How Appealing



Thursday, March 30, 2023

“Time for Supreme Court to adopt ethics rules? Retired federal judge Nancy Gertner says lack of transparency, recent incidents involving justices, spouses, activists have tarnished public standing.” Liz Mineo of The Harvard Gazette has this report.

Posted at 8:45 AM by Howard Bashman



Wednesday, March 29, 2023

“Wisconsin’s Supreme Court race could be the beginning of the end for GOP dominance; The stakes of this down ballot race could have a domino effect on abortion rights, the House majority — and maybe the 2024 presidential election”: Zach Montellaro and Megan Messerly of Politico have this report.

Posted at 10:52 PM by Howard Bashman



“Justices Must Disclose Travel and Gifts Under New Rules; The change comes as members of Congress have called for the justices to be held to ethics standards similar to those for the executive and legislative branches”: Abbie VanSickle of The New York Times has this report.

Posted at 10:48 PM by Howard Bashman



“Dueling court cases in Washington state and Texas could determine legality of abortion pill”: Spencer Kimball of CNBC has this report.

Posted at 10:16 PM by Howard Bashman



“Supreme Court’s new target: the Americans with Disabilities Act; A ruling could essentially rewrite the ADA, which was designed to put enforcement partly in the hands of those best positioned to recognize public access discrimination: those with disabilities.” Columnist Kimberly Atkins Stohr has this essay online at The Boston Globe.

Posted at 10:14 PM by Howard Bashman



“Americans remain pessimistic about Supreme Court months after Roe’s demise, poll finds”: John Fritze of USA Today has this report.

Posted at 10:06 PM by Howard Bashman



“Idaho Is About To Become The First State To Restrict Interstate Travel For Abortion; A bill would create a whole new crime — dubbed ‘abortion trafficking’ — which aims to limit minors’ ability to travel for abortion care without parental consent”: Alanna Vagianos of HuffPost has this report.

Posted at 9:52 PM by Howard Bashman



“Garland looks to hand off security duty for Supreme Court justices; Sen. Katie Britt unveiled training materials showing that marshals were discouraged from arresting protesters”: Josh Gerstein of Politico has this report.

Posted at 5:36 PM by Howard Bashman



Greetings from Little Rock: Where on Friday I will be speaking at the Corbin Symposium, Arkansas’ premier appellate CLE event.

My flight from Charlotte to Little Rock was delayed for over one hour, but I figured the four-person maintenance team had properly fixed the issue, since Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg was on board (sitting in the very last row of coach, surprisingly!), and it wouldn’t be very good marketing for American Airlines if the flight didn’t operate successfully.

Posted at 5:32 PM by Howard Bashman



“Court Improperly Nixed Unvaccinated Jurors, Pa. Panel Told”: Matthew Santoni of Law360 has this report (subscription required for access) on the oral argument before a three-judge Pa. Superior Court panel in which I participated yesterday in Pittsburgh on behalf of the plaintiff-appellee. The argument that is the subject of the article’s headline was being advanced by counsel for the defendant-appellant.

Posted at 5:27 PM by Howard Bashman



Monday, March 27, 2023

Programming note: I will be arguing an appeal tomorrow morning on behalf of the plaintiff-appellee in this case before a three-judge Pa. Superior Court panel sitting in Pittsburgh. As a result, additional posts may not appear here until Tuesday evening.

Posted at 9:22 PM by Howard Bashman



“Israel’s Netanyahu Suspends Judicial Overhaul After Mass Protests; Opposition leaders say they are ready to negotiate, as labor union calls off nationwide strike”: Dov Lieber, Aaron Boxerman, and Shayndi Raice of The Wall Street Journal have this report.

And Patrick Kingsley, Isabel Kershner, and Eric Nagourney of The New York Times report that “Netanyahu Delays Bid to Overhaul Israel’s Judiciary as Protests Rage; The Israeli prime minister called for dialogue as civil unrest and work stoppages reached a crisis point, grinding the country to a halt.”

Posted at 9:07 PM by Howard Bashman



“Supreme Court won’t review contempt conviction of anti-Chevron environmental lawyer”: Ariane de Vogue of CNN has this report.

Posted at 8:42 PM by Howard Bashman



“U.S. Supreme Court mulls Amgen bid to revive cholesterol drug patents”: John Kruzel and Andrew Chung of Reuters have this report.

Posted at 8:33 PM by Howard Bashman



“Supreme Court asked to rule on state law that prohibits therapists from counseling against gender transition; The 9th Circuit upheld the law, which is aimed at banning ‘conversion therapy'”: Brianna Herlihy of Fox News has this report.

You can access the petition for writ of certiorari at this link.

Posted at 8:30 PM by Howard Bashman



“Michigan Supreme Court Proposal Would Impose ‘Preferred Pronouns’ in System of Justice”: Andrea M. Picciotti-Bayer has this essay online at National Catholic Register about a proposed rule change that Michigan’s highest court has under consideration.

As you might imagine, the rule change proposal has already received numerous public comments, which can be accessed via this link (scroll down) — including a comment from 12 Michigan Court of Appeals Judges.

Posted at 8:24 PM by Howard Bashman



“Iowa Poll: Over 60% support legal abortion as state Supreme Court considers restrictions.” Katie Akin of The Des Moines Register has this report.

Posted at 8:14 PM by Howard Bashman



“Kansas Supreme Court skeptical of state bids to restrict abortion; Kansas lawmakers passed a law prohibiting dilation and extraction abortions, and another that slammed abortion clinics with more regulations than other health care providers”: Andrew J. Nelson of Courthouse News Service has this report.

Posted at 8:11 PM by Howard Bashman



“Abortion Wins Elections: The fight to make reproductive rights the centerpiece of the Democratic Party’s 2024 agenda.” Rebecca Traister has this cover story in the March 27, 2023 issue of New York magazine.

Posted at 7:18 PM by Howard Bashman



“‘Racist taint.’ Will the Supreme Court review a Jim Crow-era voting ban targeted at Black Mississippians?” John Fritze of USA Today has this report.

Posted at 6:48 PM by Howard Bashman



“Will Havens Realty Be ‘Abandoned’ Like The Lemon Test? Another Burger Court precedent is on the chopping block.” Josh Blackman has this post at “The Volokh Conspiracy.”

Posted at 2:58 PM by Howard Bashman



“How State Supreme Courts Can Make Up For the Federal Judiciary’s Failures; State supreme courts have a long history of protecting civil rights that reactionary federal judges are happy to ignore”: Kent Hull has this post at Balls and Strikes.

Posted at 1:42 PM by Howard Bashman



“The Difference Between a Bad Joke and Not a Joke”: At his “Dorf on Law” blog, Michael C. Dorf has a post that begins, “Last week’s oral argument in Jack Daniel’s Properties, Inc. v. VIP Prods., LLC was difficult to handicap.”

Posted at 1:40 PM by Howard Bashman



“Disability rights activist faces Supreme Court showdown over hotel accessibility lawsuits; The justices will decide whether accessibility ‘testers’ can sue over a lack of information on hotel websites when they have no intention of staying at the hotels in question”: Lawrence Hurley of NBC News has this report.

Posted at 10:53 AM by Howard Bashman



“Is It Infringement If It’s Funny?” You can access today’s new episode of the “Strict Scrutiny” podcast, recorded in Hawaii (we’re not envious of that, are we?), via this link.

Posted at 9:48 AM by Howard Bashman



“20. ‘Munsingwear Vacaturs’: A dissent from Justice Jackson criticized the Court’s growing use of summary orders to wipe away lower-court rulings after appeals become moot; If anything, she understated the problems.” Steve Vladeck has this post at his “One First” Substack site.

Posted at 9:44 AM by Howard Bashman



Access today’s Order List of the U.S. Supreme Court: At this link. The Court granted review in one case and called for the views of the Solicitor General in two cases.

And in Donziger v. United States, No. 22–274, Justice Neil M. Gorsuch issued a dissent, in which Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh joined, from the denial of certiorari.

Posted at 9:33 AM by Howard Bashman



Sunday, March 26, 2023

“A case on free speech and immigration at the Supreme Court”: This audio segment appeared on this evening’s broadcast of NPR’s “All Things Considered.”

Posted at 9:34 PM by Howard Bashman