(Subscription required) A California appellate court declined to review bids by the City of Los Angeles and the state seeking to block key Palisades Fire liability claims, allowing broader discovery to proceed in the coordinated litigation involving more than 10,000 residents, businesses and insurers.

The American Bar Association is poised to eliminate or pare down three separate diversity and non-discrimination requirements from its law school accreditation standards, saying those provisions threaten both the organization’s federal recognition and the national ​system of law school oversight.

The most important civil rights case most Americans have never heard of began in a San Francisco laundry shop, with a $10 fine and the men who refused to pay it. The case, Yick Wo v. Hopkins, decided by the Supreme Court on May 10, 1886, ruled unanimously in favor of the Chinese laundrymen, holding that everyone in the U.S., regardless of race or immigration status, is entitled to equal protection under the law.

The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday affirmed the denial of a death row inmate’s federal petition for habeas corpus based on allegations that the ex-Orange  Superior Court judge presiding over his trial violated due process principles by making what the petitioner characterized as racist and sexist jokes, describing the crime as “horrendous” and involving “dastardly conduct,” and quipping that “everyone should believe in the death penalty.”