“Everyone should know just how much the government lied to defend the NSA; A web of deception has finally been untangled: the Justice Department got the US supreme court to dismiss a case that could have curtailed the NSA’s dragnet. Why?” Trevor Timm has this essay online today at The Guardian (UK).

“Down on the Farm: Why do American farmers need some of the strongest anti-whistleblower laws in the land?” Josh Voorhees has this essay online at Slate.

“Senate Democrats should quit stalling on two judicial nominations”: The Washington Post has an editorial that begins, “Two of President Obama’s judicial nominees are having trouble. But this time, Democrats are behind much of the obstruction.”

“Holder swipes at Roberts on race”: Josh Gerstein has this blog post at Politico.com.

“Same-sex marriage sure to return to Supreme Court”: This front page article appears today in The Boston Globe, together with a front page article headlined “Celebrating 10 years of gay marriage in Mass.; For a time, it seemed the gay marriage revolution might stop where it started; Then came a wave of change.”

In today’s mail: I received a review copy of the book “Uncertain Justice: The Roberts Court and the Constitution,” by Laurence Tribe and Joshua Matz. The book is scheduled to go on sale June 3, 2014.

According to “Above the Law,” Matz is currently clerking for Ninth Circuit Judge Stephen Reinhardt and will clerk at the U.S. Supreme Court next Term for Justice Anthony M. Kennedy.

“U.S. marks 60th anniversary of Brown ruling that desegregated schools”: Michael Muskal of The Los Angeles Times has this news analysis.

And online at The New Yorker, Columbia University President Lee C. Bollinger has a blog post titled “Sixty Years Later, We Need a New Brown.”

“Is GOP minority recruitment affirmative action?” The Associated Press has an article that begins, “The Republican Party is hiring people to reach out to black and Hispanic communities, and setting goals for the number of minority candidates it will recruit. At the same time, Republican judges are moving closer to a long-held conservative goal of ending affirmative action.”

“Utah Supreme Court halts same-sex adoption cases; The ruling is in response to a request by Utah Attorney General’s Office”: Michael McFall and Marissa Lang have this article today in The Salt Lake Tribune.

And The Deseret News reports that “Utah Supreme Court issues stay in same-sex adoption cases.”

You can view last night’s order of the Supreme Court of Utah at this link.

“The Worst Argument Ever Made Against Gay Marriage: And that’s saying something.” Law professor David S. Cohen has this jurisprudence essay online at Slate.