Ninth Circuit Nominee Ryan Bounds is under predictable attack from liberals who don’t know him and seemingly hate him because he was nominated by President Trump.  What isn’t predictable is the response to those attacks.

On Tuesday, Pennsylvania Speaker of the House Michael Turzai and Senate President Pro Tempore Joseph Scarnati filed an emergency application with Justice Samuel Alito to stay the imposition of a new congressional map by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court pending resolution of the case by the entire U.S. Supreme Court.  Counsel to the Pennsylvania legislators include RNLA members Jason Torchinsky and Phillip Gordon of Holtzman Vogel Josefiak Torchinsky PLLC and Mark Braden of Baker & Hostetler LLP.  

The Senate confirmed two more of President Trump's excellent judicial nominees this week: Elizabeth Branch, to the Eleventh Circuit, and Marvin Quattlebaum, Jr., to the District Court for the District of South Carolina.  Judge Branch was confirmed by a wide, bipartisan margin, 73 to 23 votes.

Today, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Minnesota Voters Alliance v. Mansky, a challenge to Minnesota's ban on political apparel at the polling place.  RNLA member Ilya Shapiro summarized the problems with the law in the Wall Street Journal:

RNLA Southeastern Pennsylvania Chapter Leader Linda Kerns continues to uncover problems with elections in Pennsylvania.  Yesterday the Washington Times wrote an article entitled Lawsuit: 100,000 noncitizens registered to vote in Pennsylvania, which stated:

Today, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Janus v. AFSCME, a First Amendment challenge to an Illinois statute requiring non-union members to pay mandatory union dues to the union deemed to represent the non-members' interests in collective bargaining activities. 

Late last month, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court issued a ruling that congressional redistricting maps drawn after the 2010 census and in use for the last 3 election cycles (2012, 2014, and 2016) violated the Pennsylvania  Constitution.

RNLA member Ken Klukowski wrote a piece for last month's SCOTUSblog symposium on Minnesota Voters Alliance v. Mansky.  Mr. Klukowski analyzes how the Supreme Court will likely apply the controlling precedent, Burson v. Freeman (1992), which did not have a majority opinion, in light of current First Amendment doctrine and subsequent decisions regarding evidentiary burdens when applying strict scrutiny.  

Yesterday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the creation of a new cybersecurity task force at the Department of Justice:

Today, The Heritage Foundation hosted a panel on three important, upcoming free speech cases at the Supreme Court.  Key points from the attorneys representing the challengers are below.  The entire presentation is fascinating and can be viewed here (starting at 14:50).