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The Daily Docket

A newsletter by Reuters and Westlaw

By Caitlin Tremblay

Good morning. Another of President Trump’s personal lawyers was confirmed to a federal appeals court, the same week as former personal lawyer Todd Blanche made his case to be AG. Plus, a federal judge will hear California’s request to temporarily pause Paramount's $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros; Tesla’s $243 million crash appeal includes a who’s who of appellate lawyers; and California will use the new national bar exam after its failed online test. Here are some unusual photos to kick off your weekend. See you Monday!

Another Trump lawyer lands on a federal appeals court

Senate/Handout via REUTERS

President Trump's former personal lawyers are continuing their march onto the federal bench. The Senate on Tuesday confirmed Matthew Schwartz to the 2nd Circuit, making him the third lawyer who represented Trump in a personal capacity to win a lifetime appellate judgeship this year. Democrats have portrayed the nominations as rewards for loyalty, while Republicans point to the lawyers' elite credentials and insist they will serve independently.

Matthew Schwartz ➡️ Confirmed to the 2nd Circuit; a former Sullivan & Cromwell lawyer represented Trump in appeals related to his New York criminal conviction and civil fraud case.

Emil Bove ➡️ Confirmed to the 3rd Circuit; represented Trump in the Stormy Daniels hush money trial.

Justin Smith ➡️ Confirmed to the 8th Circuit; helped Trump win a 2024 landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling granting him substantial criminal immunity for actions taken in office in a case concerning his efforts to undo his 2020 election loss.

Schwartz’s confirmation comes the same week as another one of Trump’s personal lawyers, Todd Blanche, appeared before a Senate panel to make his case to become AG. Other personal lawyers to the president also have landed government gigs: Harmeet Dhillon was confirmed in December 2025 to lead the DOJ’s civil rights unit and Will Scharf, a member of Trump’s legal team in his federal election interference case, now chairs the National Capital Planning Commission, which approved Trump’s $400 million White House ballroom project.

Coming up today

Antitrust: U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín in Oakland will hold a hearing on California’s request to temporarily pause Paramount's $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros.

Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes.

More top news

Industry insight

California will begin using the new national bar exam in July 2028 in the latest fallout from the state's failed experiment with designing and administering its own in-person and remote licensing test for would-be lawyers in February 2025.
A roster of appellate lawyers at prominent firms, business groups and Republican state AGs have lined up behind Tesla as the electric carmaker seeks to overturn a $243 million Florida verdict stemming from a fatal 2019 crash of a Model S equipped with Autopilot.

"These removals undermine the independence of the immigration courts and the larger justice system, and their consequences are immediate and severe."

—A panel of independent experts ‌appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council, commenting on the Trump administration's removal of more than 100 immigration judges. The U.N. panel called for the administration to stop what it described as "the mass arbitrary removal" of immigration judges and the continued politicization of immigration courts. Read more here.

In the courts

Social media: Meta failed to persuade Washington, D.C.'s top court to halt a judge's order requiring it to hand over internal documents to the D.C. attorney general as part of a lawsuit accusing the social media company of deceiving consumers about the safety of Facebook and Instagram for children.