“Procreation argument dropped in stay application”: Brooke Adams of The Salt Lake Tribune has a news update that begins, “Utah made a subtle shift in its arguments in defense of opposite-sex marriage in a stay application to the U.S. Supreme Court filed Tuesday. Gone is any mention of procreation.”

“Health Law Challenge Opens Up New Front”: Adam Liptak will have this news analysis in Thursday’s edition of The New York Times.

Tim Evans of The Indianapolis Star has an article headlined “Indiana reflects contraception mandate disparity.”

And CNN.com has a report (with video) from The Lead with Jake Tapper titled “Fighting Obamacare’s ‘contraception mandate.’”

Update: In Thursday’s edition of The Washington Post, Sandhya Somashekhar, Robert Barnes, and Michelle Boorstein will have an article headlined “Supreme Court temporarily allows religious groups not to cover birth control.”

“Chief Justice Highlights Lack Of Funding For Federal Judiciary”: Carrie Johnson had this audio segment on today’s broadcast of NPR’s “Morning Edition.”

At “The Note” blog of ABC News, Ariane de Vogue has a post titled “Chief Justice Summons Scrooge in New Year’s Eve Report.”

And at her “Trial Insider” blog, Pamela A. MacLean has a post titled “Courts’ Money Woes Continue.”

Update: In other coverage, The Washington Times has an article headlined “Supreme Court justice: Remember Judiciary in appropriations talks.”

And Tal Kopan of Politico.com reports that “Roberts calls for more money for courts.”

“Little Sisters hopeful after Supreme Court stays Obamacare birth control mandate; Roman Catholic order with U.S. headquarters in Catonsville won’t have to provide birth control coverage to employees, for now; Sotomayor gives administration until Friday to respond”: The Baltimore Sun has this news update.

Today’s edition of The New York Times contains an article headlined “Justice Blocks Contraception Mandate on Insurance in Suit by Nuns.”

In today’s edition of The Los Angeles Times, David G. Savage and Maeve Reston have an article headlined “Justice Sotomayor grants temporary Obamacare exemption to nuns; The Catholic nuns would have faced ‘draconian fines’ if they failed to provide contraceptive coverage, as the healthcare law requires.”

The Washington Times reports that “Obamacare mandate takes effect; court’s move on contraception clouds milestone.”

Warren Richey of The Christian Science Monitor reports that “Justice Sotomayor blocks Obamacare contraception mandate; Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor late Tuesday issued a temporary injunction preventing the government from requiring a group of nuns to comply with the contraceptive mandate included in ‘Obamacare’; The mandate took effect at midnight.”

Lawrence Hurley of Reuters reports that “U.S. justice grants exemption in contraception mandate challenge.”

Edvard Pettersson and Greg Stohr of Bloomberg News report that “Justice Halts Obama Contraception Rule for Catholic Nuns.”

Bill Mears of CNN.com has a blog post titled “Court delays Obamacare contraception mandate for 2 nonprofits.”

At the “School Law” blog of Education Week, Mark Walsh has a post titled “Catholic Schools Win Temporary Reprieve From Contraceptive Mandate.”

And on today’s broadcast of NPR’s “Morning Edition,” Carrie Johnson had an audio segment titled “Justice Sotomayor Blocks Part Of Birth Control Mandate.”

“The Year Ahead in Court Battles: The big cases of 2014 may resolve some of the legal cliffhangers of 2013.” Andrew Cohen has this essay online today at The Atlantic.

At Ars Technica, Cyrus Farivar and Joe Mullin have an article headlined “The top four tech legal cases to watch in 2014: Ars looks ahead at the continuation of Megaupload, Silk Road, Lavabit, and more.”

And The Hill today has a blog post titled “Court weighs fate of net neutrality” about a case currently pending for decision before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

“Happy New Year and farewell”: Senior U.S. District Judge Richard G. Kopf has this final post today at his “Hercules and the Umpire” blog. Thank you, Judge Kopf, for setting such a very high bar for any future judge-written general interest blogs.

Update: Yesterday at his “The Way I See It” blog, law professor Patrick J. Borchers had a somewhat related post titled “Talking Judges.”