Gavel Grab

In these other dispatches about fair and impartial courts:

• Two bills that would advance merit selection for appellate judges in Pennsylvania were introduced by Republican state Sen. Jane Earll, according to the Judges on Merit blog. It is sponsored by a JAS partner group, Pennsylvanians for Modern Courts.

• At the Brookings Institution web site, scholar Russell Wheeler has written a commentary headlined, “Regulating the Ethics of Supreme Court Justices — ‘Cures Worse than the Disease?’”

• Virginia Thomas, a Tea Party activist whose husband is Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, has joined The Daily Caller, a conservative news website, according to a Politico article.