Did the State of Texas execute Carlos De Luna for a crime he did not commit? The Chicago Tribune on Sunday will begin a three-part series arguing that the answer is “yes.” The case will also be the subject of a report on tonight’s broadcast of the ABC News “Nightline” program. The Tribune’s web site provides this preview.

“Suspect in Nev. Shooting Caught in Mexico”: The Associated Press provides this report.

And The Reno Gazette-Journal provides news updates headlined “Mack surrenders in Mexico“; “Police: Mack booked into Dallas jail“; and “Mack could be transported to Reno today.”

“Leishmaniasis, a parasitic disease caused by obligate intracellular protozoa, is transmitted by the bite of some species of phlebotomine sand flies.” So reports the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in a document available online at this link.

Today, a unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit issued an opinion reinstating a portion of a Federal Tort Claims Act suit brought by the family of a former U.S. Army serviceman who contracted Leishmaniasis while serving in the Persian Gulf War in 1991 and then transmitted the disease to his family after being discharged from the Army.

The exception to the warrant requirement under the Fourth Amendment for a search of the passenger compartment of a car incident to a lawful custodial arrest applies only if the search follows the arrest, a divided three-judge D.C. Circuit panel holds: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued this decision today.

“North Carolina can keep its Bill of Rights; Appeals court reaffirms claim”: The News & Observer of Raleigh, North Carolina contains this article today. My earlier coverage appears here.

“Supreme Court Sides with Worker in Retaliation Suit”: This audio segment (RealPlayer required) featuring Nina Totenberg appeared on today’s broadcast of NPR‘s “Morning Edition.”

“Mayor wants cross case heard by U.S. high court; Symbol comes down if no action by Aug. 1”: The San Diego Union-Tribune today contains an article that begins, “San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders is taking the city’s fight to keep a cross atop Mount Soledad to the U.S. Supreme Court.”

“Supreme Court Gives Employees Broader Protection Against Retaliation in Workplace”: Linda Greenhouse has this article today in The New York Times.

Today in The Washington Post, Charles Lane reports that “Court Expands Right to Sue Over Retaliation on the Job.”

David G. Savage of The Los Angeles Times reports that “Justices Define Employer Reprisal Liberally; In a unanimous ruling, the Supreme Court says all but trivial actions taken against a worker filing a discrimination claim are illegal.”

Joan Biskupic of USA Today reports that “Court eases worker lawsuits; Issue is retaliation after complaints.”

Warren Richey of The Christian Science Monitor reports that “High court eases path for workers’ discrimination suits; Employees can sue for retaliation even if bosses don’t fire them, the justices ruled Thursday.”

The Chicago Tribune reports that “High court widens protection for workers against retaliation.”

The Houston Chronicle reports that “Ruling widens ability to sue; Decision favors workers, defines retaliation broadly.”

The Commercial Appeal of Memphis reports that “In landmark case, court sides with Memphis woman.”

And law.com’s Tony Mauro reports that “Supreme Court Sides With Employees in Discrimination Case.”

“Court doesn’t tip hand on voting-rights case; Ruling to have effect on General Plan Initiative”: Today’s edition of The Monterey County Herald contains an article that begins, “On the day the House of Representatives postponed renewal of the Voting Rights Act, the landmark 1965 law that protected minority voters against discrimination, a full panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals debated whether the law applies to recall petitions.”

The Los Angeles Times is reporting: Today’s newspaper contains articles headlined “Three Las Vegas Judges Face High Court Review; In response to a Times investigation, Nevada’s justices want the senior jurists to answer conflict-of-interest and favoritism allegations” and “Voided Sale of PBS Station to Be Appealed; An O.C. college district will fight a televangelist firm’s challenge to the sale of KOCE-TV.”

“Not a usual day in court: Federal building locked down when suspect runs.” This article appears today in The Chicago Tribune.

And The Chicago Sun-Times reports today that “Man sets off courthouse lockdown.”

“Ruling Opens Door to Deportations; Justices Say Immigration Law Can Be Applied Retroactively”: Charles Lane has this article today in The Washington Post.

David G. Savage of The Los Angeles Times reports today that “Supreme Court Upholds Strict Deportation Law; An illegal immigrant is subject to a policy passed after his arrival and cannot remain, justices rule, despite a job and family here.”

The Standard-Examiner of Ogden, Utah reports that “Supreme Court ruling hits home; Husband barred from returning to Ogden family.”

The Salt Lake Tribune contains articles headlined “Door shut: Court upholds Ogden man’s deportation; Living, working and having a family in U.S. can’t excuse breaking the law, justices rule” and “Latinos say immigration laws often confusing, anti-family.”

The Deseret Morning News reports that “Deportee can’t come home; Supreme Court ruling keeps the ex-Ogden man from his family.”

Patty Reinert of The Houston Chronicle reports that “High court spurns deportee’s return; 8-1 decision is seen as a blow to illegal immigrants.”

The San Antonio Express-News reports that “High court upholds ’97 migrant deadline.”

Warren Richey of The Christian Science Monitor has an article headlined “Supreme Court’s tough line on deportees; Thursday’s ruling, expelling a man deported two decades ago, could penalize thousands of illegal immigrants.”

And The Washington Times reports that “Court backs deporting longtime illegal alien.”

“Justices Drop Consideration of Boundaries for Patents”: This article appears today in The New York Times.

And law.com’s Tony Mauro reports that “High Court Dismisses Patent Case.”

“Timeless Art, Frozen in Time (for Now)”: The New York Times today contains a Day Trip essay by Fred A. Bernstein that begins, “Even before I got to the big wrought-iron gate, two myths had been shattered. The Barnes Foundation — the embattled art museum with one of the world’s greatest collections — is often portrayed as both hard to get to and the bane of its neighbors in Merion, a wealthy old suburb of Philadelphia.”

“Doctors See Way to Cut Suffering in Executions”: This article appears today in The New York Times.

“Off the Deep End: Lawyers took our diving board.” Steve Moore has this op-ed today in The Wall Street Journal.

“A Supreme Court Majority Rejects Evidence of On-The-Scene Accuser Statements, But Justice Thomas Seeks More Protection for Domestic Violence Victims”: Julie Hilden has this essay online today at FindLaw.

“High Court Sides With Woman’s Retaliation Claim”: This audio segment (RealPlayer required) featuring Nina Totenberg appeared on this evening’s broadcast of NPR‘s “All Things Considered.”

The litigation over North Carolina’s previously purloined original copy of the Bill of Rights appears to be concluded: A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit issued this unpublished per curiam opinion today. Additional background on this matter can be accessed here and here from The Christian Science Monitor and here from the U.S. Marshals Service.

In news coverage of today’s ruling, The Associated Press reports that “U.S. appeals court backs N.C. in ownership of Bill of Rights copy.”

“Lawmakers Subpoena Former State Supreme Court Chief Justice”: Lynne Tuohy of The Hartford Courant provides a news update that begins, “Former Supreme Court Chief Justice William J. Sullivan was subpoenaed today to testify before the legislature’s Judiciary Committee hearing next Tuesday on his machinations to withhold release of a controversial high court ruling to aid the prospects of a colleague to succeed him as chief justice.”

“Technical Glitch Opens Window Into Leak Case”: Adam Liptak of The New York Times provides a news update that begins, “About eight pages of a 51-page government brief filed in federal court in San Francisco on Wednesday were electronically blacked out to protect what prosecutors said was sensitive material concerning a grand jury’s investigation into steroid use in baseball. But the secret passages can be viewed by simply pasting the document into a word processing program.”

Liptak’s update credits Josh Gerstein of The New York Sun for breaking that news in an article published today headlined “Prosecutors Demand Reporters Testify in Steroid Case.”

Earlier today, I linked here to the federal government’s supposedly redacted court filing. To read the redacted text, simply use the PDF “select” feature, then right-click and “copy to clipboard,” after which you will need to past the copied text into a word processing program or into Notepad. The “Deadspin” blog explains the process in a post titled “How To Outwit The Government.”

So you can use Adobe Acrobat to avoid Microsoft Word’s metadata problem, but apparently Adobe Acrobat’s redact function does not truly hide the document’s text if the text is merely blackened-out.

“Supreme Court Sides With Employees in Discrimination Case”: law.com’s Tony Mauro provides this news update.

And Charles Lane of The Washington Post provides a news update headlined “Sex Bias Award Affirmed.”

On today’s broadcast of NPR‘s “Day to Day“: The broadcast contained audio segments entitled “Justices Rule on Employment, Immigration, Abuse Cases” (featuring David G. Savage) and “Court Ruling on Deportation Divides a Family.” RealPlayer is required to launch these audio segments.

Access online the audio from today’s Ninth Circuit rehearing en banc oral argument in Padilla v. Lever: The audio file can be accessed here (Windows Media format; 9.57 MB audio file; right-click to download to your computer). Earlier today, I linked here to press coverage previewing the en banc reargument.

“Show Me State: The Supreme Court listens to the states.” Douglas T. Kendall and Jennifer Bradley have this essay online at The New Republic.

“Hard Knocks With No-Knock: Why is it unreasonable to announce and wait?” Tim Cavanaugh has this essay online at Reason.

“Gorsuch looks like shoo-in for court; The Denver native, a nominee to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, breezes through a hearing attended by just one senator”: This article appears today in The Denver Post.

“Federal building on lockdown”: The Chicago Tribune provides a news update that begins, “U.S. Marshals are conducting a floor-to-floor search this morning at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse for a man who escaped custody during a court appearance.”

The Chicago Sun-Times provides a news update headlined “Dirksen federal building on alert.”

And The Associated Press reports that “Prisoner Escapes From U.S. Marshals.”

“Breaking up the 9th Circuit an issue again in the Senate”: Lawrence Hurley has this article today in The Daily Journal of California.

Thanks to the Eleventh Amendment, former law student’s constitutional challenge to in-state tuition discounts at Indiana University School of Law is moot: A unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit issued this opinion today.

Over the dissent of three judges, the Federal Circuit denies rehearing en banc in Smithkline Beecham Corp. v. Apotex Corp.: You can access the order denying rehearing en banc, and two dissenting opinions from that order, at this link. Six votes were required for rehearing en banc to have been granted.

On the first full day of summer: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit today issued a decision in a case involving a patent dispute over an inflatable Santa. According to this web page, there’s only 185 days, 11 hours, and 50 minutes till the arrival of Christmas.

Today’s U.S. Supreme Court opinions in argued cases: The Court today issued five decisions in argued cases.

1. Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr. delivered the opinion of the Court in Woodford v. Ngo, No. 05-416. You can access the syllabus here; Justice Alito’s opinion here; Justice Stephen G. Breyer’s opinion concurring in the judgment here; Justice John Paul Stevens’ dissenting opinion, in which Justices David H. Souter and Ruth Bader Ginsburg joined, here; and the oral argument transcript here. Additional background on the case is available at this link.

2. Justice Breyer delivered the opinion of the Court in Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Railway Co. v. White, No. 05-259. You can access the syllabus here; Justice Breyer’s opinion here; Justice Alito’s opinion concurring in the judgment here; and the oral argument transcript here. Additional background on the case is available at this link.

3. Justice Souter delivered the opinion of the Court in Fernandez-Vargas v. Gonzales, No. 04-1376. You can access the syllabus here; Justice Souter’s opinion here; Justice Stevens’ dissenting opinion here; and the oral argument transcript here. Additional background on the case is available at this link.

4. Justice Stevens delivered the opinion of the Court in Dixon v. United States, No. 05-7053. You can access the syllabus here; Justice Stevens’ opinion here; Justice Anthony M. Kennedy’s concurring opinion here; Justice Alito’s concurring opinion, in which Justice Antonin Scalia joined, here; Justice Breyer’s dissenting opinion, in which Justice Souter joined, here; and the oral argument transcript here. Additional background on the case is available at this link.

5. And The Court issued a per curiam decision in Laboratory Corp. of America Holdings v. Metabolite Laboratories, Inc., No. 04-607, dismissing the writ of certiorari as improvidently granted. Justice Breyer issued a dissenting opinion, in which Justices Stevens and Souter joined. You can access the oral argument transcript here. Additional background on the case is available at this link.

In early news coverage, The Associated Press provides reports headlined “Top Court Affirms Sex Discrimination Award“; “Top Court Sides With Gov’t in Duress Case“; “Supreme Court Limits Lawsuits by Inmates“; and “Top Court Rules Against Illegal Immigrant.”

And at “SCOTUSblog,” Lyle Denniston has a post titled “Court eases retaliation proof requirement.”

“Denver native Gorsuch sails through hearing for 10th Circuit”: This article appears today in The Rocky Mountain News.

“Latest bid in battle for cross is rejected; ‘The moment of truth is upon us,’ Aguirre says”: The San Diego Union-Tribune today contains an article that begins, “An appeals court decision yesterday narrowed the city of San Diego’s options for keeping the Mount Soledad cross in place to a last, shot-in-the-dark chance before the U.S. Supreme Court.”