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Chief District Judge Jane Magnus-Stinson ruled Friday in Indiana that the execution would be delayed because of concerns from the victims’ family about the coronavirus pandemic. The Justice Department (DOJ) argued that the judge’s order misconstrued the law and asked the appeals court to immediately overturn the ruling. The appeals court found that the claim from the victims’ family “lacks any arguable legal basis and is therefore frivolous." The Justice Department also argued that while the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) has taken measures to accommodate the family and implemented additional safety protocols because of the pandemic, the family’s concerns “do...

MILWAUKEE — A federal appeals court has affirmed a lower court ruling that Republican state lawmakers can't intervene in a Planned Parenthood lawsuit challenging certain Wisconsin abortion restrictions. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that Thursday's ruling from the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals leaves it up to Democratic state Attorney General John Kaul to defend Wisconsin's abortion laws. Republican lawmakers don't trust Kaul because he has supported abortion rights before and was endorsed by Planned Parenthood last year. The appeals court backed a ruling from federal Judge Willian Conley, who said Republicans hadn't come close to showing that Kaul would...

As the list of possible SCOTUS picks narrows to rumored likelies, what about the women? Who will Trump pick to replace retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy? We have some clues: “It will be somebody from that list,” the president said Wednesday, referring to the 25 names he published in November. Reports since then have narrowed down these top contenders to five insider favorites. “We have to pick one that’s going to be there for 40 years, 45 years,” Trump also said, suggesting a judge’s relative youth may be a deciding factor. There are six women on the list, and one in...

WASHINGTON — President Trump said Friday two women are on his short list as the next Supreme Court nominee and he’ll announce his decision July 9. On his way to Bedminster, NJ, the president told reporters aboard Air Force One that he plans to interview one or two candidates this weekend. “I’ve got it narrowed to about five,” Trump said, including two women. [cut] Utah Sen. Mike Lee was on the list. “He said he’d like the job, usually they don’t say that,” Trump said.

Justice Anthony Kennedy announced his retirement from the U.S. Supreme Court Wednesday, precipitating a cataclysmic election year confirmation battle. Though the White House has publicly identified as many as 25 possible candidates to succeed Kennedy, the early favorites for the pick are drawn from a small crop of young appeals court judges popular in Washington’s conservative legal circles. Speaking in the Oval Office shortly after Kennedy’s announcement, Trump confirmed he would draw his selection from a list of possible Supreme Court nominees assembled during the campaign. Five individuals were added to that list in November 2017. These early favorites include...

The plaintiffs’ bar has perfected a system for extracting money from firms. It works like this: Find a petty complaint about some product, magnify it into a class-action suit, then settle with the company in a way that does virtually nothing for the supposed victims, but yields a nice haul of legal fees as the company pays them to go away. This scheme for enriching lawyers who are just manipulating the legal system depends on compliant judges who will approve the classes and rubber stamp the settlements. Every now and then, however, they run into a member of the “injured”...

It will be some time before Donald Trump announces a nominee to fill the vacancy left by Antonin Scalia, according to transition insiders. But two names continue to emerge to the top of the president elect's list of potential Supreme Court justices. Judges Diane Sykes and William Pryor are among the top contenders, according to multiple sources familiar with the process. CNN's Donald Trump Supreme Court nominee shortlist The Supreme Court vacancy is "actively being discussed," but there is no timetable at the moment, Trump transition aide Jason Miller told reporters Thursday. "The President-elect, he had previously put out a...

Today Donald J. Trump released the much-anticipated list of people he would consider as potential replacements for Justice Scalia at the United States Supreme Court. This list was compiled, first and foremost, based on constitutional principles, with input from highly respected conservatives and Republican Party leadership. Mr. Trump stated, “Justice Scalia was a remarkable person and a brilliant Supreme Court Justice. His career was defined by his reverence for the Constitution and his legacy of protecting Americans’ most cherished freedoms. He was a Justice who did not believe in legislating from the bench and he is a person whom I...

Don Willett is a Texas Supreme Court justice:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Willett David Stras is an associate justice on the Minnesota Supreme Court:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Stras Allison Eid is a justice on the Colorado Supreme Court:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allison_H._Eid Joan Larsen is a justice on the Michigan Supreme Court.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Larsen Steven Colloton is a federal judge who has served on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Colloton Raymond Gruender is a federal judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Gruender Thomas Hardiman is a federal judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Hardiman Raymond M. Kethledge is a federal judge...

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has released a list of 11 potential Supreme Court justices he plans to vet to fill the seat of late Justice Antonin Scalia. Trump's picks include Steven Colloton of Iowa, Allison Eid of Colorado and Raymond Gruender of Missouri. Also on the list are: Thomas Hardiman of Pennsylvania, Raymond Kethledge of Michigan, Joan Larsen of Michigan, Thomas Lee of Utah, William Pryor of Alabama, David Stras of Minnesota, Diane Sykes of Wisconsin and Don Willett of Texas. Trump said in March he planned to release the list to ease concerns about his conservative credentials...

Trump's picks include Steven Colloton of Iowa, Allison Eid of Colorado and Raymond Gruender of Missouri. Also on the list are: Thomas Hardiman of Pennsylvania, Raymond Kethledge of Michigan, Joan Larsen of Michigan, Thomas Lee of Utah, William Pryor of Alabama, David Stras of Minnesota, Diane Sykes of Wisconsin and Don Willett of Texas. Trump had previously named Pryor and Sykes as examples of kind of justices he would choose.

The names are at the link.

Paul Clement, who served as U.S. solicitor general under President George W. Bush and is now a lawyer in private practice, is the favorite of many conservatives. Clement argued last month for the Supreme Court to strike down Obama's 2010 healthcare law, and he is defending laws that ban same-sex marriage and that target illegal immigrants. Clement, 45, would be "at the top of any short list right now," said Curt Levey, executive director of the Committee for Justice, a group that advocates for conservative nominees. Asked about Clement, Mary Ann Glendon, a co-chairwoman of Romney's Justice Advisory Committee, voiced...

. You were nominated for the Seventh Circuit by President Bush after being recommended, along with three others, by a bipartisan commission. Wisconsin Senators Herb Kohl (D) and Russell Feingold (D), and Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R), who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, forwarded all four names recommended by the commission to the White House. Such a process is somewhat unusual, but your nomination was not bogged down by a threat of filibuster in the Senate, and while your confirmation was not unanimous, Senators Kohl and Feingold voted in favor of your confirmation. Could you please tell us more about how...

If Edith Jones is nominated for the Supreme Court, at least she'll know what she's in for. The confirmation process for federal judges has deteriorated into "trench warfare," she told The American Enterprise magazine in June. "Every time I think it can't get any worse, it does." John Roberts's confirmation may be the exception that proves Judge Jones's rule. During his hearings, Sens. Arlen Specter and Dianne Feinstein asked insulting questions about his Catholicism; Ted Kennedy called his Reagan-era writings "mean-spirited"; and several Democrats roughed him up over his views on civil rights. By modern standards, that's a love fest....

Sykes, Diane S. Born 1957 in Milwaukee, WI Federal Judicial Service: U. S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit Nominated by George W. Bush on November 14, 2003, to a seat vacated by John L. Coffey; Confirmed by the Senate on June 24, 2004, and received commission on July 1, 2004. Education: Northwestern University, B.S., 1980 Marquette University Law School, J.D., 1984 Professional Career: Law clerk, Hon. Terence T. Evans, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, 1984-1985 Private practice, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 1985-1992 Judge, Milwaukee County Circuit Court, Wisconsin, 1992-1999 Justice, Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1999-2004 Race...

MILWAUKEE, WI (Talon News) -- According to a number of Republican insiders and a prominent Milwaukee radio talk show host, Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Diane Sykes is going to be President Bush's nominee for a vacant seat on the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago. Mark Belling, Milwaukee's top talk show host and a regular fill-in for Rush Limbaugh's national radio show, revealed on his Monday afternoon talk show that his sources in the Republican Party confirmed the selection of Sykes. Sykes was one of four finalists recommended by the Federal Nominating Commission of the State Bar of...