By Terry Baynes 

Times reporter can protect sources: A federal judge has ruled that a New York Times reporter does not have to reveal who gave him details about a top-secret CIA program targeting Iran's nuclear efforts, Politico reports. In her Friday order, U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema said James Risen was required to testify only about the accuracy of his reporting, not the identity of his confidential sources. The decision strikes a blow to the Obama administration's crackdown on government leaks. Federal prosecutors had subpoenaed Risen in May to testify against former CIA official Jeffrey Sterling, who is charged with leaking classified information to Risen for his 2006 book "State of War."

The Post braces for U.S. probe: News Corp is preparing for fallout from the British tabloid phone-hacking scandal to spread across the Atlantic. The company's legal department has instructed New York Post staff to preserve all documents that may be related to phone hacking or payoffs to government officials, the AP reports. In a Friday memo, Post editor-in-chief Col Allan told employees that the document hold was not meant to imply that anyone had "done anything improper or unlawful," but rather "to underscore how seriously we are taking this matter." The order follows reports that the U.S. Department of Justice is investigating News Corp over alleged domestic hacking and foreign bribery.

Love and marriage and the First Amendment: A divorced man's online rants about his ex-wife have escalated into a court battle over freedom of speech, the Philadelphia Inquirerreports. Anthony Morelli launched his hit blog, ThePsychoExWife.com, in 2007 as a place to vent about his unnamed ex. "Imagine, if you will, Jabba the Hut, with less personality," he wrote, attacking her drinking habits and parenting skills. The Pennsylvania judge overseeing the couple's contentious custody battle ordered Morelli to shut down the site, finding its contents to be not "just venting" but "outright cruelty." Morelli has since hired a lawyer to lodge an appeal in the case, arguing that the order violates his constitutional rights to free speech and due process. The old URL now forwards to a new site, SaveThePsychoExWife.com, where visitors can donate to help cover Morelli's legal fees.

That's what makes (virtual) horse races: The online virtual-world game Second Life is spawning real-life lawsuits, the Wall Street Journal reports. A company that sells virtual rabbits and rabbit food to Second Life players is suing a competitor for allegedly stealing its business model and software and applying it to horses. The bunny dealer has asked Linden Research Inc., the company behind Second Life, to shut down the faux-horse seller, but Linden declined. The dispute is one of many that has landed Linden in court. Michael Page, a lawyer for Linden, said the company is trying to stay out of the fight. "We no longer have a horse in that race or a bunny in that pot," he said.

In asylum applications, location matters: Immigration judges along the Texas border are more likely to deny applications for political asylum than judges in other parts of the country, the Texas Tribune reports. A new analysis out of Syracuse University found that two judges in El Paso, Texas, had a combined rejection rate of 83.3% between 2006 and July 2011, compared to the national average of 53.2%. The study reported the "disturbing" finding that the identity of the judge was a better predictor of an applicant's success than the underlying facts of the case. One explanation, according to legal experts, is that asylum judges are swayed by foreign-policy interests, including the U.S.'s financial and political stake in Mexico's war against drug traffickers and cartels.

A new use for RICO?: One of the nation's biggest transportation companies is trying out a novel legal theory against the law firm that pummeled it with thousands of asbestos lawsuits, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports. In a rare move, CSX Transportation is retaliating against Robert Peirce & Associates, suing the firm under the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations statute, better known as RICO. CSX, backed by numerous tort-reform groups, accuses Robert Peirce of using bribery and fraud to concoct false medical diagnoses of asbestos exposure for plaintiffs.

Keeping Islam out of the courts: One Brooklyn lawyer is behind the wave of anti-Sharia legislation sweeping the country, the New York Times reports. David Yerushalmi, a 56-year-old Hasidic Jew with a history of anti-Muslim statements, began the drive to keep Islamic law out of U.S. courts five years ago. He has filed lawsuits against the government and worked with conservative think tanks to draft model legislation that's starting to take hold. In the past year, more than 24 states have considered bills that would prevent judges from consulting Islamic or other religious law when deciding cases. Three states - Oklahoma, Tennessee and Louisiana - have already enacted such bans.