* Has Justice Sotomayor put Clarence Thomas over the edge? While speaking at the University of Alabama, Justice Thomas said he wishes that the other justices would STFU during oral arguments. He also complained that there are too many Ivy Leaguers on the SCOTUS bench. [Associated Press]

* One of the beneficiaries at the top of Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme was found on the bottom of a pool Sunday. [New York Times]

* Who has the rights to the treasures of the Titanic? [Associated Press]

* Proposition 8 proponents have to turn over their campaign strategy documents. [San Francisco Chronicle]

* An anarchist social worker believes his constitutional rights were violated during the G-20 meetings in Pittsburgh. Police raided his home for breaking an anti-riot law via Twitter. [Wired]

* SCOTUS has agreed to decide whether federal courts can order Guantanamo detainees to be released into the United States, which raises separation of powers issues (because the political branches are in charge of passing and enforcing immigration laws). [How Appealing (linkwrap)]

* A big loss for Exxon Mobil (and its lawyers at McDermott): a jury issues a $104.7 million verdict, after finding the company liable for poisoning NYC water wells. [Bloomberg]

* Weekend at Bernie’s: lawsuit alleges drug use and debauchery at the Madoff offices. [ABA Journal]

* The Galleon / Raj Rajaratnam insider trading case lands in Judge Rakoff’s court. Could this create complications for the SEC? [WSJ Law Blog]

* The FAA is investigating last week’s Balloon Boy incident. [CNN]

* NALP is forming a commission to review law firm hiring practices, including the current timetable for 2L OCI recruiting. [Am Law Daily]

* Bankruptcy judges are chastising mortgage servicers for their sloppy business practices and their poor communications. [New York Times]

* Associates who went to lower-ranked law schools tend to be happier and harder working in their BigLaw job. Why? For the same reason that ugly people are better in bed - they have to be. [WSJ Law Blog]

* Unemployment hits 9.7%. That is not funny. [New York Times]

* The 2nd Circuit reaffirms that wiretap warrants should only be granted to the government after a detailed explanation of why the wiretap is necessary. Then the court reinstates evidence acquired pursuant to a wiretap warrant that probably shouldn’t have been granted. [Threat Level/Wired]

* This is just not a good time to be Proskauer Rose. The firm is now being sued in Nevada on a malpractice claim that was rejected in Texas for improper venue. [National Law Journal]

* Could the SEC be sued for negligence in failing to properly investigate Bernie Madoff? [Time]

You know you want to know….

Hazard a guess. Then click on the link below.

Bernie Madoff’s Greatest Scam Of All [Dealbreaker]

Earlier: What Kind Of Package Is A Bernie Madoff Package?

Or maybe good news? It seems they’ll get to enjoy Labor Day weekend before any trouble hits.

Read more and discuss over at Dealbreaker.

Federal Prosecutors May Let Andy And Mark Madoff Enjoy Labor Day Weekend
[Dealbreaker]

Frank DiPascali, the former CFO — chief fraudulent officer? — for Ponzi schemer extraordinaire Bernard Madoff, pleaded guilty today to a variety of charges, including securities fraud, falsifying records, and international money laundering.

Read more and comment over at Going Concern.

Guilty Madoff CFO Update [Going Concern]

* New York is considering the Madoff bill: making rich prisoners foot their own prison bills. No word as to whether tipping the prison warden is suggested during the holiday season. [Reuters via Daily Beast]

* Part of the U.S. DOJ is relocating from D.C. to South Carolina. [Associated Press]

* Doctors prescribing gag orders? [Washington Post]

* A porn star, who tested positive for HIV, is suing California health officials for violating her rights by demanding her medical records. [Courthouse News Service]

* Harvard Law prof Jonathan Zittrain is down on cloud computing. [New York Times]

The long (inter)national Marc Dreier nightmare is almost at an end. He’s been sentenced to 20 years for defrauding his clients and investors. The Wall Street Journal Law Blog reports:

Prosecutors had asked for a 145-year sentence, which harked back to the 150-year sentence U.S. District Judge Denny Chin readily handed down to Bernie Madoff, whose massive Ponzi scheme drained the bank accounts of countless investors. In both cases defense attorneys sought a fraction of that. Dreier’s attorney sought no more than 12-and-a-half years.

But Dreier drew U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff, who has been highly critical of the length of sentences under the federal sentencing guidelines, particularly in white collar crime cases.

Bernie Madoff gets 150 years, but Dreier only gets 20? Justice may be blind, but she’s certainly not deaf.

Breaking: Marc Dreier Sentenced to 20 Years in Prison [WSJ Law Blog]

Earlier: Is Marc Dreier Almost As Bad as Bernie Madoff?

Bernie Madoff has been sentenced to 150 years.

Judge Denny Chin said that the sentence was necessary to deter other people from entering into these kinds of schemes

The Judge apparently said that he was struck that there was no letter written in support of Bernie Madoff. On the other hand, the judge received 141 pages of letters from Madoff victims.

Madoff allegedly said:

They have accused me and my wife of not being sympathetic. She cries every night, I am also tormented.

Umm … crying doesn’t make you sympathetic. I think instead of turning on the waterworks, Madoff should try not stealing billions of dollars.

But Madoff did apparently say: “I am sorry.”

But the pitchfork rally doesn’t have to end here. Next up: what prison will Madoff be heading to? A “club-fed” facility, or someplace where Madoff might expect “more bareback.”

For extensive and ongoing coverage of L’Affaire Madoff, surf over to our sister site, Dealbreaker.

* Bernie Madoff will be sentenced today. Mmm … revenge justice. [Daily News]

* There’s a “legacy of litigation” that will survive Michael Jackson. [National Law Journal]

* The Coup d’état in Honduras is the first Central American coup since the end of the Cold War. [New York Times]

* R.I.P., Billy Mays. [CNBC]

* Maria Belen Chapur (Mark Sanford’s girlfriend) says she’s pretty sure who hacked into her email account, but she can’t say. [CNN]

* Is it time for New York State to have a full blown constitutional convention? Maybe downstate New York should just secede from upstate New York. Then we can rename upstate “East Dakota” and everything will make sense. [Newsday]

Bernie Madoff is going to prison — circa NOW. Sentencing on June 16.

For more Madoff coverage, check out our sister site, Dealbreaker.

Update: Per Am Law Daily, which also liveblogged the hearing, one of Madoff’s lawyers is Mauro Wolfe — a partner at Dickstein Shapiro, and a former colleague of ours from the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Hi Mauro! Hope you’re having fun defending Bernie.

* Will Bernard Madoff get a “Go To Jail” card today? [New York Times]

* The first step to (economic) recovery is admitting you have a problem. The Snark says enough with the stealth firings already, BigLaw. [Fulton County Daily Report]

* Are the SCOTUS justices playing fast and loose with the law to be members of the University Club of DC? Is the University Club so cool that it’s worth it? [BLT]

* The Iraqi journalist who threw shoes at President Bush gets a year per shoe, and another year to boot. [United Press International]

* David Ogden is headed for approval as deputy attorney general, even with his Playboy credentials. [Associated Press]

* A law professor and a psychology professor at Berkeley are proposing a test to replace the LSAT. Their test seeks to measure 26 lawyerly “effectiveness factors” with a series of hypothetical situations, rather than focusing on analytical ability. We hope they leave in at least one logic game, just for kicks. [New York Times]

* Europeans debate castration for sex offenders. Unlike in the U.S., surgical castration is still allowed in some European countries. Of course, Florida, Texas, Louisiana, and California, among others, go for the chemical kind. [International Herald Tribune]

* Bernard Madoff expected to plead guilty tomorrow and will go to prison forever. [Newsday]

* Start archiving the death threats made against you now, because you never know when the New York Times will interview you. Madoff attorney Ike Sorkin pulls out an old yellowed death threat newspaper clipping from 1975 for this story. [New York Times]

* The ship that is first year associate salaries be sinking. [Chicago Tribune]

* The Blackberry be sinking too. [PCWorld]

The T.V. people are saying that there may be a plea deal in the works for Bernie Madoff:

Prosecutors have filed a motion indicating a Bernard Madoff plea deal is in the works, according to the Associated Press.

I hope the deal includes an opportunity for all the people he swindled to slap him in the face. If you charge people for it you could probably get enough for the next bank bailout.

Prosecutors indicate Madoff plea deal in works [MSNBC]

* The Senate Judiciary Committee will discuss Obama’s nomination of Harvard law school dean Elena Kagan as solicitor general. [The Washington Post]

* Three federal judges in California ruled that the state must reduce its prison population by a third. [Los Angeles Times]

* Lawyers for the Obama administration surprised San Francisco by making the same state-secrets argument as Bush in the extraordinary rendition case. [The New York Times]

* The SEC makes a deal with Madoff. [The Washington Post]

* Meanwhile, the SEC chairman steps down after falling to the 50 billion dollar thief. [Bloomberg]

* 50 cent won a lawsuit against his ex-girlfriend. “…this is a complete and total victory for 50,” one of his lawyers said. [Punk.BZ]

* Nationwide Layoff Watch: Clifford Chance to “review the shape and size” of its partnership. [The Lawyer]

* Paul Weiss partner Steven Simkin is one of those who lost millions invested with Bernard Madoff. Now, he’s trying get some of it back by suing his ex-wife. [New York Daily News]

* … Simkin was not the only Biglaw partner swindled. In addition to being Madoff’s attorney, Dickstein Shapiro partner Ira Lee Sorkin was one of his customers. Conflict of interest much? [Bloomberg]

* Fences featuring pictures of nearly naked women make bad neighbors. New York’s Nassau County has sued a strip club in neighboring Queens because its promotional billboards are a public nuisance. [Newsday]

* The Dark Knight went berserk during the filming of “Terminator Salvation.” TMZ leaked the audio of Christian Bale cursing out a director of photography and the London Telegraph transcribed it. Slate uses the episode for a “First Amendment for Dummies” article. [Slate]

* Time to dust off your power suit. “As law-firm layoffs mount, fear of unemployment appears to be speeding up the resurgence of power clothes, even among the youngest recruits.” [Wall Street Journal (subscription)]

Morning Docket is sponsored by PBwiki — an easy, affordable online workspace that you can use as a legal knowledgebase or to manage cases. Seven of the top 20 law firms in the United States are PBwiki customers.

* Law firm Thompson Wigdor & Gilly has moved in to a loft that looks more like a start-up than a law firm. Their light, spacious, white leather studded office doesn’t fool anyone….or does it? [The New York Times]

* SCOTUS will hear a major reverse discrimination case brought by white fire-fighters who say they were not promoted because of their race. [The Christian Science Monitor]

* A South African appellate court reinstated corruption charges against Jacob Zuma, the leader of the ruling party and probable next president. [The New York Times]

* U.S. government regulators are urging Citigroup to replace chairman Winfried Bischof in hopes that it will restore investor confidence in the bank. [International Herald Tribune]

* Los Angeles litigator William W. Vaughn, who defended Dan Rather against slander in 1983, died last week. [Los Angeles Times]

* New York judge Ronald Ellis will decide today whether to revoke Madoff’s bail and send him to prison. Ellis has made thousands of bail rulings including a case involving a French acrobat whose paraglider got caught on the Statue of Liberty’s torch. [Bloomberg.com]

* Thanks to ATL’s night and weekend readers, we’re making a surge in the 2008 Weblog Awards. It’s time to get the morning voters involved. Remember you can vote once every 24 hours. [2008 Weblog Awards]

Dickstein Shapiro sent a memo around the firm yesterday that was the bearer of much bad news. Not only did it announce a salary freeze for 2009, it officially announced layoffs that were conducted on Tuesday. Full e-mail after the jump, but here’s an excerpt:

First, we have made a limited number of reductions in our associate/counsel ranks. Those affected by this decision were informed yesterday afternoon. These are purely economic decisions — this is a group of talented attorneys who have made valued contributions to our Firm.

Spokespeople at Dickstein have not yet confirmed the number laid off, but sources say it was 10 associates and counsel, all in the D.C. office. [Update:The firm now tells us the ten came from both the D.C. and New York offices.] One source says those laid off were told it was “economic-based” — as opposed to layoffs in 2008 that were ostensibly performance-based — but that the firm did take a look at their hours. The corporate group was hardest hit.

One source says Dickstein associates were “pissed.” The email went around at noon yesterday and “glibly” announced layoffs and the salary freeze. Associates would have preferred a firm-wide meeting to announce the news. They were also annoyed to get the news of the freeze 36 hours before their first 2009 paycheck was to arrive (at 12:01 a.m. tonight).

Additional news about Dickstein is pouring into our inbox. One tipster reports overhearing a partner voice concern about Bernard Madoff paying his legal fees and the firm’s ability to take on new associates in 2009.

More after the jump.

* SCOTUS may hear the case of a Texas woman who claims that an extreme religious group forced her to “exorcise her demons”, disturbing her so much that she later attempted suicide. [The Atlanta Journal-Constitution]

* On Wednesday, the federal court in Manhattan will start considering information that will infect the investor’s in Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. Furthermore, Judge Louis L. Stanton of the U.S. District Court will consider whether people who invested in “feeder funds” with other Wall Streeters who invested in Madoff’s fund will be covered under the Securities Investor Protection Corporation—a federal fund that protects investors in cases like these. [The New York Times]

* The federal government announced a settlement over a developers who build projects on wetlands in Michigan’s Midland and Bay counties—a case that has gone on for decades. [The Chicago Tribune]

*Former New York City police Commissioner Bernard Kerick pleaded not guilty in a federal court to charges of tax evasion and corruption. [CNN.com]

* Store vendors angered by department store’s mark-downs may make the stores cover more of the losses. If they succeed, they could get back $ 1.2 billion from Macy’s, Saks Inc., Dillard’s, Nordstrom, Kohl’s and JC Penney. [Bloomberg.com]

* “The 6th Circuit struck down a vehicle safety law in Michigan that banned drivers from hanging any view-obstructing baubles from their rearview mirrors. [Courthouse News Service]

* What’s the reason for U.S. AG Michael Mukasey recusing himself from the Bernard Madoff investigation? It may be his synagogue. [Cityfile]

* K&L Gates grand poobah Peter Kalis gripes about U.S. News & World Reports, gets all mushy about Pitt Law, and praises affirmative action. For minorities and kids from West Virginia. [TaxProf Blog]

* Ohio lawyer David Mills has started a daily legal cartoon blog. We ATL folk are painfully aware of how hard it can be to make the law funny. [Courtoons]

* ATL’s own Elie Mystal in a free-ranging interview on race, the law, blogging, and comments. [On Being a Black Lawyer]

* Two-thirds of law firms expect lower 2009 revenues. Sigh. But 8.2% expect higher revenues. Those must be the boutique bankruptcy firms. [National Law Journal]