“Meet the judge with outsize influence over Biden’s environment and energy agenda; Republicans are suing EPA, DOE and other agencies in a federal court in Louisiana where a Trump-appointed judge hears nearly all civil cases”: Sean Reilly of Greenwire has this report.

“John Roberts Lost the Thread; The conservative justices are writing opinions for conservative activists and basically no one else”: Madiba K. Dennie has this essay online at Balls and Strikes.

“Foreign hackers could target election litigation, federal judge warns; The judge, who heads a committee on information technology for the federal courts, urged his colleagues to be vigilant”: Josh Gerstein of Politico has this report.

“A Supremely Bad Idea: The proposed ‘ethics code’ for the justices is a misguided solution to a nonexistent problem.” James Burnham has this essay online at City Journal.

“Filibusters and Cloture: And why the Senate majority can’t force a talking filibuster.” Ed Whelan has this post at his “Confirmation Tales” Substack site.

“The Supreme Court Wants to Keep You In the Dark; Occasional leaks from the Supreme Court are the only insights the public gets into how the least accountable branch of government makes its choices”: Madiba K. Dennie has this essay online at Balls and Strikes.

“Attorney conflicts, delays — seeking justice for Dan Markel continues; Donna Adelson’s lawyer Dan Rashbaum withdraws due to ‘severe’ conflict, causing painful (but promising) trial delay”: Peter Schorsch of Florida Politics has this report.

“The Supreme Court Gets a Defense: A leading member of the appellate bar speaks up for the institution against political attacks.” This editorial appeared in Wednesday’s edition of The Wall Street Journal, which has also posted online the prepared text of Kannon Shanmugam‘s remarks at Duke Law School.

In other news, if you want to put some proper distance between you and Kannon, don’t repair to London.

Who would have guessed that Donna Adelson’s decision to be represented by the same lead counsel who represented her now-convicted son for the same murder might be problematic? Jeff Burlew of The Tallahassee Democrat has an article headlined “‘Foolish to plunge forward’: How the Donna Adelson murder trial was derailed.”

And Kendall Brandt, Channing Frampton, and Alexa Denagall of Tallahassee’s WXTL-TV report that “Trial of Donna Adelson delayed as her attorney resigns; Donna Adelson is Dan Markel’s former mother-in-law.”

“Are the Justices’ Opinions Emotionally Charged and Does it Matter?” Adam Feldman has this post at his “Empirical SCOTUS” blog.

“Sam Bankman-Fried claims trial judge botched rulings on advice-of-counsel defense”: Alison Frankel’s “On the Case” from Reuters has this post.

You can view the brief for appellant filed last Friday in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit at this link.

“Two US judges cleared of misconduct over Columbia clerk boycott”: Nate Raymond of Reuters has this report.

“Judge Rejects Exxon Mobil’s Challenge to $725M Benzene Verdict, Adds $91M in Delay Damages; Judge Carmella Jacquinto of the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas’ Sept. 13 rulings rejected a multipronged effort from Exxon Mobil to challenge the verdict handed up in May in Gill v. Exxon Mobil”: Aleeza Furman of The Legal Intelligencer has this report.

“J&J gets $260 million talc verdict overturned in Oregon, new trial ordered”: Brendan Pierson of Reuters has this report.

“TikTok faces skeptical judges in court fight over looming national ban; Justice Department cites national security, Chinese-owned app stresses First Amendment in hearing on future of a platform both presidential campaigns are embracing”: Drew Harwell and Eva Dou of The Washington Post have this report.

You can access the audio of yesterday’s oral argument before a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit via this link.

“First He Went After Anita Hill. Now He’s Coming for Clarence Thomas. As a young conservative, David Brock smeared Hill, who accused the Supreme Court justice of sexual harassment. Now, in a new book, Brock is denouncing Thomas and the court’s rightward tilt — and contending with his own complicated past.” Jennifer Szalai of The New York Times has this report.

“Memphis’ U.S. Attorney Kevin Ritz confirmed as federal appeals judge in party-line vote”: Evan Mealins and Lucas Finton of The Memphis Commercial Appeal have this report.

“The Judges Who Serve at Trump’s Pleasure: The Founders abhorred a judiciary more loyal to the Crown than to the rule of law; But now the independent system they designed is under threat.” Anne Applebaum has this article in the October 2024 issue of The Atlantic.

“The Boys are Back: Section 3, Trump’s Failed Disqualification, and the Irrelevancy of Originalism.” Eric Segall has this post at “Dorf on Law.”

“No ‘tactical advantage’ for either side as Donna Adelson trial begins in Dan Markel murder”: Jeff Burlew of The Tallahassee Democrat has this report.

And also online at that newspaper, legal analyst Tim Jansen has a report titled “The State vs. Donna Adelson: Trial will test prosecutors, defense attorneys.”

“How Roberts Shaped Trump’s Supreme Court Winning Streak; Behind the scenes, the chief justice molded three momentous Jan. 6 and election cases that helped determine the former president’s fate”: Jodi Kantor and Adam Liptak of The New York Times have this report.

“Full Fifth Circuit Rejects Suit Over Prosecutor’s Clerkship; En banc court said woman must show ‘favorable termination’; Lawsuit said prosecutor worked on case while a law clerk”: Jacqueline Thomsen of Bloomberg Law has this report (subscription required for full access).

You can access yesterday’s en banc ruling of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit at this link. Circuit Judge Andrew S. Oldham wrote the lead opinion, while Circuit Judge Don R. Willett wrote the dissenting opinion.

“North Dakota’s Abortion Ban Is Overturned; A judge ruled that the State Constitution protected a woman’s right to abortion until the fetus was viable; The state’s attorney general said he would appeal”: Kate Zernike of The New York Times has this report.

You can access the judge’s decision at this link.

“Roundup Lawsuits Pose a Threat to My Missouri Farm; Bayer has already pulled the herbicide from the consumer market based on false cancer claims”: Blake Hurst has this op-ed in today’s edition of The Wall Street Journal.

“Undated and misdated Pennsylvania ballots may not be counted in November after court ruling; The Pennsylvania Supreme Court threw out a lower court ruling that required such ballots to be counted during November’s presidential election”: Katie Bernard and Jeremy Roebuck of The Philadelphia Inquirer have this report.

Yesterday’s 4-to-3 ruling of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania consisted of a per curiam order and a dissenting statement.

“Justice Jackson says she might have left legal career had she known the challenges of caring for daughter”: John Fritze and Abby Phillip of CNN have this report.

And CNN has posted on YouTube a video titled “Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson admits public perception influences SCOTUS opinions.”

“US judge boycotting Columbia law clerks won’t recuse from protest case”: Nate Raymond of Reuters has this report.

“Serving, Filing, and Equitable Exceptions to Rule 4(a)(4); The Second Circuit reiterated its rule that a post-judgment motion must be timely filed — not merely served — to reset the appeal clock; The court added that Rule 4(a)(4) does not allow for equitable exceptions and addressed an order-designation issue, too”: Bryan Lammon has this post at his “final decisions” blog.

“Congress asked to weigh impeaching ex-judge for alleged sexual misconduct; Such referrals by the Judicial Conference of the U.S. Courts are rare; This one comes amid calls for greater scrutiny of courthouse workplace misconduct”: Tobi Raji and Ann E. Marimow of The Washington Post have this report.

“The inside story of how Sandra Day O’Connor rebuffed pressure from Scalia and others to overturn Roe v. Wade”: Joan Biskupic of CNN has this report.

“The Chief Justice Roberts Who Stood Up Last Term Was More Interested in Advancing a Conservative Legal Agenda than Promoting Judicial Statesmanship”: Law professor Rodger Citron has this two-part essay (access part one; part two) online at Justia’s Verdict.

“The GOP’s New Tactic to Block Abortion Votes Is Startlingly Successful”: Law professor Mary Ziegler has this Jurisprudence essay online at Slate.

“The Supreme Court’s Effort to Save Trump Is Already Working; The conservative justices created so many avenues for challenge and confusion that the Court functionally collaborated in Trump’s strategy of delay”: Quinta Jurecic has this essay online at The Atlantic.

“Ex-Alaska Judge’s Potential Impeachment Moves to House”: Suzanne Monyak, Maeve Sheehey, and Jacqueline Thomsen of Bloomberg Law have this report.

“Judge M. Margaret McKeown to Receive the 2024 American Inns of Court Lewis F. Powell Jr. Award”: The Public Information Office of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued this news release today.