How Appealing



Friday, October 10, 2025

“Judge Faces Backlash in Sentence of Would-Be Kavanaugh Assassin”: Jacqueline Thomsen has this essay online at Bloomberg Law.

Posted at 8:50 PM by Howard Bashman



“The Conservative Justices Are Not Even Bothering to Tell This Lie Anymore; Extolling the virtues of upholding precedent used to be mandatory for Supreme Court justices; Now that the conservatives have six votes, they suddenly view it as very optional”: Jay Willis has this essay online at Balls and Strikes.

Posted at 8:47 PM by Howard Bashman



“Baylor Law School — Judge Kenneth W. Starr Federalist Papers Lecture — 2025”: Baylor Law has posted this video on YouTube.

Posted at 5:24 PM by Howard Bashman



“Political Violence as a Threat to Judicial Independence and the Rule of Law”: The Federalist Society has posted this video on YouTube.

Posted at 4:26 PM by Howard Bashman



“How Trump’s message to ‘Pam’ got exactly the results he wanted; Donald Trump has long called for imprisoning his opponents; For the first time, he has a Justice Department willing to do his bidding”: Kyle Cheney, Erica Orden, and Hassan Ali Kanu of Politico have this report.

Posted at 4:24 PM by Howard Bashman



Thursday, October 9, 2025

“Hantz Marconi to return to the bench, capping whirlwind week for convicted justice”: Todd Bookman of New Hampshire Public Radio has this report.

Posted at 9:36 PM by Howard Bashman



“Why the Oklahoma Supreme Court rejected an attempt to create business-only courts system”: Dale Denwalt of The Oklahoman has this report.

Posted at 9:32 PM by Howard Bashman



“Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote the opinion legalizing same-sex marriage. Here’s why he says it won’t be overturned.” Joan Biskupic of CNN has this report.

Posted at 9:28 PM by Howard Bashman



“How a Pennsylvania Supreme Court election could influence the 2028 presidential race; It’s been 20 years since a Pennsylvania justice has lost a retention vote”: Emily Chang of ABC News has this report.

Posted at 9:26 PM by Howard Bashman



“California’s first openly gay Supreme Court justice to step down, giving Newsom another pick”: Bob Egelko of The San Francisco Chronicle has this report.

Posted at 9:04 PM by Howard Bashman



“The Supreme Court should listen to the founders on tariffs; James Madison and John Marshall would say Trump’s tariffs are legal”: Law professor Chad Squitieri has this essay online at The Washington Post.

Posted at 9:00 PM by Howard Bashman



“Pennsylvania court tells Lower Merion it can’t use zoning to regulate how gun shops do business; A split Commonwealth Court ruled that a Lower Merion’s requirements on gun shops were preempted by state law; ‘It is a gun regulation, not a zoning regulation,’ Judge Matthew Wolf wrote”: Katie Bernard and Abraham Gutman of The Philadelphia Inquirer have this report.

You can access today’s en banc ruling of the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania at this link.

Posted at 8:30 PM by Howard Bashman



“Bonus 182: Damages as a (Missing) Deterrent; It’s worth reflecting on how different things might look right now if federal officers — or the federal government itself — faced a meaningful specter of monetary liability for constitutional violations.” Steve Vladeck has this post at his “One First” Substack site.

Posted at 2:09 PM by Howard Bashman



“Senate Panel Advances Circuit Pick Who Drew Conservative Ire”: Tiana Headley of Bloomberg Law has a report that begins, “The Senate Judiciary Committee advanced President Donald Trump’s pick for the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit who attracted rare conservative pushback.”

Posted at 2:07 PM by Howard Bashman



“Presidential Bad Faith in the Law of Emergency Power; Trump’s false claims about Portland matter a great deal in evaluating the legal basis for a military deployment in Portland — and in other cities”: Bob Bauer has this post at the “Executive Functions” Substack site.

Posted at 1:57 PM by Howard Bashman



“Nixon Now Looks Restrained; The former President once made an offhand remark about Charles Manson’s guilt; The reaction shows how aberrant Donald Trump’s rhetoric is”: Ruth Marcus has this essay online at The New Yorker.

Posted at 1:54 PM by Howard Bashman



“Presidential and Judicial Political Capital: An Inverse Relationship; Why delaying Supreme Court review of Trump’s major policies might be desirable.” Dan Epps has this post at the “Divided Argument” Substack site.

Posted at 1:52 PM by Howard Bashman



“California Supreme Court Associate Justice Martin Jenkins to Retire; Associate Justice Martin J. Jenkins will retire from the California Supreme Court at the end of October after five years with the court and more than 35 years of judicial service”: Merrill Balassone of California Courts Newsroom has this report.

Posted at 1:05 PM by Howard Bashman



Wednesday, October 8, 2025

“Prosecutors say no harm was done by social media posts about assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO”: Michael R. Sisak and Larry Neumeister of The Associated Press have this report.

Posted at 10:14 PM by Howard Bashman



“Retired Justice Kennedy laments coarse discourse of Trump era and its effects on the Supreme Court”: Mark Sherman of The Associated Press has this report.

Posted at 10:10 PM by Howard Bashman



“Supreme Court grapples with lawsuit challenging mail-in ballot rules; The question before the justices was a narrow one — whether an Illinois congressman had met the basic legal threshold to bring his lawsuit — not the law’s legality”: Justin Jouvenal of The Washington Post has this report.

Posted at 9:24 PM by Howard Bashman



“Make HHS and FDA Pro-Life Again: Approval of generic mifepristone is why I warned against RFK Jr.’s appointment.” Mike Pence has this essay online at The Wall Street Journal.

Posted at 8:47 PM by Howard Bashman



“President Trump Holds the Legal Cards on the Use of the Military in the Domestic Sphere; The protective power for the regular military, and the Insurrection Act, lie in the wings”: Jack Goldsmith has this post at the “Executive Functions” Substack site.

Posted at 8:44 PM by Howard Bashman



“The ‘Second Roberts Court’: The justices are wise to return political issues to voters and their representatives.” Columnist Barton Swaim has this essay online at The Wall Street Journal.

Posted at 8:36 PM by Howard Bashman