* The Volokh Conspiracy wins Best Law Blog. Congrats to the VC crew! [The Weblog Awards 2006 via 2nd Place Winner How Appealing]

* F&@% you, FCC!. [CNN.com]

* And in my-home-state-is-not-completely-backward news... [Jurist]

* If he sold it, Ron Goldman wants the money. [AP via FindLaw]

* Internet illiterate NY Mom, who doesn't know "a kazaa from a kazoo," is dropped from recording industry's suit against her children. [AP via lexisONE]

* The FCC has eliminated the requirement for Amateur Radio Operators to know Morse code. That is the actual headline of this blog entry, for those of you who complain of the wasted five seconds it takes to click on a link, only to realize you were completely misled. [Jim N Texas!]

* I never understood the reality of a record being “sealed” anyway… If that hilarious yet illegal adolescent escapade is in an official record, sealed or not, it’s not going anywhere. [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via How Appealing]

* Do not worry, I will not indulge in any sue/Sioux homonym fun. For the record, it’s absurd that we haven’t ridden ourselves of such disrespectful team names, nicknames and logos that also recall a less-than-glorious history. [AP via Yahoo! News]

* The Italian legislature has decided average consumers/modelling agencies/fashion folks can’t decide for themselves what is or is not attractive, thus depriving underweight 16-year-olds from achieving world domination. [Reuters via MSNBC]

* Authorities have a suspect in custody for the Ipswich prostitute murders. So if you’re a prostitute in Ipswich, you can breathe a sigh of relief. (At least with respect to a serial killer; we hate to break it to you, but you don’t exactly have the safest job in the world.) [The Times]

Near the top of the NYT "Most E-Mailed Articles" list sits a piece entitled So This Manatee Walks Into the Internet. And, oddly enough, there's a legal angle to the story:

At the end of [a recent] skit [on "Late Night With Conan O'Brien"], in a line Mr. O’Brien insists was ad-libbed, he mentioned... www.hornymanatee.com.

There was only one problem: as of the taping of that show, no such site existed. Which presented an immediate quandary for NBC: If a viewer were somehow to acquire the license to use that Internet domain name, then put something inappropriate on the site, the network could potentially be held liable for appearing to promote it.

In a pre-emptive strike inspired as much by the regulations of the Federal Communications Commission as by the laws of comedy, NBC bought the license to hornymanatee.com, for $159, after the taping of the Dec. 4 show but before it was broadcast.

Congratulations to NBC on its latest acquisition. If you develop any comedic material inspired by the meme of the horny manatee, please email it to conan AT hornymanatee DOT com.

So This Manatee Walks Into the Internet [New York Times]
HornyManatee.com [official site]

Video footage? Still photographs? We'd like to see the record on appeal in this case:

Lawyers for CBS Corp. argued Monday that singer Janet Jackson's breast-baring at the Super Bowl halftime show in 2004 was unintended, took place without the knowledge of the network, and should not be considered indecent.

CBS is suing the Federal Communications Commission in the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia, challenging a $550,000 fine issued by the agency over the stunt, which created a national furor.

Third Circuit clerks: lucky dogs. They get to ogle celebrity breasts and call it "research."

(Yeah, this news is several days old. But it's the Friday after Thanksgiving, so the bar is set pretty low. Our posts today are going to be even more random than usual.)

Update: The Third Circuit subsequently vacated the FCC fine.

CBS Suing FCC Over Janet Jackson's Boobgate [Access Hollywood]

Howard Bashman offers a preview of the upcoming Supreme Court Term at Law.com. And based on the cases on the oral argument calendar so far, October Term 2006 isn't looking terribly exciting. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Here's our irreverent digest of Bashman's lengthier analysis:

Lopez v. Gonzales, Toledo-Flores v. United States: Question presented: What kind of drug crime can get a guy booted back to Mexico? (If this sounds familiar, it should; every Term the Court has some Latino-surnamed case raising a variant of this issue.)

Ornaski v. Belmontes: Question presented: How early in the Term can Judge Reinhardt get reversed?

MedImmune, Inc. v. Genentech, Inc. Question presented: In order for a patent licensee to litigate the validity of a patent, can they merely flip the patent holder the bird, or do they actually have to go ahead and breach the license agreement?

BP America Production Co. v. Watson: Question presented: Have you ever heard of the federal Mineral Leasing Act -- and if so, do you care? (We didn't think so.)

More case summaries, after the jump.