Denied: The LA Times reports: “In a stunning reversal of decades of copyright claims, a federal judge in Los Angeles has ruled that Warner/Chappell Music does not hold a valid copyright claim to the 'Happy Birthday To You' song.” The Associated Press covers the decision here. Read the ruling here.

Demanded: Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa is pressing for answers about the names and security clearances of lawyers for Hillary Clinton who had access to a cache of emails from her tenure as secretary of state, Politico reports. Williams & Connolly's David Kendall earlier told Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, that he and a law partner, Katherine Turner, had top secret clearance. Grassley's questioning whether that clearance was sufficient.

Mentioned: The NLJ's Marcia Coyle looks at all the times the word “pope” has been mentioned at Supreme Court oral arguments.

Rejected: A Wyoming federal judge has rejected an energy company's request to strike a mining protest song from court filings in a civil rights suit. Read the court ruling here.

Judged: From a Reuters special investigation: “A review of 2,102 state supreme court rulings on death penalty appeals from the 37 states that heard such cases over the past 15 years found a strong correlation between the results in those cases and the way each state chooses its justices. In the 15 states where high court judges are directly elected, justices rejected the death sentence in 11 percent of appeals, less than half the 26 percent reversal rate in the seven states where justices are appointed. Justices who are initially appointed but then must appear on the ballot in “retention” elections fell in the middle, reversing 15 percent of death penalty decisions in those 15 states, according to opinions retrieved from online legal research service Westlaw, a unit of Thomson Reuters.”

Scolded: “A federal judge on Tuesday scolded Obama administration lawyers for dragging their feet in handing over documents from top aides to Hillary Clinton,” The Hill reports. In earlier action in the case this week, the State Department clashed with Ted Olson, lead counsel for the plaintiff Citizens United.

Struck: “New York City's ban on soft foam coffee cups, plates, egg cartons and other food containers has been struck down by a state judge, who ruled that its adoption was based on a faulty premise about their recycling potential,” NLJ affiliate The New York Law Journal reports. The New York Times has more here on the ruling.