5th Circuit
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5th Circuit, Barack Obama, Benchslaps, Constitutional Law, Department of Justice, Election 2012, Federal Government, Federal Judges, Health Care / Medicine, Judicial Divas, Politics
Benchslap of the Day: Fifth Circuit Orders DOJ To Write 'We Respect Judicial Review' in Three-Page Letter
The nation recently received a lesson in constitutional law from President Barack Obama. The problem with this lesson: it wasn't exactly accurate. One prominent conservative jurist, Judge Jerry E. Smith of the Fifth Circuit, took it upon himself to set the record straight.... -
5th Circuit, Barack Obama, Biglaw, Canada, Dewey & LeBoeuf, Eric Holder, Gloria Allred, Law Schools, Money, Morning Docket, Murder
Morning Docket: 04.04.12
* AG Eric Holder can thank Obama for this homework assignment from Fifth Circuit Judge Jerry Smith, because it seems like our president, a former con law professor, forgot about Marbury v. Madison. [CBS News]
* Dewey need to buy this Biglaw firm a functional calculator? New information shows that the imploding firm was off by roughly $153M when partners reported 2011 earnings to the American Lawyer. [Am Law Daily]
* You know there’s got to be something questionable about a law school when the accreditation machine that is the ABA gives it the side eye. And no, Duncan Law, a judge still won’t force its hand. [National Law Journal]
* Stephen McDaniel pleaded not guilty at his arraignment for the murder of Mercer Law classmate Lauren Giddings, but will he be released on bail before trial? Only if he’s got $2.5M sitting around. [Macon Telegraph]
* More law school lawsuits are coming down the pipeline, but local lawyers in Massachusetts don’t think that they stand a chance. Why? The highly-educated consumer argument strikes again. [Boston Business Journal]
* Thanks to Gloria Allred, transgender beauty queen Jenna Talackova may be able to participate in the Miss Universe pageant if she can meet the legal requirements for being a woman in Canada. [MSNBC]
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5th Circuit, Affirmative Action, Election 2012, SCOTUS, Supreme Court, Texas
SCOTUS Grants Cert in Affirmative Action Case: 'Cause It's an Election Year and They Like Power'
Last year, the Fifth Circuit upheld the University of Texas's affirmative action plan in Fisher v. University of Texas. But they did so in a petulant, childish manner, as if somebody was forcing them to eat their vegetables. At the time, Elie said they were openly begging for a right-wing Supreme Court to review and overturn their ruling. It looks like the members of the Fifth Circuit are going to get their wish. The Supreme Court granted cert on Fisher, and now we get to have an affirmative action debate right in the middle of an election cycle where a black man is running for reelection....
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5th Circuit, Ann Althouse, Barack Obama, Books, Clerkships, Depositions, Drinking, Drugs, Fat People, Gay, Lesbians, Nauseating Things, Non-Sequiturs, Politics
Non-Sequiturs: 01.05.12
* Pepsi lawyers offer a creative (if disturbing) defense to a lawsuit by a man who claims he found a mouse in his Mountain Dew. [Madison County Record via The Atlantic Wire] * Will birther queen Orly Taitz get to depose — i.e., “rupture the jurisprudential hymen” — of President Barack Obama? That would be […] -
5th Circuit, Abortion, California, Clarence Thomas, Law Professors, Loyola Law School, Morning Docket, New Jersey, Pregnancy / Paternity, Reality TV, Supreme Court Clerks, Trendspotting
Morning Docket: 11.02.11
* “Rising tuition. Misleading employment statistics. Inadequate skills training.” So what are legal educators doing about it? Blogging, of course. [Law School Review] * Trendspotting: cute judges on the federal bench? The Senate has confirmed Loyola Law professor Stephen Higginson for a seat on the Fifth Circuit. [National Law Journal] * People in New Jersey […]
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5th Circuit, Benchslaps, Contests, D. Marvin Jones, Edith Jones, Law Professors, Lawyer of the Day, Murder, Prostitution, Reader Polls, Sex, Sex Scandals, Wall Street
Lawyer of the Month: September Reader Poll
Our candidates for the coveted Lawyer of the Month title have been a bit tame for the past few months. This time around, we’ve chosen some lawyers and law students who represent our more prurient interests and our unabashed love for scandal. Aficionados of hookers? We’ve got ’em. Vicious tongue lashings? We’ve got those, too. […] -
5th Circuit, Benchslaps, Edith Jones, Federal Judges, Judicial Divas, Reader Polls, Ridiculousness, Rudeness, Sam Sparks, Texas, Vicious Infighting
Judicial Diva Gone Wild? Chief Judge Jones Tells Judge Dennis to 'Shut Up'
Can you enforce civility by being... uncivil? That's the question being raised, over and over again, by federal judges from Texas these days. Check out the latest craziness -- an en banc hearing before the Fifth Circuit that generated judicial fireworks, culminating in a judge essentially telling a colleague to STFU or GTFO.... -
5th Circuit, Attorney Misconduct, Benchslaps, Edith Jones, Federal Judges, Judicial Divas, Rudeness, Sam Sparks, Texas, Vicious Infighting
Benchslap of the Day: Judge Sparks Gets a Taste of His Own Medicine
The benchslapper has become the benchslapped. Judge Sam Sparks, of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, just got smacked around by a higher authority: Chief Judge Edith Jones, of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. What did she have to say to Sparks? - Sponsored
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Zach Warren from the Thomson Reuters Institute discusses the potential and the pitfalls. -
5th Circuit, Benchslaps, Civil Rights, Ridiculousness, Texas
Benchslap of the Day: Shouldn't Cheerleaders Know How to Spell?
Judge Jerry Smith of the Fifth Circuit had some harsh words about a cheerleading-related litigation: "[T]his is nothing more than a dispute, fueled by a disgruntled cheerleader mom, over whether her daughter should have made the squad. It is a petty squabble, masquerading as a civil rights matter, that has no place in federal court or any other court." -
5th Circuit, Education / Schools, Federal Judges, Free Speech, Judge of the Day, Religion, Texas
A Judge of the Day, Back in the News: Fred Biery
Three years ago, we bestowed Judge of the Day honors upon the Honorable Fred Biery, a federal judge in the Western District of Texas. Back in 2008, Judge Biery rejected a religious school’s attempt to join an influential statewide extracurricular organization. In the process of ruling against Cornerstone Christian Schools, Judge Biery took the Bible […] -
4th Circuit, 5th Circuit, Animal Law, Barack Obama, Bernie Madoff, Crime, Free Speech, Insider Trading, Jeffrey Skilling, Morning Docket, Pets, Politics, Trials, Wall Street, White-Collar Crime
Morning Docket: 04.07.11
* Former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling’s appeal was denied by the Fifth Circuit. While he remains the smartest guy in the room, the room consists of him and a half-wit cellmate whose only discernible talent is making Prune-o. [WSJ Law Blog] * Bruce Fein, an attorney who worked on Clinton’s impeachment and called for Bush’s […]
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5th Circuit, Federal Circuit, John Roberts, Minority Issues, Racism, Texas
Fifth Circuit Upholds Affirmative Action, But Is It Begging for SCOTUS Intervention?
Two people from my high school got into the same college I did. We were all in the top 10 of our class, but none of us were in the top 5. One was a white guy who was a brilliant piano player. The other was a white girl who excelled at sports. Then there […] -
5th Circuit, Advertising, Food
'Taste the Truthery.'Fifth Circuit Stars in a Domino's Ad.
Domino’s Pizza is willing to admit that its pizza used to suck. In fact, it has posted a video documentary about how bad it used to be, and claims to have reinvented itself “from the crust up.” Stephen Colbert did a segment on the company’s reinvention; he tried a piece on his show, proclaiming it […]
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5th Circuit, Antonin Scalia, John Yoo, Michael Jackson, Morning Docket
Morning Docket 08.18.09
* It sounds like very few protesters greeted John Yoo at Berkeley Law School. Only four were tenacious enough to get arrested. [Associated Press] * Fen-phen lawyers sentenced to 20 and 25 years, respectively. The judge wants their sentences to deter other lawyers tempted to steal from settlement funds. [Bloomberg] * Proskauer Rose probably likes […]
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5th Circuit, Bernie Madoff, Enron, Morning Docket, Securities and Exchange Commission
Morning Docket 1.21.09
* Lawyers are winning in the long rivalry between lawyers and bankers. Endless financial fraud cases make lawyers look ethical. There is another fraud charge in Philadelphia against money manager Joseph Forte. [The Philadelphia Inquirer] * The SEC is investigating Apple’s disclosures about CEO Steve Jobs’ health, to make sure the company did not mislead […]
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5th Circuit, Edward Nottingham, Morning Docket
Morning Docket 10.23.08
* Lehman’s lawyer fees “could reach a record $1.4 billion.”[Bloomberg] * The RNC spent more than a first-year associate’s salary on clothes for Sarah Palin. So, when you are reading mind-numbing legal documents at midnight tonight and your friends are out partying, just dream of all the snappy red jackets you can buy. [Los Angeles […]
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5th Circuit, Crime, Federal Judges, Samuel Kent, Sex, Sexual Harassment
Judge Kent Objects to His Indictment. Strenuously.
Methinks the judge doth protest too much? From the Houston Chronicle: U.S. District Judge Samuel Kent stood before a fellow federal judge this morning and vehemently proclaimed his innocence of three federal sexual crimes in his indictment. “I plead absolutely, unequivocally not guilty and look very much forward to a trial on the merits of […] -
5th Circuit, Barack Obama, Enron, Food, Hillary Clinton, Morning Docket, Politics, Prisons, Supreme Court, Wall Street
Morning Docket: 01.22.08
* Fed cuts fed funds rate by 0.75%, but stocks are still lower. [AP; New York Times; Washington Post] * Clinton and Obama get snippy with each other in debate, raising questions about each other’s legal work. [Washington Post; New York Times; WSJ Law Blog] * SCOTUS denies review in gigantic Enron-related investors’ lawsuit. [SCOTUSblog […]
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5th Circuit, Breasts, Federal Judges, Oral Sex / Blow Jobs, Perverts, Reader Polls, Samuel Kent
Judge Samuel Kent: A Bigger Horndog Than Bill Clinton?
As regular ATL readers will recall, Judge Samuel B. Kent (S.D. Texas) is currently on leave from the bench (although still collecting his $165,200 salary). The Fifth Circuit suspended him after allegations of what it described as sexual harassment. But Judge Kent’s troubles may not be over yet. From the Galveston County Daily News (via […] -
5th Circuit, Benchslaps, Federal Judges, Judge of the Day, Samuel Kent, Sexual Harassment
Fifth Circuit Benchslaps the Naughty Judge Kent
Last week we honored Judge Samuel B. Kent with our prestigious Judge of the Day award, based on his alleged sexual harassment of a court employee. Now the Fifth Circuit Judicial Council has also recognized Judge Kent. From Texas Lawyer: The Judicial Council of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals [on Friday] issued an […]