First Circuit affirms $26 million personal injury award in generic prescription drug design defect case involving the generic NSAID sulindac, which caused the plaintiff to develop a condition known as SJS/TEN: You can access today’s ruling of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit at this link.

Among other things, the three-judge panel unanimously held that federal law does not preempt a state law design defect claim against the manufacturer of a generic prescription drug and that under New Hampshire law a safer alternate design is not an element of a design defect claim where the plaintiff establishes that the product is unreasonably dangerous.

“Court: Former Bush official cannot be sued over ‘enemy combatant’ memos.” Bill Mears of CNN.com has this report.

And at “SCOTUSblog,” Lyle Denniston has a post titled “John Yoo granted legal immunity.”

My earlier coverage of today’s Ninth Circuit ruling can be accessed here.

Update: In other coverage, Warren Richey of The Christian Science Monitor has an article headlined “‘Torture memos’ author can’t be sued for harsh interrogations, court rules; Jose Padilla, who claims he was tortured while being detained on allegations of terror-related activity, was suing John Yoo, the Bush aide whose memos set out broadly permissive standards for inflicting physical and mental harm during interrogations.”

“Supreme Court building repair about to begin”: The Associated Press has this report. A related news release that the Public Information Office of the U.S. Supreme Court issued today can be accessed here.

“Court weighs NRC role in scuttling Yucca project”: Lawrence Hurley of Greenwire has this report.

“Appeals court hears arguments over Yucca Mountain”: The Associated Press has this report.

Ninth Circuit issues ruling in Jose Padilla v. John Yoo: You can access today’s unanimous ruling by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit at this link.

The opinion’s opening paragraph summarizes the background and today’s holding as follows:

After the September 11, 2011 attacks on the United States, the government detained Jose Padilla, an American citizen, as an enemy combatant. Padilla alleges that he was held incommunicado in military detention, subjected to coercive interrogation techniques and detained under harsh conditions of confinement, all in violation of his constitutional and statutory rights. In this lawsuit, plaintiffs Padilla and his mother, Estela Lebron, seek to hold defendant John Yoo, who was the Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) from 2001 to 2003, liable for damages they allege they suffered from these unlawful actions. Under recent Supreme Court law, however, we are compelled to conclude that, regardless of the legality of Padilla’s detention and the wisdom of Yoo’s judgments, at the time he acted the law was not “sufficiently clear that every reasonable official would have understood that what he [wa]s doing violate[d]” the plaintiffs’ rights. Ashcroft v. al-Kidd, 131 S. Ct. 2074, 2083 (2011) (internal quotation marks omitted). We therefore hold that Yoo must be granted qualified immunity, and accordingly reverse the decision of the district court.

My earlier coverage of this case appears here, here, here, here, and here.

In early news coverage, Terry Baynes of Reuters reports that “9th Circuit rejects torture-related case against Bush lawyer.”

Howard Mintz of The San Jose Mercury News has an update headlined “Berkeley law professor cannot be sued over Bush-era torture memos.”

Bob Egelko of The San Francisco Chronicle has a news update headlined “Torture suit against Berkeley prof ordered dismissed.”

The Associated Press has a report headlined “Court: Ex-Bush aide protected from torture lawsuit.”

Bloomberg News reports that “Yoo Is Entitled to Immunity From Padilla Lawsuit, Court Rules.”

And at Wired.com’s “Threat Level” blog, David Kravets has a post titled “U.S. Appeals Court Clears Torture Memo Author.”

“Supreme Court justice urges civility in legal talk”: The Associated Press has a report that begins, “U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy took a professorial approach during a speech before Nevada judges and lawyers Tuesday, warning about the erosion of civil discourse and urging what he called ‘a decent course of conduct.'”

“Cassell to Argue Before Fifth Circuit in Child Pornography Case”: The S.J. Quinney College of Law issued this news release yesterday.

Anarchists attack Ninth Circuit courthouse in Seattle during May Day protests: The Seattle Times provides this coverage. You can learn more about the William Kenzo Nakamura United States Courthouse at this link.

“Court throws out award in Benoit case against Hustler”: Bill Rankin has this article today in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

My earlier coverage of yesterday’s unpublished Eleventh Circuit ruling appeared at this link.

“Appeals court to consider Gulf oil spill plans”: The Associated Press has this report.