In Bashman news from Australia: The Daily Telegraph of Sydney has a news update headlined “Bus bash man stripped of passport.”

“Supreme Court to revisit affirmative action in Texas case; In a University of Texas case, justices consider whether affirmative action can be justified if a school is achieving diversity without using race”: David G. Savage will have this article Friday in The Los Angeles Times.

“State Supreme Court declines to take up voter ID, for now”: Patrick Marley of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has this news update.

“Top court backs cyber-bullying protection over media rights”: Kirk Makin of The Toronto Globe and Mail has a news update that begins, “The Supreme Court of Canada placed the privacy interests of a cyber-bullied Nova Scotia girl ahead of press freedom Thursday, allowing her to pursue her tormentors under a cloak of anonymity.”

The Chronicle Herald of Halifax, Nova Scotia has a news update headlined “Top court protects anonymity of N.S. teen in Facebook case.”

The Toronto Star has a news update headlined “Supreme Court rules girl can protect her identity in Facebook defamation suit.”

And CBC News reports that “Cyberbullying victim can remain anonymous, court rules; Top court grants Nova Scotia teen right to protect her identity in fake Facebook case.”

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

“The settlement that almost nixed a Supreme Court case”: Nate Raymond has this report at Alison Frankel’s “On the Case” from Thomson Reuters News & Insight.

“Supreme Court Preview: 2012 Term.” Earlier this week, The Heritage Foundation hosted this preview, and now you can access the video by clicking here.

Yesterday at the “Above the Law” blog, David Lat had this write-up of the Heritage preview.

“Mice, roaches in prison cells may be unconstitutional: court.” Jonathan Stempel of Reuters has a report that begins, “A prominent federal judge said on Thursday that the infestation of a prison cell with mice and cockroaches may violate the U.S. constitutional protection against cruel and unusual punishment, even if the inmate is not physically harmed.”

My earlier coverage of today’s Seventh Circuit ruling appears at this link.

“Drama! Intrigue! Habeas! On October 1, the Supreme Court Returns; Fresh off their most partisan ruling since Bush v. Gore, the justices face a docket and a vibe that are still taking shape.” Andrew Cohen has this essay online at The Atlantic.

“The 200-Day Club: That’s how long uncontroversial nominees are waiting to join the federal bench.” Doug Kendall has this jurisprudence essay online at Slate.

“Inmate’s handwritten request will get a rare hearing before Supreme Court”: Michael Doyle of McClatchy Newspapers has this report.

“Viet Dinh ’93 on government, academia and boutique law practice”: Harvard Law School yesterday posted online this news release, containing related video.

“Gay marriage arguments occur in U.S. appeals court”: The Associated Press has a report that begins, “A Justice Department lawyer has been forced by a federal appeals panel in New York to explain the government’s decision to stop defending the Defense of Marriage Act.”

And Bloomberg News has this updated report.

Update: Terry Baynes and Grant McCool of Reuters report that “U.S. appeals court hears arguments over federal gay marriage law.”

“[W]e write to correct the judge’s apparent assumption that creation of a mere hazard to health, as opposed to an actual impairment of health, can never be a harm sufficient to support an Eighth Amendment violation.” On behalf of a unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, Circuit Judge Richard A. Posner today issued an opinion that “distinguish[es] among three different types of harm that [mice and cockroach] infestation of a prisoner’s cell can create.”

“5th Circuit Chief Judge Edith Jones to relinquish ‘chief’ title”: John Council has this post today at the “Tex Parte Blog” of Texas Lawyer.

“The Roberts Court Takes on Racial Justice”: Law professor David Cole has this post today at the blog of The New York Review of Books.

The Columbia Spectator’s archives are now available online: As my college newspaper, The Columbia Spectator, first noted on Twitter very early this morning, much of that publication’s archives are now available online.

Most of the articles that I wrote while attending Columbia College can be accessed via this link.

My first front page article, headlined “Lynch sees standstill in minority hiring,” appeared before the end of September of my freshman year in 1982.

Thereafter the “Howard J. Bashman” byline apparently began appearing so frequently that for the newspaper’s April Fool’s Day edition published on April 1, 1983, every byline appeared with the middle initial J.

Among the articles that bring back memories all these years later are those headlined “Day 5 of the blockade: a profile“; “Jester’s vigil will begin at Tom’s“; “Students find corpse wrapped up in a rug“; “Columbia hangout finger lickin’ good“; and my review of the original “Police Academy” movie. The archives also reveal that I once joined in a group letter to the editor written by the residents of my dorm room hall.

Sadly. I did not get to write the instant classic cockroach-in-a-student’s-ear story published on January 24, 1983, but somehow an article of mine that did run that day happened to appear even higher-up on the front page.

You can access and search the archives via this link.

“Kagan offers a view of a Justice’s working life”: Harvard Law School posted this news release online yesterday, providing access to Justice Elena Kagan’s remarks earlier this month at the law school.

“Hill Republicans Join Suit Challenging Obama Recess Appointments”: Todd Ruger has this post today at “The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times.”

“Arkansas court upholds medical marijuana proposal”: The Associated Press has this report on a ruling that the Supreme Court of Arkansas issued today.

“U.S. Supreme Court to hear drug dog cases from Fla.”: The News Service of Florida has this report.

“Defense of Marriage Act Faces Widow’s Tax Case Appeal”: Bloomberg News has this report.

“Civil rights dominate Supreme Court term”: Pete Williams, NBC News justice correspondent, has this blog post today.

“Election May Decide When Interrogation Amounts to Torture”: Charlie Savage will have this article Friday in The New York Times.

“How much privacy does the Constitution guarantee for the blood’s chemistry?” Lyle Denniston has this post today at the “Constitution Daily” blog of the National Constitution Center.

“LB Bookshelf: Rehnquist Bio Doesn’t Pull Punches.” Peter Landers had this post yesterday at WSJ.com’s “Law Blog.”

Additional information about the book can be accessed here.

Judge Posner on the defense of entrapment and “stash house” robberies: Circuit Judge Richard A. Posner issued an interesting concurring and dissenting opinion in a case that the Seventh Circuit decided yesterday.

“Court fast-tracks some green card applications”: The Associated Press has this report on a 6-to-5 ruling that the en banc U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued yesterday.

And in other coverage, Scott Graham of The Recorder reports that “Judges Split 6-5 Over Meaning of Immigration Provision.”

“Special Preview: International Human Rights Cases Under Fire.” Lawrence Hurley has this article in the September 2012 issue of California Lawyer magazine.

At “SCOTUSblog,” Lyle Denniston has a post titled “Argument preview: Will an old law shrink?”

And in the current issue of The National Law Journal, Peter Weiss has an essay entitled “Will the high court be a dream killer? A century-old vision of the United States as committed to common global values of justice and humanity is being sorely tested by the Kiobel case before the Supreme Court.”