How Appealing



Wednesday, September 30, 2026

“Trans women tussle with Aetna over gender-affirming care at Second Circuit; A Connecticut judge ruled earlier this year Aetna’s policy of automatically denying coverage of facial feminization surgery for transgender patients was discriminatory”: Josh Russell of Courthouse News Service has this report.

You can access the audio of today’s oral argument before a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit at this link.

Posted at 8:45 PM by Howard Bashman



“Biased Climate Classes for Judges; A House report reveals a stealthy effort to steer judicial decisions”: The Wall Street Journal has published this editorial.

Posted at 8:30 PM by Howard Bashman



“Ninth Circuit upholds Arizona dark money transparency law; A 2-1 majority agreed with a lower court that the law requiring disclosure of large political donations does not violate free speech or associational rights, nor does it chill political speech or campaign contributions”: Joe Duhownik of Courthouse News Service has this report.

You can access today’s decision of a divided three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit at this link.

Posted at 8:26 PM by Howard Bashman



“Tens of Billions in Contested Tax Bills Hinge on Two Words; President Trump’s Covid-19 disaster-declaration phrase ‘and continuing’ is at center of IRS court fights”: Richard Rubin of The Wall Street Journal has this report.

Posted at 8:22 PM by Howard Bashman



“Philly DA Larry Krasner said the federal judge who accused him of crimes should be removed from the case; In his most extensive comments on the saga yet, Krasner said U.S. District Judge Paul S. Diamond’s suggestion that he committed crimes ‘rests on nothing of substance’”: Chris Palmer of The Philadelphia Inquirer has this report.

And Riley Brennan of The Legal Intelligencer reports that “Phila. DA Accuses Fed. Judge of Bias, Seeks Recusal From Exoneration Proceedings That Resulted in Criminal Referrals; The motion describes the summer proceedings as a ‘circus’ orchestrated by the court, which they claimed served ‘as the ringmaster.’”

You can access the recusal motion at this link.

Posted at 4:37 PM by Howard Bashman



“Justice Dept. Tries to Rebuke Federal Judges for Speaking to The Times; Judge Patrick J. Schiltz had warned that the administration’s actions ‘created a grave threat to the rule of law’; The attorney general accused him of ‘obvious bias’”: Mattathias Schwartz and Devlin Barrett of The New York Times have this report.

Posted at 4:24 PM by Howard Bashman



“States That Ban Abortion Challenge Shield Laws for Providers Who Mail Pills; The lawsuit filed by Louisiana, Alabama and Arkansas to the Supreme Court escalates the battle between states that outlaw abortion and those that support nationwide access by mail”: Pam Belluck and Rick Rojas of The New York Times have this report.

Posted at 4:18 PM by Howard Bashman



“Justice Department files ethics complaint against Minnesota federal judges; DOJ alleges the district judges showed bias when they spoke to The New York Times about the administration’s immigration enforcement efforts”: Josh Gerstein and Kyle Cheney of Politico have this report.

Posted at 4:00 PM by Howard Bashman



“‘There’s Always A Way’: Jaime Santos; Now at Proskauer, Santos discusses her path from a trailer park to Harvard Law, arguing before SCOTUS, and building a leading appellate and ERISA litigation practice.” You can access today’s new episode of David Lat’s “Original Jurisdiction” podcast via this link.

Posted at 3:04 PM by Howard Bashman



“Guantanamo Dispatch: Military Ends USS Cole Hearing Early for Health Emergency.” Carol Rosenberg has this post at the “Just Security” blog.

Posted at 2:04 PM by Howard Bashman



“The Insurrection Act Is No Exception to the Troops-at-Polls Ban; Congress restricted military deployments to election sites, even when a broader deployment authority might otherwise apply”: Loren Voss and Natalie K. Orpett have this post at the “Lawfare” blog.

Posted at 1:59 PM by Howard Bashman



“Pa. Supreme Court agrees to address whether those serving life for felony murder can seek parole; On Tuesday, the court granted an appeal petition filed on behalf of Jerome Coffey by the Abolitionist Law Center in April”: Ian Karbal of Pennsylvania Capital-Star has this report.

You can access yesterday’s order of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania at this link.

Update: In other coverage, Jillian Kramer of The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that “Pa. Supreme Court to decide whether ban on mandatory life terms for second-degree murder is retroactive; The case of Jerome Coffey, a Philadelphia man convicted of a 1992 murder and sentenced to life in prison, could decide whether more than a thousand other people get a chance at new sentences.”

Posted at 1:28 PM by Howard Bashman



“Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson Brings U.S. Supreme Court Perspective to UDC Law”: Rachel Perrone of UDC News has this report.

Posted at 1:15 PM by Howard Bashman



“Exorcising Justice Alito’s Voter Fraud Boogeyman”: Richard L. Hasen has this post at the Democracy Project of NYU Law.

Posted at 1:11 PM by Howard Bashman



“Only Trump Gets to Criticize the Supreme Court: ‘These are not the people I interviewed to serve.’” Adam Serwer has this essay online at The Atlantic.

Posted at 1:08 PM by Howard Bashman



“UVA Law Alumni Break Clerkships Record; UVA Holds No. 5 Ranking in Supreme Court Clerkships”: Mike Fox of the University of Virginia School of Law has this report.

Posted at 9:12 AM by Howard Bashman



“U.S. Supreme Court Begins Term With Historically Low Ratings; 34% approve of the court’s job performance; 46% trust the judicial branch of federal government”: Jeffrey M. Jones of Gallup has this report.

Posted at 9:10 AM by Howard Bashman