George Bush

Letter from London: Barristers Behaving Badly

By

Yesterday was the tenth anniversary of the day a little-known heroin addict called Russell Brand turned up for work dressed as Osama Bin Laden, and was promptly fired by his then-employer, MTV.

After some ensuing years knocking around the lower echelons of British light entertainment, Brand got himself together and landed a role presenting the VMAs — from which he launched himself into mega-stardom when he branded George W. Bush a “retarded cowboy fella.”

Now, you don’t get career paths like that in law. Having said that, I do know of a London Biglaw associate who was once asked to replace his brightly-coloured socks with a more sober pair in advance of an important client meeting, in which he performed impressively.

Please don’t interpret that as a snarky suggestion that all lawyers are boring. As legal market-watchers well know, many attorneys — especially the litigators — are often anything but. They’re just good at hiding the madness. Usually, anyway….

double red triangle arrows Continue reading “Letter from London: Barristers Behaving Badly”

18 Comments

Ten Years After Bush v. Gore, the Stench Lingers

By

When asked about the decision in Bush v. Gore, Justice Antonin Scalia — one of the best legal minds in modern American history — tells questioners to “get over it.” That’s right, the Supreme Court decided the winner of a popular presidential election, and one of the architects of that decision wants people to not care about it anymore. Is he serious? I wish Scalia could just “get over” the fact that privacy is a right now, but nobody begrudges him the right to ask questions about it.

It’s the ten-year anniversary of the Bush v. Gore decision, and everybody is talking about it, in part because the Court does not talk about it. Writing in the New Yorker, Jeffrey Toobin tells us that in the decade since the five “conservative” justices stopped Florida’s recount, the Supreme Court has cited Bush v. Gore exactly zero times. Think about that: it’s been ten years since the Supreme Court picked the president, and the Court is kind of hoping everybody forgets about it. Bush v. Gore is like a stripper the Court killed in Vegas when it was there for a bachelor’s party. “She’s got no friends or family, strippers die all the time in Vegas, let’s get back to the hotel and NEVER SPEAK OF THIS AGAIN.”

But this isn’t some drunk broad you can drive into the Atlantic Ocean and hope everybody covers for you. This is a presidential election! And whether or not they talk about it, the effect of Bush v. Gore is very evident today — and not just because of the five SCOTUS votes that were more important than everybody else’s….

double red triangle arrows Continue reading “Ten Years After Bush v. Gore, the Stench Lingers”

137 Comments

Morning Docket 1.19.09

By

martin luther king.jpg

* Civil rights leaders reflect on Martin Luther King. [ABC]

* The E.U. slammed Microsoft in an antitrust case. [The Washington Post]

* At least ten percent of the Guantanamo population has been deemed innocent, further calling the prison’s legitimacy in to question. [The New York Times]

* SCOTUS added 6 new cases to the docket Friday. Among their upcoming decisions, is whether states should be able to enforce their own non-discrimination lending laws against national banks. [The Washington Post]

* A San Francisco federal judge’s decision revives discussion about the legality of Bush’s wiretapping program. [San Francisco Chronicle]

* Kirkland & Ellis will advise billionaire Paul Allen’s Charter Communications Inc. on potential bankruptcy. [Bloomberg.com]

49 Comments

Remember This Guy? I Think He’s Still The President.

By

Bush war crimes.JPGBack in June, we reported on Massachusetts School of Law at Andover’s intention to plan the prosecution of President Bush for war crimes, via teleconference.
Ignoring the advice of sane people, the unaccredited law school went ahead with their conference, this weekend. Dean of MSL Lawrence Velvel had this to say about President:

He is a former drunk, was a serial failure in business who had to repeatedly be bailed out by daddy’s friends and wanna-be-friends, was unable to speak articulately despite the finest education(s) that money and influence can buy, has a dislike of reading, so that 100-page memos have to be boiled down to one page for him, is heedless of facts and evidence, and appears not even to know the meaning of truth.

Tell us what you really think, Mr. Velvel. But does anything there rise to the level of war crime?
More on the “conference” after the jump

double red triangle arrows Continue reading “Remember This Guy? I Think He’s Still The President.”

74 Comments