Dear appeals court: A Fifth Circuit ruling this week in an immigration case bolsters the government's defense of the Obama administration's immigration action, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a letter to the appeals court on Thursday night. The government wants the panel, set to hear argument on April 17, to take notice of the ruling from earlier this week. “The Court stressed that the [Homeland Security] Secretary has broad discretion over removal,” DOJ said in its letter.

Forty bucks: Police said Jamyra Gallmon, accused of fatally stabbing DLA associate David Messerschmitt, stole $40 and a subway card, according to charging documents released on Thursday in the case against an alleged accomplice. The NLJ's Zoe Tillman reports on the developments in the Messerschmitt case, and The Washington Post has more.

Snap win: From The New York Law Journal: “Although an appellate court decried the 'technological home invasion' of a Tribeca family's apartment by a prominent photographer surreptitiously shooting them and their toddler children with a telephoto lens, it said the family had no claim under New York's privacy statutes.” The Hollywood Reporter has more here. Read the ruling.

Camera commotion: At Vanity Fair: Why Are We Still Looking at Courtroom Sketches of the Nation's Most Famous Defendant? Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, chairman of the judiciary committee, writes in an op-ed for the NLJ: “The federal trial in Boston carries significant public interest. And yet, the ban on cameras disallows the public to bear witness to the public proceeding. Courtroom sketches and tweets from reporters arguably don't do justice for most people, especially those who have a keen interest to see justice served.”

Who's on board?: “McKenna Long & Aldridge and Dentons finally announced Wednesday that the two firms' partnerships have approved a merger, but it's not clear yet which lawyers from McKenna will be joining Dentons.” The Daily Report has the story here.

Sprint shells out: Sprint will pay the feds $15.5 million to resolve claims the company overbilled for services performed under court-ordered wiretaps and other surveillance, The Recorder reports. Sprint did not admit wrongdoing under the terms of the settlement.

Please stop: Republican presidential contender Rand Paul's general counsel, Matthew Sanderson, is demanding TV stations stop running an attack ad about the candidate's views on Iran, BuzzFeed News reports. Sanderson, a Caplin & Drysdale attorney in D.C., calls the ad defamatory and says the TV stations are “not protected from legal liability for airing a false and misleading advertisements.”

Tracking: “Cook County prosecutors are being sued to provide records of criminal cases that have involved the use of covert cellphone tracking systems—devices that have drawn the scrutiny of the U.S. Senate and privacy activists,” the Chicago Sun Times reports.

No bias here: The WSJ Law Blog has this report on a forthcoming law review: “A new study says judges, at least ones sitting on state benches, are more objective than they get credit for. The report, forthcoming in the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, says judges by and large are able to exercise professional judgement and reach consensus on disputes that polarize the general public.”