“Judges Dismayed at Veto Threat of Bill to Help Strained Courts; Biden says would veto plan passed by Senate, pending in House; Measure was bipartisan, but Trump election changed that”: Suzanne Monyak of Bloomberg Law has this report.
And in commentary, online at The Hill, law professor Robert Luther III has an essay titled “How signing the JUDGES Act into law can help Biden’s judicial legacy.”
“Exxon can’t shake $14.25 mln penalty for air pollution at Texas refinery”: Nate Raymond of Reuters has this report.
And Kayla Guo of The Texas Tribune reports that “Federal appeals court upholds $14.25 million fine against Exxon for pollution in Texas; A 2021 ruling found the oil giant committed more than 16,000 violations of the Clean Air Act at its Baytown refinery and plant.”
You can access today’s 9-to-8 en banc ruling of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit at this link. As Raymond explains in his report for Reuters, “The New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on a 9-8 vote upheld the penalty after judges on the court failed to reach a consensus on how to dispense with the appeal following more than 18 months of deliberations.”
“Montana Supreme Court Upholds Injunction, Allows Transgender Minors to Access Certain Healthcare Procedures; The state failed to demonstrate that access to hormone therapies and other treatments presents a bona fide risk to minors, the Court wrote in a Wednesday morning decision”: Denali Sagner of Flathead Beacon has this report.
And Monique Merrill of Courthouse News Service reports that “Montana Supreme Court upholds ruling allowing gender-affirming care for minors; The high court agreed that the law likely violates the state’s constitutional right to privacy.”
You can access today’s ruling of the Supreme Court of Montana at this link.
“Appeals court considers next step for emergency abortion care in Idaho; U.S. Department of Justice sued Idaho in 2022 to block it from enforcing its criminal abortion ban for emergency room physicians”: Kelcie Moseley-Morris of Idaho Capital Sun has this report.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has posted on YouTube at this link the video of yesterday’s en banc oral argument.
“Eleventh Circuit Rejects Federal Child Porn/Sex Trafficking Claims Against Video Chat Service Omegle”: Eugene Volokh has this post at “The Volokh Conspiracy” about a per curiam decision that the majority on a partially divided three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit issued yesterday.
“Alaska Prosecutor Claims Ex-Judge Leveraged Political Ties; Prosecutor said Judge Kindred touted political influence; Alleges judgeship recommendation raised in seeking explicit photos”: Jacqueline Thomsen and Suzanne Monyak of Bloomberg Law have this report, along with a related article from yesterday headlined “Alaska Prosecutor Claims ‘Abusive’ Relationship With Ex-Judge; Prosecutor who sent judge nude photos says she felt ‘trapped’; Joshua Kindred resigned after sexual misconduct findings” (subscription required to access full text of yesterday’s article).
“Ex-Judges Join Push for Biden to Commute Federal Death Sentences; Retired jurists add to pressure on president over death penalty; Trump’s record on executions prompts urgency for some”: John Crawley of Bloomberg News has this report.
“Supreme Court Won’t Decide Nvidia Securities Fraud Case After All; In an unsigned order, the justices dismissed the case against the tech giant as ‘improvidently granted,’ meaning they had concluded that it had been a mistake to take it up”: Adam Liptak of The New York Times has this report.
“Dan Markel murder: Donna Adelson back in court for first time since trial was derailed.” Jeff Burlew of The Tallahassee Democrat has this report.