How Appealing



Wednesday, February 15, 2023

“SC House OKs bill that bans abortion at conception, setting up possible GOP impasse”: Seanna Adcox of The Post and Courier of Charleston, South Carolina has this report.

Posted at 10:04 PM by Howard Bashman



“Pence says he will fight subpoena as far as Supreme Court”: Thomas Beaumont and Jill Colvin of The Associated Press have this report.

Posted at 9:51 PM by Howard Bashman



“Will a 150-year-old law put the abortion pill in peril?” Columnist Ruth Marcus has this essay online at The Washington Post.

Posted at 9:24 PM by Howard Bashman



“3rd Circuit, weighing gun ban for people convicted of crimes, looks to history”: Brendan Pierson of Reuters has this report.

Posted at 8:10 PM by Howard Bashman



“State Senate Rejects Nominee for Chief Judge in Defeat for Hochul; Justice Hector LaSalle, Gov. Kathy Hochul’s divisive nominee, failed to overcome opposition from the Democrats who control the State Senate”: Luis Ferré-Sadurní of The New York Times has an article that begins, “Breaking a weekslong impasse, the New York State Senate rejected Gov. Kathy Hochul’s nominee to lead the state’s highest court, holding an unexpected floor vote on Wednesday that capped a dramatic battle that had roiled Democrats in the State Capitol.”

Update: In other coverage, Jimmy Vielkind of The Wall Street Journal reports that “New York Senate Rejects Hector LaSalle’s Nomination to Lead State’s Top Court; Senate, facing lawsuit, votes down Gov. Kathy Hochul’s Court of Appeals pick.”

Posted at 4:48 PM by Howard Bashman



“Appeals court blocks California bar on mandatory arbitration for workers”: Brendan Pierson of Reuters has this report on a ruling that a divided three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued today.

Back on September 15, 2021, this same three-judge panel (also divided then) reached the opposite result. After granting panel rehearing, Senior Circuit Judge William A. Fletcher appears to have switched his vote in the case, making the original dissenting judge the author of the new majority opinion and the original majority author the new dissenting judge.

Posted at 4:23 PM by Howard Bashman



“US Senate confirms Oregon Justice Adrienne Nelson to a seat on federal bench; The bipartisan confirmation makes Nelson the first Black women jurist in Oregon to become a U.S. District Court judge; And also provides Gov. Tina Kotek an opening to nominate her first justice to the state’s highest court”: Conrad Wilson of Oregon Public Broadcasting has this report.

Posted at 4:02 PM by Howard Bashman



“US Circuit Nominee Questioned on Sex Assault Cases Defense”: Tiana Headley of Bloomberg Law has a report that begins, “A Biden appellate nominee pushed back against criticisms of how a New Hampshire private school he represented dealt with a female student victim in criminal and civil sex assault cases.”

Posted at 3:57 PM by Howard Bashman



“Why Is Affirmative Action in Peril? One Man’s Decision. How the landmark 1978 Supreme Court decision that upheld the practice may ultimately have set it on a path to being outlawed.” Emily Bazelon will have this article in this upcoming Sunday’s issue of The New York Times Magazine.

Posted at 1:14 PM by Howard Bashman



“How the Supreme Court turned America into a casino”: Columnist Charles Lane has this essay online at The Washington Post.

Posted at 1:11 PM by Howard Bashman



“The Supreme Court Will Decide the Line Between Free Speech and Violent Threats; Technology has made it easier than ever to menace other people; Can police and prosecutors keep pace while preserving our First Amendment rights?” Matt Ford of The New Republic has this report.

Posted at 1:08 PM by Howard Bashman



“Senate backs placement of Clarence Thomas statue at Georgia Capitol”: David Wickert of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has an article that begins, “The Georgia Senate on Tuesday approved a proposal to install a statue of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas at the state Capitol.”

Posted at 11:38 AM by Howard Bashman



Congratulations to Rick Hasen on the 20th anniversary of his indispensable “Election Law Blog”: Rick notes the occasion this morning in a post titled “#ELB20th: 20 Years of the Election Law Blog, and 20 Years of American Democracy’s Slow (and Faster) Deterioration: A Call for Vigilance and Resilience.”

I am proud to know that the “How Appealing” blog helped to inspire the creation of both “SCOTUSblog” and the “Election Law Blog.” If those two things were all that my blog had ever accomplished, it would have been well worth the effort.

Posted at 10:00 AM by Howard Bashman



Listen live, online to the Third Circuit‘s reargument en banc in Range v. Attorney General, involving a Second Amendment challenge to the federal statute criminalizing the possession of guns by individuals convicted of a nonviolent felony: You can access the live audio on YouTube via this link. The oral argument is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. eastern time.

The oral argument is occurring in the Philadelphia federal district court’s Ceremonial Courtroom, presumably to accommodate an expected larger than usual in-person attendance. The Third Circuit often uses that courtroom for high-interest en banc oral arguments.

Posted at 9:54 AM by Howard Bashman