Justiceline: March 13, 2012

Welcome to Justiceline, ThinkProgress Justice?s morning round-up of the latest legal news and developments. Remember to follow us on Twitter at @TPJustice.

• The D.C. Circuit heard oral arguments in a case brought by a former prosecutor who claims that, in 2004, DOJ leaked a story that he was caught up in an ethics investigation to the press in retaliation for the prosecutor giving testimony to Congress that embarrassed the Justice Department.
• The Ninth Circuit held that a 22 year sentence against a convicted terrorist with ties to al-Qaeda was too lenient. On resentencing, the man will likely receive life in prison.
• Brad Joondeph lays out the brutal complexity of the Tax Anti-Injunction issue that may cause the Supreme Court to dismiss much of the Affordable Care Act case without deciding whether to follow the nearly 200 years of precedent supporting the law’s constitutionality.
• Iowa sues California because California may ban ethanol.
• And, finally, US News’ annual law school rankings are out. Immediately after they were posted, deans from every law school in the country which dropped even marginally in the rankings sent emails to their entire student bodies reassuring them that the rankings are completely arbitrary and meaningless and that there is no need to worry and just in case anyone is worried the school will host three community meetings in the next 24 hours to discuss why there’s no reason to worry at all.

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