“Appeals court could revive suits seeking tuition refunds over Covid closures; A majority of the D.C. Circuit panel seems inclined to reinstate suits against George Washington University and American University”: Josh Gerstein of Politico has this report on an oral argument (access the audio via this link) today before a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

“The Even Bigger Problem With Neil Gorsuch’s Decision Not to Wear a Mask; The issue goes beyond whatever infectious particles might circulate around the bench”: Dahlia Lithwick has this jurisprudence essay online at Slate.

“The Culture War Has Warped the Supreme Court’s Judgment; Yesterday’s decision hinges on a new and alarming embrace of the right-wing crusade against vaccination”: Adam Serwer has this essay online at The Atlantic.

Also online at The Atlantic, law professor Kimberly Wehle has an essay titled “The Supreme Court Has Anointed Itself Czar of the Country’s COVID Rules; The conservative justices say that vaccine policy is Congress’s or the states’ job, but in practice they’re the ones calling the shots now.”

“Boris Johnson in reverse: The Supreme Court gives itself what it bans for the rest of us.” Columnist Ruth Marcus has this essay online at The Washington Post.

“Penn law professor Amy Wax enraged people with her comments about Asians. Now, she may face sanction. But some academics who ardently despise Wax’s comments say they would rather she retains the right to say them than allow her to be fired.” Susan Snyder of The Philadelphia Inquirer has this report.

And Christine Charnosky of Law.com has reports headlined “Debate Intensifies Over Potential Discipline for Penn Law Professor Amy Wax” and “Law Schools Often Have Little Recourse When Tenured Faculty Become PR Headaches.”

“What the Supreme Court’s OSHA Ruling Means: It weakens the legal basis for earlier efforts to protect workers from Covid, and it suggests other administrative ‘work-arounds’ will eventually fall.” Eugene Scalia has this essay online at The Wall Street Journal.

“Supreme Court to Hear Case of Coach Who Lost His Job Over Postgame Prayers; A federal appeals court ruled that a school board in Washington State could require the coach to stop praying at the 50-yard line after high school football games”: Adam Liptak of The New York Times has this report.

Robert Barnes of The Washington Post reports that “Supreme Court to hear case of high school football coach who lost job after praying with players.”

David G. Savage of The Los Angeles Times reports that “Supreme Court will hear the case of football coach who led prayers on 50-yard line.”

John Fritze of USA Today reports that “Supreme Court to hear case of high school football coach who lost job after praying on field.”

Mark A. Kellner of The Washington Times reports that “Supreme Court to hear case of high school football coach who was sacked for praying on field.”

And Mark Walsh of Education Week reports that “Supreme Court to Hear Case of Coach Who Prayed After Games in Defiance of School District.”

You can access this afternoon’s Order List of the U.S. Supreme Court at this link.

“Judge Pryor cleared of allegations involving hiring of controversial clerk”: Bill Rankin of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has an article that begins, “Bill Pryor, chief judge of the federal appeals court in Atlanta, has been cleared of allegations of wrongdoing in that he hired a law clerk accused of sending racist and xenophobic texts.”

Second Circuit Chief Judge Debra Ann Livingston issued this decision dismissing the judicial conduct complaint on December 22, 2021.

And yesterday, the Judicial Council of the Second Circuit issued this order unanimously affirming the dismissal of the judicial conduct complaint.

“Did the Supreme Court Overrule Equity?” Richard M. Re has this post at his blog, “Re’s Judicata.”

And at “The Volokh Conspiracy,” Will Baude has a related post titled “Balancing the Equities in the Vaccine Mandate Case.”

“The Supreme Court Goes Anti-Vaxx”: Irin Carmon has this post at the “Intelligencer” blog of New York magazine.

“‘Simple’ lawsuit could pull U.S. Supreme Court into Indiana dispute over nursing home care”: Tim Evans of The Indianapolis Star has this report.

“Maskless and Inaccurate: The Supreme Court offers a window into partisan Covid fallacies.” Columnist David Leonhardt has this essay online at The New York Times.

“How the Supreme Court rules during a pandemic shows what may happen next”: Joan Biskupic of CNN has this news analysis.

“In a 6–3 Ruling, the Supreme Court Upholds the Covid Pandemic; The high court struck down OSHA’s testing mandate but left a vaccine requirement for health care workers in place”: Matt Ford has this essay online at The New Republic.

“Can the Public Trust that an Unmasked Justice Gorsuch was Unbiased About Mandates?” Law professor Michael C. Dorf has this essay online at Justia’s Verdict.

“The One Where Steve Gets COVID (with Preet Bharara)”: You can access the new episode of the “In Loco Parent(i)s” podcast, featuring Karen and Steve Vladeck, via this link.

“Has the ‘Great California Bacon Crisis’ arrived? Not yet — but here’s what might happen in the Bay Area.” Janelle Bitker of The San Francisco Chronicle has this report.

And online at The Washington Post, columnist Mitch Daniels has an essay titled “California’s ham-fisted war on pork offers some useful lessons.”