“Supreme Court Will Decide if Fed Independence Has Any Legal Teeth; Wednesday’s arguments in the Lisa Cook case come amid a broader Trump campaign to bend the central bank to presidential will”: Nick Timiraos and James Romoser of The Wall Street Journal have this report.
Greg Stohr and Erik Larson of Bloomberg News have a report headlined “Can Trump Fire Lisa Cook? What the Supreme Court Will Consider.”
And in commentary, Wednesday’s edition of The Wall Street Journal will contain an editorial titled “Trump vs. the Fed Goes to the Supreme Court; If he can fire Lisa Cook without cause, he will all but run the central bank.”
“Texas defends law requiring schools to post Ten Commandments; A federal appeals court heard arguments in lawsuits seeking to block Texas and Louisiana from requiring classroom displays of the Ten Commandments”: Jaden Edison of The Texas Tribune has this report.
And Jacqueline Thomsen of Bloomberg Law reports that “Full Fifth Circuit Wary of Ten Commandments Laws’ Challengers.”
“Supreme Court seems skeptical of Hawaii limits on carrying guns; Hawaii’s law bans people from carrying firearms on private property open to the public unless they have the owner’s consent”: Justin Jouvenal of The Washington Post has this report.
And Lydia Wheeler of The Wall Street Journal reports that “Supreme Court Voices Skepticism of Hawaii Law Limiting Guns on Private Property; The state and a handful of others ban guns by default unless the property owner has given express permission.”
“The Department of Justice has become a misnomer with Bondi at the helm; One year in, the depths to which DOJ has sunk was laid bare in an order on Lindsey Halligan’s claims in Virginia and in subpoenas issued against officials in Minnesota”: Chris Geidner has this post at his Substack site.
“Lindsey Halligan out as U.S. attorney following pressure from judges; One federal judge in Virginia sought applications for her replacement; Another called her use of the U.S. attorney title a ‘charade’”: Steve Thompson, Salvador Rizzo, and Jeremy Roebuck of The Washington Post have this report.
Devlin Barrett and Glenn Thrush of The New York Times report that “Halligan Leaves as U.S. Attorney After Mounting Pressure From Judges; For weeks, judges have pressed Ms. Halligan to explain why she continues to identify herself in court filings as the U.S. attorney, despite a ruling in November that she was unlawfully appointed to the job.”
And Ryan J. Reilly and Gary Grumbach of NBC News report that “Trump loyalist Lindsey Halligan leaves her post as a top federal prosecutor; She departs the same day a judge warned her against ‘masquerading’ as the top prosecutor in the Eastern District of Virginia.”
“California Republicans Ask Supreme Court to Block New Congressional Map; Republicans asked the justices to step in after a federal court rejected their claims that the state’s new congressional map violated the Constitution”: Abbie VanSickle and Laurel Rosenhall of The New York Times have this report.
And at his “Election Law Blog,” Rick Hasen has a post titled “Republicans Take Their Challenge to California’s Prop 50 Partisan Gerrymander to the Supreme Court on an Emergency Petition; Chances of Success are Low.”
You can access the court filing at this link.
“Greenland Is Trump’s White Whale; He needs therapy more than the U.S. needs to own the island to ensure its defense”: Columnist Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. will have this op-ed in Wednesday’s edition of The Wall Street Journal.
And at the “Lawfare” blog, Benjamin Wittes has a post titled “The Situation: ‘Evident Clinical Symptoms’; There is no magic bullet solution to a deranged president.”
“Federal judge upholds West Texas A&M drag show ban, short-circuiting student group’s appeal; A final ruling in the case prompted a federal appeals court to cancel oral arguments, set for Friday, on an earlier ruling; Another appeal is expected”: Jessica Priest of The Texas Tribune has this report.
“Ex-Law Partner, Real Estate Mogul Testify in Goldstein Trial”: Holly Barker of Bloomberg Law has this report.
And Sulaiman Abdur-Rahman of The National Law Journal has an article headlined “‘Very Smart Man’: Ex-Firm Partner Testifies at Tom Goldstein’s Criminal Trial; Appellate attorney Kevin Russell testified about his former Goldstein & Russell colleague Tom Goldstein during the SCOTUSblog publisher’s white-collar criminal jury trial in Maryland federal court, describing Goldstein as a ‘very skilled’ lawyer who played poker for money.”
“Maryland Concealed Carry Location Bans Get Mostly Upheld”: Mallory Culhane and Bernie Pazanowski of Bloomberg Law have this report.
You can access today’s ruling of a partially divided three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit at this link.
Update: In other coverage, Salvador Rizzo of The Washington Post reports that “Federal appeals court upholds Maryland gun control restrictions; In a federal lawsuit, a group of gun owners and advocacy groups argued that state bans against firearms in public places such as schools or hospitals violate the Second Amendment.”
In today’s mail: I received a review copy of law professor Elizabeth Chamblee Burch‘s new book, “The Pain Brokers: How Con Men, Call Centers, and Rogue Doctors Fuel America’s Lawsuit Factory.”
“Virginia Court Seeks US Attorney to Succeed Trump Pick Halligan”: Celine Castronuovo of Bloomberg Law has this report.
Today, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia issued this order.
“Supreme Court Doesn’t Rule on Tariffs, With Next Potential Decision in February”: Greg Stohr of Bloomberg News has this report.
“Goldstein to Put His Cards on the Table at His Criminal Trial”: You can access today’s new episode of Bloomberg Law’s “On the Merits” podcast via this link.
“Full Fifth Circuit Faces ‘Unprecedented’ Sitting With Big Cases”: Jacqueline Thomsen of Bloomberg Law has this report.
“A Simple Proposal for the Legal Profession to Regain Its Dignity”: Former U.S. District Judges Shira A. Scheindlin and John Jones III have this guest essay online at The New York Times.
