SCOTUS Order List (and other stuff)

First off, I enjoyed Emily on Fire, a book co-written by James Patterson, which is a young adult novel whose title is a tad literal. I'm not usually a reader of Patterson (or Danielle Steel), but the cover drew me in at the library. 

Her mother died of cancer, and her sister committed suicide. Now, Emily plans to kill herself (you know how) to get the world to realize that we are fucked up and have to do something! The book mostly uses her point of view.

The book is raw (and honest, which is important) while retaining an empathy that provides some optimism that is much needed these days.

The only other news on the merits docket came Thursday—when the Clerk of the Court, in a letter to the parties, announced that Justice Alito is recusing from a case in which the Court is set to hear argument later today. 

Steve Vladeck explains an exception to the usual recusal without comment approach done by most of the justices, minus Kagan and Jackson. Sotomayor sometimes comments.

The norm (including applied to Alito vs. Kagan) was found on today's Order List. The Court granted some cases for review on Friday. Today, more so than normal perhaps, it was mainly about clearing brush -- a list of non-grants.

‪Sean Marotta‬, a lawyer, noted on Bluesky:

The #SCOTUS orders list today is a reminder of the shrinking commercial docket. Cases that would have been shoe-ins in the 90-case docket are getting denied regularly.

Kavanaugh, without saying why, noted he would have granted review in a bankruptcy dispute. As usual, I had to separately look up the docket number on the docket page, since the Supreme Court does not provide a link. Can you change that, guys?

The transgender athletes' oral argument is tomorrow. 

ETA: A comment in response to my reference to the Order List somewhere else flagged that there are two atypical requests for briefing respecting petitions for rehearing. I appreciate such information even though it encourages my excessive online habit. 

PFRhs are very rarely granted. The federal government waived a response in one case. In the other, it appears like they want to speed things along.

A bit of inside baseball during football playoff season.

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I'm not too happy about most of the final scores in the first set of NFL playoff games. The Panthers (after two losses) gave the Rams a fight, but the end result was a third loss. I'm fine with the Bills winning.

A Jaguars' win would have been okay, too.

ETA: A close game, helped by the Texas QB screwing up, became a laugher in the 4th with Houston winning. It might be Rodgers's last game. 

I'm fine with that, particularly (1) not a fan of Aaron Rodgers, (2) Annoyed at the Week 18 win (they would have been better off losing that close game than yet another Steelers loss in the playoffs), (3) I'm fine with Houston, and (4) it's a better match-up with the Pats.