The fall semester has started! You probably don’t need a distraction quite yet, but if you do, here’s a collection of last week’s legal news and miscellany to catch up on:

• Some professors may be okay with you calling them by first name, but make sure that’s the case before doing so (WSJ Law Blog)
• A Cook County judge allegedly allowed a clerk to sit on the bench and make rulings (Sun Times)
• Pennsylvania’s AG will step down after being convicted on charges of perjury and obstruction (CNN) (warning: auto-play video at link)
• An interesting post on the question of whether it’s constitutional for the Supreme Court to review court marital decisions. The author argues yes but links to an amicus brief arguing otherwise (Just Security)
• And finally, to follow up on the author’s favorite ongoing legal saga, the lawyers who put “Happy Birthday” in the public domain have been awarded $4.62 million in fees (AV Club)

After a summer break, Detours and Frolics is back for the fall semester! Here’s this week’s collection of ruling-heavy legal news and miscellany:

• The ABA adopted a rule that makes it professional misconduct to harass or discriminate in practice (WSJ Law Blog)
• Rod Blagojevich did not get a reduced sentence (The Atlantic)
• A federal judge overturned the conviction of Making a Murderer‘s Brendan Dassey (NPR)
• A judge in Miami ruled that bitcoin is not money (Legal Solutions Blog)
• Israel’s Supreme Court ruled that a number of Franz Kafka’s letters and manuscripts should belong to the National Library of Israel (WSJ Law Blog)

On Monday, July 18 and Tuesday, July 18, the JMLS librarians will be attending a conference, and the reference desk will be closed those days. If you need reference assistance during this time, please email library@jmls.edu and someone will respond as quickly as possible.

The reference desk will resume normal operation at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, July 20.

A collection of legal news and miscellany for you on this balmy Monday:

• The D.C. Circuit upheld the FCC’s net neutrality regulations (Legal Solutions Blog)
• Can we see the future of SCOTUS’s death penalty jurisprudence? (Empirical SCOTUS)
• Chicago school’s use of outdated football equipment could lead to legal action (ATL Redline)
• Turns out Kramer’s scheme to return cans for a profit is a felony (11 Points , via Above the Law)
• A man on a horse caught a man attempting to steal a bicycle in Oregon (The Guardian)

Here for you, sweet summer children, is your weekly collection of legal news and miscellany:

• Muhammad Ali, the Vietnam War, and the Supreme Court (Slate)
• An Oregon court became the first court in the USA to recognize “non-binary” as a legal gender (Jurist)
• US Navy personnel in Japan are no longer allowed to drink alcohol (Boing Boing)
• Gawker filed for bankruptcy and is likely to be purchased by Ziff Davis (The Atlantic)
• The story of a man who is a relentless, abusive litigant and the time he purchased a $40 used printer and sued the seller for $30,000 (Boing Boing)

A quiet week at JMLS won’t stop the Detours and Frolics train from running. Here’s your legal news and miscellany from the last little while:

• “Who’s Who on Trump’s Supreme Court Wish List” (WSJ Law Blog)
• A Mississippi school district has been ordered to desegregate its schools only 50 years after Brown (Clarion-Ledger) (warning: auto-play video in link)
• Twitter won’t sell bulk data to the government, but what does that really mean for privacy protection? (Legal Solutions Blog)
• Radiohead is facing a copyright suit concerning one of its latest videos (AV Club)
• A law firm is seeking to sue former employees who left less-than-stellar reviews on glassdoor.com. Sample reviews include “Unreasonably cruel” and “For the love of God, do NOT work here.” (Above the Law)

If you need a break from worrying about finals, consider some of these items of interest from the world of law:

• Starbucks has been sued (right here in Chicago!) for putting too much ice in its iced drinks (ABA Journal)
• The Supreme Court has granted cert in a case that asks whether a generic cheerleader uniform can be copyrighted: the decision should have far-reaching consequences (Boing Boing)
• There’s a giant prime number that is illegal to possess or distribute (Gizmodo)
• Britney Spears’ conservatorship has done well  for her, but is it time for it to end? (Above the Law)
• Iceland had a parliament from 930 A.D. to 1798 that met in a giant plain: Thingvellir (Law Library of Congress)