“U.S. discounts constitutional issue on immigration”: Lyle Denniston has this post today at “SCOTUSblog.”







“How Ted Cruz Became Ted Cruz: In just a few years, he turned an obscure Texas legal post into a national platform for red-meat conservative causes.” Michael Kruse has this article online at Politico Magazine. According to the article, “In the middle of his stretch as solicitor general, Cruz actually had been approached about becoming a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, according to Don Willett, who worked with Cruz at the time and is now a justice of the Supreme Court of Texas.”







“Laid-off Vanderbilt employees may get $285,000”: Stacey Barchenger of The Tennessean had this article back in May of 2015. Today, a unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit issued this ruling in favor of Vanderbilt reversing the district court’s judgment.







“Abortion case at Supreme Court gets personal”: Richard Wolf of USA Today has this report.







“Russian Vodka Dispute Sent Back to Lower Court”: Courthouse News Service has a report that begins, “Claims over Stolichnaya vodka trademarks must be reconsidered because a federal judge improperly considered whether a transfer of the marks was valid under Russian law, the Second Circuit ruled Tuesday.” You can access today’s ruling of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit at this link.







“Prosecutors getting tough on ‘ambulance chasing’; Prosecutors zero in on lawyer who solicited clients”: Cindy Horswell of The Houston Chronicle has this report. You can freely access the full text of the article via Google.







“The Absurdly Harsh Penalties That Sparked the Oregon Rancher Protest: A federal judge rejected mandatory minimums for Dwight and Steven Hammond as unconstitutional; an appeals court disagreed.” Jacob Sullum has this post at Reason.com’s “Hit & Run” blog.







“Texas’ top criminal court halted far more executions in 2015”: Brandi Grissom of The Dallas Morning News has this report.







“How the High Court Could Shake Up the 2016 Campaign: From immigration to abortion to the power of unions, the Supreme Court is entering this election year with a full plate of politically charged cases.” Sam Baker of National Journal has this report.







“Still no nominee for circuit”: The Forum of Fargo, North Dakota today posted online an editorial that begins, “Judge Kermit Bye of Fargo announced more than a year ago he would take senior status on the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals. He did so early in 2015. Yet, there still is no nominee to fill his position.”





