Our collection of legal news this week skews toward the odd and silly (I’m assuming you’re up to date on net neutrality):

• Alaska has legalized the growth, possession, and smoking of marijuana (note that it has not legalized the purchase or sale of the substance) (Al Jazeera)
• And South Korea has legalized adultery. Around 53,000 people had been prosecuted under the law forbidding extra-marital relations since 1985 (New York Times)
• Don’t let your client write the cert petition, or the Supreme Court might sanction you (Lawyerist)
• Under Armour has filed a trademark suit against Ass Armor. Frankly, I think the likelihood of confusion is low (techdirt)
• You mean the Secretary of the Treasury isn’t Moe Money? Could have fooled me (Lowering the Bar)

What’s that? You say your eyeballs are frozen? Warm them up with the following selection of legal news and items of interest:

•  “Federal judge in Texas blocks Obama immigration order” (Washington Post)
• Lawmakers in Oklahoma are trying get AP US History out of high schools (Reuters)
• A Utah court accepted a woman’s argument that she should be allowed to sue herself (Lowering the Bar)
• Update 1: A federal judge has decided that the Cubs can continue construction of their large signs at Wrigley (WSJ Law Blog)
• Update 2: The pro se litigant whose case the Supreme Court granted cert, who then disappeared, who then had his case dismissed, who then reappeared with Paul Clement as his attorney to petition the Court to take the case back on, has had that petition denied (WSJ Law Blog)

As the winter continues its seemingly endless march, so does the cavalcade of legal news:

• Some Wrigley business owners are suing the Cubs to prevent the installation of advertising and a video scoreboard (Tribune)
• The FAA has proposed new rules for drone operations. Sorry, Amazon (Al Jazeera)
• Sriracha honcho doesn’t care in the least that his brand isn’t protected by trademark (TechDirt)
• A Croatian court has enjoined a dog from barking at night (Time)
• A Montana lawmaker is trying his darnedest to get yoga pants banned from the state (HuffPo)

It’s time to take your mind off the fact that the week’s just begun with legal news and curiosities!

• Here’s a breakdown of the FCC’s proposed net neutrality rules (CNET)
• The “secret mastermind” of the Silk Road was convicted of seven charges for his involvement with the site (Wired)
• Adnan Syed, the subject of Serial, has been granted an appeal (NPR)
• Follow up: the pro se litigant who was granted cert then disappeared has reappeared, and he wants the Supreme Court to reinstate the case after dismissing it for lack of a response. Also, he’s no longer a pro se litigant. His attorney is Paul Clement, a former solicitor general (WSJ Law Blog)
• The estate of George Patton, who has been dead for 69 years, is suing a video game developer on grounds of false endorsement. Because, you know, people might think that General Patton endorsed a game that was made nearly seven decades after his death (techdirt)

Now that you’ve dug yourself a path out of your home and back to campus, take a breather and learn what’s been going on in the world:

• The “Friendship Nine,” a group of civil rights protesters who were arrested while staging a sit-in at a South Carolina lunch counter, had their convictions vacated (Reuters)
• On the unsealed complaint against three men accused of spying for the Russian government (WSJ Law Blog)
• Suge Knight was charged with murder after running over two people near a movie set in Compton (LA Times)
• A fourth grader in Texas was suspended for “threatening” a classmate with the “one ring.” You know, the one from The Hobbit (Washington Post/Volokh Conspiracy)
• “If Facebook is down, don’t call 911,” which five people recently did (Boing Boing)

As you settle in to the groove of the semester, take a quick break and catch up on some recent legal news:

• Prosecutions for publishing links and the case of Barrett Brown (Above the Law)
• SCOTUS will review Oklahoma’s lethal injection protocol (BuzzFeed)
• On the fifth anniversary of Citizens United, an outburst from the Supreme Court gallery (SCOTUSblog)
• 75 pounds?! This one’s pretty silly, but yeah, don’t try to cross from Canada to New York with 75 pounds of marijuana in the car (Legal Juice)
• No, you can’t sue no-shows to your child’s birthday party, at least in England (Lowering the Bar)

On December 8,  1969, the Sixth Illinois Constitutional Convention first met to begin work on what would ultimately become the 1970 Illinois Constitution. To commemorate the 45th anniversary of this occasion, on display on the library’s sixth floor is a poster featuring the signatures of the delegates to this convention. The poster also notes participants associated with John Marshall, including a number of alumni and faculty, one of whom is current professor Ann Lousin.

Swing by the sixth floor at the main elevators to check out a piece of Illinois history.

Welcome back! To commemorate the beginning of the spring semester, we have–if I may say so–an especially fun collection of legal news and miscellany this week. Let’s get to it:

• IBM had the most patents in the country for the 22nd year in a row, but Google and Apple are gaining steam (WSJ Law Blog)
• Thanks to Justice Scalia, Pride and Prejudice saw its first citation by the Supreme Court (for its use of “accompany,” in case you’re wondering) (Washington Post/Volokh Conspiracy)
• The White House is confident that the FCC can handle disseminating rules on net neutrality and that Congress will not need to get involved in the issue (Boing Boing)
• Americans are now able to legally enjoy Cuban cigars, among other things (The Telegraph)
• A Maryland prosecutor has asserted that Serial downplayed evidence used to convict Adnan Syed (ABA Journal)
• For you beer people out there, Lagunitas sued Sierra Nevada for trademark infringement, but it dropped the complaint after social media backlash (SFGate)
• And finally, the Supreme Court gathered to welcome a new brood of baby justices (The Onion)

It’s time for the first Detours and Frolics of 2015! Catch up with some recent legal news and items of interest to distract you from the weather:

• Palestine will join the International Criminal Court (The Guardian)
• You may recall the litigant pro se litigant who was granted cert by the Supreme Court but was nowhere to be found. In case you were wondering, he never turned up, and his case was dismissed last Friday (Lowering the Bar)
• A federal judge struck down California’s ban on foie gras (SFGate)
• In other ban news, the Oklahoma legislature wants to outlaw wearing hoodies in public (ABA Journal)
• A councilman in Maryland threatened to sue a newspaper reporter if she used his name in her stories. He has since apologized (NPR)