“An Aggressive Supreme Court Reshapes the US as Its Standing Erodes; A conservative supermajority is remaking US laws on the environment, health and firearms, even as public confidence declines and ethical questions grow”: Greg Stohr, Zoe Tillman, Jennifer A Dlouhy, and Jordan Fabian of Bloomberg News have this report.

“Supreme Court controversy over Alito, Thomas free trips began with Justice Scalia”: David G. Savage of The Los Angeles Times has this report.

“Arkansas Supreme Court Justice Robin F. Wynne dies at 70”: Tony Holt of The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette has this report.

“After Roe v. Wade fell, this father-daughter duo left Texas to go on providing abortions”: Gabriella Borter and Evelyn Hockstein of Reuters have this report.

“Challenge to abortion clinic ‘buffer zone’ law rejected by US court”: Daniel Wiessner of Reuters has this report on a per curiam opinion that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit issued yesterday.

“The return of joint and several liability: Minimally negligent defendants may be held liable for entire award in Pennsylvania.” Ben Wilkoff and Gabriella Scott have this essay online at Reuters.

It is worth noting that the defendant(s) opted to settle the case described in this essay after the Pa. Superior Court — an intermediate appellate court — denied full court review of a three-judge panel’s ruling. Determining whether the Pa. Supreme Court will or will not agree with that holding thus must await another day (and another case).

“Supreme Court Struggle to Spot Conflict Laid Bare in Alito Trip”: Kimberly Strawbridge Robinson and Lydia Wheeler of Bloomberg Law have this report.

Access today’s rulings of the U.S. Supreme Court in argued cases: The Court issued rulings in four argued cases.

1. Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh delivered the opinion of the Court in Arizona v. Navajo Nation, No. 21-1484. Justice Clarence Thomas issued a concurring opinion. And Justice Neil M. Gorsuch issued a dissenting opinion, in which Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson joined. You can access the oral argument via this link.

2. Justice Kavanaugh also delivered the opinion of the Court in Pugin v. Garland, No. 22-23. Justice Jackson issued a concurring opinion. And Justice Sotomayor issued a dissenting opinion, in which Justice Gorsuch joined in full and Justice Kagan joined in large part. You can access the oral argument via this link.

3. Justice Sotomayor delivered the opinion of the Court in Yegiazaryan v. Smagin, No. 22-381. And Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr. issued a dissenting opinion, in which Justice Thomas joined in full and Justice Gorsuch joined in part. You can access the oral argument via this link.

4. And Justice Thomas delivered the opinion of the Court in Jones v. Hendrix, No. 21-857. Justices Sotomayor and Kagan issued a joint dissenting opinion. And Justice Jackson issued a dissenting opinion. You can access the oral argument via this link.

“Alito in the hot seat over trips to Alaska and Rome he accepted from groups and individuals who lobby the Supreme Court”: Devan Cole and Audrey Ash of CNN have this report.

“How It Feels to Have Your Life Changed By Affirmative Action; Black and Hispanic college graduates, whose lives were directly shaped by race-conscious college admissions, have complicated thoughts about the expected Supreme Court decision”: Amy Harmon has this front page article in today’s edition of The New York Times.

“Clarence Thomas Went After My Work. His Criticisms Reveal a Disturbing Fact About Originalism. If judges are going to use history as their guide, they should probably try to get the history right.” Law professor Gregory Ablavsky has this Jurisprudence essay online at Slate.

“With focus on Alito trip, Senate Democrats vow action on ethics bill; ProPublica reports Justice Samuel A. Alito took free luxury fishing trip in 2008, did not disclose flight on billionaire’s plane”: Robert Barnes and John Wagner of The Washington Post have this report.

“Alito’s Reply in a Rival Publication Surprises ProPublica; The Wall Street Journal made the unusual decision to let Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. pre-empt ProPublica’s article about him in its opinion pages”: Katie Robertson of The New York Times has this report.

“Amul Thapar ‘The People’s Justice: Clarence Thomas and the Constitutional Stories that Define Him.'” Hugh Hewitt has posted the video of this interview on YouTube.

And the Eric Metaxas Radio Show has posted online a video interview titled “Amul Thapar | The People’s Justice: Clarence Thomas and the Constitutional Stories that Define Him.”

“The Fifth Circuit comes for the First Amendment right to protest; A rogue federal court has spent years harassing a prominent civil rights advocate”: Ian Millhiser has this essay online at Vox about a ruling that a divided three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued last Friday.

“What we learned from Iowa Supreme Court’s non-decision on abortion”: Laura Belin has this post at the “Bleeding Heartland” blog.

“SCOTUS to look at law barring accused domestic abusers from buying guns”: Ariane de Vogue of CNN has this report.

“96-Year-Old Judge’s Fitness Hearing Will Stay Closed to Public”: Kelcee Griffis of Bloomberg Law has this report.

You can access yesterday’s order of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit at this link.

“Alito Defends Luxury Fishing Trip Ahead of ProPublica Report; Supreme Court justice’s published rebuttal came hours ahead of news outlet’s article on undisclosed trip”: Jess Bravin of The Wall Street Journal has this report.

Adam Liptak of The New York Times reports that “Justice Alito Defends Private Jet Travel to Luxury Fishing Trip; In an opinion essay in The Wall Street Journal, the justice disputed a ProPublica report, saying he was not required to disclose the trip or recuse himself from his benefactor’s cases.”

And Thursday’s edition of The Wall Street Journal will contain an editorial titled “ProPublica’s Fishing Expedition for Justice Alito; The attack on the Supreme Court Justice on ethics and recusal is an attempt at Court-thinning.”

“‘Ethics’ and the Supreme Court’s Independence; Lawmakers seek to dictate the judiciary’s inner workings, imperiling the constitutional order”: Helgi C. Walker will have this op-ed in Thursday’s edition of The Wall Street Journal.

“Clarence Thomas and the Constitutional Stories that Define Him”: The National Constitution Center has posted this video on YouTube featuring Sixth Circuit Judge Amul Thapar discussing his new book, “The People’s Justice: Clarence Thomas and the Constitutional Stories that Define Him.”

“How the Supreme Court struck down anti-sodomy laws and paved way for same-sex marriage”: Joan Biskupic and Devan Cole of CNN have this report.

“Justice Samuel Alito Took Luxury Fishing Vacation With GOP Billionaire Who Later Had Cases Before the Court”: Justin Elliott, Joshua Kaplan, and Alex Mierjeski of ProPublica have this report.

And Paul Farhi of The Washington Post reports that “ProPublica asked about Alito’s travel. He replied in the Wall Street Journal. Questioned about an undisclosed fishing trip hosted by a GOP billionaire, the Supreme Court justice instead shared his rebuttal in a rival media outlet — before the investigative journalists could publish their scoop.”

“Senate Confirms Abortion-Rights Lawyer to U.S. Appeals Court; Biden nominee Julie Rikelman argued in Supreme Court case that overruled Roe v. Wade”: Laura Kusisto of The Wall Street Journal has this report.

Andrew Goudsward of Reuters reports that “Senate confirms abortion rights lawyer to US appeals court.”

Devan Cole of CNN reports that “Senate confirms lawyer who represented Mississippi abortion clinic at Supreme Court in Dobbs case for federal judgeship.”

Jennifer Bendery of HuffPost reports that “Senate Confirms Prominent Abortion-Rights Lawyer To Be A Federal Judge; Julie Rikelman, who represented an abortion clinic in the landmark Supreme Court case that gutted Roe v. Wade, will now serve on a U.S. appeals court.”

And in commentary, online at Vox, Ian Millhiser has an essay titled “One of America’s top abortion rights lawyers was just confirmed as a federal judge; Julie Rikelman, the abortion rights movement’s top Supreme Court litigator, will serve on the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.”

This evening, the U.S. Senate confirmed Julie Rikelman to a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit by a vote of 51-to-43.

“What Justice John Paul Stevens’s Papers Reveal About Affirmative Action; Twenty years ago, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor wrote, in a draft opinion, that white applicants could not be favored over Asian Americans; Why did she delete those lines — and why did Justice Clarence Thomas adopt them in his own opinion?” Law professor Jeannie Suk Gersen has this article online at The New Yorker.

“ProPublica Misleads Its Readers; The publication levels false charges about Supreme Court recusal, financial disclosures and a 2008 fishing trip”: Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. will have this op-ed in Wednesday’s edition of The Wall Street Journal. ProPublica has not yet published the report that is the subject of this op-ed.

“The Man Behind the Supreme Court Case Seeking to End Affirmative Action; Justices to decide within days on what Edward Blum calls ‘racial gerrymandering’ in college admissions”: Douglas Belkin of The Wall Street Journal has this report.

“Eastman disbarment proceedings over 2020 election begin in California; The conservative attorney has been accused of developing a legal roadmap to help President Donald Trump stay in power after losing the presidential election”: Jacqueline Alemany and Amy B Wang of The Washington Post have this report.

David Thomas of Reuters reports that “Ex-Trump lawyer Eastman faces disciplinary trial over election scheme.”

Joyce E. Cutler of Bloomberg Law reports that “Trump Lawyer Eastman Stands Ethics Trial Over Election Plot.”

And Kyle Cheney of Politico reports that “Eastman plan to keep Trump in power faces a reckoning, as authorities seek his disbarment; Disciplinary proceedings began Tuesday against John Eastman, the legal architect of Trump’s bid to subvert the 2020 election.”

“Gov. Ron DeSantis used secretive panel to flip state Supreme Court; Leonard Leo, the key architect of the U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative majority, led the advisers who helped DeSantis reshape the state court”: Beth Reinhard and Josh Dawsey of The Washington Post have this report.

“Good News for the Indian Child Welfare Act”: You can access yesterday’s episode of the “Strict Scrutiny” podcast via this link. Rebecca Nagle, host of the “This Land” podcast, appears as a guest.

“The Supreme Court’s Racial Misfire; The Justices save the Indian Child Welfare Act, for now”: This editorial appears in today’s edition of The Wall Street Journal.

“Judicial Notice (06.17.23): Will The Robots Take Our Jobs? One leading litigator leaving Kirkland, two Biglaw layoffs, a nine-figure settlement, and other legal news from the week that was.” David Lat has this post at his “Original Jurisdiction” Substack site.

Access today’s Order List of the U.S. Supreme Court: At this link. The Court granted review in one new case.

“Mystery powder letters sent to Kansas Republicans, Trump, Supreme Court Justice Thomas; ‘Everybody has to be concerned,’ said Kansas state Sen. Molly Baumgardner”: Bill Hutchinson and Aaron Katersky of ABC News have this report.

“Abortion rights supporters and opponents mark one year without Roe v. Wade”: Julia Harte of Reuters has this report.