“Louisiana will have 2 Black majority districts for fall elections, US Supreme Court decides”: Mark Ballard of The Times-Picayune of New Orleans has this report.

Abbie VanSickle of The New York Times reports that “Supreme Court, for Now, Allows Louisiana Voting Map to Move Forward; Louisiana had asked the justices to weigh in on a dispute over a new congressional map with a second majority-Black district in time for the election.”

Patrick Marley, Justin Jouvenal, and Ann E. Marimow of The Washington Post report that “Supreme Court restores Louisiana voting map with majority-Black district; The court had been asked to resolve uncertainty over which map Louisiana will use, with just months to go before the 2024 election.”

David G. Savage of The Los Angeles Times reports that “Supreme Court upholds new Black-majority district in Louisiana that may elect Democrat to Congress.”

Maureen Groppe and Greg Hilburn of USA Today report that “Supreme Court allows Louisiana’s congressional map with new, mostly Black district; One lawyer who has argued the issue of voting rights before the Supreme Court called the case the biggest ‘train wreck’ in recent memory; ‘This madness must end,’ Louisiana’s attorney general said.”

You can access today’s order of the U.S. Supreme Court, and the dissent therefrom, at this link.

“Chief Justice Talks Prairie Dogs as Colleagues Talk Substance”: Kimberly Strawbridge Robinson and Michael Shapiro of Bloomberg Law have this report.

“Brown v. Board of Education: 70 Years of Progress and Challenges.” Mark Walsh of Education Week has this report.

“Georgia Supreme Court candidate defends statements on reproductive rights; Former Democratic Congressman John Barrow argues that Georgia’s code of judicial conduct is being wrongly enforced against him in violation of his free speech rights”: Megan Butler of Courthouse News Service has this report.

“Supreme Court rules on petition effort against A’s ballpark public financing bill”: Mick Akers of The Las Vegas Review-Journal has this report.

And John Shea of The San Francisco Chronicle reports that “Nevada Supreme Court thwarts 2024 ballot challenge to A’s $380 million stadium handout.”

“Arizona’s 1864 abortion ban not enforceable until mid-August, state Supreme Court says”: Stacey Barchenger of The Arizona Republic has this report.

And Alex Tabet of NBC News reports that “Arizona Supreme Court pushes back enforcement date for 1864 abortion ban; The governor signed a bill repealing the Civil War-era law, but the new statute won’t take effect for several months, potentially allowing brief enforcement of the old one.”

“Wisconsin Supreme Court’s liberal majority questions past ruling barring ballot drop boxes”: Molly Beck of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has this report.

Patrick Marley of The Washington Post reports that “Wisconsin’s top court signals it will reinstate ballot drop boxes; The court’s liberal majority could overturn a 2022 ruling that rendered drop boxes illegal in one of the nation’s most important swing states.”

Adam Edelman of NBC News reports that “Wisconsin Supreme Court’s liberal justices appear willing to overturn ruling that barred most ballot drop boxes; The court’s eventual ruling will have a major impact on the battleground state’s elections heading into the 2024 presidential contest.”

And Joe Kelly of Courthouse News Service reports that “Wisconsin Supreme Court justices reconsider ban on ballot drop boxes; The court’s conservative majority banned drop boxes two years ago; Its new liberal majority seems open to reversing that decision.”

In the May 20, 2024 issue of The New Yorker: H.C. Wilentz has a Talk of the Town essay titled “A (Semi-Famous) Fame Scholar Takes In the Knicks’ Courtside Celebs; The legal scholar Cass Sunstein, whose new book is titled ‘How to Become Famous,’ heads to the Garden, where Seth Meyers and Anya Taylor-Joy roam the V.I.P. section.”

Sarah Stillman has an American Chronicles article headlined “Do Children Have a ‘Right to Hug’ Their Parents? Hundreds of counties around the country have ended in-person jail visits, replacing them with video calls and earning a cut of the profits.”

And Rachel Aviv has a Reporter at Large article headlined “A British Nurse Was Found Guilty of Killing Seven Babies. Did She Do It? Colleagues reportedly called Lucy Letby an ‘angel of death,’ and the Prime Minister condemned her. But, in the rush to judgment, serious questions about the evidence were ignored.”

“Supreme Court denies California’s plea for immunity for COVID-19 deaths at San Quentin”: David G. Savage of The Los Angeles Times has this report.

“Supreme Court declines to hear two-step bankruptcy case that drew Senate attention”: Dietrich Knauth of Reuters has this report.

“The Historic Trump Court Cases That We Cannot See: The former President is on trial in a courtroom that has banned cameras; Meanwhile, the Supreme Court is deciding whether his other trials should even happen.” Neal Katyal has this essay online at The New Yorker.

“In praise of robotic judging: The Supreme Court mindlessly and correctly decides Culley v. Marshall.” Adam Unikowsky has this post at his Substack site, “Adam’s Legal Newsletter.”

“Judicial Notice (05.12.24): How To Survive Cross Like A Porn Star; Paul Weiss’s big hire from Cleary Gottlieb, TikTok’s suit against the feds, more takes on the Columbia clerk boycott, and other legal news from the week that was.” David Lat has this post at his “Original Jurisdiction” Substack site.

“His Dreadlocks Shaved by Prison Guards, Rastafarian Man Turns to Supreme Court; A federal appeals court condemned the ‘stark and egregious’ violation of Damon Landor’s religious freedom; But it said he could not sue the prison officials”: Adam Liptak will have this new installment of his “Sidebar” column in Tuesday’s edition of The New York Times.

“The 9 worst court decisions since Trump remade the federal judiciary: This is what happens after four years under an insurrectionist president; It will get much worse if he gets eight.” Ian Millhiser has this essay online at Vox.

“Supreme Court fires back: Justices speak out on security, free speech and ‘lies’; Justices Kavanaugh, Alito and Thomas comment on the law, ‘nastiness.’” Alex Swoyer of The Washington Times has this report.

Access today’s Order List of the U.S. Supreme Court: At this link. The Court did not grant review in any new cases.

And in Sandoval v. Texas, No. 23-5618, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson issued a dissent, in which Justice Sonia Sotomayor joined, from the denial of certiorari.

“National Dem strategy worries state abortion-rights leaders; Democrats’ efforts to ride the coattails of abortion ballot measures put passage at risk”: Megan Messerly and Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico have this report.

“Trump, gun owners and Jan. 6 rioters: Tough-on-crime Justice Alito displays empathy for some criminal defendants; In recent Supreme Court arguments, the former prosecutor has asked skeptical questions about criminal cases against former President Donald Trump, Jan. 6 defendants and gun owners.” Lawrence Hurley of NBC News has this report.

“The Foreshadow Docket”: Law professor Bert I. Huang has this book review essay in the current issue of the Columbia Law Review.

“How Originalism Ate The Law: The Trap; Part two of a series examining the theory of constitutional interpretation that has eaten the law and gobbled up a bunch of your rights with it.” You can access today’s episode of Slate’s “Amicus” podcast via this link.

“The Wisconsin Supreme Court is headed for its lowest output term ever. A look behind the numbers.” Jessie Opoien of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has this report.

“Justice Alito warns of declining support for freedom of speech on college campuses; The conservative justice also warned that freedom of religion is ‘imperiled’ as he delivered a commencement address at a Catholic college”: Lawrence Hurley of NBC News has this report.

Adam Liptak of The New York Times reports that “Justice Alito Warns of Threats to Freedom of Speech and Religion; In a commencement ceremony at a Catholic university, the justice said that fundamental principles were in peril at universities and American society.”

And Ken Tran and Maureen Groppe of USA Today report that “Justices Thomas, Alito complain about ‘nastiness’ and ‘imperiled’ freedom of religion.”

“Anti-abortion crusader’s deposition requests generate fear, but no findings; Jonathan Mitchell has filed at least nine petitions seeking information from abortion activists, doctors and women; None have resulted in a deposition”: Eleanor Klibanoff of The Texas Tribune has this report.

“Brett Kavanaugh speaks about presidential power, his Taylor Swift fandom and an expensive trip to see Caitlin Clark”: Joan Biskupic of CNN has this report.

“A Constitutional Right to Gender Surgery? An appeals court uses the Bostock ruling to usurp state law, in a new version of Roe v. Wade.” This editorial appears in today’s edition of The Wall Street Journal.

“UC Berkeley law school graduation looked a lot like its school year: divided and chaotic.” Joe Garofoli of The San Francisco Chronicle has this report.

“Justice Kavanaugh Speaks at the Fifth Circuit Judicial Conference”: Josh Blackman has this post at “The Volokh Conspiracy.”

“Justice Clarence Thomas calls criticism of him ‘nastiness’ and ‘lies’; Justice Thomas offered some of his most extensive comments since news broke last year of travel and real estate deals paid for by businessman Harlan Crow”: Justin Jouvenal, Tobi Raji, and Ann E. Marimow of The Washington Post has this report.

John Fritze of CNN reports that “Justice Clarence Thomas decries Washington as ‘hideous’ and pushes back on ‘nastiness’ of critics.”

And Chris Marr of Bloomberg Law report that “Justice Thomas Criticizes ‘Nastiness and the Lies’ He Faces; Gifts from billionaire Harlan Crow drew criticism in 2023; Thomas says people in Washington take pride in ‘being awful.’”

Update: In other coverage, Abbie VanSickle of The New York Times reports that “Justice Thomas Denounces ‘the Nastiness and the Lies’ Faced by His Family; The statement was among the few public remarks he has made since revelations that he had failed to report lavish gifts and travel from wealthy conservatives.”

“Philadelphia jury awards former mechanic $725.5M in Exxon Mobil case; The jurors linked Paul Gill’s cancer to benzene exposure during his work in the 1970s as an auto mechanic and service station attendant”: Frank Kummer and Ryan W. Briggs of The Philadelphia Inquirer have this report.

“How Originalism Ate the Law: America is captive to a legal theory that dictates our laws on guns, abortion, and so much more; We need to act.” Slate has posted online a series of Jurisprudence essays addressing this topic, all of which you can access via this link.

A.J. Jacobs has a Jurisprudence essay titled “I Spent a Year Living Under the Original Interpretation of the Constitution; Here’s what I learned in the process.”

Jill Filipovic has a Jurisprudence essay titled “Originalism Is One Reason Why America Has Such a Gun Problem; One of the worst ‘originalist’ decisions was about guns, back in 2008; This term, it might get even worse.”

Mark Joseph Stern has a Jurisprudence essay titled “Ketanji Brown Jackson Joined the Supreme Court With a Big Idea; But her attempt to reclaim originalism from conservatives isn’t working.”

Madiba K. Dennie has a Jurisprudence essay titled “Throw Originalism Out; It’s Time for Inclusive Constitutionalism; I’ve been thinking about how the law interprets the Constitution for years; I have an idea for how to move forward.”

And Jay Willis has a Jurisprudence essay titled “We the People: The Constitution is not determined by the founders, judges, or even Supreme Court justices; We still get to decide what it should mean.”

“Steve Bannon’s bid to undo Jan. 6 contempt conviction fails; Appeals court rules that the former Trump adviser was rightfully convicted of contempt of Congress for refusing to testify in front of the committee that investigated the Jan. 6 Capitol attack”: Rachel Weiner of The Washington Post has this report.

And Tierney Sneed of CNN reports that “Federal appeals court upholds Steve Bannon’s contempt-of-Congress conviction.”

You can access today’s ruling of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit at this link.

“Nonviolent felons can’t be banned from owning guns, 9th Circuit rules”: Bob Egelko of The San Francisco Chronicle has this report.

And Edvard Pettersson of Courthouse News Service reports that “Ninth Circuit finds that convicted felons also have Second Amendment rights; In a significant shift, the appellate court ruled that a landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court means that convicted felons can’t automatically be deprived of their right to bear arms.”

You can access today’s ruling of a divided three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit at this link. This case would seem to have a good likelihood of en banc rehearing if a related pending U.S. Supreme Court case does not fully resolve this issue.

“Sotomayor reflects on fairness, justice in virtual Albany talk; Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor addressed the New York Bar Association’s Civics Convocation Thursday”: Patrick Tine of The Times Union of Albany, New York has this report.

And Beth Wang of Bloomberg Law reports that “Sotomayor Says AI Will Significantly Impact ‘How We Lawyer’; Sotomayor urged students to embrace revolutionary technology; Justice says it’s unlikely she’ll see female chief justice.”

“Notre Dame Law School ranked #4 in federal clerkship placement for second year”: Denise Wager of Notre Dame Law School has this report.