“Justice Kavanaugh Speaks at the Fifth Circuit Judicial Conference”: Josh Blackman has this post at “The Volokh Conspiracy.”

“Justice Clarence Thomas calls criticism of him ‘nastiness’ and ‘lies’; Justice Thomas offered some of his most extensive comments since news broke last year of travel and real estate deals paid for by businessman Harlan Crow”: Justin Jouvenal, Tobi Raji, and Ann E. Marimow of The Washington Post has this report.

John Fritze of CNN reports that “Justice Clarence Thomas decries Washington as ‘hideous’ and pushes back on ‘nastiness’ of critics.”

And Chris Marr of Bloomberg Law report that “Justice Thomas Criticizes ‘Nastiness and the Lies’ He Faces; Gifts from billionaire Harlan Crow drew criticism in 2023; Thomas says people in Washington take pride in ‘being awful.’”

Update: In other coverage, Abbie VanSickle of The New York Times reports that “Justice Thomas Denounces ‘the Nastiness and the Lies’ Faced by His Family; The statement was among the few public remarks he has made since revelations that he had failed to report lavish gifts and travel from wealthy conservatives.”

“Philadelphia jury awards former mechanic $725.5M in Exxon Mobil case; The jurors linked Paul Gill’s cancer to benzene exposure during his work in the 1970s as an auto mechanic and service station attendant”: Frank Kummer and Ryan W. Briggs of The Philadelphia Inquirer have this report.

“How Originalism Ate the Law: America is captive to a legal theory that dictates our laws on guns, abortion, and so much more; We need to act.” Slate has posted online a series of Jurisprudence essays addressing this topic, all of which you can access via this link.

A.J. Jacobs has a Jurisprudence essay titled “I Spent a Year Living Under the Original Interpretation of the Constitution; Here’s what I learned in the process.”

Jill Filipovic has a Jurisprudence essay titled “Originalism Is One Reason Why America Has Such a Gun Problem; One of the worst ‘originalist’ decisions was about guns, back in 2008; This term, it might get even worse.”

Mark Joseph Stern has a Jurisprudence essay titled “Ketanji Brown Jackson Joined the Supreme Court With a Big Idea; But her attempt to reclaim originalism from conservatives isn’t working.”

Madiba K. Dennie has a Jurisprudence essay titled “Throw Originalism Out; It’s Time for Inclusive Constitutionalism; I’ve been thinking about how the law interprets the Constitution for years; I have an idea for how to move forward.”

And Jay Willis has a Jurisprudence essay titled “We the People: The Constitution is not determined by the founders, judges, or even Supreme Court justices; We still get to decide what it should mean.”

“Steve Bannon’s bid to undo Jan. 6 contempt conviction fails; Appeals court rules that the former Trump adviser was rightfully convicted of contempt of Congress for refusing to testify in front of the committee that investigated the Jan. 6 Capitol attack”: Rachel Weiner of The Washington Post has this report.

And Tierney Sneed of CNN reports that “Federal appeals court upholds Steve Bannon’s contempt-of-Congress conviction.”

You can access today’s ruling of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit at this link.