Cass Sunstein

Non-Sequiturs: 09.18.12

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Oh no you didn’t!

* Cass Sunstein provides a calm, well-reasoned discussion about how much personal opinions about sources matter in shifting people’s beliefs. Whatever, I hate that pinko commie. [New York Times]

* So you know that whole “NYC hires big scary Proskauer to evict old, folk-hero newspaper vendor”? Yeah, well, maybe let’s replace “folk-hero” with alleged “back-door dealer” and “scary Proskauer lawyer” with “former NYC attorney trying to help her city out pro bono.” [New York Magazine]

* This Ohio inmate says he’s too fat to be executed. That’s nuts: his extreme obesity might actually save his life. Eat your heart out, American Heart Association.[Columbus Dispatch]

* “Don’t tase me bro!” Then don’t act all crazy and try to enter the courtroom with a camera… bro. [Jonathan Turley via Legal Blog Watch]

* Oh snap! The Winklevii are back, and they’re investing in a new social network… for investors. Hmmm… was kind of hoping after such an extended absence they’d have come up with something with a little more pizazz. On the upside, they still look creepily identical! [SF Weekly]

* Big government is completely out of control! First they try to kill grandma, and now they won’t even let two-year-olds drive cars! I can’t take this socialist nonsense anymore; I’m moving to Canada. [Legal Juice]

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Morning Docket: 08.06.12

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* From the White House to the ivory tower: Cass Sunstein is leaving OIRA to return to Harvard Law. Perhaps his thoughts on behavioral economics and public policy will be appreciated in academia. [New York Times]

* It’s too late to apologize this time, Cesar. Greenberg Traurig has been sanctioned in the TD Bank to-do for the firm’s negligent failure to bring forth documents during discovery. [Tampa Bay Business Journal]

* Jared Loughner is reportedly set to plead guilty in the Arizona shooting attack that killed six people, including Judge John Roll, and injured 13, including former Representative Gabrielle Giffords. [Los Angeles Times]

* Lance Armstrong is going for the gold against the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, this time with a bid to Judge Sam Sparks for a restraining order blocking the USADA from forcing the cyclist into binding arbitration. [Bloomberg]

* “[T]his is not the time for us to become an international accrediting agency.” The ABA will remain a faulty U.S. accrediting agency, because the Legal Ed Section voted against accrediting foreign law schools. [ABA Journal]

* Apparently Texas Tech Law has more than beauty queens. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta has appointed dean emeritus and current law professor Walter Huffman to the new Defense Legal Policy Board. [KCBD 11]

* Remember Joshua Gomes, the UVA Law student who allegedly broke into the school’s registrar office? As it turns out, there’s no more “allegedly” about it. We’ll likely have more on this news later today. [Daily Progress]

* Law school graduates’ tales of woe are still making headlines in newspapers. Please take heed, 0Ls, and remember that you decided to discount this info if you’re told that you “should have known better.” [Oregonian]

* If you want to eat mor chikin but the thought of supporting Chick-fil-A’s stance on gay marriage is giving you indigestion, now you can eat your fill with the assistance of Ted Frank’s chicken offsets. [Huffington Post]

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Quote of the Day: She’ll Be Played By Julianne Moore in ‘Libya: The Movie’

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[There wasn't] some dramatic meeting in the Oval Office where everybody tried to persuade the president not to do this, and Samantha rolled in with her flowing red hair and said, ‘Mr. President, I stand here alone in telling you that history calls upon you to perform this act.’ That’s not how it happened.

– Tom Malinowski, Washington Director for Human Rights Watch, refuting speculation that U.S. military intervention in Libya was the handiwork of his good friend, Samantha Power.

(As longtime ATL readers will recall, Samantha Power is the beautiful, brilliant, Harvard-trained lawyer who is currently a top foreign policy adviser to President Obama — and who famously called Hillary Clinton “a monster” during the 2008 presidential campaign (and then resigned from the campaign). Power is now married to prominent Harvard law professor and fellow Obama adviser Cass Sunstein. You can read about their wedding here, and see exclusive ATL photos of them here.)

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The Unconfirmable Supreme Court (Part 1): The Liberals

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Update: Check out Part 2: The Conservatives.

As we were planning Above the Law’s Elena Kagan confirmation coverage, we got to thinking (always a dangerous thing around these parts): What if Supreme Court nominees didn’t have to defend themselves to the American public? What if the U.S. Senate’s constitutional privilege of “advice and consent” was revoked? What would the Court look like if the nominees didn’t have to even pretend to be moderate?

It’s a thought experiment that we’re sure has been done countless times before. But we’ve never done it, so we’ll plunge ahead.

Here are the rules: (1) The nominee should be unconfirmable. (2) The nominees on the right should make Elie angry; the nominees on the left should make Lat uncomfortable. (3) Mealy-mouthed moderates need not apply.

We decided to keep the five-four ideological balance of the current Court. Sure, we know that some people think that without the Senate, Presidents would nominate apolitical justices who have no discernible political slant. Sadly, apolitical justices = yawn.

In this post, Elie picks four pinko commie scumbags. In a future post, Lat will select five right-wing fascist nutjobs. Should be fun…

So, who are the SCOTUS nominees in the administration of President Elie Mystal?

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Quote of the Day (Part 2): From the Ivory Tower to the White House

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When I was an academic, I’d sometimes get a little feeling of excitement when I had an idea that was, I hoped, fresh…. [W]hether anyone should act on that idea is a very different question.

– Cass Sunstein, the Harvard law professor now heading the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA).

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Quote of the Day (Part 1): Sassy Cass?

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Who the f**k says my personality is not like Rahm Emanuel’s?

– Cass Sunstein, the University of Chicago Harvard law professor now heading the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA).

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Non-Sequiturs: 09.10.09

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cass sunstein regulatory czar.jpg* Sunstein. Confirmed! Finally. [Law Dork 2.0]
* Ben Roethlisberger is ready for the season opener tonight. His attorneys are pursuing all avenues against the woman who accused him of sexual misconduct. [Pro Football Talk]
* Yes, we read the Fail Blog. But we also read the WSJ Law Blog. [Fail Blog]
* Beatles Rock Band. Catch the mania, help the boys. [Miss Trials]
* Should universities start spending down their endowments? [The Economist]
* Going to a “non-elite” law school is often seen as a dangerous proposition, but some observers beg to differ. [Ideoblog]

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Morning Docket 07.06.09

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Palin Vogue.JPG* Legal bills to blame for Sarah Palin’s exiting the Alaskan gubernatorial stage. [New York Times]
* Appellate lawyer Gregory Coleman had two dates with the SCOTUS justices in eight days. [Austin American-Statesman]
* The U.S. Treasury will soon have a Department of Automobiles. [Washington Post]
* Cass Sunstein has his fingers in White House policy and his eye on SCOTUS. [Wall Street Journal]
* Given the choice, would you rent the books for your IP class rather than buy them? [New York Times]
* Wachtell remains. (On top of the M&A list.) [Bloomberg]

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ATL World Exclusive: Paparazzi Photos of Cass Sunstein and Samantha Power!

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National Enquirer Cass Sunstein Samantha Power.jpgThe world is obsessed with celebrity professors Cass Sunstein and Samantha Power, who recently left the ivory tower to take high-ranking positions in the Obama Administration. He might someday sit on the Supreme Court; she’s a winner of the Pulitzer Prize; and together, as we previously reported (see the update), they’re creating the World’s Smartest Baby.

How many HLS grads turned Harvard professors get named Fun Couple of the 21st Century by Esquire? The article begins:

If The Chronicle of Higher Education had paparazzi, a few of them would be camped outside this office right now.

The office is in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and inside are two Harvard professors. The first — a tall woman in her thirties with long red hair — is wrapped in a wool blanket…. The second — a slightly older man who looks a bit like William Hurt — wears a dark suit and is twirling a Wilson tennis racket, a favorite habit of his. They’re talking about the usual — Obama, the fight against extremism, the future of the Supreme Court. And also, who should order flowers for the priest who helped them out with wedding plans.

In a week, they’re getting married in a small church in Ireland — a fact that, if those paparazzi did exist, would send them into a Brad-and-Angelina tizzy.

Oh, but such paparazzi do exist. Harvard Law School student “Percy Thrillington” snapped a few photos of the happy couple, in an HLS parking lot — the small parking lot just off Mass. Ave., next to the International Legal Studies library. They were unloading what said tipster described as “a rather dorky-looking red PT Cruiser.”

Chief Justice John G Roberts JGR PT Cruiser.jpg(Hey, Percy, lay off the PT Cruiser. If it’s good enough for Chief Justice John Roberts — see photo at right — then it’s good enough for Cass and Sam.)

After a heated bidding war between top tabloid publications — bids climbed well into the six figures, allowing Percy to pay for his law school education — ATL emerged victorious. We now proudly present exclusive photographs of the world’s leading legal-academic couple.

Check out paparazzi pics of the Power couple, after the jump.

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Musical Chairs: Now Power and Sunstein Can Carpool To Work

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Cass Sunstein Samantha Power engaged ATL Above the Law blog.jpgBack in July, when we covered the nuptials of celebrity professors / Obama advisers Cass Sunstein and Samantha Power, we wrote: “We look forward to seeing the heights to which they will ascend, together, in the administration of President Obama.”

Well, now we know. Both have snagged important positions in the White House. As previously reported, Sunstein, a former colleague of Obama’s from the University of Chicago Law School faculty, was tapped to serve as “regulatory czar” — a big deal in an administration that will be cranking out lots of regulations.

And last night we learned that Samantha Power will be joining hubby Cass at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. From the Associated Press:

Samantha Power, the Harvard University professor and Pulitzer Prize-winning author who earned notoriety for calling Hillary Rodham Clinton a ”monster” while working to elect Barack Obama president, will take a senior foreign policy job at the White House….

Officials familiar with the decision say Obama has tapped Power to be senior director for multilateral affairs at the National Security Council, a job that will require close contact and potential travel with Clinton, who is now secretary of state. NSC staffers often accompany the secretary of state on foreign trips.

See, Obama does have a sense of humor! Or, more likely, Obama always planned to give Power a plum position, despite “Monstergate.” Sure, it wasn’t her finest hour; but as a Harvard Law School grad, Power is entitled to a few undiplomatic moments. Speculates Gawker: “If someone really wants to hire you, he’ll make your future boss promise to be nice to you, in exchange for her job.”

Update: More good news for Samantha Power and Cass Sunstein. A tipster tells us: “They’re creating a super-child of the 21st century. She’s pregnant!”

A little more about the Power couple, after the jump.

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