If you’re suffering from allergies at anything near the level I am, you could use a distraction. Check out last week’s legal news and items of interest:

• President Obama commuted the sentences of 22 federal drug offenders (The Atlantic)
• Madison has enacted an ordinance that bans discrimination against religious non-believers (WSJ Law Blog)
• Florida is set to legalize “living in sin” (Reuters)
• “A trial about who owns an 840-pound emerald will continue despite international protest.” (NPR)
• A prosecutor in Zambia has decided to drop the charges against him (Lowering the Bar)

Here’s some legal news and miscellany to keep you company on this fine spring day:

• The first court challenges to the FCC’s net neutrality regulations have been filed (Washington Post)
• Amanda Knox was acquitted by Italy’s top appeals court (BBC)
• SCOTUS decided that you cannot delegate the duty to make sense to your client. Seriously, look at this cert. petition (Lowering the Bar)
• Justice Kennedy recounts the Supreme Court’s betting pool for the 2000 presidential election. It was ended when Bush v. Gore made its way to the Court (Above the Law)
• A man was caught using a cardboard cutout of “the Most Interesting Man in the World” as his plus one for the carpool lane (Legal Juice)

If I may say, there is some fascinating (and outré) stuff in this week’s Detours and Frolics. Check it out:

• We touched on this last year, and I’m pleased to say the outcome is a happy (if much delayed) one: the California Supreme Court awarded a posthumous law license to a Chinese immigrant who was barred from practicing 125 years ago because of his race (LA Times)
• Oregon has enacted a law that automatically registers people with drivers licenses to vote (Washington Post)
• Apparently Jesse Ventura won a defamation suit against “American Sniper” Chris Kyle, and First Amendment advocates are crying foul (WSJ Law Blog)
• Following the verdict in the “Blurred Lines” case, Willie Nelson has been sued for copying a song called “Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die” (Abnormal Use)
• A Brazilian judge was caught driving the car of a defendant (who once happened to be the eighth richest man in the world). Sure, why not? (Lowering the Bar)

Welcome to the back half of the semester. If you’re looking for a brief distraction, catch up on some of last week’s legal news and items of interest:

• Wikimedia has sued the NSA and DOJ over surveillance (BBC)
• Robin Thicke and Pharrell will appeal the “Blurred Lines” verdict (Pitchfork)
• South Carolina has set a requirement that its magistrate judges must be able to read and tell time (BoingBoing)
• A man who kept his marijuana in a container labeled “Not Weed” was found out and arrested (Journal Star, Lincoln)
• And a man with a glass eye took it in court out and threw it at his attorney. Gross (Above the Law)

Happy spring break! Why not start your week with some legal news?

• The Alabama Supreme Court has no interest in complying with a federal court’s order on gay marriage (AL.com)
• “Man burned by fajita’s while praying cannot sue Applebee’s.” This one’s quite a shade different from the hot coffee case (Lawyerist)
• Hall and Oates are not goin’ for Haulin’ Oats (Lowering the Bar)
• A very strange story about the men who stole Charlie Chaplin’s body and held it for ransom (Smithsonian Magazine)
• Meanwhile. a Florida man brought the body of the man he had just killed to his attorney’s office (Above the Law)

From March 8 to March 15, the library will be open at the following times:

• March 8: 9 a.m. – 6 p.m.
• March 9 – 13: 8 a.m. – 6 p.m.
• March 14 – 15: 9 a.m. – 6 p.m,