Afternoon Briefs: Ginsburg misses oral arguments; judge tosses lawyer's defamation suit over neo-Nazi label
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Supreme Court official portrait.
Ginsburg contracts stomach bug
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg missed oral arguments Wednesday because of an illness. A court spokeswoman said Ginsburg stayed home because of a stomach bug. (CNN)
Judge tosses suit by ex-DLA Piper lawyer over hate-group supporter label
A federal judge in Maryland has tossed a lawsuit by a former DLA Piper lawyer who claimed that the Southern Poverty Law Center defamed him when it said he was a “well-known neo-Nazi lawyer” with “a long history of supporting one of the most notorious hate groups in America.” U.S. District Judge Catherine Blake said Baltimore lawyer Glen Allen didn’t dispute factual statements by the group, and he was objecting to “nonactionable opinion or hyperbole.” Allen told the Baltimore Sun in 2016 that his affiliation with the National Alliance was in the past, and it was “a huge mistake.” (The Associated Press)
Dispute over subpoena for Trump’s financial records headed to SCOTUS, lawyer says
The full U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has refused to review a panel decision that upheld a subpoena for President Donald Trump’s financial records from his accounting firm Mazars USA. Jay Sekulow, a lawyer for Trump, says the legal team will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case. On Thursday, Trump’s lawyers asked the Supreme Court to block access to his tax records in a separate case after a negative ruling by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at New York. (The New York Times here and here, the Washington Post)
Menashi confirmation flips 2nd Circuit
The U.S. Senate has confirmed Steven Menashi, a former associate White House counsel, to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at New York. The confirmation gives the appeals court a majority of judges appointed by Republican presidents. Menashi had raised Democratic eyebrows when he refused to respond to written questions about any knowledge of President Donald Trump’s efforts to pressure Ukraine to investigate former Vice Preisdent Joe Biden and his son. (Slate)
