“The high stakes in a Supreme Court case about American Indian children; Brackeen v. Haaland attacks a 44-year-old law enacted to halt cultural genocide”: Ian Millhiser has this essay online at Vox.

Online at Slate, Mark Joseph Stern has a jurisprudence essay titled “Clarence Thomas May Destroy Native Children’s Rights Based on a Lie.”

And also online at Slate, Michele Kriegman has a jurisprudence essay titled “The Supreme Court May Ensure Native Kids’ Ancestry Is Erased — Just Like Mine Was; The Indian Child Welfare Act helped keep indigenous families together; Now SCOTUS could tear the law apart.”

“Kansas election results: All six state Supreme Court justices to stay on the bench.” Katie Bernard and Katie Moore of The Kansas City Star have an article that begins, “Months after Kansans overwhelmingly rejected a constitutional amendment removing the state level right to an abortion, a majority of voters opted to retain state Supreme Court justices likely to uphold that right.”

“‘Totally Out of Control’ Attorney Fees in Mass Torts Dodge Appellate Review; U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria, in a 2021 holding in the multidistrict litigation over Monsanto’s Roundup pesticide, called common benefit fees ‘totally out of control,’ sending shockwaves throughout the mass torts bar; But the Ninth Circuit, in a five-page unpublished opinion, found it lacked jurisdiction to review the order.” Amanda Bronstad of law.com has this report on a non-precedential ruling that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued last Thursday.

In related news, I am serving as appellate counsel for attorneys who have objected to the imposition of MDL common fund fee assessments in non-MDL cases in an entirely separate MDL proceeding, and their Ninth Circuit appeal (which is currently at the briefing stage) is from an actual final order, meaning that the Ninth Circuit remains on track to address the merits of this issue in the not-too-distant future.

“Supreme Court Weighs State Court’s Jurisdiction Over Company; Virginia-based railroad Norfolk Southern says retired employee shouldn’t be able to sue it in Pennsylvania court”: Jess Bravin of The Wall Street Journal has this report.

“Defamation Lawsuits Dropped in Jeffrey Epstein Saga; Virginia Giuffre says she might have been mistaken in accusing Epstein lawyer Alan Dershowitz of sexually abusing her”: James Fanelli of The Wall Street Journal has this report.

“The Supreme Court Case That Could Break Native American Sovereignty: Haaland v. Brackeen could have major consequences for tribes’ right to exist as political entities.” Rebecca Nagle, host of the “This Land” podcast, has this essay online at The Atlantic.

“Justices Debate State Law Opening Courts to Suits Against Corporations; A novel Pennsylvania law requires corporations that do business in the state to consent to being sued there, even if the suits have nothing to do with the state”: Adam Liptak of The New York Times has this report.

The U.S. Supreme Court has posted online the transcript and the audio of today’s oral argument in Mallory v. Norfolk Southern Railway Co., No. 21-1168.