“Judge: ‘Personhood’ abortion petition too general for November ballot.” This article appears today in The Las Vegas Sun.

And The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports today that “Petition ruled too vague for ’10 ballot.”

“High Court Returns to a Busy Schedule; As the new year begins, blockbuster opinions and maybe a retirement greet Supreme Court”: Tony Mauro of The National Law Journal has this report.

“The Conscience of a Conservative: The lifelong Republican who argued Bush v. Gore before the Supreme Court–and won–goes to court this week to overturn California’s ban on gay marriage. Huh?” This article will appear in the January 18, 2010 issue of Newsweek.

And Dan Levine of The Recorder, who will be providing live coverage of the trial via his Twitter account, has an article headlined “All Eyes on Federal Judge as Trial Starts Over Calif. Ban on Same-Sex Marriage.”

“Justices asked to bar taping of gay marriage trial”: The Associated Press has this report.

And David G. Savage of The Los Angeles Times has a news update headlined “Lawyers for Prop. 8 file high court appeal to ban YouTube video of trial; The federal trial on the constitutionality of the measure beginning Monday has ‘the potential to become a media circus,’ an attorney says in an emergency appeal to Supreme Court Justice Kennedy.”

“This case presents one issue on appeal: whether the federal regulatory regime governing pharmaceuticals preempts state-law failure-to-warn claims against manufacturers of generic drugs.” So begins a ruling that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued yesterday.

Agreeing with a recent Eighth Circuit ruling that I previously covered here, the Fifth Circuit ruled yesterday that “[b]ecause state imposition of duties to warn on generic drug manufacturers neither renders compliance with federal regulation impossible nor obstructs the goals of that regulation, we AFFIRM the district court’s finding that Demahy’s state-law failure-to-warn claims are not preempted.”

“High Court ruling throws sand into wheels of justice”: Today’s edition of The Virginian-Pilot contains an article that begins, “U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia predicted that the ‘sky will not fall’ with a decision more than six months ago mandating that lab analysts testify in person to the validity of drug tests and alcohol screenings.”

And at “SCOTUSblog,” Lyle Denniston previews the oral argument in a post titled “A limit on Confrontation rights?”

“Where is the Next Federal Circuit Judge?” Dennis Crouch has this post at his “Patently-O” blog.

“Microsoft Renews Appeal Of $290 Million Verdict, Injunction”: Brent Kendall of Dow Jones Newswires has an article that begins, “Microsoft Corp. on Friday asked a federal appeals court to take a second look at its ruling last month that affirmed a $ 290 million patent infringement judgment against the software giant and barred the company from selling current versions of its flagship Word software.”

“Melvin lets loose with call for judicial reform”: Today’s edition of The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review contains an article that begins, “Sworn in Friday as a Supreme Court justice, Joan Orie Melvin pledged to make it her mission to ‘remove the stealth nature of the judiciary’ and called for specific reforms of the state court system.”

“Justices may rule soon on campaign-finance case”: Robert Barnes has this article today in The Washington Post.

And The New York Times reports today that “Courts Roll Back Limits on Spending in Election Law.”

“Why Filling the 100 Lower Federal Court Vacancies Is a Key Priority”: Law professor Carl Tobias has this essay online at FindLaw.