“Ninth Circuit upholds block on Montana’s drag story hour ban; A Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals panel affirmed a lower court’s decision blocking Montana from enforcing a 2023 law that banned drag performers from reading to children and restricted minors from attending drag performances; The Ninth Circuit panel ruled the law unconstitutionally targeted protected speech under the First Amendment”: Quinn Welsch of Courthouse News Service has this report.
You can access today’s ruling of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit at this link.
“Trump’s Voting Nemesis Is at the Supreme Court. We Can’t Afford for SCOTUS to Get It Wrong.” David H. Gans has this Jurisprudence essay online at Slate.
“The Trump Administration Floats a New Way to Humiliate the Legal Profession”: Deborah Pearlstein has this guest essay online at The New York Times.
“Judicial Rhetoric, Artful and Clumsy”: Adrian Vermeule has this post at “The New Digest” Substack site.
“A Trump-appointed judge used a vulgar term to attack trans women. His colleagues hit back.” Sara Libby of The San Francisco Chronicle has this report.
And at “Above the Law,” Joe Patrice has a post titled “‘We Are Better Than This,’ Say Ninth Circuit Judges Despite All Evidence To The Contrary; Total dick writes about ‘swinging dicks’ in trans discrimination case, prompting fellow judges to beg for basic professionalism.”
“Ron DeSantis Wants Speedy Executions, and Lots of Them; After President Trump urged states to recommit themselves to capital punishment, Florida started to put prisoners to death at rates not seen in the state’s modern history”: Adam Liptak has this new installment of his “The Docket” newsletter online at The New York Times.
“Hip-Hop Icons Tell Justices That Texas Turned Rap Lyrics Into a Death Warrant; Killer Mike, Travis Scott, T.I. and other artists said James Broadnax was sent to death row in Texas based partly on his artistic expression”: Adam Liptak of The New York Times recently had this report.
“VanDyke Uses Crude Phrase in Case Over Spa’s Transgender Policy”: Suzanne Monyak of Bloomberg Law has this report.
“Judge VanDyke: ‘This is a case about swinging dicks.’ 30 members of the Ninth Circuit write to disagree.” Josh Blackman has this post at “The Volokh Conspiracy.”
You can access yesterday’s order of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit denying rehearing en banc, and the opinions and statements accompanying it, at this link.
“Partisanship on Iran Is Dangerous for America; Trump is doing the right thing for the U.S., and we Democrats should judge the war on the merits”: David Boies will have this op-ed in Friday’s edition of The Wall Street Journal.
“Still trying to kill congestion pricing, two NY counties make their appellate case; Rockland and Orange counties urged the Second Circuit on Thursday to revive their respective lawsuits against the toll, which raised more than $500 million in 2025”: Erik Uebelacker of Courthouse News Service has this report.
And Beth Wang of Bloomberg Law reports that “Second Circuit Skeptical of NYC Congestion Pricing Challenge.”
“US Tells Judge Web-Based Portal for IEEPA Refunds 70% Complete”: Erik Larson and Zoe Tillman of Bloomberg News have this report.
“Executive and Judicial Branches Spar Over Control of Federal Courthouses; The head of the General Services Administration said a proposal to transfer control of courthouse buildings to the judiciary was a bad idea”: Mattathias Schwartz of The New York Times has this report.
“Oldest Active Federal Judge Asks Supreme Court for Her Job Back”: Michael Shapiro of Bloomberg Law has this report.
Blake Brittain of Reuters reports that “98-year-old judge asks US Supreme Court to hear case over her suspension.”
And Zach Schonfeld of The Hill reports that “98-year-old federal judge suspended for mental fitness appeals to Supreme Court.”
The New Civil Liberties Alliance today issued a news release titled “NCLA Asks SCOTUS to Mandate Review of Unlawful Orders Removing Federal Circuit Judge Newman.”
You can access the cert. petition, signed by Jonathan F. Mitchell, at this link.
“White House takes first step toward permanent fix for illegal tariffs; President Donald Trump is moving to replace the global tariffs that the Supreme Court recently struck down, targeting more than a dozen major trading partners”: David J. Lynch of The Washington Post has this report.
“Justice Barrett In Conversation at Library of Congress”: C-SPAN has posted this video online.
“U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas Reflects on Law, Faith, and Judicial Responsibility at Notre Dame Law School”:”: Annika Johnson of Notre Dame Law School has this report.
“Left Wing Answer to the Federalist Society Is Trying to Rebuild”: Tiana Headley of Bloomberg Law has this report.
“Poll: Confidence in the Supreme Court drops to a record low; The latest NBC News poll shows that the percentage of voters with a ‘great deal’ or ‘quite a bit’ of confidence in the court is at the lowest ebb since the question was first asked in 2000.” Lawrence Hurley of NBC News has this report.
“Constitutional Duels in the Court’s Rejection of Trump’s Tariffs; The justices agree that Congress should play the leading role in some realms, but they disagree on when — and how to get there”: Michael R. Dreeben has this post at the “Lawfare” blog.
“Trump Ordered Justice Department Reversal on Law Firm Sanctions; ‘I never signed off on that,’ the president told aides”: Josh Dawsey, C. Ryan Barber, and Sadie Gurman of The Wall Street Journal have this report.
“Ninth Circuit Judges Tussle Over Pauses for Deportation Orders”: Jacqueline Thomsen of Bloomberg Law has this report.
You can access yesterday’s en banc order of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and the opinions accompanying it, at this link.
“Brad Schimel won’t continue as U.S. attorney in Milwaukee”: John Diedrich and Jessie Opoien of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel have this report.
And Celine Castronuovo and Seth Stern of Bloomberg Law report that “Judges Decline to Extend US Attorney’s Tenure in Wisconsin.”
“Federal Public Defenders Launch Hub for Supreme Court Cases”: Jordan Fischer of Bloomberg Law has this report.
“Bondi Is Said to Move to Military Housing Because of Threats; The attorney general relocated from a Washington apartment to a base in the area within the past month, according to people familiar with the situation”: Glenn Thrush of The New York Times has this report.
“Ed Martin faces disciplinary proceedings over actions as D.C. U.S. attorney; The senior Justice Department official faces disciplinary proceedings over a letter he sent to Georgetown University’s law school about its DEI practices”: Perry Stein of The Washington Post has this report.
And Chris Strohm and Zoe Tillman of Bloomberg News report that “Trump DOJ Official Faces Disciplinary Proceedings by DC Bar.”
“Senators probe birthright citizenship as Supreme Court gears up to tackle Trump executive order; The justices on April 1 will hear oral arguments in a landmark case in which the high court will decide whether it is constitutional for the president to block the children of immigrants without legal status from claiming U.S. citizenship”: Benjamin S. Weiss of Courthouse News Service has this report.
“Pa. Superior Court Narrowly Affirms $18M Award; The judges, in three dissenting opinions, remained split on how to apply a 1981 rule that allows courts to impose liability on companies that acquire another manufacturer’s product line”: Tristin Hoffman of The Legal Intelligencer has this report.
The Superior Court of Pennsylvania‘s en banc decision, which issued last Thursday, consisted of an opinion announcing the judgment of the court, two concurring opinions (here and here), an opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part, a dissenting opinion, and a dissenting statement.
I represent the plaintiffs on appeal in this matter. This is the first Pa. Superior Court case that I have briefed and argued in which en banc reargument was ordered before any decision issued from the original three-judge panel.
“Justice Amy Coney Barrett talks about the Supreme Court as dozens protest outside theater; Barrett: ‘You want a judge of strong character because I think you need to have a judge that can withstand pressure from the outside.’” Gregory R.C. Hasman of The Albuquerque Journal has this report.
And Margaret O’Hara of The Santa Fe New Mexican reports that “Justice Amy Coney Barrett faces supporters, protesters at Santa Fe’s Lensic.”
“Alabama Governor Spares Death Row Inmate Who Didn’t Pull the Trigger; The move by Gov. Kay Ivey, a Republican, is extremely rare; The inmate, Charles Burton, was scheduled to die even though the gunman’s sentence had been commuted years ago”: Eduardo Medina of The New York Times has this report.
And Abigail Brooks, Dan Slepian, and Jackie Montalvo of NBC News report that “Alabama governor commutes death sentence of man who didn’t kill anyone; Charles ‘Sonny’ Burton, 75, was set to be executed Thursday after being sentenced under a legal doctrine known as felony murder.”
“Conservative Justice Annette Ziegler won’t run for a new term in 2027”: Jessie Opoien of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has this report.
And Destiny DeVooght of Courthouse News Service reports that “Conservative Wisconsin Supreme Court justice won’t seek reelection; Justice Annette Ziegler will not seek another term on the state’s highest court. Her term ends in July 2027.”
“In Scathing Ruling, Judge Says 3 Trump Prosecutors Are in Unlawful Roles; The ruling found that the three-person leadership team in New Jersey’s federal prosecutor’s office was illegal, and sharply questioned President Trump’s priorities”: Jonah E. Bromwich and Tracey Tully of The New York Times have this report.
Chris Palmer and Abraham Gutman of The Philadelphia Inquirer report that “Appointment of top federal prosecutors in New Jersey was unconstitutional, judge rules; In a scathing opinion, U.S. District Judge Matthew Brann wrote that Trump’s administration has intentionally avoided taking the proper steps to appoint a top federal prosecutor in New Jersey.”
Jeremy Roebuck of The Washington Post reports that “Trio named to replace Alina Habba as U.S. attorney is also serving illegally, judge says; The decision, which is on hold pending a possible appeal, upended the leadership in New Jersey’s U.S. attorney’s office for the second time in months.”
Kyle Cheney, Matt Friedman, and Erica Orden of Politico report that “Judge rejects NJ US Attorney ‘triumvirate’ in latest blow to Trump prosecutors; ‘One year into this administration, it is plain that President Trump and his top aides have chafed at the limits on their power set forth by law and the Constitution,’ Judge Matthew Brann wrote.”
And David Voreacos of Bloomberg News reports that “Trump’s Trio of NJ Successors to Habba Ruled Illegally Appointed.”
You can access today’s ruling of the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey at this link.
“Ninth Circuit skeptical of NFL’s win in Sunday Ticket trial; The panel seemed puzzled by the rulings of the trial judge who tossed a $4.7 billion damages award soon after the jury had returned its verdict”: Edvard Pettersson of Courthouse News Service has this report.
The Ninth Circuit has posted video of the oral argument on YouTube. Paul D. Clement argued on behalf of the NFL.
“Two Supreme Court Justices Debate Handling of Trump Emergency Cases; In a rare joint appearance, Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Brett M. Kavanaugh offered sharply different views on how the court should handle emergency requests”: Abbie VanSickle of The New York Times has this report.
And Justin Jouvenal of The Washington Post reports that “Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson criticizes Supreme Court emergency rulings; During a public forum, Jackson and conservative Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh offered differing views of President Trump’s wins before the high court.”
“DC Circuit Questions If Trump’s $100,000 H-1B Fee Is a Tax”: Andrew Kreighbaum of Bloomberg Law has this report.
You can access the audio of today’s D.C. Circuit oral argument at this link.
