“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.
“Ketanji Brown Jackson Points to a Way Forward for the Court”: Linda Greenhouse has this guest essay online at The New York Times.
“Justice Alito’s Wife Has Managed to Avoid the Spotlight Until Now; Martha-Ann Alito has built a limited public life since moving to Washington that has mainly centered on apolitical projects and charity work”: Zach Montague of The New York Times has this report.
David Bauder of The Associated Press reports that “The Washington Post said it had the Alito flag story 3 years ago and chose not to publish.”
And in commentary, online at The Los Angeles Times, columnist Robin Abcarian has an essay titled “Samuel Alito’s ethical lapse isn’t the Supreme Court’s first. This is why it’s different.”
“Former federal judge blasts John Roberts in new book and says Ruth Bader Ginsburg was annoyed by pressure to retire”: Joan Biskupic of CNN has this report.
Retired D.C. Circuit Judge David S. Tatel‘s new book is titled “Vision: A Memoir of Blindness and Justice.”
“Phila. Judge Rejects Truck Company’s Excessiveness Challenge to $12M Crash Verdict; In an order entered just three days after the parties submitted their post-trial briefs, Judge Carmella Jacquinto of the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas rejected arguments from the defendant that the jury’s award for pain and suffering was too large”: Aleeza Furman of The Legal Intelligencer has this report, in which I am quoted.
“Justice Thomas, Supreme Judicial Hypocrisy, and Race”: Eric Segall has this blog post at “Dorf on Law.”
“Credit Card Late Fee Case Moved Again to Washington From Texas; No affected banks in Texas district, judge rules again; CFPB’s final rule would slash credit card late fees to $8”: Michael Smallberg of Bloomberg Law has this report on a ruling that the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas issued yesterday.
“In a pre-Dobbs world, the Washington Post deferred to a Supreme Court justice”: Ben Smith and Max Tani of Semafor have this report.
“Only Black candidate drops out of SC Supreme Court race. Court will be all-White by summer.” Alexander Thompson of The Post and Courier of Charleston, South Carolina has an article that begins, “The only Black candidate in the race for an open South Carolina Supreme Court seat dropped out May 28, ensuring the state’s high court will become all White for the first time in 17 years.”
“The Alitos, the Neighborhood Clash and the Upside-Down Flag; Inside the escalating conflict on a bucolic suburban street that Justice Alito said prompted a ‘Stop the Steal’ symbol at his home”: Jodi Kantor of The New York Times has this report.
“Gorsuch offers rebuke as Supreme Court turns away review of 6-member juries; The Donald Trump appointee urged states to step in and uphold the right to a 12-member jury since the high court declined to correct what Gorsuch called an ‘embarrassing mistake’”: Kelsey Reichmann of Courthouse News Service has this report.
“The Infuriating Alito Two-Step”: Michael C. Dorf has this post at his blog, “Dorf on Law.”
“Liberal Judges Should Respect Precedent As Little As Conservative Judges Do; Judges have long criticized qualified immunity as lawless and illegitimate; A Mississippi district court judge decided to dispense with it altogether”: Madiba K. Dennie has this essay online at Balls and Strikes.
“Supreme Court agrees to hear water pollution fight between San Francisco, EPA”: Bob Egelko of The San Francisco Chronicle has this report.
