“U.S. Preparing for Trials of Top Qaeda Detainees”: This article will appear Friday in The New York Times.

“Ex-Prosecutor Is Accused of Running Escort Service”: law.com provides this report.

My earlier coverage appears in a post titled “It’s allegedly hard out here for a former federal prosecutor.”

The economics of everything and anything: Online at SSRN, William M. Landes and Richard A. Posner have posted a paper titled “The Economics of Presidential Pardons and Commutations” (abstract with link for download). Thanks to “Legal Theory Blog” for the pointer.

“Supreme Court again hears Ann Arbor same-sex benefits case”: The Associated Press provides a report that begins, “The Michigan Supreme Court again heard arguments Thursday in a lawsuit challenging the Ann Arbor school district’s same-sex benefits policy.”

“Gitmo Turns Five”: Jonathan Hafetz will have this essay in the January 29, 2007 issue of The Nation.

The McClatchy Newspapers are reporting: Now available online are articles headlined “Protests worldwide mark the 5-year anniversary of Guantanamo” and “House Democrats vow to look into conditions at Guantanamo.”

One year ago, The Associated Press knew U.S. Supreme Court nominee Samuel A. Alito, Jr.‘s actual first name: According to The AP’s widely-distributed “Today in history” feature for January 12, 2007, one year ago “Supreme Court nominee Joseph Alito completed four days of testimony at his Senate confirmation hearing.”

“Jury Selection Begins in Atlanta Shooting Case”: This audio segment (RealPlayer required) appeared on today’s broadcast of NPR‘s “Morning Edition.”

Password-shmassword, Fourth Circuit holds: Today, a unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit held that a wife had authority to allow police to search the contents of her husband’s password-protected computer, even though only the husband knew the password. The police accessed the files by mirroring the computer’s hard drive, which avoided any need to ascertain the password. Although the computer was password-protected, none of the files on the computer were themselves encrypted. You can access today’s ruling at this link.

“The Brennan Memos: Brennan dishes on his colleagues.” Jim Newton has this jurisprudence essay online at Slate. This is part three in a three-part series. Links to the two earlier parts are available via the foregoing link.

Programming note: The work-related matter that has caused me to be in Washington, DC today will have me off-line for much of the day. Additional posts will appear later today.

“Roberts’ Rules: In an exclusive interview, Chief Justice John Roberts says that if the Supreme Court is to maintain legitimacy, its justices must start acting more like colleagues and less like prima donnas.” Law Professor Jeffrey Rosen has this article [update: free access now available] in the January/February 2007 issue of The Atlantic Monthly.

Ann Althouse provides extensive excerpts from the article in this blog post.

Available online at Slate: Dahlia Lithwick has a jurisprudence essay entitled “Just Say No Twice: The Supreme Court declines to pay its union dues.”

Emily Bazelon has a jurisprudence essay entitled “Four Ways To Stop the War: What Congress could do–if it dared.”

And Meghan O’Rourke has an essay entitled “The Copycat Syndrome: Plagiarists at work” focusing on Seventh Circuit Judge Richard A. Posner‘s new book, “The Little Book of Plagiarism.”

Available online at Reason: Julian Sanchez has an essay entitled “The Pinpoint Search: How super-accurate surveillance technology threatens our privacy.”

And Katherine Mangu-Ward has an essay entitled “Is Privacy Overrated? The merits, drawbacks, and inevitability of the surveillance nation.”

Available at National Review Online: Mark Mix has an essay entitled “Laboring Against Free Speech: Unions want to force workers to pay for political speech the workers object to.”

And Edward Whelan has an essay entitled “Not Credible ‘Whatsoever’: The ABA sinks deeper.”

“Justices express support for limiting use of union fees”: Joan Biskupic has this article today in USA Today.

And The Washington Times reports today that “Supreme Court hears teachers’ union case.”

“A voice from Gitmo’s darkness: A current detainee speaks of the torture and humiliation he has experienced at Guantanamo since 2002.” Jumah al-Dossari has this op-ed today in The Los Angeles Times.

“Justice enters Prop 2 case; Court seeks briefs; U-M drops race, gender to qualify”: This article appears today in The Detroit Free Press.

The Lansing State Journal reports today that “D.C. law firm pushes for Prop 2 compliance; U-M to follow law as courts consider appeal.”

The Ann Arbor News reports that “U-M to ignore race and gender on applications; University will comply with Proposal 2 immediately.”

And The Michigan Daily reports that “Despite Prop 2, race will stay on applications; ‘U’ will trust admissions officers to ignore race, gender.”

“U.S. seeks charge reinstated; Padilla, others face terrorism trial Jan. 22”: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution contains this article today.

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports today that “Terror ruling faces scrutiny; U.S. wants to revive charge for Padilla, 2 others.”

And USA Today reports that “U.S. presses life-sentence option for Padilla.”

“Appeals judges dig into Missouri execution procedures”: This article appears today in The St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

And The Associated Press reports that “Court panel hears Mo. execution case.”

“Jury selection to begin in Nichols trial”: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution today contains an article that begins, “Jury selection begins Thursday in the death penalty trial of accused courthouse killer Brian Nichols.”

“Trapped at Guantanamo”: Melissa Hoffer has this op-ed today in The Boston Globe.

“Bush Resubmits Judge’s Name; Bar Associations Oppose Bryant For Federal Bench, But She Has Key Backing”: The Hartford Courant today contains an article that begins, “The White House has resubmitted its federal judicial nomination of state Judge Vanessa L. Bryant, whose appointment the U.S. Senate failed to act upon last year after she underwent a bruising review of her qualifications.”

“Law Firm Employee Is Accused of Posing as Lawyer in Court”: The New York Times contains this article today.

“Too Casual To Sit on Press Row? Bloggers’ Credentials Boosted With Seats at the Libby Trial.” This article appears today in The Washington Post.

And don’t miss this post from last night describing a blogger’s impact at the appellate level in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

“Let There Be ‘Blight’: Welcome to the post-Kelo world.” William R. Maurer has this op-ed today in The Wall Street Journal.

It’s allegedly hard out here for a former federal prosecutor: The Newark Star-Ledger today contains an article headlined “Former U.S. prosecutor charged in call-girl ring; Ex-trooper also arrested in a ‘disgraceful’ case.”

The New York Post today contains an article headlined “All Rise! Lawyer ‘Pimped’; Ran a brothel for busted client: DA.”

The New York Times reports that “A Tough Defense Lawyer Finds He’s in Need of One.”

And The New York Sun reports that “Former Prosecutor Accused Of Running Prostitution Ring.”

Thanks to YouTube, you can access a video of the Oscar-winning song “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp” by clicking here.

“New Iraq Commander Spoke Up for Judith Miller”: Josh Gerstein has this article today in The New York Sun.

“Two Recent Federal Appellate Decisions on Prisoners’ Religious Exercise Claims: Illustrations of the Application of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act to the Prison Context.” Marci Hamilton has this essay online today at FindLaw.

“Just Looking: Should Internet Ignorance Be a Defense to Child Porn Charges?” That was the title of the December 4, 2006 installment of my “On Appeal” column for law.com.

In that essay, I criticized a recent ruling of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and a recent ruling of the Superior Court of Pennsylvania.

On Wednesday, the Pa. Superior Court withdrew its three-judge panel opinion and granted reargument en banc of its decision. You can access that court’s docket entries at this link.

“I appreciate the temptation to make every law ‘the best it can be,’ but that is not the Supreme Court’s current mode of statutory interpretation”: So writes Chief Judge Frank H. Easterbrook, dissenting in part from a ruling that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit issued on Wednesday. Circuit Judge Richard A. Posner joined in the majority opinion.