A newsletter by Reuters and Westlaw

By Diana Novak Jones, Mike Scarcella and Sara Merken

Good morning. Here’s what you need to know today: Senate Democrats are moving quickly to confirm President Biden’s judicial picks, as Republicans prepare to take over Congress and the White House. Plus, the Onion’s purchase of Alex Jones’ Infowars website faces a challenge, and a look at what’s next for Donald Trump’s hush money case. Thanks for reading!

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Embry Kidd, above, was confirmed on Monday to the 11th Circuit. /Handout via REUTERS

U.S. Senate Democrats are pushing to confirm as many of President Joe Biden's remaining judicial nominees as possible before President-elect Donald Trump takes office. On Monday evening, the Senate voted 49-45 to elevate U.S. Magistrate Judge Embry Kidd in Orlando to the Republican-dominated 11th Circuit, our colleague Nate Raymond reports.

Kidd was one of five nominees to the federal appeals courts who were awaiting Senate consideration at the time of the Nov. 5 election. Before joining the bench in 2019, Kidd served as a federal prosecutor for about five years. Earlier in his career, he worked as an associate at Williams & Connolly in D.C.

Biden has 28 announced nominees to the trial and appellate courts pending. Trump made 234 judicial appointments during his first four years in office, the second most of any president in a single term, and succeeded in moving the judiciary rightward. Trump is poised to build on that legacy during his second term.

That’s how long some California bar attorney discipline records would be available publicly on a website before expungement. The state bar has endorsed a plan that is intended, in part, to lessen the impact of California’s long-standing racial disparities in attorney discipline. The plan would not apply to disbarment — that information would still be disclosed on the state bar’s website. Still, the plan faces some criticism, our colleague Karen Sloan writes.

A lawyer for derivatives trading platform Kalshi told Alison Frankel on Monday that the 2024 U.S. election proved regulatory fears of trading-related election manipulation to be overblown. The context for his hot take? Kalshi just filed a brief at the D.C. Circuit, where it is trying to cement its right to offer trading in derivative contracts based on the outcome of U.S. elections. Frankel explains why statutory interpretation, rather the public interest in election prediction markets, is the big question for the appeals court — and why Kalshi’s lawyer thinks his side is right on both issues.

—Scott Kendall, a lawyer for Alaskans for Better Elections, saying it was gratifying to see the U.S. Supreme Court allow a campaign finance disclosure system in the state to stand. The justices passed up a chance to further curtail campaign finance regulation. The conservative legal group Liberty Justice Center had pursued the case at the high court.