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You can’t throw a Bluebook without hitting a legal podcast, these days. Of course, there’s “Serial,” last year’s breakout hit that explored the murder of Hae Min Lee, earning more than 5 million downloads on iTunes. (Let’s not talk about the disappointing second season.) And there’s also “More Perfect,” an attempt to recapture the “Serial” magic by telling the tales behind some of the Supreme Court’s most famous decisions. But it’s not just NPR spin-offs that are proliferating....

The California Court of Appeals ruled in favor of a Black Lives Matter protester who was arrested for getting between arresting officers and an arrestee. Jasmine Nicole Richardson was arrested for pulling an arrestee away from the officers during a Black Lives Matter demonstration. Richardson was ultimately convicted of attempting to take a person from lawful police custody by means of riot, a felony. Richardson appealed the conviction on a few grounds, but was only successful on one....

The Los Angeles Superior Court issued a temporary restraining order to prevent an anti-abortion group from releasing more videos of employees in a California company which provides fetal tissue to researchers. Those videos, made of hidden camera footage, purport to show Planned Parenthood and StemExpress employees discussing the sale of aborted fetal tissue for research, or, as the videos’ creators term it, an “illegal baby parts trade.” The videos, released by the Center for Medical Progress, have been widely condemned as deceptive and misleading....

Are those Super Bowl tickets legit? In an effort to stomp out that unnerving question in the lead up to the big game, the New England Patriots, Philadelphia Eagles, and the NFL are teaming up – in a courtroom, at least. A lawsuit filed in Minnesota state court seeks a temporary restraining order and injunctive relief to combat counterfeiters selling fake tickets, jerseys, helmets, and other NFL and team gear....

In US v. Gales, No. 08-3040, the court of appeals affirmed defendant’s sentence for distribution of cocaine base, holding that 1) the district court did not clearly err in thinking it highly unlikely that defendant did not have any further information on the identity of his steady supplier, whom he claimed to have known for ten years, beyond the vague description given to the government; 2) there was no incorrect application by the district court of the burden of proof to defendant; and 3) the district court’s conclusion was consistent with the underlying purposes and established criteria of the safety valve provision....

News has been breaking nationwide that, thanks to DNA evidence and the persistence of investigators, law enforcement has made an arrest in the Golden State Killer cold case. The case was made infamous by a couple different true crime genre series and a book written by Michelle McNamara. Apparently, more than 40 years after the first rape, Joseph James DeAngelo, currently 72 years old, and a former law enforcement officer, was just arrested....

Colorado pot lovers are waiting with bated, somewhat haggard breath for Colorado to open its recreational marijuana shops on January 1, 2014. But there are a few rules that pot enthusiasts will want to keep in mind. While rules can certainly be a buzzkill, these five rules will keep you on the right side of the law when purchasing pot in Colorado: Few pot stores will actually be open by the first of the year, reports CNN, and the majority of those open will be in Denver....

It’s not every day that a convicted murderer sues the jail that he is being imprisoned in for saving his life. But, Daniel Self is no ordinary inmate. Self, a convicted murderer currently serving time in Colorado, has a signed DNR (do-not-resuscitate) order. So, according to Self, when prison officials disregarded his DNR and helped administer life-saving medical procedures when he stopped breathing one night, they were being negligent, reports the Denver Post....

George Mason University School of Law has recruited Judge Ginsburg, a senior D.C. Circuit judge, to join the institution as a full-time faculty member. According to the Blog of Legal Times, Judge Douglas H. Ginsburg has been recruited along with a partner from Covington & Burling for their accomplishments, experience, and antitrust law knowledge. This isn’t Ginsburg’s first time as a professor, so let’s look back on his career up to this point....

In November 2011, the California Supreme Court decided that ProtectMarriage, the conservative coalition that sponsored Proposition 8, had standing to defend the ballot initiative in the federal appellate process. The answer wasn’t obvious to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals — which had certified the standing question to the state court — but Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye and the gang concluded that individual citizens have the right to defend ballot initiatives when public officials refuse to do so....

[1/17/2011 Editor’s note: The original House Judiciary Committee’s list of SOPA supporters has recently been updated. The committee’s website now features an entirely new list of SOPA supporters. This new list does not include any of the law firms listed in this post.] If you haven’t heard about the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), then get your head out of the sand. The bill, which is currently making its way through committee, gives copyright and trademark holders the ability to cut off access to infringing websites....

French fries aren’t good for you and too many can probably shorten your lifespan. But that’s not what Massachusetts police meant when they charged James Hackett for assault and battery with a deadly weapon. Laws criminalizing assault with a deadly weapon are often fairly open ended to allow for the many objects that can be used as deadly weapons. This may be the first time that a french fry has fallen into that category....

Crafters rejoice! Central Florida’s drag queen gang has been caught! The made-up men are accused of stealing thousands of dollars in fabric, sequins, feather boas, butt pads, and eyelashes from a number of hobby stores over the last year. Their dedication was apparently so acute that “they could wipe out a whole section of boas in seconds.” They also may or may not have a certain fondness for red lace gloves....

Nuclear waste is a pain in the reactor. With that in mind, the federal enacted the Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA) almost 30 years ago to authorize the Secretary of Energy to enter into contracts with nuclear plant utilities to accept and dispose of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste in return for the utilities paying into a Nuclear Waste Fund. It was under this plan that in June 1983, the Department of Energy (DOE) entered into the “Standard Contract,” with Southern California Edison (SCE) for the acceptance of spent nuclear fuel produced at SCE’s San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS)....

Giggity, giggity. Now that sounds like an instant literary classic. And you, dear reader, have Andres Martinez to thank for the heads-up. In early 2011, he ordered a copy of The Silver Crown from his Pelican Bay cell, but was denied access to the novel after it was deemed contraband. Every full moon, Iris kills werewolves. It’s what she’s good at; it’s what she’s trained for. She’s never imagined doing anything else … until she falls in love with one....

It’s Thanksgiving break. You’re overworked, stressed out, and dreading all the studying you’ll be doing in the few weeks before finals. The last thing you want to do is deal with some cousin asking, “Why don’t you work for the Supreme Court this summer? I hear they take interns.” But no matter how much you’d like to avoid the subject, if you want turkey, you’ll have to talk about law school....

You’d think things couldn’t get worse for penis pump judge Donald Thompson. But you’d be wrong. When he couldn’t get it up, he took to pumpin’ it on the bench. And when he couldn’t keep it covered, he got busted and sent to jail. And now? The Oklahoma Supreme Court has stripped him of his pension. Indeed, he now has no money and no dignity. Former Creek County District Judge Donald Thompson served 20 months after being convicted on four felony counts of indecent exposure....

After McDonald’s sold its first 100 billion hamburgers, the company stopped counting. Now the fast-food chain is counting labor law cases it has settled. Last year, it was one. This year, the business is facing a class action over a policy that keeps its workers from going to competing McDonald’s franchises. That’s a lot of employees who want to make more money, and they don’t want french fries with that....

It turns out that Stephen Glass can’t shake his scandalous past, not even enough to be up to moral character snuff to practice law. In an (un)surprising unanimous opinion by California’s supreme court on Monday, Glass was denied admission to California’s state bar based on his years and years of fabricating articles as a journalist in the 90’s. For those hoping to apply to practice law in California or any other state in the union, keep in mind these lessons:...

Give Mayor Doug Ellison enough rope, and he’ll hang himself – as part of a historic re-enactment for tourists visiting the town of Medora, N.D. That was Ellison’s plan, anyway, until townsfolk started talking. Now the mayor is backing down from his “hang me from the gallows” idea, which he hoped would be a compelling tie-in to his small town’s Wild West history. “I thought it would just be entertaining like a Western movie,” Ellison, 49, told the Associated Press....