“Tossing illegally obtained evidence only helps the guilty, former judge says”: The Salt Lake Tribune has this news update. The former judge is law professor Paul G. Cassell, who advanced the position while arguing a case earlier today before the Supreme Court of Utah.

“Mississippi Supreme Court Justice James Graves Jr. clears hurdle for federal bench”: The Clarion-Ledger of Jackson, Mississippi has a news update that begins, “The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee has approved state Supreme Court Justice James Graves Jr. to become a judge on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.”

“Man sentenced to prison under Stolen Valor Act”: The Las Vegas Review-Journal has this news update.

In the December 2010 issue of The ABA Journal magazine: The cover story is headlined “The 4th Annual ABA Journal Blawg 100: Our 100 Favorite Blawgs.” This blog is listed in the news category.

And Mark Walsh has an article headlined “Raising Arizona: High Court Eyes State’s Punishments for Hiring Unauthorized Aliens.”

“Obama nominates Judge Bernice Donald for U.S. Court of Appeals”: The Memphis Commercial Appeal has this news update.

And The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has a news update headlined “Hornak appointed to federal court bench by Obama.”

“President Obama Nominates Judge Bernice Bouie Donald for United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit”: The White House issued this news release today.

You can learn more about the nominee both here and here.

“The judges of a circuit not only share the same title, pay and terms of office, but they also agree to follow the same judicial oath, making them all equally susceptible to error and making it odd to think of the delegation of decisionmaking authority to panels of three as nothing more than an audition.” Sixth Circuit Judge Jeffrey S. Sutton provides an example of the exercise of judicial restraint in his opinion concurring in the denial of rehearing en banc issued today.

The original three-judge panel’s ruling on the case can be accessed here.

“High court questions broad use of FOIA exemption”: Mark Sherman of The Associated Press has this report.

You can access the transcript of today’s U.S. Supreme Court oral argument in Milner v. Department of Navy, No. 09-1163, by clicking here.

Amendments to the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure take effect today: You can access the amended rules by clicking here. More background on these amendments can be accessed via this link.

According to a “How Appealing” reader who is intimately involved in the FRAP amendment process, “The FRAP change that is likely to be of most interest to your readers is the adoption of new Appellate Rule 29(c)(5), which adopts for the courts of appeals an amicus-brief authorship-and-funding disclosure requirement modeled on Supreme Court Rule 37.6.”

“Breyer argues for ‘good faith’ on high court rulings”: Joan Biskupic has this article today in USA Today.