U.S. District Court judge bans National Security Letters (NSLs), which come with a gag order on the NSL recipient, ruling that they violate First Amendment protections on free speech. But Judge Illston also stays her ban on NSLs for 90 days, so the Obama Administration can appeal to the Ninth Circuit. Note well the helpful chart showing that the FBI has issued much fewer NSLs since 2007 -- right around the time an Inspector General found the FBI was abusing its power to issue them (a power expanded, not granted, by the PATRIOT Act).

The New York Times finds that corporations have as many job openings now as they did at the height of the financial crisis -- but that they're waiting longer to hire. The Times gives many possible reasons, but when corporations wait, on average, eight days longer to fill a vacancy than they did just four years ago, you might be tempted to think the reason begins with "m" and ends with "oney."

Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) renounces opposition to gay marriage, mainly because his son came out to him two years ago. He comes closer to making the conservative case for gay marriage (cf. paragraphs four, seven, and eight) than Mr. Huntsman did in The American Conservative last month -- though he also thinks, like Mr. Obama, that the states (and certainly not the Supreme Court, per paragraph 11!) should decide the matter. Still, I won't criticize him for changing his mind because it affected him personally, as if people should only come to their convictions via thought experiment.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (E-WI) doesn't rule out a 2016 Presidential bid. Wanna know a secret? Scott Walker is a hell of a campaigner -- he never gets rattled, and he's always ready with a counterpunch. When he says "results" are all that matter, never mind that he doesn't have any results he can reasonably run on -- Democrats planning to oppose him may want to consider getting some results of their own, or actually convincing folks they can get results, rather than just running center-right so they don't offend anyone and hoping for the best.