• Cookbook author Missy Chase Lapine, allegedly slandered by Jerry Seinfeld, says she has "never felt so frightened and vulnerable as the day my daughter, 7 years old, came home from school and asked, "Mom, what is an assassin?" Seinfeld had joked on the "David Letterman Show" that "if you read history, many of the three-name people do become assassins.” Lapine v. Seinfeld

• North Carolina Court of Appeals refuses to issue an injunction requiring pop singer Clay Aiken to endorse a book about him. "Our courts cannot be used to force celebrities or their family or friends into making endorsements for another person's profit."
Holleman v. Aiken

• Iowa Court of Appeals affirms the liability of a school district for failing to take adequate steps to prevent the physically aggressive behavior of a high-school basketball player. Andrew McSorley struck an opposing player in the head with his elbow during a game in 2004.
Brokaw v. Winfield-Mt. Union Community Sch. Dist.

• Illinois middle school student wants the termination of a teacher who allegedly told other students to slap her for being inattentive "and, in fact, the other students slapped the minor plaintiff in the head."
Torres v. Valley View Community Sch. Dist. 365U

• Florida Supreme Court declines to recognize the tort of false light invasion of privacy. "[T]he benefit of recognizing the tort, which only offers a distinct remedy in relatively few unique situations, is outweighed by the danger of unreasonably impeding constitutionally protected speech ..." Jews for Jesus v. Rapp

• Actor David Duchovny denies having any Californication with a tennis instructor and sues a British newspaper for saying he did. "Daily Mail has caused substantial harm to Duchovny, in complete disregard of the truth and of even a semblance of journalistic integrity."
Duchovny v. Daily Mail

• Kentucky settles a political blogger's free-speech suit, agreeing to only block access to blogs on state-owned computers "if pursuant to a reasonable, viewpoint-neutral standard that applies equally to all websites, whether or not those websites can be described as 'blogs.'" Nickolas v. Fletcher

• News service researching a 1964 auto accident involving John McCain files a Freedom of Information Act suit seeking U.S. Navy hospital records. "The personal history and military career of a Presidential candidate are matters of high importance to the American public."
National Security News Service v. U.S. Dept. of the Navy

• Civil liberties group challenges the new federal law shielding phone companies from liability for cooperating in warrantless wiretapping. "At stake are the privacy rights of every American ..."
In re NSA Telecom Records Litigation

• Louisiana appeals court rules that a marriage between first cousins in Iran "is valid in Louisiana and is not a violation of a strong public policy."
Ghassemi v. Ghassemi