[JURIST] The US DC Circuit Court of Appeals Friday upheld as constitutional a federal law and attendant FCC regulations barring former or current pirate broadcasters from obtaining a license for a new low-power radio station, rejecting arguments that they violated free speech rights under the First Amendment. Read Ruggiero v. FCC [opinion]. Review recent FCC enforcement actions against pirate radio stations.

[JURIST] The US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Friday that requiring a permit for obtaining bald eagle parts pursuant to a federal statute was minimally intrusive and not injurious to the religious freedom of a Canadian Indian band member trading in the United States. Read U.S. v. Antoine [opinion, PDF].

[JURIST] Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison, the San Francisco-based law firm that made a national name for itself providing legal services to hundreds of dot-com clients in the late 1990s, announced Thursday that it is closing and laying off over 1000 employess, including over 500 attorneys. Visit Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison online (while you still can...).

[JURIST] The Senate voted Thursday to give federal judges a 3.1% cost-of-living pay increase, the same previously awarded to other federal employees. Learn more about judicial compensation on the US Courts website, and read Chief Justice William Rehnquist's 2002 Report on the Federal Judiciary [text], in which he identified the need to increase judicial pay as the most pressing issue facing the Judiciary.

[JURIST] Virginia Fairfax County Circuit Judge Jane Marum Roush ruled Thursday that she would hear arguments March 3 on a media motion to allow broadcasting of the Lee Malvo DC sniper trial, scheduled to begin in November. Read the Order and the consolidated motion to allow broadcasting [PDF text].

[JURIST] The University of Richmond announced the appointment Thursday of Richmond law professor Rodney Smolla, a First Amendment scholar, as the new Dean of its T.C. Williams School of Law [official website]. Read the press release and learn more about Professor Smolla [academic profile].