Morning Docket 12.10.08

* Online anonymity is at stake in a case in Maryland. A Dunkin’ Donuts shop owner is pursuing a defamation case after getting slammed by anonymous commenters on a newspaper forum. The Maryland Court of Appeals is now deciding whether the newspaper company has to hand over the identities of RockyRacoonMD and others. [Washington Post]

* … and Baker Hostetler is fighting to keep RockyRacoonMD’s identity secret. [AmLaw Daily]

* Clerks’ political leanings have an influence on their judges, and a look back at how William H. Rehnquist sounded the alarm in 1957. [New York Times]

* … Or read Rehnquist’s 1957 diatribe yourself. [Vintage U.S. News and World Report]

* U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald gets points for soundbytes. The Plamegate prosecutor says indicted Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s “public corruption crime spree” would “make Lincoln roll over in his grave.” [Washington Post]

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