“Thomas signals no slowdown to precedent purge; Thomas said the justices shouldn’t ‘turn off their brain’ to precedents that no longer make sense”: Kelsey Reichmann of Courthouse News Service has this report.

“11th Circuit upholds law targeting racial violence on government property; The ruling affirmed the conviction of Jordan Leahy for using his car to terrorize a Black family on a Florida road”: Megan Butler of Courthouse News Service has this report on a ruling that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit issued today.

“Trump Gets the Retribution He Sought, and Shatters Norms in the Process; A prosecutor’s drive to indict James Comey trampled over the Justice Department’s long tradition of keeping a distance from politics and the White House, and raised the prospect of more arbitrary charges”: Alan Feuer, Jonah E. Bromwich, and Maggie Haberman of The New York Times have this news analysis.

“The Supreme Court and Trump’s Firing Power; Maybe it was a mistake all along to empower a vast D.C. bureaucracy”: This editorial will appear in Friday’s edition of The Wall Street Journal.

“Barrett spurns Supreme Court bias claims after string of Trump shadow docket wins; Justice Amy Coney Barrett sat for an extended discussion where she defended the high court’s rulings and her jurisprudence”: Kelsey Reichmann of Courthouse News Service has this report.

“The DNC is jumping into the 2025 Pa. Supreme Court fight to protect Democrats in November election; Concerned over conservatives’ efforts to realign the state’s highest court, Democrats are ramping up spending in what is usually a low-key Pa. race”: Carmen Russell-Sluchansky of WHYY has this report.

Chris Potter of WESA reports that “Financial reports show big-dollar donations in Pa. Supreme Court judicial retention contest.”

And in commentary, online at The Patriot-News of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, columnist John Baer has an essay titled “Pa. Supreme Court retention elections are very different this year.”

“Judges Say Justices Need to Give More Emergency Docket Guidance”: Justin Wise of Bloomberg Law has this report.

“Perspectives on Judicial Restraint in Modern Originalism with Judge Patrick Bumatay”: Case Western Reserve University School of Law has posted this video on YouTube.

And in news coverage, Eric Heisig of Bloomberg Law reports that “Ninth Circuit Judge Pushes ‘Bloodthirsty Originalism’ Embrace” (subscription required for full access).

“State Supreme Court calls foul on Pittsburgh’s ‘jock tax,’ adding to city’s financial headaches”: Julia Maruca of WESA has this report.

Today’s ruling of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania consists of a majority opinion and two concurring opinions (here and here).

“Bonus 179: The Stare Decisis-Free Docket; The Court’s recent treatment of Humphrey’s Executor may only encourage lower-court judges to do exactly what Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh purported to rail against in August: not follow precedents.” Steve Vladeck has this post at his “One First” Substack site.

“The Situation: Choose Your Own Adventure: Lindsey Halligan Edition; Any way you play, you lose.” Benjamin Wittes and Anna Bower have this post online at the “Lawfare” blog.

“Brett Kavanaugh’s Lazy Racial Profiling Opinion Is the Most Honest Originalism He’s Ever Done; There is a long, grim history of Supreme Court justices deciding big cases by appealing to what they think feels right”: Steve Kennedy has this essay online at Balls and Strikes.

“Trump’s Dream of Infinite Presidential Power”: Columnist Jamelle Bouie has this essay online at The New York Times.

“Trial Separation: Courtroom Lawyers Are Breaking Up With Big Law; Top litigators leaving elite firms to start boutique firms — trend accelerating in Trump era.” Erin Mulvaney of The Wall Street Journal has this report.

“Democrats Go After Law Firms Doing Free Work For Trump, Warn Of Law-Breaking; They may not get far in their demands for details, but key Democrats are laying the groundwork for full-blown investigations when they’re back in the majority”: Jennifer Bendery of HuffPost has this report.

“University welcomes US Supreme Court justice to campus; Justice Sonia Sotomayor captivated an audience of nearly 600 at the University of Miami with a discussion of her new children’s book and the law”: Catharine Skipp has this report online at News@TheU.

“5 Reasons the Supreme Court Might Change Its Mind on Same-Sex Marriage; Marriage equality is popular, but a lot has changed since Obergefell”: Law professor Kimberly Wehle has this essay online at Politico Magazine.

“White House bullish after a long string of Supreme Court victories; Officials are on a winning streak at the high court, in part due to a strategy of selecting cases most likely to find favor with the conservative majority”: Lawrence Hurley and Katherine Doyle of NBC News have this report.

“The Trump administration is pushing courts to make more ‘new law’; Judges across the country are being forced to confront unprecedented claims of presidential power in ways they’ve never had to consider”: Kyle Cheney of Politico has this report.

“A national Democratic group, the ACLU, and Pa.’s richest person are now spending on judicial retention”: Stephen Caruso of Spotlight PA has this report.

“Law Firms With Trump Deals Probed by Democrats on Commerce Work”: Tatyana Monnay of Bloomberg Law has this report.

“Judge Rebukes Trump Officials for Saying Mangione Is a Killer; They echoed the president’s characterization of Mr. Mangione, even though the judge had warned of endangering a fair trial”: Benjamin Weiser and Hurubie Meko of The New York Times have this report.

Shayna Jacobs and Jeremy Roebuck of The Washington Post report that “N.Y. judge in Luigi Mangione case warns Justice Department over comments; Garnett wrote that top Justice officials cited by Mangione’s lawyers ‘appear to be in direct violation’ of court rules and an earlier court order prohibiting such statements.”

Ben Kochman of The New York Post has an article headlined “Judge warns DOJ brass to stop talking about Luigi Mangione: ‘Direct violation.’”

Larry Neumeister and Michael R. Sisak of The Associated Press report that “Judge scolds Justice Department over public statements in UnitedHealthcare CEO murder case.”

Luc Cohen of Reuters reports that “Justice Dept officials’ statements on Luigi Mangione broke court rules, judge says.”

Patricia Hurtado of Bloomberg News reports that “Luigi Mangione Judge Rebukes Justice Department Over Comments.”

Matt Lavietes of NBC News reports that “Luigi Mangione’s lawyers slam Charlie Kirk comparisons made by Trump administration; Some have compared Kirk’s slaying to other recent acts of political violence, including the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in December 2024.”

Kara Scannell of CNN reports that “Judge says Justice Department officials may have violated order not to post opinions about prosecuting Luigi Mangione.”

Michael Ruiz of Fox News reports that “Luigi Mangione’s lawyers cry foul over portrayal of him as ‘left-wing’ and Antifa; Defense argues government violated court order by linking defendant to left-wing extremism.”

And Pocharapon Neammanee of HuffPost reports that “Luigi Mangione’s Lawyers Scorch Trump Administration For ‘Baselessly Linking Him’ To Extremists; Mangione’s lawyers slammed the Trump administration’s greater political narrative that has no place in any criminal case.’”

You can view today’s order of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York at this link.

“Judiciary Restricts Access to Sealed Records After Cyber Hack”: Suzanne Monyak of Bloomberg Law has this report.

There’s still time to register to attend the 2025 Appellate Judges Education Institute Summit this November in Minneapolis: Details here. I am planning to attend, even though the weather might not be as nice as when I visited in June.

“Donald Trump Is Making All Of The Warnings About The Supreme Court’s Immunity Decision Come True; Trump’s pressure campaign to prosecute his political foes is exactly what conservative justices authorized in their infamous Trump v. U.S. decision”: Paul Blumenthal of HuffPost has this report.

“The Supreme Court’s Trump Enablers May Have Screwed Themselves; The court’s conservatives spent last term bailing out the administration with shadow docket shams; Now they must reckon with all the cans they kicked down the road”: Simon Lazarus has this essay online at The New Republic.

“Tennessee Supreme Court Judge and Memphis native Holly Kirby to retire in 2026”: Jack Armstrong of The Memphis Commercial Appeal has this report.

“Alum Offers Insight on Supreme Court Appeasements; Stephen Vladeck ’01 returned to his alma mater to discuss fears surrounding the erosion of the balance of power sparked by recent Supreme Court decisions under Trump; Vladeck attempted to appease student concerns, citing ‘guarded optimism’ and trust in democratic safeguards”: Annie Lopez of The Amherst Student has this report.

“Kennedy memoir sheds light on former center of Supreme Court gay rights, abortion rulings; Former Justice Anthony Kennedy was surprised by the vehemence of the opposition to gay marriage; He considered stepping down from the court due to his personal feelings about abortion”: Maureen Groppe of USA Today has this report.

“How the Roberts Court became the Trump Court”: Joan Biskupic of CNN has this news analysis.

“Presidential Pretext and the Supreme Court: How much will the actual reasons for the Cook firing matter?” Bob Bauer has this post at the “Executive Functions” Substack site.

“Ninth Circuit Hears Arguments on Tiny Pacific Island Territory”: Isaiah Poritz of Bloomberg Law has this report.

“Bondi’s DOJ knows how to slow walk the bad cases; With a trio of examples already this week, some insights into the other end of the spectrum from DOJ’s higher-profile practice of rushing to the Supreme Court”: Chris Geidner has this post at his Substack site.

“Trump’s U.S. attorney pick could put him on collision course with Senate; It’s unclear whether Virginia’s Democratic senators will support Lindsay Halligan if her nomination as U.S. attorney comes before the Senate”: Theodoric Meyer of The Washington Post has this report.

“Feds argue Ábrego García cannot fight deportation in federal court; The Trump administration walked back its pledge to send the Maryland man to Uganda, instead indicating his destination would be Eswatini”: Ryan Knappenberger of Courthouse News Service has this report.