“Souter, no fan of capital, seems at home in D.C.” Mark Sherman of The Associated Press has this report.

“In City of Lawyers, Many Immigrants Fighting Deportation Go It Alone”: Yesterday’s edition of The New York Times contained an article that begins, “In the heart of Manhattan, amid one of the greatest concentrations of legal muscle in the world, hundreds of New York’s immigrant poor are locked up with no access to a lawyer as they fight deportation. Robert A. Katzmann, a federal judge on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, believes that fact alone should summon the city’s legal profession to do more volunteer work in the immigration court system, where no defendant has the right to a court-appointed lawyer, and some of the most vulnerable end up in the hands of fly-by-night operators who bungle cases wholesale.”

“Have the Eyes Had It? Is our eyewitness identification system sending innocents to jail?” Dahlia Lithwick will have this essay in the March 23, 2009 issue of Newsweek.

“Chief Justice John Roberts discusses Lincoln”: The Associated Press has this report from Moscow, Idaho.

“It starts with an ‘F’ and ends in two arrests; Users of profanity face charges in La Marque, Galveston”: This front page article appears today in The Houston Chronicle.

Do railroad crossings fit within the purview of “transportation by rail carriers” for purposes of express preemption under the Interstate Commerce Commission Termination Act? In light of a conflict between its ruling and the ruling of the Supreme Court of North Dakota, this week the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit entered an order granting rehearing en banc to reconsider the question. In July 2008, a unanimous three-judge Fifth Circuit panel ruled that express preemption applied.

“Appeals court to rehear ex-inmate’s $15M award”: The Associated Press has a report that begins, “A federal appeals court has agreed to rehear a case that resulted in a $15 million award to a former Louisiana death row inmate who was exonerated after 18 years in prison. In December 2008, a three-judge panel from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the jury’s award to John Thompson, 45, who was convicted in 1985 of killing hotel executive Raymond Liuzza Jr. but acquitted years later after a state appeals court ordered a new trial. In a decision Friday, the full court agreed to hear the case in response to a request by New Orleans District Leon Cannizzaro.”

And The Times-Picayune of New Orleans reports today that “Court gives DA’s office another chance; Former inmate’s judgment challenged.”

You can access Wednesday’s order (posted online yesterday) of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit granting rehearing en banc at this link. The original three-judge panel’s unanimous ruling from December 2008 can be accessed here.

“Rethinking Original Intent: The debate over the Constitution’s meaning takes a surprising turn; a pivotal gun-rights case.” Jess Bravin has this article today in The Wall Street Journal.

“Court reverses convictions of sex offenders; The four men were convicted for failing to register as sex offenders after moving to Virginia”: Today’s edition of The Roanoke Times contains an article that begins, “Four Southwest Virginia sex offenders who challenged a national registration law had their convictions for failing to register overturned Friday by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The four men’s original convictions for various sex offenses were not affected by the appeals court’s decision. The ruling was based on a narrow issue of timing and did not reach deeper questions about the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act.”

You can access yesterday’s ruling of a divided three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit at this link.

The F word, on appeal: A dissent that a judge serving on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit issued yesterday begins, “The panel majority has today overruled the Board and denied legal protection to an employee’s one-time use of profane language concerning a supervisor — referring to him as a ‘stupid fucking moron’ — in a private setting during intense labor negotiations.”