“9th Circuit upholds California ban on switchblades in San Diego lawsuit; The opinion upholds a San Diego judge’s prior ruling that the switchblade ban is constitutional”: Alex Riggins of The San Diego Union-Tribune has this report.
And Carly Nairn of Courthouse News Service reports that “Ninth Circuit upholds California’s switchblade ban; A Ninth Circuit panel of judges ruled California’s prohibition of carrying concealed switchblades did not violate the Second Amendment.”
You can access today’s decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit at this link.
“Judge chastises Trump administration attorney in hearing over dismantled President’s House exhibits; The city wants the judge to order that no more exhibits be removed and that the already-removed exhibits be protected as the litigation continues”: Abraham Gutman and Fallon Roth of The Philadelphia Inquirer have this report.
And Jackson Healy of Courthouse News Service has an article headlined “‘You can’t erase history once you’ve learned it’: Judge slams Interior Department for removing slavery exhibit; Questioning a government attorney on almost every aspect of his arguments, a federal judge at one point said: ‘It can’t be that you practice law like that.’”
“Tom Goldstein Prosecutors Violated Disclosure Duty, Judge Says”: Holly Barker of Bloomberg Law has this report.
“Loose cannabis is like spilled beer, not open container in car, state Supreme Court rules”: Sonja Sharp of The Los Angeles Times has this report.
And Bob Egelko of The San Francisco Chronicle has an article headlined “Do marijuana crumbs in a car break the law? California Supreme Court rules.”
You can access yesterday’s ruling of the Supreme Court of California at this link.
“Utah moves to expand its Supreme Court, the first state to do so since 2016; ‘It tells you we value the courts,’ said Senate President Stuart Adams on the quick passage of the court expansion bill”: Emma Pitts of The Deseret News has this report.
“Biography celebrates life of North Dakota’s longest serving Supreme Court Chief Justice; ‘Call Me Jerry’ chronicles Jerry VandeWalle’s remarkable life of service”: Michael Standaert of North Dakota News Cooperative has this report.
“Panama High Court Gives Trump a Win Over Canal by Ousting Hong Kong Port Operator; In blow to China, Supreme Court says CK Hutchison’s contract breaches the constitution”: Santiago Pérez of The Wall Street Journal has this report.
“Minnesota’s Compelling 10th Amendment Case Against Trump’s ICE Surge; The 10th Amendment bars the Trump administration from using ICE to force state and local governments to give up their sanctuary policies”: Ilya Somin has this post at the “Lawfare” blog.
“Senate panel won’t recommend Michael Drescher for Vermont Supreme Court; Senators in the Judiciary Committee voted unanimously to back Christina Nolan’s nomination, but stopped short of supporting Drescher, who has faced criticism for representing the Trump administration in controversial immigration cases”: Charlotte Oliver of VTDigger has this report.
And online at The Bennington Banner, David Silver has an essay titled “State Senators should oppose Drescher for Vt. Supreme Court.”
“White Named Editor of Journal of Supreme Court History; Award-Winning Author and Former Warren Clerk Takes on Familiar Role”: Mary Wood of the University of Virginia School of Law has this report.
“With this decision, the Supreme Court can and should rein Trump in; A pending landmark ruling will address the president’s power to fire within the executive branch”: Columnist George F. Will has this essay online at The Washington Post.
“Wrapping Up George W. Bush’s Consequential Second Term: How the politics of judicial confirmations was transformed.” Ed Whelan has this post at his “Confirmation Tales” Substack site.
“Twenty Years of Justice Alito: Supreme Court Justices must be smart, wise, and steadfast, too, especially when under pressure; Alito checks all of the boxes and more.” Law professor Aaron L. Nielson has this essay online at Civitas Outlook.
“U.S. Judge in Mangione Case Rules Prosecutors Cannot Seek Death Penalty; The judge, Margaret Garnett of Federal District Court, said the case against Luigi Mangione would still proceed to trial on other counts”: Benjamin Weiser and Hurubie Meko of The New York Times have this report.
Shayna Jacobs of The Washington Post reports that “Luigi Mangione won’t face death penalty in case of UnitedHealthcare CEO’s killing; Luigi Mangione will not face the death penalty on charges of stalking and killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in late 2024, a federal judge ruled Friday.”
And Erik Uebelacker of Courthouse News Service reports that “Judge rules feds can’t seek death penalty against Luigi Mangione; Mangione’s attorneys have criticized the government’s pursuit of the death penalty, claiming it was a political move to make an example out of their client.”
You can access today’s ruling of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York at this link. The court today also denied Mangione’s motion to suppress the search of his backpack.
“Handling of Pretti investigation has some prosecutors on verge of quitting; Federal prosecutors in Minneapolis, frustrated by the response to the shootings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti, have suggested they could resign en masse”: Perry Stein of The Washington Post has this report.
“Ninth Circuit revives challenge to Idaho library book censorship law; The court found the law likely violates the First Amendment by allowing subjective, age-based censorship”: Monique Merrill of Courthouse News Service has this report on a ruling that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued today.
“Goldstein Trial Features Whales, Stakes, and Crypto in Ninth Day”: Holly Barker of Bloomberg Law has a report that begins, “Rick Salomon, a professional poker player who famously filmed a sex tape with Paris Hilton and leaked it in 2003, took the stand in Tom Goldstein’s trial Thursday morning.”
“Tom Goldstein Saga Could Go From Courtroom To Big Screen”: Rachel Rippetoe of Law360 has this report (subscription required for full access).
And Connor Richards of PokerNews reports that “Billionaire Andy Beal Allegedly Initially Dodged $15M Poker Debt to Tobey Maguire.”
“Appeals Court Rules in Favor of Protections for Venezuelans; The Trump administration has sought to end Temporary Protected Status for more than a million people from troubled nations; About 600,000 are from Venezuela”: Jazmine Ulloa of The New York Times has this report.
And Andrew Kreighbaum of Bloomberg Law reports that “DHS Illegally Ended Venezuelan Migrant Status, 9th Cir. Says.”
You can access yesterday’s ruling of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit at this link.
“An Ethicist ‘in the Scalia Mold’: The Minnesota Judge Blasting ICE; Judge Patrick Schiltz, an appointee of George W. Bush, became an unlikely foil for his criticism of the Trump administration’s tactics in Minnesota.” Zach Montague of The New York Times has this report.
“Man With Pizza Cutter Is Said to Have Tried to Break Mangione Out of Jail; Federal prosecutors said the man was arrested after he impersonated an F.B.I. agent on Wednesday in a visit to the federal jail complex in Brooklyn that houses Luigi Mangione”: Hurubie Meko, Santul Nerkar, and Jonah E. Bromwich of The New York Times have this report.
Update: In other coverage, Erik Uebelacker of Courthouse News Service reports that “Man charged with bringing pizza cutter, barbecue fork to Brooklyn jail to free Luigi Mangione; Prosecutors say Mark Anderson impersonated an FBI agent to try to break out a ‘very well-known’ inmate.”
“The Supreme Court Should Take Up the USAA Case to Bring Clarity to the Esoteric ‘Abstract Ideas’ Doctrine of Alice”: Gene Quinn has this post at IPWatchdog.
And at the “Patently-O” blog, Dennis Crouch has a post titled “USAA Petitions SCOTUS: Is Mobile Check Deposit Just an ‘Abstract Idea’?”
You can access the cert. petition at this link.
“Judge rips into ICE but backs off demand for agency head to appear in court; ‘ICE has likely violated more court orders in January 2026 than some federal agencies have violated in their entire existence,’ Chief Judge Patrick Schiltz wrote”: Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein of Politico have this report.
And Erik Larson of Bloomberg News reports that “ICE Blasted by Minneapolis Judge for Violating Scores of Orders.”
You can access today’s order of the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota at this link.
“Actor Tobey Maguire testifies at US lawyer’s tax evasion trial”: Mike Scarcella of Reuters has this report.
And Holly Barker of Bloomberg Law reports that “Tobey Maguire Takes Stand at Tom Goldstein’s Criminal Tax Trial.”
“Government’s Opposition to The New York Times’ Motion to Quash Subpoenas ad Testificandum“: The prosecution filed this response today in the United States v. Thomas C. Goldstein case.
And counsel for the defendant today submitted this related filing.
“Manhattan DA Pushes for Mangione Trial in July, Before DOJ Case”: Patricia Hurtado and David Voreacos of Bloomberg News have this report.
“If a Tree Falls: The trial of the Sycamore Gap killers.” Rosa Lyster has this article in the January 2026 issue of Harper’s Magazine.
“Tom Goldstein’s Poker Coach Takes The Stand In High-Stakes Tax Trial; Alec Torelli Talks Poker Coaches And The Whales Who Hire Them”: Michael Kaplan of Card Player has this report.
“Ayotte taps Superior Court judge, Daniel Will, to join NH’s highest court”: Josh Rogers of New Hampshire Public Radio has this report.
And Ethan DeWitt of New Hampshire Bulletin reports that “Ayotte’s Supreme Court nominee faces conservative opposition.”
“Will 2 new justices speed up Supreme Court rulings? Utah Legislature moves to find out. The Utah Senate passed a bill to expand Utah’s high court from five to seven justices. It now goes to the House for approval.” Robert Gehrke of The Salt Lake Tribune has this report.
“Where is the Supreme Court’s decision on Trump’s tariffs?” Joan Biskupic of CNN has this news analysis.
“Texas sues Delaware nurse practitioner accused of mailing abortion pills; Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) filed suit against Debra Lynch, who runs Delaware-based Her Safe Harbor, which remotely prescribes and mails abortion pills”: Praveena Somasundaram of The Washington Post has this report.
Aidan Johnstone of Texas Tribune reports that “AG Ken Paxton sues another out-of-state provider accused of illegally sending abortion-inducing pills to Texans; In 2024, Texas also sued a New York provider accused of prescribing abortion pills, but her state’s law has shielded her from prosecution.”
And Christina van Waasbergen of Courthouse News Service reports that “Paxton sues Delaware nurse for sending abortion pills to Texas; Attorney General Ken Paxton previously went after a New York doctor for prescribing abortion pills to a woman in Texas, but New York has refused Paxton’s bid to enforce the judgment.”
“I worked for Justice Alito. What I saw up close shatters the media smear. As a clerk on the Supreme Court, I experienced myriad examples of Justice Alito’s decent character.” Louisiana Solicitor General Ben Aguiñaga has this essay online at Fox News.
“Paul Clement’s Cook Argument Is a Master Class in Oral Advocacy”: David Lat has this new installment of his “Exclusive Jurisdiction” column online at Bloomberg Law.
“Memorandum of Law in Support of Non-Parties Jeffrey Toobin and Rudy Lee’s Motion to Quash”: This document was filed today in the United States v. Thomas C. Goldstein case (via Josh Gerstein).
