“Alabama AG Hails ‘Historic’ and ‘Humane’ Execution by Nitrogen Gas After Condemned Man Shook and Writhed for Minutes, Pulling Against Restraints”: Michael C. Dorf has this post at his blog, “Dorf on Law.”

“Confidence- and Emotion-Denotive Language”: Richard M. Re has this post at his “Re’s Judicata” blog.

“The Future of Academic Freedom: As the Israel-Hamas war provokes claims about unacceptable speech, the ability to debate difficult subjects is in renewed peril.” Law professor Jeannie Suk Gersen has this essay online at The New Yorker.

“Pa. Supreme Court rules abortion access is a right protected by state constitution; The finding delivered a significant victory for reproductive rights advocates in the state following the overturning of Roe v. Wade”: Jeremy Roebuck, Sarah Gantz, and Gillian McGoldrick of The Philadelphia Inquirer have this report.

Friday’s ruling of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania consisted of a 219-page majority opinion, a 71-page concurring opinion, and three opinions concurring in part and dissenting in part (here, here, and here). Each of the five Justices who participated in the decision wrote separately.

Update: The Philadelphia Inquirer has corrected the headline of this article to read, “Pa. Supreme Court grapples with question of whether abortion access is protected by state constitution; The ruling is the first to grapple with the question of whether Pennsylvania’s constitution protects reproductive autonomy since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.”

“Can the Internet Be Governed? Amid worries about what Big Tech is doing to our privacy, politics, and psyches, many stakeholders — from activists to technocrats — are calling for a new rule book.” Akash Kapur has this A Critic at Large essay in the February 5, 2024 issue of The New Yorker.

“64. Federal vs. State Immigration Enforcement Under Arizona v. United States; The Supreme Court may soon be asked to revisit Justice Kennedy’s 2012 majority opinion reaffirming federal primacy over immigration; Doing so could have implications far beyond the U.S.-Mexico border.” Steve Vladeck has this post at his “One First” Substack site.

“Big Law Gets Bigger: Paul, Weiss once embraced a variety of civic-minded causes; Today, the law firm seems more focused on its own bottom line.” Jeffrey Toobin has this article online at Air Mail.

“Trump’s Lawyers Made Some Very Odd Strategic Choices in the Supreme Court Ballot Case”: Law professor Richard L. Hasen — founder of the “Election Law Blog” — has this Jurisprudence essay online at Slate.

“Who Has Final Authority At The Border?” You can access today’s new episode of the “Strict Scrutiny” podcast via this link.

“The E. Jean Carroll Verdict Exposes the Limits of Libel Law”: Law professor RonNell Andersen Jones has this guest essay online at The New York Times.

“Judicial Notice (01.27.24): Don’t Mess With Texas — Or Kaplans; An $83.3 million verdict against Trump, the passing of an eminent academic, more Cravath partner departures, and other legal news from the week that was.” David Lat has this post at his “Original Jurisdiction” Substack site.

“Group asks Supreme Court to block West Point, military academies from using race in admissions”: Alex Swoyer of The Washington Times has this report.

And John Kruzel and Andrew Chung of Reuters report that “US Supreme Court is asked to stop West Point from considering race in admissions.”

You can access the Emergency Application for an Injunction Pending Appellate Review at this link.

“Charles Fried, Legal Scholar Who Broke With Conservatives, Dies at 88; As solicitor general under Reagan, he argued against abortion rights and affirmative action; But he came to see the current Supreme Court as ‘reactionary, not conservative’”: This obituary written by Trip Gabriel appears online at The New York Times.

“‘Textbook’ Execution or Botched One? Alabama Case Leaves Sides Divided; Alabama officials said the nation’s first nitrogen gas execution was a model for other states; Critics called it appalling and far from what the state promised”: Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs, Shaila Dewan, and Anna Betts of The New York Times have this report.

“Alabama executes Kenneth Eugene Smith by new nitrogen gas method for 1988 murder of pastor’s wife”: Ivana Hrynkiw of Alabama Media Group has this report, along with a report headlined “Kenneth Smith thrashed and writhed during execution: ‘That was torture,’ spiritual adviser says.”

“Texas border standoff: What to know about Eagle Pass amid state, federal dispute; ‘This isn’t over,’ Gov. Greg Abbott fights against Supreme Court’s ruling; Says it’s Texas’ constitutional right to protect its border”: Julia Gomez of USA Today has this report.

“Big Donors Back New Group to Fight ‘Deep State’ at Supreme Court”: Lydia Wheeler of Bloomberg Law has this report.

“The conservative legal world lines up behind Donald Trump at the Supreme Court”: Joan Biskupic of CNN has this report.

“Supreme Court Invites Former Clerk to Argue for Death Penalty”: Lydia Wheeler of Bloomberg Law has this report.

“Two US appeals courts form committees to examine AI use”: Nate Raymond and Sara Merken of Reuters have this report.

“Clerks for hire: The Supreme Court recruiting race; Supreme Court clerks are offered bonuses of up to $500,000 to join law firms.” Tobi Raji of The Washington Post has this report.

“Execution (of a Person) is a Misleading Term”: Michael C. Dorf has this post at his blog, “Dorf on Law.”

“The Day I Met John Roberts Changed My Life; How my escape from private practice led to a clerkship with Justice Scalia”: Ed Whelan has this post at his “Confirmation Tales” Substack site.

“What Justice Scalia Thought About Whether Presidents Are ‘Officers of the United States’; In a 2014 concurrence and a short letter elaborating on it, Scalia indicated that the president was an ‘officer of the United States’”: Roger Parloff has this post at the “Lawfare” blog.

“First Circuit Allows Some of Mexico’s Claims Against Gun Manufacturers to Move Forward”: William S. Dodge has this post at the “Transnational Litigation Blog.”

“After a Botched Execution, Alabama Is Trying an Untested Method; The state plans to carry out the first U.S. execution via nitrogen hypoxia with Kenneth Smith, who survived an earlier attempt to execute him by lethal injection”: Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs of The New York Times has this report, along with a report headlined “Supreme Court Declines to Stop Nitrogen Execution in Alabama; Both the Supreme Court and a federal appeals court denied stays sought by Kenneth Smith, who is scheduled to die on Thursday in the nation’s first nitrogen gas execution.”

“The Conservative Legal Movement Runs on Perpetual Grievance; The Federalist Society began as a collection of aggrieved law students; Five decades later, its members are still looking for things to get angry about”: Peter Shamshiri has this essay online at Balls and Strikes.

“Supreme Court Justices Must Either Explain Themselves Or Shut Up About ‘Unfair Treatment’; People who cannot be bothered to explain their votes in high-stakes, life-or-death cases are not entitled to the benefit of the doubt”: Jay Willis has this essay online at Balls and Strikes.

And in related commentary, online at Slate, Mark Joseph Stern has a Jurisprudence essay titled “What’s Going On With Brett Kavanaugh?“

“A new Supreme Court case threatens to take away your right to protest; The Fifth Circuit has spent years harassing a civil rights activist, and they gutted much of the First Amendment in the process”: Ian Millhiser has this essay online at Vox.

“New Jersey Supreme Court rules against Ocean casino in COVID business interruption case”: Wayne Parry of The Associated Press has this report on a unanimous ruling that the Supreme Court of New Jersey issued today.

Programming note: On Thursday morning, I will be presenting an oral argument to a yet-to-be-identified panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in the second case listed on page 12 of this PDF document (which may or may not correctly reflect the order in which the cases will be argued tomorrow morning). The oral arguments will be streamed live on YouTube beginning at 9:30 a.m. eastern time.

The Brief for Plaintiffs/Appellees that I filed on behalf of my clients in that case can be accessed here. And various other filings in that appeal can be accessed via this link.

I will be traveling back home tomorrow afternoon and evening, so additional posts will not be appearing as frequently as usual here tomorrow.

“Measuring Oral Arguments in the 2023/2024 Term”: Adam Feldman has this post at his “Empirical SCOTUS” blog.

“Miami Law Alumnus Argues Third Case Before the U.S. Supreme Court; The November 2023 appearance arguing before the United States Supreme Court was far from a first for Assistant Federal Public Defender Andrew Adler”: Catharine Skipp of the University of Miami School of Law has this report.

“In showdown over Trump’s eligibility, Biden administration seems to be sitting out; The solicitor general would typically file arguments on an issue of this magnitude — but the upcoming Trump case is a political lightning rod”: Josh Gerstein of Politico has this report.

“Biden administration urges US Supreme Court to reverse abortion pill curbs”: Andrew Chung of Reuters has this report.

You can access the federal government’s merits brief at this link and Danco’s merits brief at this link.