They prefer crack, thank you very much.
Because why else would the justices rule against noble, crusading students, and in favor of the mean old school officials, in Morse v. Frederick — aka the “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” case?*
But free speech proponents shouldn’t despair. Over at SCOTUSblog, Marty Lederman notes:
Morse is a very limited holding — essentially limited to the drug context. The Alito concurrence, joined by Kennedy, is controlling. He writes:
I join the opinion of the Court on the understanding that (a) it goes no further than hold that a public school may restrict speech that a reasonable observer would interpret as advocating illegal drug use and (b) it provides no support for any restriction of speech that can plausibly be interpreted as commenting on any political or social issue, including speech on issues such as ‘the wisdom of the war on drugs or of legalizing marijuana for medicinal use.’”
In other words: Hey liberals, this Alito guy might not be as bad as you thought.
* As we previously observed, petitioner Deborah Morse, one of the prevailing school officials, is “a curvaceous, dark-haired beauty.” But we would hope that Supreme Court justices would decide cases based on the merits, not on the attractiveness of the parties.
Of course, sometimes both factors point in the same direction. See, e.g., Marshall v. Marshall — the Anna Nicole Smith case. Quick Preliminary Notes on Hein and Morse [SCOTUSblog]
Who cares about all those fancy-schmancy Supreme Court decisions that just got handed down? This morning brings news of a far more important legal development.
This just in, from the Washington Post:
The D.C. administrative law judge who sued his neighborhood dry cleaner for $54 million over a pair of lost pants found out today what he’s going to get for all his troubles:
* Nifong’s troubles not over. [CNN]
* Write like a man; get convicted like a woman. [CNN]
* I knew they were still a bunch of commies. [Jurist]
* Is lethal injection constitutional in Georgia? We’ll find out today. [Atlanta Journal-Constitution]
* “It’s just stunning and very ungovernment-like.” Indeed. [WSJ Law Blog]
David Souter is signing Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s yearbook. Sam Alito is hoping he’ll get a better locker next year. Nino Scalia is mapping out which European restaurants he’s going to hit this summer. Yes, that’s right: today is the last scheduled day of the Supreme Court’s Term.
The justices are handing down opinions as we type. We’ll have coverage and links pertaining to today’s decisions in a subsequent post.
Will there be any surprises? Or will the paramount importance of Justice Kennedy simply be further confirmed — as if this fact, noted by the astute Jim Ho, wasn’t revealing enough?
Check back soon for more. Update / correction: Today was, according to the Court’s OT 2006 calendar (PDF), the last scheduled non-argument session. But because the justices didn’t hand down all of the Term’s opinions today, they will issue more decisions on Thursday. Batting 1.000 [Volokh Conspiracy]
We can’t publish all (or even most) of the announcements like this that we receive. But since we give those Harvard Law School kids such a hard time, airing lots of their dirtylaundry, we figure we might as well do something nice for them for a change.
We pass along this announcement, on behalf of an HLS organization aimed at encouraging charitable giving:
I am writing on behalf of a Harvard Law School organization called One Day’s Work. The organization started this spring and the concept is simple: encourage law students around the country to pledge one day’s summer salary at either a law firm or public interest legal job to a charitable cause. We thought that with your extensive coverage of law firm salaries, you might be interested in giving us some attention and helping to promote this worthy effort.
Students can pledge and get more information at our website, http://www.OneDaysWork.org. To date, over 65 law students have pledged nearly $40,000 to the effort. These students represent over 40 firms and public interest/government organizations. Additionally, while the group started at Harvard, students from law schools across the country have joined in the effort. About half of the participants are from Harvard, but participants thus far have come from over a dozen other schools.
While the group’s name gives a suggested donation amount – and your readers, of all people, should know what a summer associate in a major American city makes in a given day – the goal is really to promote a culture of giving. As such, we just ask students to give what they feel comfortable with. One Day’s Work does not advocate any specific charitable cause or organization, but the website does feature seven charities that we’ve chosen to highlight.
The efforts of One Day’s Work will culminate on June 27—the “Day” from which students are pledging their earnings.
LEWW is so devoted to you, dear readers, that we haul out our scanner every week so we can show you pictures that the Times doesn’t post in its online edition. But this week the NYT was showing no photographic love for the lawyers. All three of our featured couples are picture-less!
We hate it too, but to borrow awayoverusedline from recent TV criticism, “Whaddya gonna do?” Just try to picture them in your minds or something. Here are our finalists:
* This thing was filmed in a county adjacent to ours. [Augusta Chronicle]
* Good riddance Gitmo. [NYT]
* Six Flags has a lawsuit in their future. [Atlanta Journal-Constitution]
* Don’t like oversight? Eliminate it. [CNN]
Ok, one last plug for ATL in the Funniest Law Blog Contest. For those of you who followed the link earlier, you will have noticed that the gap between us and Phila Lawyer has narrowed, although it is still quite wide.
Luckily for us, there are now prizes for second and third places: three signed copies of Chambermaid(we failed to mention the signed part earlier) for second, and two signed copies of Martha Kimes’Ivy Briefs: True Tales of a Nuerotic Law Student. It appears that this prize will go to Quizlaw, who incidentally has declared shenanigans on Phila Lawyer’s commanding lead (we agree with you Quizlaw, except for the part declaring shenanigans on us being in second; ok, that part’s right too we suppose).
The voting ends Monday, so you still have the weekend to try to get Lat some Billable Hour bling.
For your enjoyment on a slow-news-day-summer-Friday afternoon, here’s a hilarious bit from Muffie Benson-Perella at our sibling site Dealbreaker.com:
Ask Muffie: Cause and Effect
Muffie Benson-Perella (muffie AT dealbreaker.com) is an Associate in the Investment Banking Division of a “Bulge Bracket” bank. She holds a B.A. in French and Art from Vassar College and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. Her regular column “Heard in the Suite” is a probing (and, ahem, fictional) weekly look into the secret lives and behind the velvet curtains of the investment banking world.
Dear Muffie:
I am considering going to law school in order to be a “deal lawyer” but I am worried because I hear there is a lot of discussion of “cause and effect” in law school. These are concepts that are foreign to me. Can you help with a female perspective on “cause and effect” and how it impacts the banking profession?
Betsy “Boom-Boom” Baylor
Dear Boom-Boom:
The best way for me to teach you is by example, so I am including some real-life cause and effect examples from investment banks that involve a legal element.
Example #1: Email from work account
Cause:
—–Original Message—–
From: associate@prestigiousbank.com
Sent: May 20, 2007 4:35 PM
To: associate2@prestigiousbank.com
Subject: test
hey – iwas wondering if you knew anything that could help me pass a saliva/mouth swab test? i think I’m pretty screwed.
Effect:
From: dirhr@prestigiousbank.com (Director of Human Resources)
Sent: May 20, 2007 7:36 PM
Required: Associate; Cindy Reardon (Vice President, Human Resources); Robert Moss (Office of the General Counsel); Richard Fossbath (Managing Director, Investment Banking Division)
When: May 21, 2007 8:00 AM-8:30 AM
Location: Conference Room A, Human Resources, 35th Floor
Accept | Tentative | Decline | Calendar…
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Example #2: AIM conversation from work wireless
Cause:
12:50:43 PM AllNgtLngBanker045: Hi beth!
12:50:51 PM ohheyitsbeth: hello
12:50:57 PM AllNgtLngBanker045: Hey, what are you wearing?
12:51:12 PM ohheyitsbeth: may i ask who i’m speaking to
12:51:23 PM AllNgtLngBanker045: Sure, if you tell me what you’re wearing.
12:52:08 PM AllNgtLngBanker045: Are you wearing ripped jeans?
12:52:49 PM AllNgtLngBanker045: If not, I’ll rip them for ya!
12:53:04 PM ohheyitsbeth: hah
12:53:07 PM ohheyitsbeth: uh
12:54:11 PM AllNgtLngBanker045: That’s hot, by the way. I’m in the bathroom, and I’m hard.
12:54:24 PM ohheyitsbeth: where do you work
12:54:36 PM AllNgtLngBanker045: Prestigious Investment Bank, duh.
12:54:44 PM AllNgtLngBanker045: Wanna cyber?
12:54:58 PM ohheyitsbeth: you are in the bathroom at PIB? my IM’s are monitored by carney
12:55:05 PM AllNgtLngBanker045: Yeah! So?
12:55:15 PM AllNgtLngBanker045: The IT guy here gets off on it!
12:55:16 PM ohheyitsbeth: so that would be uncomfortable
12:55:24 PM AllNgtLngBanker045: You bet it will, I’m HUGE!
12:57:31 PM AllNgtLngBanker045: Hello?
12:59:32 PM AllNgtLngBanker045: Hello?
Effect:
From: dirhr@prestigiousbank.com (Director of Human Resources)
Sent: June 3, 2007 7:36 PM
Required: Associate; Cindy Reardon (Vice President, Human Resources); Robert Moss (Office of the General Counsel); Richard Fossbath (Managing Director, Investment Banking Division); Craig Ballows (Information Technology)
When: June 4, 2007 8:00 AM-8:30 AM
Location: Conference Room A, Human Resources, 35th Floor
Accept | Tentative | Decline | Calendar…
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Example #3: Conference Call
Cause:
-bew beep-
Announcer: “Now attending… Associate.”
-bew beep-
Announcer: “Now attending… Associate 2.”
Associate 2: “Hey, anyone on?”
Associate: “Hey man, it’s Associate.”
Associate 2: “Anyone else on?”
Associate: “Not yet I don’t think.”
Associate 2: “Man, what happened to you last night?”
Associate: “Oh fuck, after you left we went to Tina’s with all that blow I had.”
Associate 2: “No way! That chick is smoking too!”
Associate: “She was smoking it alright, trust me.”
Associate 2: “What time did you get home?”
Associate: “Fuck that, we did blow all night. I haven’t slept yet?”
Associate 2: “Aren’t you supposed to be finishing the deck for Bob “The Castrator” Lindgom?”
Associate: “Lindgom? Are you kidding? His reputation is all bullshit. I’ve snuck half-assed work by that guy for months. He doesn’t care at all. Seriously. He loves me. He couldn’t find his own ass with GPS coordinates, but whatever, I’m almost done with this rotation anyhow which is so bonus because, have you seen his daughter? Todd met her in NA so you know she likes the blow. I got her number from Lindgom’s datebook. I’m totally gonna tap that hot ass.”
-beep bew-
Announcer: “Now departing… Bob Lindgom.”
Effect:
From: dirhr@prestigiousbank.com (Director of Human Resources)
Sent: June 9, 2007 3:36 PM
Required: Associate; Cindy Reardon (Vice President, Human Resources); Robert Moss (Office of the General Counsel); Richard Fossbath (Managing Director, Investment Banking Division); Bob Lindgom (Managing Director, Investment Banking Division)
When: June 9, 2007 5:00 PM-5:30 PM
Location: Conference Room A, Human Resources, 35th Floor
Accept | Tentative | Decline | Calendar…
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Four women who worked for a private cosmetics contractor, Makeup Art Cosmetics, in a Belk department store in our hometown of Athens, Georgia have each won six-figure verdicts this week after being watched undressing by security guards using a hidden camera in the stockroom of the store.
Store managers installed a hidden camera in a stockroom in 2005, catching the women on tape while they changed clothes before and after shifts.
Lawyers for Belk argued that it installed the camera to catch thieves and said the employees should have known it was there.
The employees suffered from sleeplessness, anxiety and paranoia due to the invasion of privacy, one of their attorneys, Jay Lewis, said during his closing argument Thursday.
He asked the Superior Court jury for “seven figure” actual and punitive damages for each of the plaintiffs.
But apparently the jury only found the security guards six-figures-worth of creepy.
A college graduate without student loan debt is akin to reading a kind quote about Kim Kardashian in a tabloid—it’s rare.
In the past eight years, student loan debt has nearly tripled to a whopping $1.1 trillion, and in the past 10 years, the percentage of 25-year-olds with such debt has risen from 25% to 43%
It’s gotten so bad, in fact, that New York Fed economists warned last month that the burden of student debt could stilt consumer spending by twentysomethings, as well as further hamper the recovery of the housing market and economy.
To get a better idea of what massive student loan debt (we’re talking over $100,000 massive) looks like, we talked to an attorney who graduated with a large student loan debt. We also consulted LearnVest Planning Services CFP® Katie Brewer to see just how their repayment plans stack up.
S. Fischer, 36, Attorney Graduated: 2001
How Much I Borrowed: $100,000
What I Still Owe: $45,000
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Ed. note: The Asia Chronicles column is authored by Kinney Recruiting. Kinney has made more placements of U.S. associates, counsels and partners in Asia than any other recruiting firm in each of the past six years. You can reach them by email: asia@kinneyrecruiting.com.
Deal flow has clearly picked recently up for most US associates, counsels and partners in Hong Kong/China and Singapore. We are on the phone with a lot of these folks on a daily basis, many of whom we have known for years. Further, the head of our Asia team, Evan Jowers, and Kinney’s founder and president, Robert Kinney, frequently meet in person with leading US partners in Asia to assess their needs and keep on top of the inside scoop at as many firms as possible. The need for legal recruiting help in Asia from experienced recruiters appears to be live and well. In March, Evan and Robert were in Beijing at such meetings, in April, Evan was in Hong Kong, and for half of June Evan will be in Shanghai and Hong Kong. Thus its pretty easy for us to tell when there has been an across-the-market pick up in capital markets and corporate work.
On an average day in Asia when Evan and Robert visit firms, they typically have 5 to 9 meetings a day, mostly with US partners in the market. The reason they have these meetings is not simply because Kinney makes a lot of US attorney placements in Asia and that a particular firm may have openings; instead these are just visits with friends. After years of working together as business partners, the folks at Kinney are actually these peoples’ friends. The firms Kinney work closely with in Asia (which is just about every law firm – call us if you want to know the one firm in the world we will never place anyone with again, ever, and why) look forward to the visits, or at least act like they do. After seven years in the market, many of the client partners are former associate candidates. Also, these US partners see Kinney as a very good source of market information as well, because they know how deep their contacts are in the market and how frequently they are speaking to counterparts at peer firms.
The traditional job application and interview process can be impersonal, and applicants often struggle to present themselves as more than just the sum of their GPAs, alma maters, and previous work history. ATL has partnered with ViewYou to help job seekers overcome this challenge. ViewYou NOW Profiles offer a unique way for job seekers to make a personal, memorable connection with prospective employers: introduction videos. These videos allow job candidates to display their personalities, interpersonal skills, and professional interests, creating an eDossier to brand themselves to potential employers all over the world. Check it out today!
They prefer crack, thank you very much.
