“Killer of Detectives Gets Death Sentence”: The New York Times on Wednesday will contain an article that begins, “A federal jury sentenced a 24-year-old Staten Island man to death yesterday for killing two undercover police detectives in 2003. It was the first successful federal capital punishment prosecution in more than 50 years in New York.”

“Ex-Reporter for Times Testifies for Prosecutor Who Jailed Her”: This article will appear Wednesday in The New York Times.

“The Inside Man: William & Mary’s new president tries to get rid of a cross on campus.” Cesar Conda and Vince Haley have this essay online today at The Weekly Standard.

“The Michigan Win: Lessons in a victory over racial preferences.” Ward Connerly has this essay today at National Review Online.

“Hiding the Ball”: In the February 12, 2007 issue of The Nation, Law Professor David Cole will have an essay that begins, “If you want to know what difference a Democratic majority in Congress makes, consider George W. Bush’s recent about-face on warrantless wiretapping. For more than five years, unchallenged by the GOP-dominated Congress, his Administration has been insisting, initially in secret and subsequently in public, that the President has inherent, uncheckable authority as Commander in Chief to spy on Americans without judicial approval.”

“Welcome Back to the Rule of Law: Bush makes good on a terrorism case (finally).” Dahlia Lithwick has this jurisprudence essay online at Slate.

“‘The Supreme Court’ makes a brief for judiciary; The breezy but fact-filled PBS documentary packs more than 200 years of U.S. history into four hours”: This television review will appear Wednesday in The Los Angeles Times.

And a review of Law Professor Jeffrey Rosen‘s companion book to the PBS series — “The Supreme Court: The Personalities and Rivalries That Defined America” — appeared today in The Savannah Morning News under the headline “The court of personality.”

By the way, The LATimes review erroneously (but humorously) states, “There was a justice named Hamburger and a justice named Frankfurter.” Chief Justice Warren E. Burger was not widely known by the nickname “Ham” as best as I can tell.

On the other hand, this transcript of an Australian radio broadcast contains the assertion (apparently spoken in all sincerity) “There’s a famous statement from one of the Supreme Court Justices, Mr Justice Hamburger I think it was, justifying legal sterilisation with the statement ‘Three generations of idiots are enough.'” Of course, for reasons noted in this post earlier today, that assertion is doubly wrong.

“Stephen Henderson, McClatchy Newspapers, Supreme Court Correspondent talks about his series on death penalty cases in Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama and Virginia.” My pal Steve Henderson appeared today on C-SPAN‘s “Washington Journal,” and you can watch his segment online by clicking here (RealPlayer required).

I previously linked here to his recent series of death penalty articles.

“Reporter Contradicts Libby’s Testimony About Agent”: This audio segment (RealPlayer required) featuring Nina Totenberg appeared on this evening’s broadcast of NPR‘s “All Things Considered.”

“New Ninth Circuit Decision in Ziegler”: Orin Kerr has this post at “The Volokh Conspiracy.”

My coverage of today’s Ninth Circuit ruling, on panel rehearing, can be accessed here.

“Custody fallout: Judge scolded; His conduct worked against Chinese parents, court details.” This article appeared Sunday in The Commercial Appeal of Memphis. That day’s newspaper also contained an op-ed by Chris Peck entitled “He case: microcosm of Memphis.”

My earlier coverage of the Supreme Court of Tennessee’s recent ruling can be accessed here and here.

“Test of Bush’s terror-fighting authority heads to higher court; Before the federal appeals judges: What rights does a noncitizen legal resident have when the government names him an enemy combatant?” Warren Richey will have this article Wednesday in The Christian Science Monitor about a case to be argued Thursday before a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

Because the case is being argued in the Fourth Circuit, the identity of the judges on the panel won’t be known publicly until the morning of the oral argument, but we do already know that the case is slated to be argued in the “Green Carpet” courtroom, which if memory serves is also the courtroom the Fourth Circuit uses for en banc arguments.

“Only a judge would put the word ‘showbusiness’ in quotation marks”: David Pannick, QC has this essay today in The Times of London about two cases now pending before the Supreme Court of California.

“Reporter Judith Miller Testifies in CIA Leak Case”: The Washington Post provides this news update.

And The Associated Press reports that “Miller Testimony Contradicts Libby Story.”

“Senators Assert Right to Block Bush on Iraq”: The New York Times provides a news update that begins, “Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee began laying the constitutional groundwork today for an effort to block President Bush’s plan to send more troops to Iraq and place new limits on the conduct of the war there, perhaps forcing a withdrawal of American forces from Iraq. They were joined by Senator Arlen Specter, the Pennsylvania Republican who led the panel for the last two years, in asserting that Mr. Bush cannot simply ignore Congressional opposition to his plan to send 21,500 additional troops to Iraq.”

“The Irrational 18-Year-Old Criminal: Evidence that prison doesn’t deter crime.” Professor Joel Waldfogel has this essay today online at Slate.

“Another defeat for age bias claim on pensions”: Lyle Denniston has this post at “SCOTUSblog.”

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

“Judge Posner assails federal lawyers for poor ‘trial’ of state law”: Law Professor Doug Berman has this post at his “Sentencing Law and Policy” blog.

My earlier coverage of today’s Seventh Circuit ruling appears at this link. The parties’ appellate briefs are not available for download from the Seventh Circuit’s web site, but an mp3 audio file of the oral argument can be downloaded here.

“Certiorari Briefing in Coltec and Dow Chemical Tax Shelter Cases”: This post, providing access to those briefs, appears today at “TaxProf Blog.”

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit affirms the dismissal of claims alleging that PNC Bank’s conversion of its pension plan from a traditional defined benefit plan to a cash balance plan violated ERISA: You can access today’s ruling at this link. According to the decision, “The most significant issue on this appeal is whether the district court erred in holding that the PNC cash balance plan does not discriminate against older employees on the basis of their age.”

Eleventh Circuit rejects pimp’s Commerce Clause challenge to federal convictions for enticing a minor to engage in a commercial sex act and enticing a minor to engage in prostitution: Although the underage prostitute’s business was limited to south Florida, today’s ruling explains that the pimp supplied her with condoms manufactured overseas and gave her a cell phone over which she conducted business. Also, the prostitute met customers in hotels. These facts sufficed to defeat the pimp’s Commerce Clause challenge to his convictions. You can access today’s ruling at this link.

“Court Reinstates Key Padilla Charge”: The Associated Press provides a report that begins, “A federal appeals court on Tuesday reinstated a key terrorism charge, the only one carrying a potential life sentence, against alleged al-Qaida operative Jose Padilla.”

The Miami Herald provides a news update headlined “Conspiracy charge reinstated in Padilla case.”

And The South Florida Sun-Sentinel provides a news update headlined “Court reinstates key charge in Padilla terrorism case.”

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

Ninth Circuit panel issues more Kerr-ect decision in workplace computer search appeal: On August 9, 2006, Orin Kerr had a post at “The Volokh Conspiracy” titled “Ninth Circuit Mostly Eliminates Private-Sector Workplace Privacy Rights in Computers.” My earlier coverage of that ruling appears here. Orin also had two interesting follow-up posts about the petition for rehearing filed in the case, and you can access those posts here and here.

Today, that same three-judge Ninth Circuit panel granted panel rehearing and issued a revised opinion recognizing that the employee “retained a legitimate expectation of privacy in his workplace office.” The defendant still loses under today’s revised ruling, but the decision appears to eliminate some of the initial ruling’s language and reasoning that Professor Kerr found troubling.

“Why not to shoot a gun into the air for fun”: “Boing Boing” answered this question in anticipation of the 2006 New Year’s celebration. Some related anecdotes and news stories are collected here.

Today — in an opinion that you can access here — Seventh Circuit Judge Richard A. Posner adds one more reason to that list: you might end up receiving a longer federal prison sentence.

“Unborn child’s death may draw a rarely used charge; After beaten woman miscarries, police arrest her boyfriend”: This article appears today in The Pioneer Press of St. Paul, Minnesota.

“Court ruling might yield caution among lawyers”: Yesterday’s edition of The Las Vegas Review-Journal contained an article that begins, “The Nevada Supreme Court’s harsh rebuke of a Las Vegas attorney has caught the attention of the state’s legal community, and some say the recent opinion could affect the future conduct of trial lawyers and judges alike.”

You can access last month’s ruling of the Supreme Court of Nevada in both HTML and PDF formats.

Alito replaces O’Connor who may replace Fielding: The Louisville Courier-Journal today contains an article headlined “O’Connor may mediate dispute; Kentucky land case could mean millions.” According to the article, the mediator originally was to have been Fred J. Fielding, who recently reentered government service as White House Counsel.

Get that ‘idiot’ out of New Jersey’s Constitution: One iteration of “idiot” is proving to be more than enough when it comes to New Jersey’s Constitution, according to an article headlined “Senate panel agrees: No place for ‘idiot’ in constitution” in today’s edition of The Newark Star-Ledger. The offending word in New Jersey’s Constitution can be found here (scroll down).

For the record, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.‘s opinion in Buck v. Bell actually uses the phrase “[t]hree generations of imbeciles,” but that isn’t how the phrase is always remembered.

“My Surreal Day at the Libby Trial”: Slate’s John Dickerson has this dispatch from the Scooter Libby trial.

And at the “LawBeat” blog, Mark Obbie has a related post titled “Participatory journalism, in the best sense.”

“Bill would force high court TV coverage; Specter wants cameras to film proceedings”: Variety provides this report.

My earlier coverage appears at this link.

On today’s broadcast of NPR‘s “Morning Edition“: The broadcast contained audio segments entitled “Fleischer Disputes Libby’s Account of Plame Case” (featuring Nina Totenberg) and “Gay Muslim’s Case Puts Focus on German Asylum Law.” RealPlayer is required to launch these audio segments.

“PBS special takes judicious look at the highest court”: This preview appears today in The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel today contains a review headlined “Film has day (and more) in court.”

And the University of Virginia has issued a news release titled “Three U.Va. Law Professors Featured on PBS Supreme Court Series, Which Airs on Jan. 31 and Feb. 7.”

Additional information about PBS’s “The Supreme Court,” including links to transcripts of the program’s four hour-long episodes and other reviews, can be accessed via this earlier post.

“Former Bexar DA crusades against the death penalty; Millsap has become an unlikely voice against executions”: The Houston Chronicle contains this article today.

“Ex-Bush Aide, in Testimony, Disputes Libby”: Neil A. Lewis has this article today in The New York Times. And a related article reports that “Former Press Secretary Dispels Many Illusions.”

The Washington Post reports today that “Former Press Secretary Says Libby Told Him of Plame; Fleischer’s Testimony On Timing Supports Prosecution’s Case.” In addition, Dana Milbank’s “Washington Sketch” column is headlined “Fleischer Handles Questioning in the Usual Fashion.” And columnist Eugene Robinson has an op-ed entitled “The Ba-Da-Boom Crew.”

The Los Angeles Times contains an article headlined “Fleischer then and now: There’s a telling difference; Once an unwavering administration foot soldier, the ex-White House spokesman gives an insider’s account.”

And The New York Sun reports that “Fleischer Says Libby Disclosed CIA Officer’s Identity Over Lunch.”

“Restaurant protest divides state high court; While some justices appear to back restricting a neighbor’s statements in the Balboa Island inn case, others seem wary of limiting free speech”: Maura Dolan has this article today in The Los Angeles Times.