“After Va.’s Losses In Court, a Flurry Of Finger-Pointing”: Saturday’s edition of The Washington Post will contain an article that begins, “The Virginia Supreme Court’s rejection of an anti-spam law is the state’s latest high-profile legal defeat, a string of losses that some lawyers see as coincidental but others say reflects the General Assembly’s willingness to pass aggressive measures that are more likely to face a constitutional challenge.”

The Associated Press is reporting: Now available online are articles headlined “ACLU asks high court to hear enemy combatant case“; “Pentagon moves Gitmo legal official amid criticism“; and “Transsexual wins federal discrimination lawsuit” (access today’s ruling of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia at this link).

That’s why they call it the “long conference”: Late yesterday, “SCOTUSblog” posted this lengthy list of “Petitions to Watch” at the U.S. Supreme Court‘s conference of September 29, 2008. There are certainly some interesting cases on that list.

“President’s domestic detention power tested”: At “SCOTUSblog,” Lyle Denniston has a post that begins, “Lawyers for the only detainee seized by the military inside the U.S. and still in captivity urged the Supreme Court on Friday to rule that no federal law and no part of the Constitution allows the President to order such detentions.”

You can access the petition for writ of certiorari filed today in Al-Marri v. Pucciarelli by clicking here.

“Cable, led by Cablevision, mulls network DVR”: The Associated Press provides this appellate-related report.

Krazy khat: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit issued this interesting opinion today addressing what the federal government must prove to subject a criminal defendant to a lengthy prison term on a conviction for possessing khat.

“You Tube taser video: The 11th Circuit should be ashamed.” At her blog “Ride The Lightning,” attorney Sharon Nelson today has a post that begins, “My brother is a cop. I am part of the extended family of cops who worry constantly about what might happen to the person in uniform that they love. But there’s no free pass for being a cop — no ‘get out of jail’ free card when you abuse the Constitution. And when an appellate court of the United States sanctions that conduct, I start to hear Nero fiddling while Rome burns.”

Is a suspect’s ostensibly admitting to having engaged in child molestation sufficient, without more, to establish probable cause to search that suspect’s home for child pornography? In a ruling issued today, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit answers “no.”

“Agency and Bush Are Sued Over Domestic Surveillance”: The New York Times contains this article today.

And yesterday, the organization Electronic Frontier Foundation issued a news release headlined “EFF Sues NSA, President Bush, and Vice President Cheney to Stop Illegal Surveillance; New Legal Challenge to Unconstitutional Domestic Spying.” You can access the complaint initiating suit by clicking here.

“Anthrax Suspicions: Why an independent look at the FBI probe is essential.” This editorial appears today in The Washington Post.

“Taser keeps attackers, liability lawsuits at bay”: The St. Petersburg Times contains this article today.

“Stripper’s private dancing lands DeKalb lawyer in hot water; State commission suspends him 15 months for accepting nude dances as partial payment for her legal fees, report says”: This article appears today in The Chicago Tribune.

“Nichols’ team balks over forensic expert”: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution today contains an article that begins, “Brian Nichols is accused of murdering four people after escaping from a Fulton County Courthouse holding cell during his rape trial in 2005. In one of those deaths, the only living witness to the killing is Nichols himself. And prosecutors have an expert who says that they don’t buy Nichols’ version of events in the shooting death of David Wilhelm, an off-duty U.S. Customs agent.”

“Gun Lobby First”: Today’s edition of The New York Times contains an editorial that begins, “The House stampeded past serious public safety concerns and the democratic rights of residents of the District of Columbia on Wednesday to approve a bill that would gut sensible gun controls in the nation’s capital.”

“Wecht lawyers want to petition high court”: The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette today contains an article that begins, “Attorneys for former Allegheny County Coroner Dr. Cyril H. Wecht have requested a stay from the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals so they can petition the U.S. Supreme Court to consider their client’s case.”

And today in The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Jason Cato reports that “Wecht seeks to appeal case to U.S. Supreme Court.”

“Task force named for judge inquiry; Jurist Porteous is facing impeachment”: This article appears today in The Times-Picayune of New Orleans.

Take that, Seventh Circuit! Today in The New York Sun, Josh Gerstein has an article headlined “A Nadler Bill Would Legalize Mezuzahs.”

The article begins, “Under legislation just introduced in Congress, residents of condominiums and co-ops would be guaranteed the right to post religious displays, such as the mezuzahs installed by observant Jews, outside apartment doors. The bill, formally proposed on Wednesday by Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York, would effectively overturn a federal appeals court’s ruling in July that a condominium board in Chicago had the right to remove mezuzahs that a building resident repeatedly posted.”

You can view the text of the proposed “Freedom of Religious Expression in the Home Act of 2008” by clicking here.

My earlier coverage of the Seventh Circuit’s ruling, which issued on July 10, 2008, appears at this link.

“Mistaken Authority: Congress should say no to Bush’s last-gasp bid for more executive power.” Neal Katyal and Justin Florence have this jurisprudence essay online at Slate.

“In the Founders’ own words”: Justice Don R. Willett of the Supreme Court of Texas had this op-ed last Friday in The Austin American-Statesman.