Milestone: House Majority Whip Steve Scalise will deliver the keynote addresses at LSU’s spring graduation (Friday, May 11) as well as the LSU Law Center’s commencement ceremony (Friday, June 1). Both ceremonies will take place in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center. Scalise, a Metairie native, is an LSU alumnus who majored in computer science and minored in political science. He represents the First Congressional District of Louisiana and is the third-ranking Republican in the House.
Waterworks: The Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority has received a $9.3 million grant from the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council to develop a management plan for the Lowermost Mississippi River. The grant will fund a large-scale program to build on the technical knowledge needed to move the nation toward “a more holistic management scheme for the Lowermost Mississippi River,” a news release says.
Upheld: The Supreme Court has upheld a challenged practice that is used to invalidate patents without the involvement of federal courts.The justices today rejected a bid to strike down a process established by Congress in 2011 to speed up patent reviews. The justices voted 7-2 in favor of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s patent review process. It has been used to invalidate hundreds of patents since it was established in 2012.Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Neil Gorsuch were in dissent.
