“Oregon Supreme Court rejects $100 million cigarette verdict”: The Statesman Journal of Salem, Oregon has a news update that begins, “Philip Morris won’t have to pay $100 million or more in punitive damages to the estate of a Salem woman who died of cancer related to cigarette smoking.”

The Oregonian has a news update headlined “Oregon Supreme Court says Philip Morris doesn’t have to pay $100 million for smoker’s death.”

And The Associated Press reports that “Ore. trial court to reconsider $100M tobacco case.”

You can access today’s ruling of the Supreme Court of Oregon at this link.

“Life sentences overturned in smuggling deaths case”: The Associated Press has a report that begins, “A federal appeals court on Thursday overturned the multiple life sentences a truck driver received for his role in the nation’s deadliest human smuggling attempt, more than seven years after the bodies of 19 illegal immigrants were discovered in a tractor-trailer.”

You can access today’s ruling of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit at this link.

“Driven to distraction: 15 cats in car is too risky.” The Associated Press has a report that begins, “The South Dakota Supreme Court has ruled that a police officer acted correctly when he seized 15 cats from a woman who was driving with the animals running free inside her car.”

You can access yesterday’s 3-2 ruling of the Supreme Court of South Dakota in State v. Fifteen Impounded Cats at this link.

Access online today’s rulings in argued cases of the U.S. Supreme Court: Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg delivered the opinion of the Court in Skilling v. United States, No. 08-1394. You can access the ruling at this link and the oral argument transcript at this link.

You can access all of today’s opinions via this link. Due to a family event, additional posts will not appear here until later this afternoon or early this evening.

Update: This morning, the Court issued a total of seven rulings in argued cases. In addition to the Skilling case that I’ve already linked to, above, the Court today issued the following rulings.

2. Justice Ginsburg also delivered the opinion of the Court in Black v. United States, No. 08-876. You can access the ruling at this link and the oral argument transcript at this link.

3. Completing today’s “honest services” trilogy, the Court issued a per curiam ruling in Weyhrauch v. United States, No. 08-1196. You can access the ruling at this link and the oral argument transcript at this link.

4. Justice Clarence Thomas delivered the opinion of the Court in Granite Rock Co. v. Teamsters, No. 08-1214. You can access the ruling at this link and the oral argument transcript at this link.

5. Justice Thomas also delivered the opinion of the Court in Magwood v. Patterson, No. 09-158. You can access the ruling at this link and the oral argument transcript at this link.

6. Justice Antonin Scalia delivered the opinion of the Court in Morrison v. National Australia Bank Ltd., No. 08-1191. You can access the ruling at this link and the oral argument transcript at this link.

7. And Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. delivered the opinion of the Court in Doe v. Reed, No. 09-559. You can access the ruling at this link and the oral argument transcript at this link.

In coverage of today’s rulings, The Associated Press has reports headlined “High court reins in prosecutors’ use of fraud law“; “High court: Petitioners’ names can be released“; “High court sides with Aussie bank in fraud lawsuit“; and “Court allows new argument in Alabama killing.”

“G.O.P. Bears Down on Kagan as Hearings Near”: This article appears today in The New York Times.

Today in USA Today, Joan Biskupic has a front page article headlined “Will Kagan be as open as she wanted others to be? Court nominee gets her turn before Senate on Monday.”

The Associated Press has an article headlined “Kagan: From a mock Supreme Court to the real thing.”

And WSJ.com’s “Washington Wire” blog has a post titled “Polls Show Kagan’s Support Doesn’t Run Deep.”