“Supreme Court to weigh depictions of animal cruelty; In a case that pits free-speech defenders against animal rights activists, the justices will consider whether the 1st Amendment should protect depictions of animals being hurt”: David G. Savage has this article today in The Los Angeles Times.

“Courts Wrestle With Searches When the Evidence Is Digital”: John R. Emshwiller will have this article Thursday in The Wall Street Journal about a recent en banc ruling of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

You can access the full text of the article via Google News.

My earlier coverage of this en banc ruling can be accessed here.

“Administration Won’t Seek New Detention System”: Thursday’s edition of The Washington Post will contain an article that begins, “The Obama administration has decided not to seek legislation to establish a new system of preventive detention to hold terrorism suspects and will instead rely on a 2001 congressional resolution authorizing military force against al-Qaeda and the Taliban to continue to detain people indefinitely and without charge, according to administration officials.”

“Attorneys seek to have convictions voided in videotaped sex assault; Lawyers say key evidence was excluded in a sensational Orange County case involving a former assistant sheriff’s son and two companions”: The Los Angeles Times has a news update that begins, “Attorneys for three men convicted in Orange County 4 1/2 years ago of sexually assaulting an apparently unconscious 16-year-old girl while videotaping the incident asked a state appeals court Wednesday to toss out the convictions.”

Earlier, today’s edition of The Orange County Register previewed the appellate oral argument in an article headlined “Ex-official’s son wants sex offender label lifted; Greg Haidl and 2 others will ask court Wednesday to overturn convictions.”

“Obama Stands Behind ‘State Secrets’ in Spy Case”: This evening at Wired.com’s “Threat Level” blog, David Kravets has a post that begins, “Hours after the Justice Department announced it would limit its use of the state secrets privilege in new cases, the administration appeared before a federal judge here Wednesday and continued to invoke that defense in a closely watched spy case.”

Available online via SSRN: Law professor David R. Stras has posted online an article titled “The Supreme Court’s Declining Plenary Docket: A Membership-Based Explanation.”

Law professor Robert G. Bone has an article titled “Plausibility Pleading Revisited and Revised: A Comment on Ashcroft v. Iqbal.”

And Brandice Canes-Wrone, Tom S. Clark, and Jee-Kwang Park have an article titled “Judicial Independence and Retention Elections.”

Thanks to “Legal Theory Blog” for bringing these article to my attention.

“Law Shielding Cops Faces Court Challenge”: At Wired.com’s “Threat Level” blog, David Kravets has a post that begins, “A Florida man facing a year in jail for the online posting of a local police officer’s phone number and address is challenging the 37-year-old state law on First Amendment grounds.”

“Bank snafu sets up Gmail privacy clash”: Howard Mintz has this article today in The San Jose Mercury News.

My earlier coverage appears at this link.

“Justice Sotomayor and Baseball”: Tony Mauro has this post today at “The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times.”

My earlier coverage appears at this link.

“High Court Docket Could Hold Big Surprises; No obvious blockbusters are expected, but sometimes unremarkable cases turn out to be remarkable”: Daniel Fisher has this commentary at Forbes.com.

“David Lat Interviews Steve Brill”: The ABA Journal has posted online this item, featuring video links.

A related post at the ABA Journal’s “Law News Now” blog is titled “Ever the Tough Editor, Am Law Founder Hits Publication’s Websites.”

If one of Brill’s points is that law.com web sites should be more like “Above the Law,” it is ironic that for quite some time Google News has been attributing law.com articles to “Above the Law,” as the example revealed by clicking here confirms.

“Hot-Button Education Appeals Pending in Supreme Court”: Mark Walsh has this post today at “The School Law Blog” of Education Week.

“Why Brooklyn jury will hear case of threats vs. 3 Illinois judges”: The past Sunday’s edition of The New York Daily News contained an article that begins, “The country-crossing trial will be held here because Judge Donald Walter granted a defense request to move the trial of radio show host and blogger Harold (Hal) Turner from Chicago. Defense lawyers said Turner couldn’t get a fair trial in the same courthouse where the three targeted judges work.”

law.com reports that “Trial of Blogger Who Threatened 7th Circuit Judges Moves to N.Y.”

And earlier this month, in related commentary, Gene Policinski — vice president and executive director of the First Amendment Center — had an op-ed entitled “When do words of a rapper or blogger become threats?”

“Fla. court hears alleged tainted legal fees case”: The Associated Press has a report that begins, “In a case watched closely by defense attorneys nationwide, federal prosecutors urged a skeptical appeals court panel on Wednesday to reinstate a money-laundering conspiracy charge against a prominent lawyer accused of illegally accepting more than $5 million in tainted legal fees from a Colombian cocaine baron.”

And at the “Southern District of Florida Blog,” David Oscar Markus has a post titled “Blogging the Ben Kuehne argument in the 11th Circuit.”

“Talking about the future: Panel discusses bloggers and the First Amendment.” This article, in which I am mentioned, appears today in The Parthenon, which is the student newspaper of Marshall University.