This is silly, my bumper crop of 3.5 fava beans and a cherry tomato can easily replace the supermarket

I dreamt I was at a trial where the judge started the day by eating a muffin on the bench, and by closings was having a multi-course meal, starting with caviar on chicken nuggets. I objected (in the dream). He said "you have to let me spread my wings if you want me to be your angel." 1/

Well, now I want this to catch on.

OMG

Today we learned that Judge Oldham does not approve of writing out profanities. www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub...

Also tonight at #SCOTUS: Over dissents from the three Democratic appointees, the Court *vacates* a stay of execution from the Fifth Circuit in the case of Texas death-row prisoner Edward Lee Busby: www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25p...

Has Thomas ever directly said before he thinks the mailing of mifepristone is a crime under the Comstock act?

#BREAKING: Full Supreme Court *grants* stays pending appeal in mifepristone case; preserves nationwide access to remote/mail dispensation of the drug. Only Justices Thomas and Alito publicly dissent.

On my video app, the algorithm is giving me videos of high school kids saying where they think they're going on the first day of senior year, and where they're actually going. You watch like 3 of those videos, you get how important the state universities are to people.

Chris is right: that's Clement's special power. He's just so darned plausible.

Oh dear.

Well, let’s put that on the pile of appellate nightmares.

I can just imagine them thinking “does Trump not understand how bribes work? Do we need to literally explain?”

I wish I could say it was like Glaurung or some such but it's Smaug.

Oh I forgot this thing was being argued.

A little story: I've been seeing a lot of videos of hainanese chicken rice online. This made me want to make hainanese chicken rice. The problem is that I've never tasted it. So I've been driving around ordering hainanese chicken rice around houston.

The Clerk's behavior in this case was outlandishly improper. Like a cartoon.

OK, that's a good one.

I know criticizing the New York Times is ... not that difficult, but this is an infuriating article. The entire premise of the article is that when Mertz criticized the Iran war, that was in some sense Trumpian, because he didn't apologize. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/13/w...

A reminder of the Supreme Court's message to lawyers printed on the lectern when they step up to argue their cases at the highest court in the land. Is that message to do justice? Is it a famous quote from John Marshall about the glory of the law? Nope. The message: DO NOT ADJUST MICROPHONE

The "died during SCOTUS argument" story appears to be about U.S. Attorney General Augustus Hill Garland, who in 1899 had a stroke during argument, was carried to the clerk's office, and died there, at least according to this 1908 biography. google.com/books/editio...

This is the whole issue that I suspect is underlying the markets being quiet: the strait will open because the strait not opening is really bad.

I confess I do not understand Virginia's legal strategy in taking the redistricting case to SCOTUS. That's not to say it doesn't exist. I'm just a schlub looking from outside. But I don't get it.

NEW: Justice Alito extends the administrative stay until this Thursday, May 14 at 5 PM

Not a subject matter expert, as usual. Still, the Iranians keep acting like they have the upper hand in the negotiations, which they objectively do, and as far as I can tell there's really no way out for Trump from that conundrum.

Adam Unikowsky on the many, many reasons why the SCOTUS should, before 5:00 today--I'd say unanimously, but perhaps that's expecting too much--stay the Fifth Circuit's purported "stay" of the FDA's 2023 mifepristone REMS. adamunikowsky.substack.com/p/rationalit...

It's a delightful opinion, but I didn't expect to become a little emotional at the end.

Order: “the case is dismissed on ironic hilarity grounds.”

Oh that’s a cool job.

Has the hospital ship made it to Greenland yet?

lol. There’s literally no chance of 6% GDP growth.

Well you could too, Donald.

I like this tradition of gripping the flag while being sworn in.

Ruthlessly will I flaunt my new CA3 mug in the office.

Y'all! Lauren's story got picked up by Yahoo! sports.yahoo.com/articles/lau...

The Third Circuit conference had an important panel on judicial independence and the rule of law, with CA3 Judge Brooks Smith, DDC Judge John Bates, and retired CA7 Judge Diane Wood. To me, it was a microcosm of the judiciary's response to the current crisis: urgency & caution, lucidity & delusion.

Not a lot of fun stuff in politics but watching Orban’s defeat is fun.

That’s it, I’m cancelling my Ted talk

This is a sneaky important case from CA5 about arbitration. Two points: 1) the Court holds that nearly any action by a district judge that isn’t granting a motion to compel arbitration is appealable. www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub... /1

The chief judge of the Fifth Circuit wears a red robe on ceremonial occasions. I learned today the robe was instituted by Chief Judge Charles Clark after he was abroad and saw the varied regalia of his foreign colleagues. Great stuff! Here’s some history! www.lb5.uscourts.gov/CivicsEducat...

Can't wait for this to be done to the Houston federal courthouse (which is brutalist, for those who don't know).

As a middle school dad, The problem like I said the other day is the chrome books themselves. They have no business in every backpack.

To paraphrase Office Space, “no way, why should I change? It’s the one that sucks!”

I would just like to say that I miss being able to use "it's not [x], it's [y]" as a rhetorical device, which everyone now knows is widely overused by AI. Because, you know, sometimes it's actually a good linguistic setup. But I'm still using my damn emdashes.

That is certainly a tell.

This again is one of the problems of this whole thing. The Iranian leadership is not "insane." They're fairly rational actors that seem to behave in rational ways, but if you keep saying they're insane there's no way you can talk to them.

Coming out of law school I was told my application to civil appellate would be placed in the circular filing cabinet post-haste. I guess things are different now.

We were selecting coffee for our new offices today, and the coffee people brought in legit kolaches. These were incredible (The Original Kolache Shoppe)

Westlaw: “I see you entered a carefully crafted, detailed search. Here is some random b***s***. If you would prefer we search for the stuff you were actually looking for, press this button.”

People aligned with this administration really really hate being told they’re wrong, and I’d say especially by women.