How Appealing



Saturday, August 2, 2025

“Don’t Give Up on the Law Just Yet; A new book profiles three heroic judges who might just restore your faith in the courts”: You can access today’s new episode of Slate’s “Amicus” podcast via this link.

Posted at 9:52 AM by Howard Bashman



“How the Supreme Court enabled the Texas-California redistricting fight”: Bob Egelko of The San Francisco Chronicle has this report.

Posted at 9:50 AM by Howard Bashman



“Judges Keep Restrictions on L.A. Immigration Arrests, in Setback for Trump Agenda; An appellate panel upheld a finding that federal agents appeared to rely exclusively on race and other factors, such as speaking Spanish, in making arrests”: Miriam Jordan and Tim Arango of The New York Times have this report.

And Sonja Sharp and Julia Wick of The Los Angeles Times report that “9th Circuit keeps freeze on Southern California ICE patrols.”

You can access yesterday’s ruling of a unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit at this link.

Posted at 9:48 AM by Howard Bashman



Friday, August 1, 2025

“Why Trump’s tariffs are in trouble; The legality of Trump’s manic trade policies will be a question for the Supreme Court”: Columnist Jason Willick has this essay online at The Washington Post.

Posted at 7:42 PM by Howard Bashman



“What’s Happening in the New Jersey U.S. Attorney’s Office? Alina Habba’s problematic appointment reflects the administration’s disregard for Congress’s role in structuring the executive branch.” Aaron S.J. Zelinsky and David Reiser have this post at the “Lawfare” blog.

Posted at 1:24 PM by Howard Bashman



“Kentucky clerk who refused to issue same-sex marriage licenses sees opening to overturn Obergefell; A county clerk with religious objections to same-sex marriage viewed the decision to overturn Roe v. Wade as a precursor to Obergefell v. Hodges’ downfall”: Kelsey Reichmann of Courthouse News Service has this report.

Posted at 1:16 PM by Howard Bashman



“Chuck Grassley Is Very Upset About Being Correctly Identified As a Servile Phony; The 91-year-old Iowa senator has spent decades portraying himself as a champion of government whistleblowers; Not when they come forward about Emil Bove, though”: Jay Willis has this post at his “Balls & Strikes” Substack site.

Posted at 1:14 PM by Howard Bashman



Thursday, July 31, 2025

“Feeding the Limitless Maine Lobster Roll Boom, Seafloor to Summer Table; At one of the most renowned lobster shacks — and across the country — the star dish just keeps getting more popular”: Pete Wells of The New York Times has this report.

Alternate headline: “Imagine if your favorite appellate blogger were grabbing lunch at his favorite lobster shack in Maine on the same day The New York Times happened to be doing a photo shoot.”

Posted at 10:50 PM by Howard Bashman



“The Rough Day in Court for Trump’s Tariffs; Here is how judges questioned president’s claim of emergency power to junk the tariff schedule Congress enacted”: Jess Bravin and Louise Radnofsky of The Wall Street Journal have this report.

Posted at 10:44 PM by Howard Bashman



“Justice Brett Kavanaugh is probably reading this; The Supreme Court justice discussed a wide variety of topics during an onstage conversation at a judicial conference — including his media consumption habits”: Josh Gerstein of Politico has this report.

Posted at 10:42 PM by Howard Bashman



“Trump appellate court nominee defends comments on ‘gender roles’”: Nate Raymond of Reuters has this report.

You can view the video of yesterday’s U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing via this link.

Posted at 3:18 PM by Howard Bashman



“Taking Stock of the Birthright Citizenship Cases, Part I: Unpacking Trump v. CASA, Inc.” Marty Lederman has this blog post at “Just Security.”

Posted at 2:33 PM by Howard Bashman



“Google Loses Appeal in App Store Fight With Fortnite Maker Epic”: Leah Nylen and Josh Sisco of Bloomberg News have this report.

Mike Scarcella of Reuters reports that “Google loses US appeal over app store reforms in Epic Games case.”

And Sean Hollister of The Verge reports that “Epic just won its antitrust lawsuit against Google again; Google will appeal to the Supreme Court.”

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

Posted at 2:20 PM by Howard Bashman



“Senate Flip Dooms D.C. Circuit Nominee Peter Keisler; Republicans fail to expedite confirmation to key seat”: Ed Whelan has this post at his “Confirmation Tales” Substack site.

Posted at 2:10 PM by Howard Bashman



“Appeals Court Hears Legal Challenge to Trump Tariffs as Trade War Widens; The arguments underscored the financial stakes for U.S. importers as the Trump administration prepares to impose higher rates without the explicit approval of Congress”: Tony Romm of The New York Times has this report.

Rachel Lerman of The Washington Post reports that “Trump’s tariffs face challenge, while administration rushes to finish trade deals; The president’s prominent economic policy was argued in court. Meanwhile, Mexico got a 90-day reprieve from higher tariff rates to allow more time for talks.”

Louise Radnofsky, Jess Bravin, and Brian Schwartz of The Wall Street Journal report that “Trump’s Tariffs Questioned by Appeals Court; Judges voice skepticism that president can use emergency powers to replace import schedule Congress adopted.”

Ed Pilkington and Callum Jones of The Guardian report that “Trump’s tariffs face skepticism in court hours before latest round is set to kick in; Federal appeals court mulls whether US president exceeded authority in imposing ‘reciprocal’ tariffs on trading partners.”

Peter Charalambous, Katherine Faulders, and Nicholas Kerr of ABC News report that “Appeals court judges voice skepticism about legal basis for Trump’s sweeping tariffs; A coalition of states is asking a court to invalidate most of Trump’s tariffs.”

Elisabeth Buchwald of CNN has a report headlined “Are Trump’s tariffs unlawful? A major court case could reshape his trade strategy.”

Jan Wolfe, Dietrich Knauth, and Luc Cohen of Reuters report that “US appeals court scrutinizes Trump’s use of tariffs as trade deadline looms.”

Paul Wiseman of The Associated Press reports that “Appellate judges question Trump’s authority to impose tariffs without Congress.”

And Zach Schonfeld and Ella Lee of The Hill report that “Appeals court scrutinizes Trump’s emergency tariffs as deadline looms.”

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has posted the audio of today’s en banc oral argument on YouTube.

Posted at 1:54 PM by Howard Bashman



“Bonus 170: Whose Judicial Overreach? Debunking the unpersuasive (and also rather unprovable) claim that the Supreme Court’s behavior on Trump-related emergency applications is largely a response to lower courts abusing their own powers.” Steve Vladeck has this post at his “One First” Substack site.

Posted at 9:56 AM by Howard Bashman



Wednesday, July 30, 2025

“The Cowardice of Senate Democrats Made Emil Bove’s Confirmation Possible; Senate Democrats could have confirmed Biden nominee Adeel Mangi to the Third Circuit last year; They caved to a disgraceful right-wing smear campaign instead”: Jay Willis has this essay online at Balls and Strikes.

Online at The Atlantic, Quinta Jurecic has an essay titled “Emil Bove Is a Sign of the Times; He has demonstrated that total sycophancy to the president can be a fantastic career move.”

And online at The Boston Globe, columnist Kimberly Atkins Stohr has an essay titled “Emil Bove and the Kavanaugh rule: Loyalty to Trump dictates judicial confirmations, not qualifications; Trump didn’t single-handedly break the Senate’s confirmation process; But a single event turned the judicial confirmation process into the kind of pure, bare-knuckled partisan cage match it is today.”

Posted at 2:36 PM by Howard Bashman



“New SCOTUS Clerk Class Has More Women, Experience Than in 2000”: David Lat has this new installment of his “Exclusive Jurisdiction” column online at Bloomberg Law.

Posted at 2:30 PM by Howard Bashman



“Why lawyers seek to try cases in Philly, even when the plaintiffs aren’t from here; Lawyers on both sides of the 27 lawsuits related to the 2023 R.M. Palmer chocolate factory explosion in West Reading fought for two years over where the cases should be litigated”: Abraham Gutman of The Philadelphia Inquirer has this report.

Posted at 11:11 AM by Howard Bashman



“Trump Sees Emergencies Everywhere. Judges Are Considering Whether to Rein Him In. In a latest test, an appeals court is set to weigh the president’s claim that economic emergencies allow him to impose sweeping tariffs unilaterally.” Jess Bravin of The Wall Street Journal has this report.

Posted at 9:20 AM by Howard Bashman



“Weak Ethics and Deep Politics at DOJ in the Epstein Case; The Role of Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche has drawn attention — but not enough”: Bob Bauer has this post at the “Executive Functions” Substack site.

Posted at 9:18 AM by Howard Bashman



Tuesday, July 29, 2025

“Trump urges Senate GOP to end blue slip tradition for federal judges, US attorneys; The blue slip, a longstanding Senate tradition that gives lawmakers a mechanism for weighing in on White House judicial nominees, has been regarded as one of the last remaining vestiges of bipartisanship in an increasingly divided chamber”: Benjamin S. Weiss of Courthouse News Service has this report.

Posted at 10:50 PM by Howard Bashman



“Senate, Rejecting Whistle-Blower Alarms, Confirms Bove to Appeals Court; The Trump loyalist was narrowly approved as Republicans brushed aside concerns about his conduct as a senior Justice Department official”: Devlin Barrett of The New York Times has this report. Barrett also has a related report headlined “Grassley, a Champion of Whistle-Blowers, Spurns Them in a Fight Over Bove; The senator’s treatment of whistle-blowers detailing allegations against Emil Bove, the Trump loyalist and appeals court pick, has had a chilling effect, critics say.”

Perry Stein and Theodoric Meyer of The Washington Post report that “Senate confirms controversial Trump nominee Emil Bove as federal judge; Bove, a former lawyer for Donald Trump and current top Justice Department official, was the target of three whistleblower complaints.”

Corinne Ramey of The Wall Street Journal reports that “Trump’s Former Lawyer Emil Bove Confirmed to Federal Appeals Court; Justice Department official narrowly approved despite pushback from Democrats.”

And Chris Palmer of The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that “President Donald Trump’s former lawyer Emil Bove was confirmed for a lifetime seat on a Philly-based federal appeals court; The confirmation vote capped a remarkably contentious process that will secure a prominent place in the judiciary for one Trump’s fiercest defenders.”

Posted at 10:44 PM by Howard Bashman



“170. DOJ’s (Ridiculous) Misconduct Complaint Against Chief Judge Boasberg; DOJ’s complaint that Chief Judge Boasberg engaged in ‘misconduct’ would be laughably stupid if it didn’t reflect such a transparently obvious and dangerous attempt to delegitimize the federal courts.” Steve Vladeck has this post at his “One First” Substack site.

Posted at 4:20 PM by Howard Bashman



“Senate Rushes to Confirm Bove as Another Whistleblower Emerges”: Suzanne Monyak and Tiana Headley of Bloomberg Law have this report.

Posted at 3:42 PM by Howard Bashman