Welcome to Monday — and Tax Day 2013. Here’s hoping for many happy returns as you take these news items into account.

– Two Maryland Court of Appeals judges watched as the U.S. Supreme Court considered their DNA-case opinions.

– Delays in justice reportedly afflict New York courts.

– A lawyer became a hero in a dispute between Chicago and apartment tenants.

– A Minnesota Supreme Court justice — and former Purple People Eater — has written a children’s book.

(Photo: Melissa Golden for The Wall Street Journal)

Welcome to Monday and the final day of the 2013 Maryland General Assembly session. Here are a few news items to get the week started.

– The dean of the Supreme Court press corps explains the same-sex marriage cases to a foreign audience.

– The National Football League will urge federal judge to kick a lawsuit out of court.

– A friend’s call for a Navy investigation of an alleged suicide sounds like an “NCIS” episode.

– New York politicians urge city to settle lawsuit that followed 1990 attack on Central Park jogger.

We’ve probably had enough off-the-court news from the NCAA this week to last us the rest of the year.

But here comes the University of Iowa with what could be the start of something that might be resolved with a coat of paint instead of firings.

For more than 25 years, visiting football teams have been getting dressed in a locker room that is painted pink. Now, two lawyers say the school could face a lawsuit under Title IX and Title VII rules that prohibit gender discrimination, according to The Gazette in Cedar Rapids.

Legendary Hawkeyes coach Haden Fry had the locker room painted pink because it was a “passive” color and considered it a psychological ploy against opponents.

But the lawyers say most “understand the pink locker room as a taunt against the other team, calling them a bunch of ladies/girls/sissies/pansies/etc.,” according to The Gazette.

A university spokesman said the school is fully compliant with Title IX.

The lawyers say they are unaware of a legal challenge to pink locker rooms, but a federal judge in Arizona ruled that having male prisoners wear pink underwear was a form of punishment without legal footing.

(HT: Big Lede S

Welcome to the morning after. I hope you enjoyed the game.

Here are some news items to assist in the recovery.

– Supreme Court justice and best-selling author Sonia Sotomayor’s book tour hits New York.

– The California city of Bell encounters legal hell.

– Civil rights attorneys challenge police surveillance of Muslim communities.

– Man’s murder had malty motive.

Welcome to the final Monday of January. Here are some news items to get your week before the big game started.

– Military lawyer clashes with Obama administration over breadth of war crimes.

– Muslim students file First Amendment appeal in California.

– Wall Street receives advice on dealing with the Justice Department.

– Another “M” state debates the death penalty.

Welcome to the first Monday of 2013, the day college football will crown a national champion. But before Alabama v. Notre Dame, here are a few news items to get your week started.

– Bank of America reaches $10 billion settlement over troubled mortgages.

– A former gang member now helps San Francisco prosecutors decide whom to lock up.

– Is this Minnesotan blowing the whistle or violating patients’ rights?

– Will China close its labor camps?

Welcome to the first Monday in December, which means there are only 29 days until the Gator Bowl. Let’s kickoff the week with these news items.

– A venerable coffee maker, search engine and bookseller might find a British parliamentary investigation very taxing.

– Texan targets terrorists’ tweets.

– Military judge delays opening of WikiLeaks trial.

– Egypt’s top court goes on strike.

Welcome to Monday and a week that features Thanksgiving, a holiday dedicated to family, food and football.

Speaking of which, the Dallas Cowboys will play Washington’s football team on Thursday, which reminds me of a similar game in 1974. Two words: Clint Longley.

But I digress. Here are some news items to get your week started.

– A desperate housewife loses her appeal.

– A retired general hires an attorney.

– A California slaughterhouse agrees to a $300,000-plus settlement.

– A former Chicago detective gets an eight-year prison sentence for two drunken-driving deaths.

One of the arguments being advanced against the NCAA penalties on Penn State for its action and inaction related to the Sandusky crimes is that athletes, coaches and administrators who had nothing to do with the transgressions will be unfairly punished.

This is a point heard time and again about any penalties meted out by the NCAA. It’s the nature of college sports that the bad actors are often long gone by the time the NCAA finishes investigating rules violations.

For example, football coach Pete Carroll and star running back Reggie Bush had moved on to the NFL before the NCAA penalized the University of Southern California for violations that occurred when both were at USC. (Carroll has denied any involvement in “extra benefits” for Bush, who has not admitted he broke NCAA rules.)

The problem with this argument is that, taken to its logical conclusion, the NCAA could almost never punish anyone. Sanctions nearly always hit another set of athletes who weren’t even around when the violations happened. There’s often a new coach, because the rule-breaking cost the old one his job. And if enough bad stuff has happened, there may be a new set of athletic department administrators, too.

Criticize the NCAA all you want — and there is plenty to pick at — but if it’s going to be charged with enforcing rules, it’s an unfortunate byproduct of the system that a new group will pay for the sins of its predecessors.

Pro tip for lawyers: Don’t tell anyone about college football players trading football memorabilia for tattoos. Well, at least not if you heard the gossip during a client meeting.

Ohio attorney Christopher Cicero will lose his law license for six months, an Ohio Supreme Court disciplinary board ruled this week.

Cicero sent emails to former Ohio State University coach Jim Tressel about players trading items like championship rings for a little body ink from a local parlor.

The problem? Cicero, a former walk-on at the university, gleaned this juicy information while meeting with tattoo parlor owner Edward Rife during a meeting in which the two were discussing whether Cicero would represent Rife in a federal drug-trafficking case.

Rife mentioned the sports souvenir/ink exchange and Cicero began emailing Tressel. The ensuing scandal eventually resulted in Tressel resigning as coach.

The board ruled Cicero had violated the code of professional conduct by leaking information he’d gained from a potential client during a meeting. The Supreme Court’s Board of Commissioners on Grievances and Discipline made its initial ruling in February, but Cicero asked the board to reconsider. The board reaffirmed its decision Monday.