An embattled federal district court seat in North Carolina that multiple presidents struggled to fill over the course of 14 years finally has a new occupant, reports Bloomberg Law.

By a 68 to 21 vote, the U.S. Senate confirmed law professor Richard E. Myers to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, eliminating the longest-running vacancy in the federal judiciary and bolstering President Donald Trump’s efforts to reshape the courts with conservatives, according to Bloomberg’s Madison Alder.

“Myers, who Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham said would be the first black judge on his court, is a professor at the University of North Carolina School of Law and is a former federal prosecutor,” writes Alder.

Read the Bloomberg Law article.

Legal cases concerning President Trump, his finances and his separation-of-powers disputes with Congress are arriving at the Supreme Court, and together provide both potential and challenge for the Roberts court in its aspiration to be seen as nonpartisan, reports The Washington Post.

On Dec. 13, the court will consider whether to schedule a full briefing and argument on the president’s request that it overturn a lower-court ruling giving New York prosecutors access to Trump’s tax returns and other financial records.

Authors Robert Barnes and Ann E. Marimow quote Walter Dellinger, who argued for President Bill Clinton before the Supreme Court:

“This will be a special moment for the independence of the judiciary and whether the hyperpartisanship that has infected so much of our culture has also infiltrated the Supreme Court.”

Read the  Post article.

Maine Sen. Susan Collins said she plans to oppose the nomination of Sarah Pitlyk to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, citing her lack of experience, “troubling assertions” on therapies for family struggling with infertility, and stance on abortion, reports Bloomberg Law.

“Her nomination narrowly cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee after Democrats criticized her advocacy work. She was also considered “Not Qualified” by the American Bar Association,” according to Bloomberg’s Madison Alder.

Collins’ opposition alone, however, won’t be enough for Democrats to sink Pitlyk’s nomination in the full Senate.

Read the Bloomberg Law article.

In a vote that will flip the makeup of the New York-based appeals court, the Senate on Thursday confirmed a controversial White House lawyer to a seat on the Second Circuit, reports Courthouse News Service.

The vote means that a majority of the 13 judges on the Second Circuit have been appointed by Republican presidents. Menashi is the fifth judge President Donald Trump has appointed to the court and the fourth this year alone, according to Courthouse News’ Tim Ryan.

Menashi’s dodging of questions during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, along with his position in the Trump administration and his controversial writings, stirred controversy in the Senate.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer had harsh words for Menashi’s nomination: “My Republican colleagues, in my view, rubber-stamped too many of these extreme, unqualified nominees – nominees, in Mr. Menashi’s case, who are almost craven.”

Read the Courthouse News article.

The public impeachment inquiry hearings set to begin Wednesday will pit a Democratic attorney who built his reputation as a federal mob and securities fraud prosecutor against a GOP House Oversight investigator who helped steer some of the most notable probes of the Obama administration, the Associated Press reports.

For the Democrats, Daniel Goldman will lead the questioning of witnesses. The Washington Post reports that Goldman “made his bones as a prosecutor by sending mobsters, stock swindlers and a multimillion-dollar insider trader to prison, cases in which colleagues said he mixed brains and ‘swagger’ to win convictions.”

Steve Castor, House Intelligence Committee counsel for the minority, will ask questions on behalf of the GOP. “Castor was brought over from the House Oversight Committee by Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, who recently joined the Intelligence Committee,” reports Fox News.

Read the AP article.

In a matter of days, President Trump will ask the Supreme Court to rule on his bold claim that he is absolutely immune from criminal investigation while he remains in office, writes Adam Liptak for The New York Times.

The new case, concerning an investigation by Manhattan prosecutors into hush-money payments to two women who said they had affairs with Trump, will be the Supreme Court’s first chance to consider the president’s arguments that he is beyond the reach of the justice system.

Liptak explains the Supreme Court’s options: Announce next month whether it will hear the case and to rule by June, or simply deny review, leaving in place the appeals court ruling and effectively requiring Trump’s accountants to turn over his tax returns.

Read the  NY Times article.

If the U.S. House of Representatives impeaches President Trump, that would put John Roberts, a man known for his temperance and modest view of judicial power, in an uncomfortable place: at the direct center of a bitter political battle, reports Time magazine.

If the impeachment goes through the House, then the Senate will conduct the trial, with the chief justice of the United States overseeing the proceedings.

That eventuality, reports Time, “would force him to engage very publicly in helping determine the fate of the president who has called him an ‘absolute disaster.'”

The Washington Times reports that the prospect of Roberts presiding over the proceedings has caused rumblings in Washington that the chief justice should recuse himself.

Read the Time article.

A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit against former special counsel Robert Mueller, rejecting a conspiracy theorist’s claim that Mueller pressured him to commit perjury during the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, according to a Courthouse News report.

Jerome Corsi alleged that Mueller violated the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure by leaking grand jury information about him to the media to pressure him into giving false testimony.

Courthouse News’ Jack Rodgers quotes the ruling: “The article explicitly references Mueller’s ‘case,’ indicating that the information relates to his investigation and not to the grand jury’s investigation. Moreover, the article does not attribute any information to Mueller or anyone else associated with the grand jury investigation.”

Read the Courthouse News article.

The Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday approved and sent to the full Senate for consideration the nomination of Sarah Pitlyk — rated unqualified by the American Bar Association — to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, reports Blomberg Law.

Three other federal district court nominees also advanced, but action on two controversial appeals court picks was again deferred.

The ABA’s Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary in September rated Pitlyk as not qualified for the lifetime appointment, saying she lacks the requisite courtroom experience to serve as a trial judge.

“The disagreement boiled over Oct. 30 when the committee clashed over the role of the ABA Standing Committee after it issued a harsh assessment of Lawrence VanDyke, who also received an unqualified rating for a seat on the U.S. Appeals Court for the Ninth Circuit,” writes Bloomberg’s Madison Alder.

Read the Bloomberg Law article.

A recent case decided in the Court of Federal Claims serves as a stark reminder that any time a contract with the Federal government is amended or modified, the parties must pay particular attention to any release language contained in the amendment, or they run the risk of releasing potential claims that are unrelated to the modification, according to the Murtha Cullina Family Business Perspectives blog.

Mark J. Tarallo discusses the case of Meridian Engineering Co. v. US, a dispute a contested release and waiver of payments for the work at issue.

“Any release document (including releases with parties other than the government) should be narrowly drawn and clearly articulate those claims that are being released,” Tarallo advises

Read the article.

A federal judge on Thursday held Education Secretary Betsy DeVos in contempt for violating an order to stop collecting loan payments from former Corinthian Colleges students, according to a Washington Post report.

The Post‘s Danielle Douglas-Gabriel explains:

“Magistrate Judge Sallie Kim of the U.S. District Court in San Francisco slapped the Education Department with a $100,000 fine for violating a preliminary injunction. Money from the fine will be used to compensate the 16,000 people harmed by the federal agency’s actions. Some former students of the defunct for-profit college had their paychecks garnished. Others had their tax refunds seized by the federal government.”

Kim wrote that the defendants violated the preliminary injunction and those violations harmed borrowers.

Read the  Post report.

Chief Justice John Roberts

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said that — if President Trump is impeached — he wants the subsequent trial in the Senate to be handled briskly. But the presiding officer at an impeachment will be the chief justice of the United States, John Roberts.

In an essay at Slate, Yale law professor Bruce Ackerman writes: “Given his deep commitment to professionalism, John Roberts can be counted on to deflect any behind-the-scenes pressures for speed. These inclinations would be reinforced, moreover, by the recent controversy surrounding the appointment of Brett Kavanaugh. Everybody remembers McConnell ramming the nomination through without a full investigation of multiple allegations of misconduct; Roberts cannot allow the same hardball tactics to repeat themselves.”

And a handful of skeptical Republican senators may deny McConnell the majority support he would require to force through a revision of the rules that could marginalize the chief justice’s role, Ackerman explains.

Read the Slate article.

John Eisenberg, the attorney who is emerging as a central figure in the Ukraine scandal, is a quiet and unassuming presence in a White House dominated by more colorful personalities, according to a Politico report.

“He says little, frequently keeping his head down as he walks the halls of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building,” writes Politico’s Daniel Lippman. “He has few internal enemies. He’s not known to speak to reporters. He keeps such a low profile that, for a while, the president didn’t even know his name, repeatedly referring to him as ‘Mike.’”

One former colleague at the National Security Counsel called him “extremely paranoid,” while another said he never says anything when he can nod his approval and never puts anything in emails if he can say it to your face.

Read the Politico report.

The Associated Press reports that negotiations aimed at reaching a major settlement in the nation’s opioid litigation reached an impasse Friday.

The AP’s Geoff Mulvihill writes that one of the negotiators, North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein, said late Friday that local governments did not accept a deal worth $48 billion in cash, treatment drugs and services.

“Paul Farrell, a lead lawyer for the local governments, told The Associated Press that one hang-up was the states’ desire to be in charge of dividing the money. They said that the deal would provide free Suboxone, a drug used to treat opioid addiction, across the country,” according to Mulvihill.

Read the AP article.

Bloomberg Law reports that the Senate Judiciary Committee delayed action on a number of President Donald Trump’s judicial nominees Oct. 17, including circuit court picks who faced pushback at their confirmation hearings.

“White House lawyer Steven Menashi and U.S. District Judge Halil Suleyman Ozerden likely will have to wait at least a week for the committee to again consider their nominations to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second and Fifth Circuits, respectively,” writes Bloomberg’s Madison Alder.

Two district court nominees, Justin Walker in Kentucky and Sarah Pitlyk in Missouri, have been rated not qualified by the American Bar Association. The panel approved Walker’s selection, but held over Pitlyk’s.

Read the Bloomberg Law article.

Image by Mike Peel

A federal appeals court will reconsider a ruling from a three-judge panel that threw out a lawsuit accusing President Donald Trump of illegally profiting off the presidency through his luxury Washington hotel, reports the Associated Press.

The Richmond-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed Tuesday to hold a hearing before the full court of 15 judges. Arguments are scheduled for Dec. 12, according to the AP’s Denise Lavoie.

The state of Maryland and the District of Columbia accused Trump of violating the emoluments clause of the U.S. Constitution by accepting profits through foreign and domestic officials who stay at the Trump International Hotel.

Read the AP article.

In his 10 months in the administration, White House counsel Pat Cipollone seems to have earned the president’s trust in a way that few aides have done. He is both discreet, and more to the point, clear in his admiration for the president, according to a report in The Atlantic.

“Cipollone—aggressive, dedicated, and at times controlling, according to his colleagues—has helped to frustrate Democratic attempts at oversight, challenging subpoenas and crafting legal arguments to block aides’ testimony before Congress,” write Peter Nicholas and Elaina Plott.

Above the Law reports that last week Cipollone “wrote an eight-page letter to Congressional Democrats, where he openly mocked the impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump, stating not only that the president could not ‘permit his administration to participate in this partisan inquiry under these circumstances,’ but that it ‘lack[ed] any legitimate constitutional foundation’ and violated ‘the Constitution, the rule of law, and every past precedent.’”

Read the Atlantic article.

Reuters reports that the Trump administration’s effort to cut red tape and speed up major energy projects has backfired in the case of the three biggest U.S. pipelines now planned or under construction.

Reuters reporters Scott DiSavino and Stephanie Kelly explain:

“The Republican administration tried to accelerate permits for two multi-billion-dollar natural gas lines and jumpstart the long-stalled Keystone XL crude oil pipeline that would start in Canada. Judges halted construction on all three over the past two years, ruling that the administration granted permits without conducting adequate studies or providing enough alternatives to protect endangered species or national forests.”

Read the Reuters article.

Justice Neil Gorsuch

The Supreme Court justices sounded closely split Tuesday and a bit uncertain over whether to make it illegal under federal law for companies and public agencies to fire employees solely because they are gay, lesbian or transgender, with Justice Neil M. Gorsuch likely the deciding vote, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Trump-appointee Gorsuch described the case as “really close…. Assume for the moment I’m with you on the textual evidence,” he told an ACLU lawyer representing a transgender woman who was fired from her job at a funeral home in Detroit.

“The four liberal justices, joined at times by Gorsuch, said they agreed that firing gay or transgender employees was discrimination based on sex as the law defined it,” writes the Times‘ David G. Savage. “But others, including most of the conservatives, said that Congress in 1964 did not mean to outlaw discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.”

Read the  LA Times article.

The Indiana Department of Environmental Protection is seeking the dismissal of a township’s challenge to a permit to a shale gas wastewater injection well to operate in the community, reports the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

“The long-running legal battle, which is being watched statewide for its potentially precedent-setting outcome, pits [Grant Township], which wants to protect water wells from contamination, against the DEP, which approved a permit for the injection well in 2014 and again in 2017,” explains the Post-Gazette‘s Don Hopey.

The town passed a community bill of rights ordinance in 2014 in an attempt to block Pennsylvania General Energy Co. from converting one of its former shale gas production wells to a 7,500-foot deep injection well for disposal of fracking waste.

Read the Post-Gazette article.