“Loving v. Virginia and the Secret History of Race”: Brent Staples has this Editorial Observer essay today in The New York Times.

“O’Connor takes private ordeal public; Former justice to testify about Alzheimer’s painful reach”: Joan Biskupic has this article today in USA Today.

The Associated Press reports that “O’Connor urges help for Alzheimer’s disease.”

And The Washington Post contains a related article headlined “Man With Alzheimer’s Fights ‘Family Disease’; 5th-Generation Patient Copes With Early Onset.”

Justice Sandra Day O’Connor is scheduled to testify today at a hearing of the U.S. Senate’s Special Committee on Aging. The hearing is set to begin at 10:30 a.m. eastern time, and a live webcast of the hearing will be available via this link (RealPlayer required).

“McCain’s Supreme wrongheadedness”: Today in The Boston Globe, columnist Jeff Jacoby has an op-ed that begins, “In a speech on the federal judiciary last week, John McCain sounded the familiar conservative call for judges who know their place.”

“Some Detainees Are Drugged For Deportation; Immigrants Sedated Without Medical Reason”: This front page article appears today in The Washington Post.

“Judge punished for profanity; Lamdin draws a 30-day suspension”: The Baltimore Sun today contains an article that begins, “The state’s highest court suspended a Baltimore County judge yesterday for making profane and uncivil comments from the bench, issuing the harshest punishment for a Maryland judge in more than two decades and, observers said, sending a message to judges to watch their behavior.”

You can access yesterday’s ruling of the Court of Appeals of Maryland — that State’s highest court — at this link.

“Ranking the Politics of Supreme Court Justices: Four of the five most conservative justices since 1937 are on the bench today.” This article appears online at the web site of U.S. News & World Report.

“New Worries for 401(k) Plans; Recent Supreme Court decision may unleash wave of investor suits”: law.com provides this report.

“U.S. Supreme Court will not hear church’s appeal on O’Hare cemetery plans; Pending court cases, though, mean airport expansion plans in limbo”: The Chicago Tribune contains this article today.

“Iowa’s longest-serving justice retires from Supreme Court”: This article appears today in The Des Moines Register.

“Feds unveil new indictment against Barry Bonds”: The Associated Press provides this report.

C-SPAN broadcasts Ninth Circuit oral argument of case challenging the constitutionality of the federal no-fly list: A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit heard oral argument in Ibrahim v. Homeland Security on April 18, 2008. This past Saturday, C-SPAN aired the oral argument on “America and the Courts.” You can view the broadcast by clicking here (RealPlayer required).

The three-judge panel that heard oral argument consisted of Chief Judge Alex Kozinski, Circuit Judge N. Randy Smith, and U.S. District Judge S. James Otero of the Central District of California.

According to C-SPAN’s description of the case, “In 2005 Stanford University student Rahinah Ibrahim was handcuffed and detained at the San Francisco International Airport while trying to fly home to Malaysia. After arriving in Malaysia, the U.S. Embassy revoked her visa, and she has not been allowed in the United States since.” The Stanford Daily reported on the case in an article published in February 2006.

“Judge dismisses case of woman who says veil cost her claim”: The Associated Press provides a report that begins, “A federal judge in Detroit has dismissed the case of a Muslim woman who sued a judge for demanding she remove her veil in court.”

I have posted online at this link yesterday’s ruling of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.

“Adam Liptak, the national legal reporter of The New York Times, is answering questions from readers this week.” Details here, including the email address to which questions may be sent.

Books that recently arrived in the mail: Today, I received a copy of “Making Your Case: The Art of Persuading Judges” by Antonin Scalia and Bryan A. Garner.

Yesterday, I received a copy of “The Importance of Being Honest: How Lying, Secrecy, and Hypocrisy Collide with Truth in Law” by Steven Lubet.

Recently, I received a copy of “The Dirty Dozen: How Twelve Supreme Court Cases Radically Expanded Government and Eroded Freedom” by Robert A. Levy and William Mellor.

And, last but not least, I recently received a copy of “Patent Appeals: The Elements of Effective Advocacy in the Federal Circuit” by Mark Simon Davies.

“California Supreme Court rules for prosecutor who advised filmmakers; A Santa Barbara County deputy district attorney may stay on a death penalty case even after consulting on ‘Alpha Dog,’ a movie about an accused killer; Other rulings address similar potential conflict”: Maura Dolan has this article today in The Los Angeles Times.

And today in The New York Times, Adam Liptak has an article headlined “When Literary and Prosecutorial License Collide.”

Yesterday, the Supreme Court of California issued decisions in cases captioned Haraguchi v. Superior Court; Hollywood v. Superior Court; and The People v. Superior Court (Humberto S.).

“Court upholds dress codes; County schools do not violate students’ rights”: The Las Vegas Review-Journal today contains an article that begins, “A federal appeals court ruled Monday that Clark County’s school dress codes do not violate students’ right to free speech after considering a case involving a junior suspended for wearing T-shirts expressing her religious faith.”

And Bob Egelko of The San Francisco Chronicle reports today that “Court says schoolkids not harmed by uniforms.”

My earlier coverage of yesterday’s Ninth Circuit ruling appears at this link.

“Contractor says Fieger warned her of FBI visit; Journalist testifies attorney told her not to talk to investigators about campaign donation”: The Detroit News contains this article today.

“Execution in officer’s death stayed; U.S. Supreme Court will hear appeal concerning performance of lawyers”: This article appears today in The Richmond Times-Dispatch.

And The Washington Post reports today that “Court Stays Execution Of Va. Man, Takes Case.”

“Guantanamo detainees are facing death penalty; Khalid Sheik Mohammed and four others have been charged by a Pentagon official with conspiring in the Sept. 11 attacks”: Carol Rosenberg has this article today in The Miami Herald.

“Justices’ Conflicts Halt Apartheid Appeal”: Linda Greenhouse has this article today in The New York Times.

Today in The Washington Post, Robert Barnes has an article headlined “Investment Conflicts for High Court; Personal Holdings Prevent Justices From Hearing Case.”

Patti Waldmeir of Financial Times reports that “Apartheid court case can go ahead in US.”

Joseph Goldstein of The New York Sun reports that “High Court Recusals Derail Apartheid Case.”

law.com’s Tony Mauro reports that “Supreme Court Recusals Hit Home in Controversial Apartheid Suit.”

And The Washington Times reports that “Conflicts derail key apartheid case.”

“The Myth of Voter Fraud”: The New York Times today contains an editorial that begins, “Missouri and at least 19 other states are considering passing laws that would force people to prove their citizenship before they can vote.”

“Disputes reflect continuing tension over Title IX; Ruling fuels new lawsuits on gender equity in sports”: This front page article appears today in USA Today.

And today’s edition of The New York Times contains an article headlined “Taking Aim at Gender Barriers In a Full-Contact Sport.”

“Souter Protects Anonymity as Court Colleagues Seek Spotlight”: Greg Stohr of Bloomberg News has an article that begins, “As soon as the U.S. Supreme Court ended its March 30, 2004, session, Justice David Souter donned his suit jacket and walked out the court’s front door, past scores of people who had watched the argument. The only person who so much as noticed him was the attorney who had just argued the case.”

“Military prepares for 9/11 suspects’ hearings; The Pentagon is readying a compound where the Bush administration plans to arraign the alleged perpetrators of 9/11”: Carol Rosenberg has this article today in The Miami Herald.

“Just Being Kozinski: The Ninth Circuit’s new chief judge is brilliant, charming – and provocative; But does he have the right temperament for the job?” This article was the cover story of the April 2008 issue of California Lawyer magazine.

“Court blocked from case: Too many investments.” Mark Sherman of The Associated Press has this report. According to the article, today was “the first time in at least a quarter-century that the justices’ financial holdings prevented them from taking a case.”

“Technological advances in recent years have been such that an untrained eye simply cannot easily distinguish a photograph of a real person from a virtual image by merely eyeballing the photographs in question.” Today, Senior First Circuit Judge Norman H. Stahl has issued an opinion concurring in the judgment criticizing as improperly lax the manner in which federal prosecutors can satisfy the requirement in a child pornography prosecution of proving that the children depicted in the images are real.

Following a retrial, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit upholds the conviction of former naval intelligence officer Jay Lentz for interstate kidnapping resulting in the death of his ex-wife: You can access today’s ruling at this link.

The Washington Post previously provided extensive coverage of the case.

“In a case of first impression in this circuit, we address just such a set of challenges and largely conclude that public school mandatory dress policies survive constitutional scrutiny.” In a ruling issued today, the majority on a divided three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit rejects a student’s constitutional challenge to the dress code policy of the Clark County, Nevada public schools.

Circuit Judge Sidney R. Thomas‘s dissenting opinion begins (footnotes omitted): “Kim Jacobs wanted to wear a T-shirt to Liberty High School containing a message expressing her religious beliefs as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. When she did, she was suspended four times, for a total of twenty-five days, because the only messages allowed on shirts were those promoting the school. She alleges that she was penalized academically, suffered emotional harm, and eventually was forced to transfer to another school.” He concludes that “[o]n this record, the governmental interest in promoting ‘school spirit’ cannot come close to outweighing Kim Jacobs’ First Amendment rights.”

Update: At “The School Law Blog” of Education Week, Mark Walsh has a post titled “9th Circuit Upholds School Uniform Policy.”

The Associated Press is reporting: Now available online are articles headlined “Court will decide case of Va. man on death row” and “Court turns down Chinese man’s asylum claim.”

“Getting on Scalia’s Good Side”: Today in The Daily Journal of California, Brent Kendall has this very interesting article reporting on his interview last week with Justice Antonin Scalia.

“Bush nominates a moderate judge; Both of Virginia’s senators like Glen Conrad”: This editorial appears today in The Roanoke Times.

Access online today’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling in an argued case: The Court today issued its ruling in Gonzalez v. United States, No. 06-11612. Justice Anthony M. Kennedy issued the opinion of the Court, in which the Chief Justice and Justices John Paul Stevens, David H. Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen G. Breyer, and Samuel A. Alito, Jr. joined. Justice Antonin Scalia issued an opinion concurring in the judgment. And Justice Clarence Thomas dissented. You can access the opinion at this link and the oral argument transcript at this link.

The case presented the question “whether it suffices for counsel alone to consent to the magistrate judge’s role in presiding over voir dire and jury selection [in a felony criminal trial conducted in federal court] or whether the defendant must give his or her own consent.” By a vote of 8-1, the Court today ruled that the consent of counsel suffices even in the absence of the defendant’s own consent.

In early news coverage, The Associated Press reports that “Court rules that magistrate may preside.”

“Court won’t block US lawsuit by apartheid victims”: Mark Sherman of The Associated Press has a report that begins, “The Supreme Court says it can’t intervene in an important dispute over the rights of apartheid victims to sue U.S. corporations in U.S. courts because four of the nine justices had to sit out the case over apparent conflicts.”

And at “SCOTUSblog,” Lyle Denniston has a post titled “Court allows South Africa case to go forward.”

In an article headlined “Stock Holdings May Force Justices to Sit Out Apartheid Case” published on April 25, 2008, Brent Kendall of The Daily Journal of California anticipated this outcome.

You can access today’s Order List of the U.S. Supreme Court at this link.

“War crimes trials and outside pressure”: Lyle Denniston has this post at “SCOTUSblog.”