“Media Companies Want D.C. Circuit Ruling in Gitmo Case Unsealed”: Mike Scarcella has this post at “The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times.”

“Today we consider a student’s First Amendment challenge to a community college sexual harassment policy.” So begins today’s ruling of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in Lopez v. Candaele. Today’s decision holds that the student lacks standing to challenge the policy.

Via “The Volokh Conspiracy,” you can access the trial court’s ruling at this link. And the complaint filed to initiate the lawsuit can be accessed here (large PDF file).

“Barack Obama cites GOP ‘game playing'”: At Politico.com, Abby Phillip has an article that begins, “For weeks, President Barack Obama has accused Senate Republicans of ‘game playing’ to stall his judicial nominees, but legal observers and liberal activists say the White House has spent too much energy on big-ticket agenda items like the stimulus bill and Wall Street reform — at the expense of an opportunity to recalibrate a court system that the Bush and Reagan administrations pushed to the right.”

“4th Circuit Becomes New Front in Battle Over Judges”: David Ingram has this post at “The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times.”

“Appeals court: Once al-Qaida, always al-Qaida?” The Associated Press has this report.

“Corporations Aren’t Subject to Federal Alien Tort Law, Appeals Court Rules”: Bloomberg News has this report.

My earlier coverage of today’s Second Circuit ruling appears in the post immediately below.

“The concept of corporate liability for violations of customary international law has not achieved universal recognition or acceptance as a norm in the relations of States with each other. Inasmuch as plaintiffs assert claims against corporations only, their complaint must be dismissed for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.” So holds the long-awaited majority opinion that a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit issued today in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum. The plaintiffs were seeking to pursue their claim under a federal law known as the Alien Tort Statute.

Circuit Judge Pierre N. Leval issued an opinion “concurring only in the judgment” that begins:

The majority opinion deals a substantial blow to international law and its undertaking to protect fundamental human rights. According to the rule my colleagues have created, one who earns profits by commercial exploitation of abuse of fundamental human rights can successfully shield those profits from victims’ claims for compensation simply by taking the precaution of conducting the heinous operation in the corporate form. Without any support in either the precedents or the scholarship of international law, the majority take the position that corporations, and other juridical entities, are not subject to international law, and for that reason such violators of fundamental human rights are free to retain any profits so earned without liability to their victims.

The majority begins its response to Judge Leval’s separate opinion in the introduction to the majority opinion, writing:

Lastly, we wish to note that we do not take lightly the passion with which Judge Leval disagrees with our holding. We are keenly aware that he calls our reasoning “illogical” on nine separate occasions. See Concurring Op. 4, 5, 9, 30, 31 n.18, 36, 28, 46, 68, 69. Nor is it lost on us that he calls our conclusions “strange,” id. at 3, 57, 59,23 or that he repeatedly criticizes our analysis as “internally inconsistent,” id. at 6, 7, 46.24 We must, however, leave it to the reader to decide whether any of Judge Leval’s charges, individually or in combination, are a fair reading of our opinion. In so doing we are confident that if our effort is misguided, higher judicial authority is available to tell us so.

An article that The American Lawyer published in October 2008 described the Kiobel case as alleging that “Shell supplied ammunition, transit, and logistical support for the Nigerian military’s ‘Operation Restore Order in Ogoniland.'”

“Ga. capital cases in US Supreme Court crosshairs”: The Associated Press has this report.

“3rd Circuit Rules Some Asbestos Cases Are Pre-Empted”: Shannon P. Duffy has this front page article, in which I am quoted, in today’s edition of The Legal Intelligencer, Philadelphia’s daily newspaper for lawyers.

The article reports on a decision that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit issued last week.

“High court rules against Wintergreen”: The Daily Progress of Charlottesville, Virginia today contains an article that begins, “Wintergreen Resort still would have lost its appeal of an $8.3 million judgment to an injured skier even if there hadn’t been a trial transcript filing error, the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday.”

You can access yesterday’s ruling of the Supreme Court of Virginia at this link.

“High court sides with Virginian-Pilot in dispute over legal ads”: Today’s edition of The Virginian-Pilot contains an article that begins, “The Virginia Supreme Court, siding with The Virginian-Pilot, on Thursday struck down a lower court’s ruling allowing the Wall Street Journal to publish legal notices from this area.”

You can access yesterday’s ruling of the Supreme Court of Virginia at this link.

“Supreme Court Justice Thomas to visit UT”: The Daily Beacon of the University of Tennessee contains this article today.

And in somewhat related commentary, The Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle today contains an editorial entitled “Abandon age-old animosities: United welcome of Clarence Thomas would help bond community.”

“High court race showing signs of being costly, nasty”: The Detroit News contains this article today.

“Brothers walking America to oppose Supreme Court ruling; Talk about dangers to elections during Chillicothe stop”: This article appears today in The Chillicothe (Ohio) Gazette.

“Breyer Makes Case for Justices’ Adherence to Constitution”: Jess Bravin has this article today in The Wall Street Journal.

“Temporary Halt to Triple-Murder Trial Over Concerns on Defendant’s Health”: This article appears today in The New York Times.

Today’s edition of The New Haven Register contains articles headlined “Hayes illness cuts day short as prosecution focuses on Petit girls’ final moments” and “Petit victim sister frustrated by trial delay caused by Hayes’ health issue.”

And The Hartford Courant reports that “Trial Halted Over Concern For Hayes; Attorney Said Defendant Had Seizure Wednesday Night.”

“Judge Thomas Porteous impeachment panel hears from Harahan lawyer”: Bruce Alpert has this article today in The Times-Picayune of New Orleans.

And The Washington Post reports today that “Impeachment trial begins for Louisiana federal judge.”

“Happy to Be the Tortoise in the Race to Fitness”: John Schwartz has this essay today in The New York Times.

Meanwhile, in Wednesday’s newspaper, Schwartz had an article headlined “Superheroes in Court at Yale Show.” Additional coverage appears in today’s issue of The Yale Daily News, which contains an article headlined “Law and comics mix at new YLS exhibit.”