“Clyburn, architect of Biden’s court pledge, pushes his pick”: Meg Kinnard of The Associated Press has this report.

“Justice”: Dan Rather and Elliot Kirschner have this post at their “Steady” Substack site.

“The Supreme Court is leading a Christian conservative revolution: Almost as soon as Justice Barrett was confirmed, the Court handed down a revolutionary ‘religious liberty’ case; It hasn’t slowed down since.” Ian Millhiser has this essay online at Vox.

“No More Compromisers: The Supreme Court doesn’t need another Stephen Breyer, but someone who can openly confront the immorality of our criminal legal system.” Cristian Farias has this essay online at Inquest.

“The Supreme Court at the Crossroads of Hackery: How will the law work in a world where the high court is making up the rules as it goes along?” Jason Linkins has this essay online at The New Republic.

“Biden Gets Sixth Vacancy on Ninth Circuit with Hurwitz Retiring”: Madison Alder of Bloomberg Law has this report (subscription required for full access).

“Supreme Court pick holds import for Black women in the law”: Jamie Stengle and Jonathan Drew of The Associated Press have this report.

“In North Carolina, a Pitched Battle Over Gerrymanders and Justices; A fight over who is fit to hear a redistricting case highlights what experts say is the growing influence of ideology and money over state supreme courts nationwide”: Michael Wines will have this article in Sunday’s edition of The New York Times.

“Black Women in Law Feel Pride and Frustration Ahead of Court Nominee; As Biden prepares to nominate the first Black woman to the nation’s highest court, members of this small, elite group are watching with complicated emotions”: Tariro Mzezewa and Audra D.S. Burch will have this article in Sunday’s edition of The New York Times.

“Inside the campaign to pressure Justice Stephen Breyer to retire; The Supreme Court justice’s decision to step down followed an extraordinary campaign designed to pressure him to retire and make way for a new nominee to be named by a Democratic president”: Matt Viser, Tyler Pager, Seung Min Kim, and Robert Barnes of The Washington Post have this report.

“The 3 Supreme Court justices to watch after Breyer retires”: Joan Biskupic of CNN has this news analysis.

“Justice Stephen Breyer leaves behind a court antithetical to his beliefs; As the idealist justice makes his exit, the court remaining looks little like his rosy sentiments”: Kelsey Reichmann of Courthouse News Service has this report.

“Beyond a First, Black Woman Justice May Shake Up High Court”: Jennifer Hijazi of Bloomberg Law has this report.

“Limiting Yourself to 7% of the Potential Candidates . . . is usually unlikely to yield the best candidate”: Eugene Volokh has this post at “The Volokh Conspiracy.”

“The Supreme Court’s new death penalty order should make your skin crawl; The Court’s new death penalty order is almost too cruel to be believed”: Ian Millhiser has this essay online at Vox.

“California’s Leondra Kruger emerges as contender for U.S. Supreme Court”: Hannah Wiley has this article in today’s edition of The Los Angeles Times.

“Republican-led states rush to pass antiabortion bills before Supreme Court rules on Roe; Lawmakers in at least 29 states, anticipating a new legal landscape, have filed measures to restrict abortion”: Caroline Kitchener of The Washington Post has this report.

“S.F. federal judge: Justice Breyer’s reputation as a pragmatist doesn’t tell the whole story.” Bob Egelko of The San Francisco Chronicle recently had this report.

“I Clerked for Justice Breyer. There’s One Thing I Hope Remains on the Court Long After He’s Gone.” Law professor Risa L. Goluboff has this jurisprudence essay online at Slate.

“Georgetown University Law School’s Black Students Association demands incoming professor’s job offer be rescinded after he tweeted that Biden’s promise to pick a black female to replace Justice Breyer is racist”: James Gordon of The Daily Mail (UK) has this report.

And National Review has published an editorial titled “Don’t Fire Ilya Shapiro.”

“Cloud of Supreme Court Confirmation Bitterness Hangs Over Coming Fight; The battles of the recent past will no doubt extend into the coming fight over President Biden’s choice to replace Justice Stephen G. Breyer”: Carl Hulse has this new installment of his “On Washington” column online at The New York Times.

“Black female judges, law students and more on what the Supreme Court nomination means to them”: Janay Kingsberry and Julianne McShane of The Washington Post have this report, which includes a quote from a federal appellate judge.

“Why Can’t We Make Women’s Equality the Law of the Land?” Online at The New York Times, columnist Jesse Wegman has an essay that begins, “Even if you are a political junkie, there’s a good chance you didn’t realize that the United States Constitution grew 58 words longer this week.”

“It’s Time to End Race-Based Affirmative Action”: John McWhorter has this essay online at The New York Times.

“As Breyer Pondered Retirement, Biden Bet on a Hands-Off Strategy; The president believed pressuring the court’s oldest justice to retire might backfire; A chorus of liberals took a different approach”: Katie Rogers and Charlie Savage will have this article in Saturday’s edition of The New York Times.

“Race, Gender and the Supreme Court: Criticism of Biden’s forthcoming black woman nominee isn’t ‘racially tinged.'” This editorial will appear in Saturday’s edition of The Wall Street Journal.

“Texas Republicans pressure court to reverse decision blocking attorney general from prosecuting election cases; Republicans from Gov. Greg Abbott on down are pressuring the all-GOP Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to reverse a December ruling that gutted the attorney general’s power to go after election cases on his own”: Patrick Svitek of The Texas Tribune has this report.

“Who Decides? Depends on What the Federal Government Allows.” Online at the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, Clark L. Hildabrand and Ross C. Hildabrand have this review of Sixth Circuit Chief Judge Jeffrey S. Sutton‘s new book, “Who Decides?: States as Laboratories of Constitutional Experimentation.”

“The Breyer Patch (with Tiffany Atkins)”: You can access yesterday’s new episode of the “In Loco Parent(i)s” podcast, featuring Steve and Karen Vladeck, at this link.

At about the 16 minute and 45 second mark, Karen learns that Steve’s Bland SCOTX victory last week wasn’t actually his first appellate win ever in a case he orally argued.

“The Administrative State Goes to Court: A ‘Halftime’ Analysis of the Supreme Court’s Term.” The C. Boyden Gray Center for the Study of the Administrative State at the Antonin Scalia Law School of George Mason University will host this webinar on Monday, January 31, 2022.

Scheduled to participate in the event are Deepak Gupta, Hashim H. Mooppan, and Adam White, with Jennifer Mascott moderating.

“Presidents Have Long Wanted a Diverse Supreme Court; The enduring goal has been to choose justices who ‘look like America’; What’s changed is their view of what America looks like”: Law professor Stephen L. Carter has this essay online at Bloomberg Opinion.

“Breyer’s Supreme Court Pragmatism Will Be Missed; The retiring justice’s practical-minded temperament infused the dominant jurisprudence of a less ideological era; Its demise is having painful consequences”: Law professor Noah Feldman has this essay online at Bloomberg Opinion.

“NAPABA in Conversation with Justice Breyer”: This YouTube clip — which U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria (N.D. Cal.) linked to in his “SCOTUSblog” guest post titled “The diversity of Justice Breyer’s legacy” — included a tribute from then U.S. District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson (D.D.C.) among other former Breyer clerk luminaries.

“Tributes to Justice Breyer”: “SCOTUSblog” has published this series of posts.

“A Pennsylvania court overturned the state’s mail voting law, but an appeal means it’s still in place; Democrats believe the state Supreme Court will ultimately uphold the law, which passed with bipartisan support before becoming toxic in GOP politics after Trump’s election loss”: Jonathan Lai and Andrew Seidman of The Philadelphia Inquirer have this report.

My earlier coverage of today’s Pa. Commonwealth Court ruling can be accessed here.