“How to Straddle the MAGA Divide; Beth Wilkinson is a Washington lawyer who has thrived representing the Trump administration’s enemies and allies alike; Does she represent a vanishing type?” Noam Scheiber of The New York Times has this report.

“Impeach Trump Y/N? Impeachment scholar Frank Bowman has a warning for Democrats dabbling in magical removal thinking.” You can access the new installment of Slate’s “Amicus” podcast via this link.

“Judicial Notice (10.25.26): ‘A Botch Job’; A benchslap for the ages, a $50 million pay package for Alina Habba, the latest in ‘As the Weil Turns,’ and a new SCOTUS case about race in school admissions.” David Lat has this post at his “Original Jurisdiction” Substack site.

“9th Circuit panel questions basis for feds’ request to block 20,000 California ballots”: Kevin Rector of The Los Angeles Times has this report.

Zach Montague of The New York Times reports that “Appeals Court Appears to Doubt Justice Dept. Claims in California Ballot Case; A federal appeals court panel seemed disinclined to order the state to set aside as many as 20,000 mail-in ballots the Trump administration claimed were sent to noncitizens.”

Josh Gerstein, Kyle Cheney, and Lindsey Holden of Politico report that “Justice Department faces skeptical appeals court panel in California ballot fight; All three judges voiced concerns that the DOJ rushed too quickly to the appeals court while a lower-court judge was still weighing the matter.”

And at his “Election Law Blog,” Rick Hasen has a post titled “Ninth Circuit Panel Seems Skeptical of DOJ’s Attempt to Force California to Segregate Ballots from Purported Noncitizens.”

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has posted the video of today’s oral argument on YouTube.