“Appeals court expected to rule Tuesday on Prop. 8”: Bob Egelko of The San Francisco Chronicle has this news update.

And Howard Mintz of The San Jose Mercury News has an update headlined “Gay marriage ruling Tuesday likely step toward U.S. Supreme Court.”

“Business group states case against health care mandate; Brief filed ahead of Supreme Court date”: The Washington Times has this news update.

James Vicini of Reuters has an article headlined “Opponents: Congress went too far in Obama healthcare law.”

And Seth Stern of Bloomberg News reports that “Health-Care Case Tests U.S. Supreme Court’s Rejection of Live Broadcasts.”

“The Court That Broke Jersey: The state’s activist judiciary has forced taxpayers to finance unprecedented educational and housing regimes.” Steven Malanga has this article in the Winter 2012 issue of City Journal.

“FBI cuts back on GPS surveillance after Supreme Court ruling”: USA Today has this news update.

“Defendant Ordered to Decrypt Laptop May Have Forgotten Password”: David Kravets has this post at Wired.com’s “Threat Level” blog.

“Judge weighs PETA whale slavery lawsuit”: Greg Moran of The San Diego Union-Tribune has a news update that begins, “A federal judge appeared skeptical Monday of arguments that orca whales that perform at SeaWorld are being held as slaves and that their confinement violates the constitutional ban on slavery.”

“Tucson suspect’s stay at Mo. facility extended”: The Associated Press has this report.

The Ninth Circuit’s Proposition 8 ruling may not issue until tomorrow, but at least one aspect of that ruling has been revealed today: Moments ago, the three-judge Ninth Circuit panel assigned to the case issued an order stating that “As we explain in our concurrently-filed opinion in Perry v. Brown, Nos. 10-16696 and 11-16577, we deny as untimely the motion of Chuck Storey, County Clerk of Imperial County, to intervene as a Defendant-Appellant. We also consider the motion as a motion to intervene in the companion appeal, No. 10-16696, and deny it as well for the same reason.”

Meanwhile, at “SCOTUSblog,” Lyle Denniston previews tomorrow’s Ninth Circuit ruling in a post titled “Prop. 8: Final ruling due.”

Update: The Ninth Circuit’s docket entry for the order issued earlier this afternoon on which I have reported above has more recently been amended to read “COURT DELETED INCORRECT/DUPLICATE ENTRY– ORDER ISSUED IN ERROR. Notice about deletion sent to case participants registered for electronic filing.”

In other words, it appears that the Ninth Circuit’s order rejecting the motion to intervene filed by the County Clerk of Imperial County, California should not have issued until tomorrow. Unfortunately, the Ninth Circuit has already sent the text of its now-withdrawn order to countless subscribers of that court’s Proposition 8 email alert list, and thus it will be rather difficult to unring this particular bell.

“Judges already citing Wal-Mart ruling in environmental cases”: Lawrence Hurley of Greenwire has this report.

“‘We the People’ Loses Appeal With People Around the World”: Adam Liptak will have this new installment of his “Sidebar” column in Tuesday’s edition of The New York Times.

“Ga. court hears case of woman killed by alligator”: The Associated Press has this report.

“Ruling near on Calif. same-sex marriage ban”: The Associated Press has a report that begins, “A federal appeals court is ready to announce its ruling on whether California’s same-sex marriage ban violates the constitutional rights of gays and lesbians.”

Today, the Public Information Office of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has issued an announcement titled “Advance Notice of Opinion Filing” stating that by 1 p.m. eastern time tomorrow that court will issue its ruling “regarding the constitutionality of Proposition 8 and the denial of a motion to vacate the lower court judgement in the case.”

“Justice Kennedy As Healthcare Swing Vote: Which Way Will He Go?” Bloomberg Law has posted online this video segment.

“Senate GOP: Activist Federal Judges Wanted; The hypocrisy of a group of Republicans who are supporting the lawsuit against Obama’s recess appointments.” Andrew Cohen has this essay online at The Atlantic.

“Act with dispatch to ease federal courts’ vacancy burden”: Timothy K. Lewis has this op-ed today in The Philadelphia Inquirer.

And yesterday’s edition of The Register-Guard of Eugene, Oregon contained an editorial entitled “Fix confirmation process; Merkley’s proposal would expedite nominations.”

“Court strikes down Georgia’s assisted-suicide law”: Bill Rankin of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has this news update.

And The Associated Press reports that “Ga. court overturns assisted suicide restrictions.”

You can access today’s ruling of the Supreme Court of Georgia at this link.