“Convicted of murder at 17, his case changed juvenile sentences. Louisiana freed him at age 75.” Elyse Carmosino of The Advocate of Baton Rouge, Louisiana has an article that begins, “A Louisiana board Wednesday voted unanimously to release a 75-year-old inmate sentenced to life in prison as a teenager for killing an East Baton Rouge Parish sheriff’s deputy. Henry Montgomery’s case entered the national consciousness in 2016, when it played a central role in a landmark ruling on juvenile sentences, Montgomery v. Louisiana . . . .”
“A Question by Justice Thomas During the Second Amendment Argument Inadvertently Exposes a Weakness of his Originalist Philosophy”: Law professor Michael C. Dorf has this essay online at Justia’s Verdict.
“New Wrinkle in Ghislaine Maxwell Trial as Judge May Be Promoted; Senator Chuck Schumer will recommend Judge Alison J. Nathan for a seat on a federal appeals court, but the fraught case could put her in an unusual predicament”: Benjamin Weiser of The New York Times has this report.
And Nate Raymond of Reuters reports that “Schumer recommends Ghislaine Maxwell’s judge for 2nd Circuit seat.”
“Circuit Court Lotteries a Symptom of Gridlock and Gamesmanship”: Lydia Wheeler has this essay online at Bloomberg Law.
“Episode 2-1: We’re Baaaaaaack!” The first episode of season two of the “In Loco Parent(i)s” podcast featuring Karen and Steve Vladeck launched last week while I was in Austin, Texas.
It only took until the six minute and 48 second mark of the episode for Karen to make Steve sad by mentioning that someone had told her that the podcast would be even better if Karen hosted it solo.
“Sherrilyn Ifill stepping down from NAACP Legal Defense Fund; Longtime second-in-command Janai Nelson will take over one of the country’s top civil rights groups this spring, but no official transition date has been set”: Jacob Bogage of The Washington Post has this report.
“U.S. reaches tentative settlement in excessive PACER fees lawsuit”: Nate Raymond of Reuters has this report.
“Misconduct complaint against Judge Emmet G. Sullivan is formally dismissed”: Ann E. Marimow of The Washington Post has a report that begins, “The chief judge of the federal appeals court in Washington on Tuesday dismissed a misconduct complaint against U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan seeking his removal from a local commission that recommends judicial nominees to the president.”
Earlier this month, Marimow had a related article headlined “Two judges, one courthouse and an unusual accusation of unethical conduct.”
“Ex-Louisiana judge G. Thomas Porteous, last to be impeached by U.S. Senate, dies at 74”: John Simerman of The Times-Picayune of New Orleans has this report.
“Challenges to Workplace Vaccine Mandate Moved to Appeals Court in Cincinnati; The consolidation removes the case from a Fifth Circuit panel that had blocked the Biden administration from moving forward with it”: Charlie Savage of The New York Times has this report.
Brent Kendall of The Wall Street Journal reports that “Challenges to Biden Vaccine Rules Will Come Before Ohio-Based U.S. Appeals Court; Conservative-leaning Sixth Circuit is designated as referee for cases related to vaccine-and-testing rules for private employers.”
Mark A. Kellner of The Washington Times reports that “Vaccine mandate challenges to be consolidated at 6th Circuit Court.”
Geoff Mulvihill of The Associated Press reports that “GOP-majority court chosen to consider Biden vaccine mandate.”
Tom Hals of Reuters reports that “Lawsuits challenging Biden workplace vaccine rule sent to 6th Circuit.”
Robert Iafolla of Bloomberg Law reports that “Sixth Circuit Wins Lottery to Weigh Biden Shot-or-Test Rule.”
Ariane de Vogue of CNN reports that “Conservative-leaning appeals court to hear challenges to Biden’s vaccine mandate after ping-pong ball lottery.”
Rebecca Rainey of Politico reports that “Biden’s vaccine-or-test mandate to go before Cincinnati-based federal court; The mandate will be tested before a court with a majority of Republican appointees.”
Spencer Kimball of CNBC reports that “Legal battle over Biden Covid vaccine mandate heads to federal appeals court with GOP-appointed majority.”
And Andrea Hsu of NPR reports that “6th Circuit Court ‘wins’ lottery to hear lawsuits against Biden’s vaccine rule.”
You can view today’s order of the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation at this link.
“John Roberts Did This to Himself; Journalists often portray Chief Justice Roberts as a tragic hero marginalized by his more conservative colleagues; But the Court is as conservative as it is today because Roberts spent his career building it”: Emmett Witkovsky-Eldred has this post at Balls and Strikes.
“Supreme Court Justice Stegall wary of judicial bias among ‘bourgeois, polite society’; Justice tells symposium decision-making process riddled by paradoxes”: Tim Carpenter of Kansas Reflector has this report.
“Interview: Steve Vladeck.” Hannah Saraf has this post at the “High School SCOTUS” blog.
“Americans broadly support Supreme Court upholding Roe v. Wade and oppose Texas abortion law, Post-ABC poll finds”: Scott Clement, William Bishop, and Robert Barnes of The Washington Post have this report. You can directly access the poll results via this link.
“How Judges Turn Your Legal Rights Into Worthless Promises; If courts make it impossible for you to do anything about violations of your rights, those rights are worth nothing at all”: Hannah Mullen has this post at Balls and Strikes. Among other things, Mullen is a granddaughter of Justice John Paul Stevens.
“Taco Bell Case Puts Arbitration in Spotlight at Supreme Court”: Kimberly Strawbridge Robinson of Bloomberg Law has this report.
“The Supreme Court’s Growing Hostility to Arguments of Death Row Inmates; Recent rulings, including one turning down a death row inmate’s request supported by the prosecution, offer telling glimpses of the state of capital punishment”: Adam Liptak will have this new installment of his “Sidebar” column in Tuesday’s edition of The New York Times.
“The Amy Coney Barrett Effect: An Emboldened Conservative Legal Movement; The Supreme Court’s 6-3 tilt is inspiring right-wing judicial actors to take legal moonshots they wouldn’t have dared to attempt not long ago.” Matt Ford has this news analysis online at The New Republic.
“Virginia check for $2.4 million received by Courthouse News; A campaign over First Amendment access to new court filings has brought a win in Virginia and multi-million-dollar check to Courthouse News for its attorney fees”: Bill Girdner of Courthouse News Service has this report.
“Uncertainty after Third Circuit Oral Argument”: KC Johnson has this post at his “Academic Wonderland” blog.
“The Spurious Constitutional Issues in the OSHA Vaccine Mandate Litigation”: Michael C. Dorf has this post at his blog, “Dorf on Law.”
“More turn to abortion pills by mail, with legality uncertain”: John Hanna of The Associated Press has this report.
“U.S. sentencing panel’s last member Breyer urges Biden to revive commission”: Nate Raymond of Reuters has this report.
“Setting the Record Straight on Katie Couric’s Comments Regarding Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg”: Bryant Johnson has this post online at Medium.
“DOJ says it will ‘vigorously defend’ Biden OSHA COVID-19 vaccine mandate in court; An appeals court has blocked the OSHA vaccine mandate from taking effect”: Caitlin McFall of Fox News has this report.
“The 5th Circuit sets its sights on the vaccine-and-testing mandate — and much more than that”: Columnist Ruth Marcus has this essay online at The Washington Post.
“What Barrett’s rise has meant for the Supreme Court”: Online at The Washington Post, Julie Cohen has this review of Linda Greenhouse’s new book, “Justice on the Brink: The Death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the Rise of Amy Coney Barrett, and Twelve Months That Transformed the Supreme Court.”
“Stop Playing Nice With the Federalist Society: FedSoc is the engine of the conservative legal movement; Why do so many elite liberal lawyers still take its ‘debate club’ act seriously?” Jay Willis has this post at Balls and Strikes.
“Why the Supreme Court needs an ethics code: It’s a fair and practical reform that all Americans can get behind.” Nicholas Rostow has this essay online at Roll Call.
“The Supreme Court finally figures out that religious liberty cases are hard; Several justices appear concerned that respecting inmates’ religious rights might make it harder to execute them”: Ian Millhiser has this essay online at Vox.
“Q&A: Inside a Law Professor’s Push to Expand Federal Appellate Courts; In a recent paper, a University of Florida law professor looked at why, where and how to add judges to the nation’s federal appeals courts.” Avalon Zoppo of The National Law Journal has this report.
Law professor Merritt McAlister has posted at SSRN her article titled “Rebuilding the Federal Circuit Courts.”
“Mitch McConnell’s Angry Op-Ed About The Supreme Court Leaves Out A Key Detail; The Senate minority leader failed to mention his years-long campaign to strong-arm the nation’s judiciary to the right”: Nick Visser of HuffPost has this report.
And online at MSNBC, Steve Benen has an essay titled “McConnell slays irony, urges Dems to leave Supreme Court alone; There’s regular ol’ hypocrisy and then there’s Mitch-McConnell-warns-of-Supreme-Court-politicization hypocrisy.”
“Abortion law in Texas causing ‘total disruption’ at clinics across America”: Katie Kindelan of the ABC News program “Good Morning America” has this report.
“Homer Plessy’s Arrest in 1892 Led to a Landmark Ruling. Now He May Get Justice. His legacy is tied to a Supreme Court decision that upheld the ‘separate but equal’ doctrine, underpinning laws that segregated and disenfranchised African Americans for decades.” Rick Rojas of The New York Times has this report.
And Jennifer Calfas of The Wall Street Journal reports that “Homer Plessy, Plaintiff in ‘Separate but Equal’ Supreme Court Case, May Finally Be Pardoned; Louisiana Board of Pardons unanimously approves application to pardon 19th-century civil rights activist in case that upheld Jim Crow-era laws.”
“Liberals are buying their tickets in hopes of winning the vaccine mandate lawsuit lottery”: Ariane de Vogue of CNN has this report.
