“From Guns to Gay Marriage, How Did Rights Take Over Politics? The N.R.A., the Supreme Court, and the forces driving the country’s most intractable legal debates.” Kelefa Sanneh has this “A Critic at Large” essay in the May 31, 2021 issue of The New Yorker.

“Texas Abortion Ban Is Both Devious and Doomed; Creative lawyering won’t be enough to override constitutionally protected rights”: Law professor Noah Feldman has this essay online at Bloomberg Opinion.

“Chief Justice in Rare Speech Says Law Is Way of Limiting Power”: Greg Stohr of Bloomberg Law has this report on the remarks Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. delivered (view on YouTube via this link) to the 2021 graduating class of Georgetown Law.

“Eunice Lee — Nominee to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit”: Harsh Voruganti has this post at his blog, “The Vetting Room.”

“Dylann Roof appeals death sentence in Charleston church slayings”: Ann E. Marimow of The Washington Post has this report.

John Monk of The State of Columbia, South Carolina reports that “Mental illness key part of Dylann Roof’s appeal of his death sentence.”

Meg Kinnard of The Associated Press has a report headlined “Charleston shooter lawyer: Racist delusion showed incapacity.”

Celine Castronuovo of The Hill reports that “Lawyers argue ‘delusional’ Dylann Roof shouldn’t have been allowed to represent himself.”

And Ellen Robinson of Courthouse News Service reports that “Charleston Church Shooter Asks Appeals Court to Overturn Death Sentence; Dylann Roof’s appellate attorneys claim his federal conviction and death sentence should be reversed because he was ‘disconnected from reality’ when he represented himself during trial.”

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit has posted on YouTube at this link the audio of today’s oral argument before a three-judge panel consisting of three judges who were sitting by designation from other circuits.

“SC Supreme Court hears arguments on constitutionality of Heritage Act shielding monuments”: Jamie Lovegrove of The Post and Courier of Charleston, South Carolina has this report.

And Maayan Schechter of The State of Columbia, South Carolina reports that “SC Supreme Court picks apart 2000 Heritage Act law as they question constitutionality.”

You can access via this link the video of today’s oral argument before the Supreme Court of South Carolina.

“Biden Justice Department fights release of legal memo on prosecuting Trump; The move puts the Biden team in the curious position of seeking to maintain secrecy surrounding legal decisions of the Trump era”: Josh Gerstein of Politico has this report.

And Wednesday’s edition of The Wall Street Journal will contain an editorial titled “Merrick Garland Defends Bill Barr; Both oppose a judge’s order to make public an internal DOJ memo.”

“Supreme Court will consider taking up major challenge to affirmative action”: John Kruzel of The Hill has this report.

“Sotomayor Calls Out Kavanaugh for Breaking His Promise to Death Row Inmates”: Mark Joseph Stern has this jurisprudence essay online at Slate.