Legal Battle over Ohio's Lethal Injection Protocol:  Doug Berman reports on Sentencing Law and Policy that the Sixth Circuit has officially denied en banc review of a panel's ruling that Kenneth Biros challenge to Ohio's old three-drug lethal injection execution protocol is moot.  Berman recommends downloading the opinion just to read the concurring and dissenting opinions of Judge Sutton and Moore.  He notes that Judge Sutton's concurrence "suggests that Ohio's adoption of a new one-drug lethal injection protocol largely solves the asserted constitutional problems with Ohio's execution method."  Judge Moore sees things differently.  She believes that the Sixth Circuit erred in construing Biros' complaint as solely a challenge to Ohio's three-drug protocol, and still finds merit in the argument that "the old procedure and the new one share a common problem: poor training by the State of the relevant medical staff and the use of EMTs in implementing the protocol."  As Berman notes, this still does not resolve Biros' separate challenge to Ohio's single drug protocol, but it does increase the odds that he will be executed next week. 

Regarding Recusals:  Both David Ingram and Tony Mauro report on recent activity surrounding the issue of judicial recusals.  In his post, Blog of Legal Times reporter, Tony Mauro, discusses Justice Stevens' Wednesday recusal in Stop the Beach Renourishment Inc. v. Florida Department of Environmental Protection.  Mauro reports the recusal may have been triggered by information about Stevens' Ft. Lauderdale property provided last week by the Cato Institute.  The Cato Institute filed a brief in the case and reports that last week one of its fans sent it public documents indicating that Justice Stevens' condominium is within a renourishment zone similar to the property at issue in the case.  In a related Blog of Legal Times post, David Ingram writes that the House Judiciary will hold hearings on judicial recusal on Thursday, December 10th.  Ingram writes that lawmakers plan to examine the process that federal judges use to decide recusal motions.  The hearings will mark the first time Congress has addressed recusals in a significant way since 2004.

Court Advocate Gets T.V. Show:  Ashby Jones writes on Wall Street Journal's Law Blog that NBC is developing a show around Akin Gump attorney, and Supreme Court practitioner, Tom Goldstein.  Variety's Michael Schneider was first to break the news.  He reported that NBC is planning to call the show "Tommy Supreme," and base it off of Goldstein's early days as an attorney who worked from home as he looked for cases likely to make it to the high court, volunteering to represent litigants for free.