“We announced the ability to withhold content back in Jan. We're using it now for the first time re: a group deemed illegal in Germany.”

–Alex Macgillivray, general counsel of Twitter

With these 133 characters, Macgillivray announced that the microblogging site would use its recently adopted local censorship policy for the first time to block access to the Twitter feed of a German neo-Nazi group. The country's police reportedly asked Twitter to keep German users from reading any tweets from Besseres Hannover, which has been accused of inciting racial hatred and threatening immigrants.

“If you buy a legitimate, authentic good, then you own it, plain and simple.”

–Hillary Brill, global general counsel of eBay Inc.

College textbooks are notoriously expensive, but $75,000 per book is an especially steep price to pay. But that's the amount Supap Kirtsaeng will be on the hook for if the Supreme Court upholds a lower court's ruling in Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons. While Kirtsaeng was studying at Cornell, friends and family members in his native Thailand sent him cheaper international editions of pricey U.S. textbooks, which he then resold on eBay. Textbook publisher John Wiley & Sons sued the grad student for copyright infringement upon learning of his business.

Kirtsaeng—and some online retailers such as eBay—argue that his actions fall under the “first-sale dotrine,” meaning that once a person lawfully purchases an item, he can give it away or resell it as he sees fit. But a jury found that the doctrine does not apply to imported materials and awarded the publisher $75,000 per edition, a decision that the 2nd Circuit upheld in 2010. The Supreme Court heard arguments in the case Monday in the midst of Hurricane Sandy.

“The principle that diversity is a compelling interest … is embedded in our holistic review process, and we believe that the Court should continue to respect our academic freedom to select from among the many thousands of excellent applicants who are qualified for admission.”

–Peter McDonough, general counsel of Princeton University

The Supreme Court took up what is sure to be one of the most contentious cases of this term, when it heard arguments Oct. 10 in the affirmative action case Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin. Abigail Fisher, a white UT applicant, sued the school after she was rejected from the college, claiming that the school's race-conscious admissions policy is discriminatory and violates her right to equal protection.

But McDonough—along with the general counsels of Stanford, Yale, Harvard and MIT—submitted an amicus brief in support of UT, arguing that a ruling against the university could potentially “confound and restrict amici's efforts to assemble diverse student bodies.”