Friday round-up

After lying in repose for two days atop the front steps, the casket of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg today will move across the street from the Supreme Court. There, Natalie Andrews of the Wall Street Journal reports that Ginsburg will be not only the first woman, but also the first person of Jewish faith, to lie in state at the Capitol.

As Ginsburg leaves the Capitol Friday night for a private interment ceremony at Arlington Cemetery next week, the news cycle will remain focused on the court. “On Saturday,” Andrews notes, President Donald Trump “is expected to nominate a woman to succeed Justice Ginsburg.” NPR’s Nina Totenberg and Domenico Montanaro investigate the statements and legal writings of federal judge Amy Coney Barrett, the “leading candidate” for the nomination and a “favorite among social conservatives.” At Crime and Consequences, Kent Scheidegger defends Florida judge Barbara Lagoa, another prominent candidate for Ginsburg’s seat, against criticism for Lagoa’s decision not to recuse herself “from a case involving Florida’s felon re-enfranchising law” earlier this year. Lawrence Hurley of Reuters examines the impact on close Supreme Court decisions if Trump is successful in nominating a conservative justice in Ginsburg’s place.

While Ginsburg’s death and replacement continue to dominate headlines, the court’s work resumes. Katie Bart reports for SCOTUSblog that on Thursday afternoon the justices refused to block a final appeal by Christopher André Vialva, who became the seventh person and “first Black man on federal death row to be killed by the government since the Trump administration ended the 17-year hiatus on federal executions in July.” At Newsweek, former Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), who was chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and the Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet, highlights the copyright dispute in Google v. Oracle that the justices will hear when oral arguments resume (albeit remotely) in October as a “[o]nce or twice a generation” intellectual property case. [Disclosure: Goldstein & Russell, P.C., whose attorneys assist this blog in various capacities, is among counsel to the petitioner in this case.]

Finally, two recent podcasts look back on the soon-to-conclude 2019-20 term and ahead to the next term, which will begin on Oct. 5. On The Legal Docket from World Radio, hosts Mary Reichard and Jenny Rough discuss abortion — a major flashpoint in debates over the current vacancy — and take a deep dive into the court’s plurality opinion this summer striking down a Louisiana admitting-privileges law in June Medical Services v. Russo. Pratik Shah, co-head of Akin Gump’s Supreme Court and appellate practice, joins the firm’s On Air podcast for a “Wrap-up and Preview” episode to review surprising decisions from last term and explore how the justices may handle the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and litigation over the 2020 election during fall.

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