How Appealing



Monday, June 3, 2024

“Will the Supreme Court Step Into Trump’s Hush Money Conviction? There are some alarmingly unconstitutional calls for the High Court to step in; will the conservative Justices take the bait?” You can access the new episode of Slate’s “Amicus” podcast via this link.

Posted at 10:35 AM by Howard Bashman



“Justice Alito Fails Both Constitutional Law and Property Law”: Michael C. Dorf has this post at his blog, “Dorf on Law.”

Posted at 10:33 AM by Howard Bashman



“A Felon in the Oval Office Would Test the American System; Some are wondering how the Constitution’s checks and balances, meant to hold presidents accountable, would work if the next president elected were already a felon”: Peter Baker of The New York Times has this news analysis.

Posted at 10:29 AM by Howard Bashman



“Thurgood Marshall Was My Mentor. He’d Be Furious with the Court Today. This year marks the 70th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education decision. The Supreme Court justice’s vision is betrayed daily in an America in which schools remain separate and unequal.” Law professor Sheryll Cashin has this essay online at Politico Magazine.

Posted at 10:28 AM by Howard Bashman



“Can State Supreme Courts Preserve — or Expand — Rights? With a lopsided conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court, progressive activists are seeking legal opportunities in state constitutions.” Eyal Press has this article in the June 10, 2024 issue of The New Yorker.

Posted at 10:24 AM by Howard Bashman



Sunday, June 2, 2024

“I was a law clerk for Justice Alito. He must recuse himself from hearing cases involving Donald Trump. Flying the U.S. flag upside down, once a signal of distress, has become a symbol of those who reject the results of the 2020 presidential election. When Alito did so, it was indeed a distress call.” Professor Susan Sullivan has this essay online at The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Posted at 10:20 AM by Howard Bashman



Friday, May 31, 2024

“The (small) mystery of Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk’s stocks has been solved; Newly unredacted disclosure forms show the judge owns at least $5 million in stock from the supermarket chain Publix, where his grandmother worked for decades”: Tobi Raji of The Washington Post has this report.

Posted at 9:15 PM by Howard Bashman



“Wait, We’ve Been Flying the Flag the Alitos Had? San Francisco Takes It Down. Critics slammed Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. after the ‘Appeal to Heaven’ flag was flown outside his vacation home, but it had billowed in the heart of San Francisco for 60 years.” Heather Knight of The New York Times has this report.

Posted at 8:50 PM by Howard Bashman



“Shooting range argues Second Amendment includes protections for its business; A proposed 1,000-yard outdoor shooting range designed for rifle training is protected by the right to bear arms, Oakland Tactical Supply argued before the Sixth Circuit”: Kevin Koeninger of Courthouse News Service had this report back in November 2023.

Today, the majority on a divided three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit issued this decision ruling against the shooting range.

Posted at 8:14 PM by Howard Bashman



“Donald Trump needs YOUR HELP to get vengeance on the evil RULE OF LAW: Any little bit helps toward freeing this nation from the iron thumb of the justice system!” Columnist Alexandra Petri has this essay online at The Washington Post.

Posted at 4:10 PM by Howard Bashman



“Alito’s Jan. 6 Flag Defense Is Just Weird Gender Politics; The justice wants us to think his wife acted independently; But his defense wallows in dated stereotypes about marriage roles”: Law professor Noah Feldman has this essay online at Bloomberg Opinion.

Posted at 4:04 PM by Howard Bashman



“Texas Supreme Court rejects challenge brought by 20 women denied abortions, upholds ban”: Bayliss Wagner of The Austin American-Statesman has this report.

Eleanor Klibanoff of The Texas Tribune reports that “Texas Supreme Court rejects challenge to abortion laws; The court ruled against 20 women who said they were denied medically necessary abortions, saying the medical exceptions in the law were broad enough.”

And Janelle Griffith of NBC News reports that “Texas Supreme Court rejects challenge to state’s abortion ban over exceptions for dangerous pregnancy complications; The lawsuit was filed last year by a group of women who said they were denied abortions even when issues arose in pregnancy that endangered their lives.”

Today’s ruling of the Supreme Court of Texas consists of the opinion of the court and two concurring opinions (here and here).

Posted at 1:18 PM by Howard Bashman



Thursday, May 30, 2024

“Supreme Court Clears Way for N.R.A. to Pursue First Amendment Challenge; The unanimous opinion, by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, found that the gun rights group had plausibly claimed a First Amendment violation”: Abbie VanSickle of The New York Times has this report.

Justin Jouvenal of The Washington Post reports that “Supreme Court rules official likely violated NRA’s free speech rights; A unanimous Supreme Court ruled that government officials cannot use their substantial powers to try to quash points of view they do not like.”

David G. Savage of The Los Angeles Times reports that “Supreme Court gives National Rifle Assn. a 1st Amendment win in suit against New York officials.”

Jan Wolfe of The Wall Street Journal reports that “Supreme Court Sides With NRA in Free Speech Case; Justices revive lawsuit alleging New York regulator violated the First Amendment by pressuring companies to cut ties with NRA.”

And Alex Swoyer of The Washington Times reports that “Supreme Court unanimously sides with NRA in First Amendment dispute with New York official.”

Posted at 8:50 PM by Howard Bashman



“Donald Trump Convicted in New York Hush-Money Case; Jury finds former president guilty of falsifying business records”: Corinne Ramey and James Fanelli of The Wall Street Journal have this report.

Posted at 5:15 PM by Howard Bashman



“Alito Benefits from Colleague’s 50-Year Friendship; Judge Edward Becker secures Arlen Specter’s support”: Ed Whelan has this post at his “Confirmation Tales” Substack site.

Posted at 4:06 PM by Howard Bashman



“The Supreme Court Could Make the President a King; The high court’s decision in the Trump immunity case appears to set the stage for future abuses of the pardon power”: Law professor Kimberly Wehle has this essay online at Politico Magazine.

Posted at 4:00 PM by Howard Bashman



“The Alito Scandal Is Worse Than It Seems: The conservative justice knows he can get away with just about anything.” Ankush Khardori has this essay online at Politico Magazine.

Posted at 3:55 PM by Howard Bashman



“Supreme Court gives New Yorkers second shot in escrow interest-payment fight; The high court will force the Second Circuit to reexamine if Bank of America needs to pay interest on New York homeowners’ escrow accounts”: Kelsey Reichmann of Courthouse News Service has this report.

Posted at 3:52 PM by Howard Bashman



“Biden pledges to name progressives to the Supreme Court, suggesting he expects vacancies”: Kevin Liptak of CNN has this report.

Posted at 3:50 PM by Howard Bashman



“Chief Justice John Roberts declines to meet with Dems on ethics concerns amid Alito flag flap; Senate Democrats requested Roberts meet with them amid their concerns about controversial flags flown at Justice Samuel Alito’s properties”: Lawrence Hurley of NBC News has this report.

You can access the Chief Justice’s letter at this link.

Posted at 3:40 PM by Howard Bashman



Access today’s rulings of the U.S. Supreme Court in argued cases: The Court issued rulings in three argued cases.

1. Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh delivered the opinion for a unanimous Court in Cantero v. Bank of America, N.A., No. 22-529. You can access the oral argument via this link.

2. Justice Sonia Sotomayor delivered the opinion for a unanimous Court in National Rifle Association of America v. Vullo, No. 22-842. Justices Neil M. Gorsuch and Ketanji Brown Jackson each issued a solo concurring opinion. You can access the oral argument via this link.

3. And Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr. delivered the opinion of the Court in Thornell v. Jones, No. 22-982. Justice Sotomayor issued a dissenting opinion, in which Justice Elena Kagan joined. And Justice Jackson issued a dissenting opinion. You can access the oral argument via this link.

Posted at 10:03 AM by Howard Bashman



Wednesday, May 29, 2024

“Samuel Alito Has an ‘Obligation to Sit’; The Supreme Court Justice rightly rejects a partisan demand that he recuse from Trump-related cases”: This editorial will appear in Thursday’s edition of The Wall Street Journal.

Posted at 9:56 PM by Howard Bashman



“The strange case of Alito v. Alito; Alito-gate: The justice, his wife, her flags and their ethics.” Columnist Ruth Marcus has this essay online at The Washington Post.

Also online at The Washington Post, columnist Monica Hesse has an essay titled “It’s a woman’s right to fly her own flag! Hear, hear Justice Alito. The Supreme Court justice is defending a woman’s freedom to make her own decisions without the influence of a man. Say more.”

And online at Slate, Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern have a Jurisprudence essay titled “Alito’s Aggrieved Letter to Congress Tips His Hand in the Jan. 6 Cases.”

Posted at 9:55 PM by Howard Bashman



“US judge makes ‘unthinkable’ pitch to use AI to interpret legal texts”: Nate Raymond of Reuters has a report that begins, “A federal appeals court judge used a concurring opinion in an insurance dispute to lay out what he called an ‘unthinkable’ proposal: That courts begin using artificial intelligence programs to help interpret words and phrases in legal texts.”

On Tuesday, Eleventh Circuit Judge Kevin C. Newsom issued this very interesting concurring opinion.

Posted at 8:36 PM by Howard Bashman



“ExxonMobil Argues Co-Defendant’s Settlement Barred Claims That Yielded $725M Benzene Verdict; The company asserted in a recent post-trial brief that the plaintiffs were not entitled to recover against ExxonMobil at all because they had already been compensated by another defendant for their injuries”: Aleeza Furman of The Legal Intelligencer has this report.

Posted at 8:27 PM by Howard Bashman



“Emerging Portrait of Judge in Trump Documents Case: Prepared, Prickly and Slow; Judge Aileen Cannon’s handling of court hearings offers insights into how the case accusing Donald Trump of illegally retaining classified material has become bogged down in unresolved issues.” Alan Feuer of The New York Times has this report.

Posted at 2:45 PM by Howard Bashman



“Alito Refuses Calls for Recusal Over Display of Provocative Flags; ‘My wife is fond of flying flags,’ the justice wrote in a letter to members of Congress who had demanded he step down from two cases related to the Jan. 6 attack; ‘I am not’”: Adam Liptak of The New York Times has this report.

Ann E. Marimow and Justin Jouvenal of The Washington Post report that “Justice Alito tells Congress he will not recuse from Jan. 6-related cases; Some Democrats asked whether Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. could be impartial after an upside-down flag flew at his home following the 2021 U.S. Capitol attack.”

And Alex Swoyer of The Washington Times reports that “Justice Alito refuses call to recuse, says flags were flown by his wife.”

You can access Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr.’s letter at this link.

Posted at 2:44 PM by Howard Bashman



“Narrow decisions, broad goals: Why the South Carolina redistricting case was decided 6 to 3.” Adam Unikowsky has this post at his Substack site, “Adam’s Legal Newsletter.”

Posted at 2:33 PM by Howard Bashman



“Amy Coney Barrett’s Husband Is Representing Fox in a Lawsuit; Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s husband, Jesse Barrett, is defending Fox Corporation in a defamation case”: Andrew Perez of Rolling Stone has this report.

Posted at 10:36 AM by Howard Bashman