EXCITED UTTERANCES: The U.S. Supreme Court justices this year said some pretty provocative stuff from the bench, in interviews, and during public appearances. The NLJ's Mike Sacks compiled 10 of the most noteworthy utterances from the justices in 2015.

KILLER MIKE: Hip-Hop star Killer Mike is making himself known at the U.S. Supreme Court just weeks after throwing his support behind Bernie Sanders for President. The rapper signed onto an amicus brief joined by other artists, academics and activists in support of a high school student's First Amendment challenge to being disciplined for rap lyrics he composed, recorded and disseminated outside of school. Short on case citations and heavy on academic literature, the brief, written by Chad Baruch of the Dallas-based Johnston Tobey Baruch law firm, seeks to educate the justices on hip-hop's history and expressive culture. For the justices' benefit, Killer Mike, real name Michael Render, said in his bio included in the brief that “it probably is worth noting that he has never actually killed anyone.” More at Rolling Stone and New York Times.

BIG DONATIONS: “Continuing declines in law school enrollment and drops in bar exam passage rates around the country made top headlines in the legal profession in 2015. But it didn't stop wealthy benefactors from donating generous sums to their pet law schools, nor did it slow the time-honored role of law schools serving as cushy landings for former headliners in public office,” the NLJ reports.

FIFA: McGuireWoods partner Richard Cullen said his client, banned FIFA president Sepp Blatter, intends to appeal the ethics committee judgment against him to the Court for Arbitration in Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland. “It will eventually get to CAS and we hope to get there as quickly as possible. We are studying it now,” Cullen said. Reuters has more.

SPECIAL MASTER: The NLJ's Amanda Bronstad reports on Judge Charles Breyer's request from plaintiffs' lawyers in the Volkswagen litigation to propose a potential special master to settle the emissions-scandal claims. The lawyers have submitted 18 names, including Washington supermediator Ken Feinberg, who has already been hired by Volkswagen to set up a compensation fund.

CHINA SSM: “A Chinese man is challenging local officials to allow him to marry his male partner, the latest move in a series of efforts to advance gay and lesbian rights in China,” reports Alyssa Abkowitz for the Wall Street Journal Law Blog. A complaint filed by a 26-year-old gay man in a Hunan province court argues the law can accommodate, rather than bans, same-sex marriage because it defines marriage as between a husband and a wife, which, unlike the words man and woman, “can be understood in terms of both relationship and identity,” the plaintiff told China Real Time.