“Judicial Notice (05.03.26): Spirited Away; The (possibly) vanishing Voting Rights Act, Elon Musk v. Sam Altman (and Wachtell), an unsuccessful rescue for Spirit Airlines, and a big group move out of Perkins Coie.” David Lat has this post at his “Original Jurisdiction” Substack site.

“There’s a Bigger Debate Behind the Voting Rights Case”: Law professor Stephen L. Carter has this essay online at Bloomberg Opinion.

“Justice Kagan’s peculiar idea of voting rights; The Supreme Court’s ruling on racial gerrymandering may have an interesting fallout effect”: Columnist Jason Willick has this essay online at The Washington Post.

“Chuck Grassley’s revealing, unscripted moment”: Laura Belin has this post at the “Bleeding Heartland” blog.

“DOJ Enters a New, Even More Aggressive Phase; The department is growing bolder yet, cutting legal corners in service of getting President Trump the headlines — and revenge — he wants”: Quinta Jurecic has this essay online at The Atlantic.

“As Clarence Thomas hits a milestone, his conservative stamp on US Supreme Court endures”: Jan Wolfe of Reuters has this report.

“Trump flexes executive power with unprecedented flouting of lower court rulings”: Sudhin Thanawala of The Associated Press has this report.

“The Slaying of the Voting Rights Act by the Coward Samuel Alito”: Law professor Richard L. Hasen has this Jurisprudence essay online at Slate.

“Brandeis baseball walks off Sotomayor to cap sweep in playoff series”: A long-time reader of this blog emails:

Good morning. I have been reading your blog since its earliest days, when I was in law school. I check it nearly daily. I have never reached out, until today.

I know you’re a huge baseball fan, and of course Supreme Court news enthusiast. Today, I was perusing my Apple News feed, and, in the Supreme Court news section that I follow, I saw the headline “Brandeis baseball walks off Sotomayor to cap sweep in playoff series,” with a picture from a baseball game. I clicked on it, and there was no mention of the Supreme Court, only reference to the names/words “Sotomayor” and “Brandeis.”

The article, written by Christina Huang, recently appeared in The San Antonio Express-News. You can access it at this link (via Yahoo! Sports).

“Only men — again — are being considered for Utah’s two new Supreme Court spots; The 12 finalists are being considered for spots that opened when the Legislature, in response to anger about justices’ decisions, moved to expand the court”: Emily Anderson Stern of The Salt Lake Tribune has this report.

“Tortured in China, they want to sue Cisco. The Supreme Court may say no. The Supreme Court will soon decide whether members of the Falun Gong religious group can sue Cisco for its alleged role in a Chinese government crackdown.” Julian Mark and Eva Dou of The Washington Post have this report.

“Racism’s Over and Seashells Can Be Deadly; It was a devastating week for democracy thanks to the upside down law of the Trump Era”: You can access today’s new episode of Slate’s “Amicus” podcast via this link.

“This Could Be the Biggest Blow to Abortion Rights Since Roe Fell”: Jill Filipovic has this guest essay online at The New York Times.

“Supreme Court Asked to Restore Access to Abortion Pill by Mail; A federal appeals court temporarily halted a Food and Drug Administration regulation that has greatly expanded access to the abortion pill mifepristone”: Ann E. Marimow and Pam Belluck of The New York Times has this report.

Praveena Somasundaram, Rachel Roubein, and Justin Jouvenal of The Washington Post report that “Drugmakers ask Supreme Court to restore abortion pill access by mail; The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit ruled that the commonly used abortion drug mifepristone can only be picked up in person.”

And Maggie Astor, Chris Hippensteel, and Pam Belluck of The New York Times report that “Abortion Providers Forced to Adapt After Court Blocks Pill Access by Mail; The Fifth Circuit court’s ruling, which is being appealed, reinstates a requirement that patients visit a health care provider in person to obtain mifepristone, upending abortion access in the United States.”

You can view the U.S. Supreme Court filings here and here.

“Amazon Product Defect Liability Question Sent to Minnesota Court”: Shweta Watwe of Bloomberg Law has a report (subscription required for full access) that begins, “A federal appeals court asked the Minnesota Supreme Court to answer whether an e-commerce company that allows third-parties to sell defective products through its platform should be liable for the harm in a dispute over a battery sold through Amazon.com Inc.”

You can access Monday’s decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit at this link.

“224. The Return of the Mifepristone Mess: A Friday night ruling from the Fifth Circuit will have massive, nationwide effects even in states in which abortions are still generally available — unless and until the Supreme Court steps in.” Steve Vladeck has this post at his “One First” Substack site.

“Advocates urge Supreme Court to ban judges from cashing in on prediction markets; The Senate this week voted to bar senators and their staff from using prediction markets in an effort to stem insider trading — now, one judicial advocacy group is saying the courts should follow suit”: Benjamin S. Weiss of Courthouse News Service has this report.

“Federal Appeals Court Temporarily Halts Abortion Pills by Mail; The court order, in a lawsuit by the state of Louisiana, pauses a Food and Drug Administration regulation that greatly expanded access to the abortion pill mifepristone”: Pam Belluck of The New York Times has this report.

Rachel Roubein and Praveena Somasundaram of The Washington Post report that “Appeals court limits abortion pill access nationwide; A federal appeals court issued a ruling that would temporarily block people from accessing abortion pills through telehealth providers and via mail.”

And Jennifer Calfas and Victoria Albert of The Wall Street Journal report that “Appeals Court Curtails Access to Mail-Order Abortion Pills; Judges pause FDA rule allowing doctors to send mifepristone through the mail, limiting access to most popular method for ending pregnancy.”

“Democrats Have a Jim Crow Fantasy; Black voter turnout keeps rising, despite denunciations of Supreme Court rulings”: This editorial will appear in Saturday’s edition of The Wall Street Journal.

And online at Bloomberg Law, law professor Richard Pildes has an essay titled “Supreme Court’s Gutting of Voting Provision Was Long Time Coming.”

“US court blocks mail-order access to abortion drugs, for now”: Daniel Wiessner of Reuters has this report.

You can access today’s decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit at this link.

“Graduates Look to Skip Big Law, Go Straight to Plaintiffs’ Firms”: Roy Strom of Bloomberg Law has this report.

“Fifth Circuit Signals Interest in Challenge to Machine-Gun Ban”: Jacqueline Thomsen of Bloomberg Law has a report that begins, “A majority of the Fifth Circuit’s judges indicated an interest in rehearing a case that would raise the constitutionality of a federal machine-gun ban, even as the appeals court voted not to revisit a challenge to the statute.”

You can access yesterday’s order of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit denying rehearing en banc by a 10-to-7 vote, and the opinions accompanying that order, at this link.

“Senate confirms Devens as Hawaii Supreme Court’s chief justice”: Dan Nakaso of The Honolulu Star-Advertiser has this report.

And Chad Blair of Honolulu Civil Beat reports that “Hawaiʻi Senate Confirms Vladimir Devens As Chief Justice; The vote was 20-5, with dissenting senators stating concerns over the nominee’s past political affiliation.”

“Investigation of Supreme Court justice should be independent, Utah Gov. Cox says — not a ‘witch hunt’; Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said the governor has no constitutional role in investigating allegations against a Supreme Court justice”: Robert Gehrke and Emily Anderson Stern of The Salt Lake Tribune has this report.

“State and federal courts jockey for power in the Roundup case and other mass public harms”: Abbe R. Gluck has this post at “SCOTUSblog.”

“Jeffrey Epstein’s Possible Suicide Note Hidden From Public View; An inmate said he discovered the note after Mr. Epstein was found injured in his jail cell, weeks before his death; It’s now locked in a courthouse”: Benjamin Weiser, Steve Eder, and Jan Ransom of The New York Times have this report.

“The Comey indictment could be upended by this 2015 Supreme Court precedent; The high court a decade ago explicitly overturned the legal standard that prosecutors are now citing to charge Comey with threatening President Trump”: Perry Stein of The Washington Post has this news analysis.

“Judge Asks Justice Department: Will You Oppose Trump? A federal judge has ordered the Justice Department to explain whether it intends to contest President Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the I.R.S. over the disclosure of his tax returns.” Andrew Duehren of The New York Times has this news analysis.

“Second Circuit debates NYC self-defense law in case of 2022 fatal stabbing by bodega clerk; Jose Alba, a bodega employee who fatally stabbed a customer in the neck in 2022, is looking to revive claims of malicious prosecution and false arrest”: Erik Uebelacker of Courthouse News Service has this report.

“Comey Indictment Shows Justice Dept. Got the Message From Bondi’s Firing; In naming only an interim successor as acting attorney general, President Trump has established even greater incentives to execute his most extreme demands, current and former officials say”: Glenn Thrush of The New York Times has this news analysis.

“Inside the courtroom for the Voting Rights Act’s final bow; Before the Supreme Court began broadcasting live audio from inside the courtroom, Justices Alito and Kagan gave dueling views over the intersection of race and politics in a representative democracy”: Kelsey Reichmann of Courthouse News Service has this report.

Unanimous Supreme Court of Pennsylvania holds that doctrine of nullum tempus cannot be invoked to preclude application of Pennsylvania’s Construction Statute of Repose: You can access the decision at this link.

“Trump Judicial Pick ABA Rated Unqualified Advances in Senate”: Olivia Alafriz of Bloomberg Law has this report.

And Benjamin S. Weiss of Courthouse News Service reports that “Top Democrat decries ‘slow-mo self-destruction’ of Senate Judiciary Committee; In an extraordinary statement, Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse slammed his colleagues on the Senate’s powerful judicial affairs panel for handing their authority over nominees to the executive branch.”

“DOJ Readies Fed Subpoena Appeal After Closing Powell Probe”: Chris Strohm of Bloomberg News has this report.

“Top Comey Prosecutor Parroted Trump on Way to Targeting His Foe”: Ben Penn of Bloomberg Law has this report, along with a report headlined “Trump DOJ Pursuing Separate Comey Probe for Classified Leaks.”