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WHAT WE'RE WATCHING

ONGOING - The House Judiciary Committee is set to convene impeachment hearings today, with investigators expected to present evidence against President Trump. Over the weekend, as Jacqueline Thomsen reports, Democratic staff on the committee released a report that helps lay the groundwork for articles of impeachment. Meanwhile, White House Cousel Pat Cipollone has indicated that Trump will rely on a Senate trial to defend himself, rather than participate in the House's impeachment inquiry.

RETURN - Alex Kozinski, the former chief judge of the Ninth Circuit, is set today to make his oral argument debut as an advocate for the court a little less than two years after abruptly retiring from the bench amid sexual harassment allegations. Kozinski is representing the son of a Pulitzer Prize-winning author who claims the filmmakers behind "The Shape of Water" ripped off copyrighted elements of one of his father's plays to create the movie and a novelization of the film.

GIFTS – Two federal appeals courts this week are set to hear claims that Trump is violating the U.S. Constitution's restrictions on presidents receiving gifts from domestic and foreign sources. The D.C. Circuit today is scheduled to hear the case of Richard Blumenthal v. Trump, where Democrats in June 2017 sued the president. On Thursday, the Fourth Circuit, sitting en banc, is scheduled to hear a case brought by the attorneys general for the District of Columbia and Maryland. For a closer look at cases and the lawyers involved, go to Mike Scarcella and Nate Robson's story here.

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EDITOR'S PICKS

Paul Weiss Elects New Partners—And They're Not All White Men

All the President's Judges: The Impact of Trump's Record-Setting Appointments

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WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING

IMPERILED – Australia's Great Barrier Reef is in such dire condition due to rising sea-levels, ocean acidification and pollution that it should be insured for $38 billion, global law firm Clyde & Co said in a report. As Christopher Niesche reports, the study notes that the Great Barrier Reef is an economic asset that contributed $4.4 billion and more than 64,000 jobs to the Australian economy in 2015-16.

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WHAT YOU SAID

"A public admonition that's actually published and then withdrawn—this doesn't compute for me."

—  Chuck Herring, partner in Herring & Panzer in Austin and lawyer ethics expert, on the deletion from the website of the Texas Commission on Judicial Conduct of public sanctions against 11 Houston-area current and past judges.

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