“A Financial Watchdog’s Fate Is in Limbo. Idled Employees Are Still Being Paid. Employees at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau wait while the Trump administration’s mass layoffs at the agency are challenged in court.” Dylan Tokar of The Wall Street Journal has this report.

“Judicial Notice (12.07.25): Ain’t Misbehavin’; Misconduct allegations against a prominent plaintiff’s lawyer, dismissal of three judicial ethics complaints, and a slew of new hires by Paul Weiss — on the transactional side.” David Lat has this post at his “Original Jurisdiction” Substack site.

“The Innocent Bystanders Caught in Deadly Crossfire of Self-Defense Shootings; Massachusetts is the latest state to give shooters legal protection if they accidentally kill someone while lawfully defending themselves”: Mark Maremont of The Wall Street Journal has this report.

“Trump’s Firing Spree Gives Supreme Court the Chance to Remake Government; In case of fired Democratic FTC commissioner, court is poised to strip longstanding job protections for top agency officials”: James Romoser of The Wall Street Journal has this report.

“A Small Illinois City at the Center of a Seismic Shift in Abortion Access; Carbondale, Ill., a liberal enclave within driving distance of 10 states with abortion bans, has become a hub for the procedure; Last year there were nearly 11,000 abortions in this city of 21,000”: Elizabeth Williamson of The New York Times has this report.

“How the Supreme Court Can Improve American Politics: The Justices take up spending limits on candidate coordination with political parties.” This editorial will appear in Monday’s edition of The Wall Street Journal.

“Trump’s plans to shatter the bureaucracy have a green light at the Supreme Court; Incremental wins at the court give the White House confidence to go further”: Josh Gerstein of Politico has this report.

“Justices to Showcase Originalism Flaws in Slaughter Firing Case”: Law professor David Rudenstine has this essay online at Bloomberg Law.

“What We’ll Never Know About the Trump Pardons”: Jeffrey Toobin has this guest essay online at The New York Times.

“For Landmark Test of Executive Power, Echoes of a 1930s Supreme Court Battle; Franklin D. Roosevelt’s efforts to oust a Federal Trade Commission leader offer parallels to the current fight over President Trump’s actions”: Abbie VanSickle of The New York Times has this report.

“Halligan Continues as U.S. Attorney, Prompting Criticism From Judges; The Justice Department has seized on a lack of explicit instruction from a federal judge to keep Lindsey Halligan in place for now”: Devlin Barrett and Jonah E. Bromwich of The New York Times have this report.

“Noem, in a defiant court filing, offers few details on migrant flights to El Salvador; Judge James E. Boasberg of the District of Columbia is looking into whether a criminal contempt referral is warranted after the Trump administration in March continued to fly two planeloads of mostly Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador”: Steve Thompson of The Washington Post has this report.

“Judge Stalls Justice Dept. Effort to Seek New Comey Indictment; The judge’s decision prevented the government until at least next Friday from having access to much of the evidence it used to secure its original indictment against Mr. Comey”: Alan Feuer of The New York Times has this report.

Kelly Kasulis Cho of The Washington Post reports that “Judge blocks access to emails seized from James Comey’s lawyer; A judge is pausing access to evidence taken from the former FBI director’s lawyer and friend Daniel Richman amid accusations that it was retained illegally.”

And Josh Gerstein and Kyle Cheney of Politico report that “Judge blocks prosecutors’ access to James Comey’s lawyer’s emails and data; Court says government’s retention and use of law professor Daniel Richman’s data appears to have been illegal.”

You can access yesterday’s order of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia at this link.

“Conservative Project at Supreme Court Meets Trump’s Push to Oust Officials; President Trump has repeatedly ousted leaders of independent agencies despite federal laws meant to shield those regulators from politics”: Ann E. Marimow of The New York Times has this news analysis.