“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.

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

“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.

“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.

“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.

Access today’s Order List of the U.S. Supreme Court: At this link. The Court granted review in one new case.

“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.

“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.

“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.

“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.

“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.

“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.

“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).

“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.”

“Trump Can Proceed With Lawsuit Against His Niece, Court Rules; The case concerns Mary L. Trump’s disclosure of financial documents to a team of reporters at The New York Times”: Michael M. Grynbaum of The New York Times has this report on a ruling that the New York State Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Department issued today.

“How to Force Justices Alito and Thomas to Recuse Themselves in the Jan. 6 Cases”: U.S. Representative Jamie Raskin (D-MD) has this guest essay online at The New York Times.

“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.

“US appeals court accepts broad definition of securities ‘dealer’ in microcap fund case”: Alison Frankel’s “On the Case” from Reuters has this post about a decision that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit issued yesterday.

“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.

“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.

“SC Supreme Court will have a woman justice again after last year’s all-male abortion decision”: Joseph Bustos of The State of Columbia, South Carolina has this report.

And Nick Reynolds of The Post and Courier of Charleston, South Carolina reports that “SC Supreme Court now guaranteed to include a female justice.”

“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.

“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.

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

“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.

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.

“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.

“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.”

“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.

“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.

“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.

“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.

“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.”

“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.

“The newest election battlefield for abortion: State supreme courts.” Faith E. Pinho of The Los Angeles Times has this report.