Offer Peek Behind Curtains at Court Collegiality; A missing ‘respectfully’ or ‘with respect’ can connote particularly strong feelings”: Marcia Coyle of The National Law Journal has this report.

“Nahmias to become Georgia’s next chief justice”: Bill Rankin of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has this report.

“Supreme Court puts Medicaid work requirements case on hold as Biden looks to reverse Trump policy”: John Fritze of USA Today has this report.

“Court ruling means hundreds of state criminal cases will be shifted to tribal or federal courts”: Samantha Vicent and Curtis Killman of The Tulsa World have this report.

Chris Casteel of The Oklahoman reports that “Oklahoma court says Cherokee, Chickasaw reservations still exist.”

And David Lee of Courthouse News Service report that “Triple Murder Conviction Tossed After High Court Ruling on Oklahoma Tribal Land; An Oklahoma appeals court agreed with a death-row inmate that the state lacks jurisdiction to prosecute him because the killings occurred on Chickasaw Nation territory that was never dissolved by Congress and victims were tribe members.”

The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals — the state’s highest court in criminal cases — issued two related decisions today, only one of which is currently available online.

Judge Gary L. Lumpkin‘s opinion concurring in the result does not seem to agree with the U.S. Supreme Court‘s recent 5-to-4 ruling in McGirt v. Oklahoma.

Update: You can now access the second of the two Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals rulings at this link.

“After judge takes umbrage at dissenter’s ‘sound and fury’ quote, 5th Circuit grants en banc rehearing”: Debra Cassens Weiss of ABA Journal has this post.

“Biden Is Vetting BIPOC Candidates For Judgeships After Trump Filled The Courts With Mostly White Men; The FBI recently did a background check for a lawyer who would be the first American Muslim federal district judge, according to a source familiar with the process”: Zoe Tillman of BuzzFeed News has this report.

“Gay Conversion Church Loses Appeal Over Vimeo Account”: Bob Van Voris of Bloomberg News has this report.

Ryan Lovelace of The Washington Times reports that “Court sides with Vimeo in ban against church’s gay-conversion videos.”

Nina Pullano of Courthouse News Service reports that “2nd Circuit Blesses Vimeo Clamp on Gay-Conversion Content; The federal panel endorsed immunity for the website, which had banned a pastor over videos in which he identified as a ‘former homosexual.’”

And at the “THR, Esq.” blog of The Hollywood Reporter, Ashley Cullins has a post titled “Vimeo’s Section 230 Win in Pastor’s Discrimination Suit Affirmed by Appeals Court; The video-sharing site deleted Church United’s account for violating its policies on promoting sexual orientation change efforts.”

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

“Ninth Circuit Weighs Whether Inmates Are Constitutionally Entitled to Direct Sunlight; Last year, a federal judge ordered the city and county of San Francisco to provide inmates with an hour of unfiltered sunlight every week; On Thursday, the city argued before the Ninth Circuit that there is no such constitutional right”: Maria Dinzeo of Courthouse News Service has this report on an oral argument (YouTube video link) that occurred today before a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

“No Immunity for Alabama Cop Who Tased Girl in Throes of Seizure; Five years deep into litigation, the 11th Circuit rejected an officer’s move to shield himself from liability for using his taser on an incapacitated 17-year-old”: Izzy Kapnick of Courthouse News Service has this report on a ruling that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit issued yesterday.

“The ‘Revival’ Alternative to Test Legislation Like the New Arkansas Abortion Ban”: Michael C. Dorf has this post at his blog, “Dorf on Law.”

“Court overturns automatic life sentences for young killers”: Gene Johnson of The Associated Press has a report that begins, “The Washington state Supreme Court on Thursday overturned the automatic life-without-parole sentences given to two men for murders committed when they were 19 and 20, saying judges must consider the youthfulness of such defendants in sentencing them.”

You can access today’s 5-to-4 ruling of the Supreme Court of Washington at this link.

“Federal judge Peter Hall dies in Rutland”: Michael Donoghue of The Rutland (Vt.) Herald has this report.

“Vermont’s Peter Hall, US court of appeals judge, dies at 72”: Wilson Ring of The Associated Press has this report.

“DAO Announces Appointment of Matthew Stiegler as Federal Litigation Supervisor”: The Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office has issued this news release.

Matt, who previously worked as a solo appellate practitioner, is the author of the “CA3blog.”

“Bankrupt Developer Can Claim Trustee Violates 13th Amendment”: Daniel Gill of Bloomberg Law has this report (subscription required for full access) on a notable ruling that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit issued yesterday.

“Both for formal reasons and for practical reasons, I would hold that a conviction for a noncrime is always prejudicial error as a matter of law, regardless of the sentence and how it relates to other convictions and sentences from the same or other proceedings.” So writes Seventh Circuit Judge Diane P. Wood in a dissenting opinion issued yesterday. You can access the three-judge panel’s majority opinion at this link.

“Program on VMI Case Recalls Ginsburg’s Crusade for Gender Equality”: The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts has this report.

“Fifth Circuit Finds Pipelines Won’t Drive Texas Cats to Extinction; The federal appellate court sided with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, upholding its approval of a gas pipeline project that environmentalists say could harm endangered wild cats in South Texas”: Daniel Conrad of Courthouse News Service has this report.

And Maya Earls of Bloomberg Law reports that “Texas Pipeline Won’t Harm Jaguraundis, Ocelots, Court Affirms” (subscription required for full access).

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

“Quicken Loans Stuck with $10 Million Penalty Over Appraisals”: Martina Barash of Bloomberg Law has this report (subscription required for full access) on a ruling that a divided three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit issued yesterday.

“7th Circuit won’t stay remand in BIPA class action, offering road map to state court”: Alison Frankel’s “On the Case” from Thomson Reuters News & Insight has this post.

“How Blind Should Lady Justice Be? Our society was once devoted to the rule of law rather than the rule of men; A focus on the representativeness of judges will entrench a rule of identity.” John O. McGinnis has this post at the “Law & Liberty” blog.

“Get ready for a raft of Biden court nominees”: Ariane de Vogue of CNN has this report.