How Appealing



Monday, November 17, 2025

“Judges Are Finding Ways to Deal With the Supreme Court’s Disastrous Shadow Docket; The White House wants to keep its cases out of skeptical federal district courts; Judges are finding ways to reel them back in”: Madiba K. Dennie has this essay online at Balls and Strikes.

Posted at 9:58 PM by Howard Bashman



“Fight over abortion could doom Congress’s health care plans; Republicans and Democrats are deeply divided over a potential change to the ACA subsidies”: Riley Beggin and Theodoric Meyer of The Washington Post have this report.

Posted at 9:57 PM by Howard Bashman



“Supreme Court won’t review loudspeaker prayers at state football championship; The justices were asked to field another First Amendment showdown over prayers at high school football games”: Kelsey Reichmann of Courthouse News Service has this report.

Posted at 9:55 PM by Howard Bashman



“The Trump prosecutor probing former top Obama administration officials; Jason Reding Quiñones, U.S. attorney in Miami and a favorite prosecutor for the Trump administration, is pursuing a broad investigation into former Obama officials”: Perry Stein, Jeremy Roebuck, and David Ovalle of The Washington Post have this report.

Posted at 9:53 PM by Howard Bashman



“A Conservative Vision for America After Trump: Can the right find its way back to small government? Sarah Isgur thinks so.” You can access today’s new episode of “The Opinions” podcast of The New York Times via this link.

Posted at 9:48 PM by Howard Bashman



“Supreme Court to consider case that could limit asylum rights for migrants; The Supreme Court agreed to review what it means for a migrant to ‘arrive’ in the United States”: Julian Mark of The Washington Post has this report.

And Kelsey Reichmann of Courthouse News Service reports that “Supreme Court could revive Obama-era practice of turning away asylum-seekers; Although President Trump has yet to reinstate the policy, the high court said it would review border agents’ abandoned practice of physically blocking migrants from seeking asylum at ports of entry.”

Posted at 9:34 PM by Howard Bashman



“Judge Says Justice Dept. May Have Committed Misconduct in Comey Case; The magistrate judge raised the question of whether ‘government misconduct’ in the case might require dismissing the charges against the former F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, altogether”: Alan Feuer of The New York Times has this report.

And Jeremy Roebuck and Perry Stein of The Washington Post report that “Federal judge blasts potential ‘government misconduct’ in Comey case; A U.S. magistrate judge ordered the Justice Department to release all grand jury material to the former FBI director, citing possible government misconduct that could lead to the dismissal of charges.”

Posted at 9:26 PM by Howard Bashman



“The Unraveling of the Justice Department: Sixty attorneys describe a year of chaos and suspicion.” Emily Bazelon and Rachel Poser have this article online at The New York Times Magazine.

Posted at 5:07 PM by Howard Bashman



“Justice Department official told prosecutors that U.S. should ‘just sink’ drug boats”: Ryan Lucas of NPR has a report that begins, “At a Justice Department conference in February, then-acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove told the department’s top drug prosecutors that the Trump administration wasn’t interested in interdicting suspected drug vessels at sea anymore. Instead, he said, the U.S. should ‘just sink the boats,’ according to three people present for the speech.”

Posted at 5:03 PM by Howard Bashman



“Five Flaws in the Government’s National Guard Argument”: Richard Bernstein has this post online at the Society for the Rule of Law.

Posted at 2:26 PM by Howard Bashman



In the November 24, 2025 issue of The New Yorker: In the Talk of the Town section, Benjamin Wallace-Wells has a Comment titled “The Meaning of Trump’s Presidential Pardons: The President granted two hundred and thirty-eight pardons and commutations in his first term; less than a year into his second, he has issued nearly two thousand.”

Marc Fisher has an Annals of Law Enforcement article headlined “Kash Patel’s Acts of Service: The F.B.I. director isn’t just enforcing the President’s agenda at the Bureau — he’s seeking retribution for its past investigations of Donald Trump.”

And Amy Davidson Sorkin has a Books essay titled “If the Legal Campaigns Against Donald Trump Had Ended Differently: New books look at the January 6th Trial That Wasn’t and other failed prosecutions — and whether they might have changed history.”

Posted at 10:39 AM by Howard Bashman



“After a Strategic Retreat, Trump Has Many Moves Left to Prevent Release of the Epstein Records; After the House vote, he can resume playing hardball — and the preservation of the records during this fight is a real question”: Bob Bauer has this post at the “Executive Functions” Substack site.

Posted at 10:34 AM by Howard Bashman



“193. The ‘War’ on Judges: Deputy Attorney General Blanche’s attack on lower courts is an impressive combination of light on substance; shamelessly hypocritical; and profoundly dangerous; More people should be condemning it.” Steve Vladeck has this post at his “One First” Substack site.

Posted at 8:34 AM by Howard Bashman



“DC appellate firm picks up departing DOJ Supreme Court advocate”: David Thomas of Reuters has a report that begins, “A small Washington, D.C., law firm with an outsized U.S. Supreme Court practice is gaining a new partner, hiring a longtime Justice Department lawyer from the U.S. solicitor general’s office. Gupta Wessler, which occupies an unusual niche representing plaintiffs in appeals, said Monday that it hired Matthew Guarnieri, who has argued 13 Supreme Court cases under the Biden and Trump administrations as an assistant to the U.S. solicitor general.”

Posted at 8:32 AM by Howard Bashman



“Is the Federal Prohibition on Felon Firearm Possession Constitutional? Judge Willett thinks that some federal statutes have been interpreted and applied in ways that conflict with the notion that the federal government only has limited and enumerated powers.” Jonathan H. Adler has this post at “The Volokh Conspiracy.”

You can access last Thursday’s per curiam decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, and the opinion concurring therein, at this link.

Posted at 8:30 AM by Howard Bashman