Morning Docket: 07.03.08
* Don’t blame the law clerks: DOJ admits it also missed the military’s child-rape capital punishment law and regrets not briefing it to the Supreme Court. [New York Times]
* Bush Administration encouraged regional Iraq oil deal with Texas oil company, says congressional committee. [New York Times]
* U.S. releases first dollar coin with Braille since lawsuit finding currency unconstitutional. [CNN]
* Seattle and SuperSonics reach pre-judgment settlement; Oklahoma City basketball debut next season. [ESPN]
* What went wrong at Lehman Brothers. [Washington Post]




Comments
I can't help it I'm first
Braille on coins is probably unnecessary, there's a blind coffee/newsstand clerk in the Brooklyn Supreme Courthouse and he gets it right by differentiating the sizes of coins. Plus coins have other raised surfaces that unlike paper money make them easier to distinguish by feel.
I'm surprised that the DOJ and everyone else missed that. Law clerks are free for the government. They should have had a dozen of them doing the research.
Help junior associate here - I just did the math and I definitely will not make my billable hours...do the old rules apply i.e. will i get canned next year (or sooner)!!
Seattle politicians are great negotiators... not. Talk about giving away the farm.
Um, wasn't the blind currency case about paper money? Coins normally vary in size so the argument about their indistinguishibility is not there... But, okay, coins with dots...yippie.
10:12 - What type of firm are you at? How highly ranked / prestigious is it?
10:21 - highly ranked regional.
10:12 - if you have been so slow that there is now no way for you to make your billables, shouldn't you have known this for some time? Even if you are down about 200 off your 6-month target, you could attempt to make up those 200 over the course of the next 6 months... Or, is your firm really that slow?
11.06: Both - firm is slow and it might just be me. I clerked last year, so technically i'm a first year... I guess it just did not really occur to me until now.
You are rather junior, so you should probably be safe. But you should start busting your tail to rustle up work, even if it's crap work.
Thanks! (I hope thing s work out)
Thanks! (I hope things work out)
"U.S. releases first dollar coin with Braille since lawsuit finding currency unconstitutional."
This headline is quite misleading - the coin has nothing to do with the currency lawsuit. The coin is a special commemorative coin in honor of the 200th birthday of Louis Braille, inventor of the alphabet for the blind. It is not part of some new effort to put Braille on all coins, and has nothing to do with the currency suit.
And in any case, the court held that the currency violates the Rehabilitation Act; it did not declare it "unconstitutional." The government does not have a constitutional obligation to issue money in any particular format - or indeed, to issue money at all.
10:12 - if you cannot ramp up the fee work, does your firm give true billable credit for pro bono? Here's what I would do: 1) try extremely hard to get more work (including telling partners you need it); 2) if that does not work (and you get pro bono credit), ramp up pro bono hours (and firm activity hours) to show them the low billables are not a reflection of your drive to do the work...
10:12 Kiss ass. Get a partner to invite you out for drinks. Slip the bartender a $50 and tell her to get partner wasted. Then entice the partner into hitting on you -- verbally and physically. (N.B. it doesn't matter the gender of the partner.) Threaten to sue for harassment and then enjoy a five more years of easy street. However this will kill your chances at making partner.