“Retired justice Stevens on ethics, Thomas and Colbert”: Joan Biskupic has this article today in USA Today.

And next Monday’s edition of Time magazine will contain an item headlined “10 Questions for John Paul Stevens.”

“Female Wal-Mart Employees File New Bias Case”: This article appears today in The New York Times.

Bob Egelko of The San Francisco Chronicle reports today that “New lawsuit alleges sex discrimination at Walmart.”

Ginny LaRoe of The Recorder reports that “‘Dukes’ Back From the Dead.”

And Ariane de Vogue of ABC News has a blog post titled “‘We’re Back’: Walmart Plaintiffs File Amended Sex Discrimination Complaint.”

“Forsyth files petition to take prayer case to the U.S. Supreme Court”: The Winston-Salem Journal has a news update that begins, “Forsyth County filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court today to overturn a lower court’s ruling that banned prayers mentioning Jesus from the start of meetings of the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners.”

The newspaper has posted the petition for writ of certiorari at this link.

“Reagan, Not the Left, Started Partisan Fires”: Columnist Michael Kinsley has this essay online at Bloomberg News.

“Boatright brings family law expertise, ‘intangibles’ to Colorado Supreme Court”: The Denver Post has this news update.

“Ninth Circuit Grants Rehearing En Banc in United States v. Nosal“: Orin Kerr has this post at “The Volokh Conspiracy.”

And at his “Under the Radar” blog at Politico.com, Josh Gerstein has a post titled “Is checking sports scores or personal e-mail at work a crime?”

You can access today’s order of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit granting rehearing en banc at this link.

My earlier coverage of the divided three-judge panel’s ruling in the case can be accessed here.

“UT’s Missing Brief and Justice Kagan’s Recusal”: Hans A. von Spakovsky has this post at National Review Online’s “Bench Memos” blog.

“Interest groups flex clout in judicial elections”: The Associated Press has this report.

“More Women Judges Needed, Gertner and Lithwick Say”: The University of Virginia School of Law issued this news release today.

You can access audio from the event via this link (26.2MB mp3 audio file).

“Women launch new legal salvo against Wal-Mart”: Dan Levine and Poornima Gupta of Reuters have this report.

And The Associated Press reports that “Calif. women allege Wal-Mart bias in new lawsuit.”

Update: In other coverage, Bloomberg News reports that “Wal-Mart Workers Limit Gender Bias Suit to California Stores.”

“This is a strange case.” So begins the opinion that Chief Judge Alex Kozinski issued today on behalf of the majority on a divided three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Here is the entire first paragraph of the majority opinion:

This is a strange case. Its resolution hinges on the absence, as a factual matter, of something we must accept as a legal matter. There are unlikely to be many more like it, so this opinion’s precedential value is probably limited. We nevertheless publish pursuant to General Order 4.3. While we’re at it, we offer some advice to lawyers: Don’t apologize unless you’re sure you did something wrong. And there’s also a lesson for district judges: Don’t accept too readily lawyers’ confessions of error or rely on your own memory of what happened. Trials are complicated and we sometimes misremember details. That’s why we have transcripts.

Circuit Judge Sandra S. Ikuta, who earlier in her career worked as a law clerk for Judge Kozinski, issued a dissenting opinion.

“My View of the Second Question Presented in United States v. Jones, the Fourth Amendment GPS Case”: Orin Kerr has this post at “The Volokh Conspiracy.”

“Judicial elections, corporate policies give glimpse into 2012”: Dan Eggen of The Washington Post has this report.

And Reuters reports that “Interest groups increase spending on state court elections.”

“UK supreme court judges air concerns over having to follow Europe’s lead; Rulings from Strasbourg human rights court ‘sometimes too narrow’ and interpretations are disputed”: This article appears today in The Guardian (UK), along with a news analysis headlined “The UK supreme court is changing the way we think about law; The separation of judiciary and legislature will bring about a more confrontational relationship between judges and ministers.”

“Reduced sentence for Miami-Dade rapist under Supreme Court ruling; Jacamo Ardon, 17 when he kidnapped and raped a woman in 1991, will soon leave prison, under a new ruling, but he will be deported to his native Nicaragua”: Today’s edition of The Miami Herald contains an article that begins, “A Miami man convicted in the brutal 1991 gang rape of a college student will soon leave prison, thanks to a controversial U.S. Supreme Court ruling.”

“Supreme Court to hear ‘downer cattle’ meat processing case which originated in Chino”: The Contra Costa Times contained this article yesterday.

“Judge nixes Christie request to have N.J. judges contribute more toward pensions and benefits”: The Newark Star-Ledger today contains an article that begins, “Despite a tongue-lashing last week from the governor, a Superior Court judge ruled today that state judges do not have to pay more for pensions and health plans while the state is appealing a ruling that declared the increases unconstitutional.”

“Colorado Supreme Court candidates say they’re not politically active”: The Denver Post contains this article today.

“Sandra Day O’Connor talks of life as a cowgirl and on the court”: This article appears today in The Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

“Lawyer Opposing Health Law Is Familiar Face to the Justices”: In today’s edition of The New York Times, Kevin Sack has a front page article that begins, “It would be hard for any lawyer to fathom a more riveting caseload than the one Paul D. Clement carried during his seven years in President George W. Bush’s Justice Department.”

“Interest Groups Dominate Spending in Judicial Elections, New Report Shows; Nearly 40 Percent of All Campaign Cash in 2009-10 Came From 10 Organizations”: The Justice at Stake Campaign, the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, and the National Institute on Money in State Politics have issued this news release today.

You can access the report, titled “The New Politics of Judicial Elections: 2009-10; How Special Interest ‘Super Spenders’ Threatened Impartial Justice and Emboldened Unprecedented Legislative Attacks on America’s Courts,” by clicking here.

“Appeals court hears case of ‘enemy combatant'”: The Associated Press has a report that begins, “Lawyers for a U.S. citizen who was detained nearly four years as an ‘enemy combatant’ asked an appeals court to reinstate a lawsuit against former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other officials.”

“Will Obama admin take a stand in Shell human-rights case?” Lawrence Hurley of Greenwire has this report.

“Kevin Ring, Author of Scalia Book, Gets 20 Months in Abramoff Scandal”: Jess Bravin has this post at WSJ.com’s “Washington Wire” blog.

“Obama Health Care: Supreme Court May Decide In Mid-November Whether To Hear Cases.” Mike Sacks of The Huffington Post has this report.

“St. Louis federal courthouse repair could cost $10 million”: The St. Louis Post-Dispatch has this news update.

The newspaper’s earlier coverage of the matter appeared in articles headlined “Eagleton courthouse gets a soaking” and “Fired contractor blamed for water leak at St. Louis federal courthouse.”

“Justices could talk health care cases on Nov. 10”: The Associated Press has this report.

“Crimes, Courts And Cures: Why the justice system does a bad job of separating defendants who deserve punishment from those who don’t.” Law professor Paul G. Cassell has this book review today in The Wall Street Journal.

“Business Group Files Opposition To $3.4B Cobell Settlement”: At “The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times,” Mike Scarcella has a post that begins, “A conservative think tank that advocates for free enterprise and limited government is challenging the $3.4 billion settlement in a Native American class action in Washington, saying the judge in the high-profile case should not have certified a class.”

You can access the group’s amicus brief filed yesterday in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit at this link.

“Health cases set for Nov. 10”: At “SCOTUSblog,” Lyle Denniston has a post that begins, “The Supreme Court will take its first look at the challenges to the new federal health care law at its Conference on Thursday, November 10.”

“Patriot Act Turns 10, With No Signs of Retirement”: David Kravets has this post at Wired.com’s “Threat Level” blog.

Access online the text of the prepared remarks of Seventh Circuit Judge Diane S. Sykes at the recent memorial service for Seventh Circuit Judge Terence T. Evans: Yesterday, in a post that you can access here, I noted that the Seventh Circuit had posted online a video of the memorial service.

Late yesterday, I received this PDF file containing the prepared text of the remarks that Judge Sykes delivered at the memorial service. Following law school, Sykes worked as a law clerk for Judge Evans. Later in her career, Sykes served as a Justice on the Supreme Court of Wisconsin and then became one of Judge Evans’s colleagues on the Seventh Circuit.

“Bougainville residents can sue Rio Tinto company”: Today in The San Francisco Chronicle, Bob Egelko has an article that begins, “South Pacific islanders can sue a multinational mining company in U.S. courts for alleged complicity in their government’s slaughter of its people, a federal appeals court in San Francisco ruled Tuesday, adding its voice to a legal controversy now before the Supreme Court.”

And Ginny LaRoe of The Recorder reports that “Splintered Circuit OKs Alien Tort Case Against Rio Tinto.”

My earlier coverage of yesterday’s en banc Ninth Circuit ruling appears here, here, and here.

“As It Turns 10, Patriot Act Remains Controversial”: This audio segment appeared on today’s broadcast of NPR’s “Morning Edition.”

And in today’s edition of The Washington Post, Nicholas Merrill has an op-ed entitled “How the Patriot Act stripped me of my free-speech rights.”

“Defenders want accused Cole bomber’s jury told if acquittal equals freedom; In the war on terror detention system the Bush and Obama administrations built, a captive can be executed if he’s convicted of a capital crime and kept forever if he’s acquitted”: Carol Rosenberg of The Miami Herald has this report.