[JURIST] The US Department of Justice announced conditional approval Friday of a marketing alliance between Northwest Airlines, Continental Airlines and Delta Airlines. Read the press release.

[JURIST] A divided US DC Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Friday that foreign plaintiffs had standing to sue under federal antitrust laws for harm caused to them abroad as a result of anticompetitive practices which have caused harm (albeit not necessarily to the foreign plaintiff) inside the United States. Read Empagran v. F.Hoffman LaRoche [opinion text], Opinion by Edwards.

[JURIST] Friday's official Supreme Court Order List is now online [Order List, PDF]. The Court granted cert in three cases: Georgia v. Ashcroft (Voting Rights Act) [US SC docket], Entergy Louisiana v. Louisiana Public Service Commission (filed-rate doctrine) [US SC docket] and Fitzgerald v. Racing Ass'n of Central Iowa (differential taxation of gambling devices) [US SC docket].

[JURIST] Stanford's Larry Lessig offers some thoughts on possible recourses for the public domain cause after Eldred v. Ashcroft. Anyone for a constitutional amendment [Lessig Blog post]?

[JURIST] The US Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Friday that a local Wisconsin liquor ordinance prohibiting the sale and consumption of alcohol in adult entertainment establishments did not violate the First Amendment rights of plaintiff bar owners and dancers. Read Ben's Bar v. Village of Somerset [PDF opinion]. The court offered an extensive analysis of recent US Supreme Court jurisprudence on the application of the First Amendment to the adult entertainment context.

[JURIST] In a Friday post to his new weblog, Yale's Jack Balkin says it might be [Balkinization blog post].

[JURIST] The Solicitor General's amicus briefs for the University of Michigan affirmative action cases filed Thursday in the US Supreme Court are now online. Read the brief for Grutter v. Bollinger [amicus brief text, PDF] (the Law School admissions case) and the brief for Gratz v. Bollinger [amicus brief text, PDF] (the College of Literature, Science and the Arts case). The attorneys at Goldstein & Howe, the Supreme Court litigation firm in DC, offer some preliminary observations on the documents.

[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled Thursday that a US Department of Transportation decision to open US highways to Mexican trucks under the terms of the NAFTA accord violated the Clean Air Act. The Court said the Department had failed to conduct studies to determine if allowing in Mexican trucks would violate California's air quality standards. Read Public Citizen v. DOT [PDF opinion].