“McConnell recasts the high court as ‘independent’ to win votes in 2024”: Columnist Ruth Marcus has this essay online at The Washington Post.

“Court Halts Mountain Valley Pipeline Championed by Sen. Joe Manchin; A provision in the debt-ceiling law limited opponents’ right to sue and mandated pipeline’s completion”: David Harrison of The Wall Street Journal has this report.

And Wednesday’s edition of that newspaper will contain an editorial titled “Judges Defy Congress to Stop the Mountain Valley Pipeline; A three-judge Fourth Circuit panel blocks a permit even after the debt-ceiling bill stripped them of jurisdiction.”

“The rot in the federal judiciary goes deeper than the Supreme Court”: Columnist Jennifer Rubin has this essay online at The Washington Post.

“The Whimsy of the Late Justice John Paul Stevens: Stevens was known not only for his bowtie at the court but also his cheese sandwich for lunch.” Tony Mauro has this post at his “The Marble Palace Blog” online at The National Law Journal.

“Clash over US judge’s competency probe heads into mediation”: Andrew Goudsward of Reuters has this report.

And recently at IPWatchdog, former Federal Circuit Judge Paul R. Michel had a post titled “Chief Judge Moore v. Judge Newman: An Unacceptable Breakdown of Court Governance, Collegiality and Procedural Fairness.” The post also appears to have received a comment from former Federal Circuit Judge Randall R. Rader.

“The Smearing of Lorie Smith: She won a landmark First Amendment victory; The press now falsely claims she filed a ‘fake case.'” Kristen Waggoner and Erin Hawley will have this op-ed in Wednesday’s edition of The Wall Street Journal.

“The Missing Originalism in the Court’s Racial-Preferences Opinions; There’s still work to do in restoring the original meaning of the 14th Amendment; Only Justice Thomas tried to do that in the Harvard admissions case”: Dan McLaughlin has this essay online at National Review.

“Case or Controversy Requirement? What Case or Controversy Requirement? The Supreme Court’s misguided decision to grant Lorie Smith standing to pursue her entirely hypothetical claim against the State of Colorado in the web designer case.” David Post has this post at “The Volokh Conspiracy.”

“The Supreme Court Case That Has Me Worried, for Survivors and for My State”: New York Governor Kathy Hochul has this guest essay online at The New York Times.

“Supreme Court justices and donors mingle at campus visits. These documents show the ethical dilemmas.” Brian Slodysko and Eric Tucker of The Associated Press have this report.

Additionally, Slodysko and Tucker report that “Supreme Court Justice Sotomayor’s staff prodded colleges and libraries to buy her books.”

Tucker has a report headlined “Book sales, a lure for money and more takeaways from the AP investigation into Supreme Court ethics.”

And Tucker and Slodysko also have a report headlined “Inside the AP’s investigation into the ethics practices of the Supreme Court justices.”

The U.S. Supreme Court issued this statement to The Associated Press in response to that news organization’s inquiries.