* John Carney on backdating: "Although it was billed as the latest financial crime of the century, backdating is turning out to have some very minor results. Few prosecutions, stalled or failed lawsuits..." [DealBreaker]

* Glenn Reynolds on the Omaha mall shooting: "[W]e've reached the point at which a facility that bans firearms, making its patrons unable to defend themselves, should be subject to lawsuit for its failure to protect them." [Instapundit]

* Ann Althouse on Hillary Clinton: "The resistance I feel toward Hillary has to do do with her advancement under the aegis of a powerful man — a powerful man who seems to have diminished quite a number of women." [Althouse]

* Dan Solove, author of The Future of Reputation, on breaking up with someone via Facebook. [Concurring Opinions]

* Michael Dimino on SOC: "Justice O'Connor's status as the first woman on the Court makes it easy to praise her. I cannot imagine that she would be receiving the praise that she gets from the country if she were male." [PrawfsBlawg]

* Valerie Plame, whose exposure as a CIA agent launched lengthy legal proceedings, on the prospect of posing in Playboy: "I'm a mother of twins, are you kidding me?" [Washington Examiner / Yeas and Nays via Gawker]

Check out this interesting data about the campaign contributions of Yale faculty and staff, over at Instapundit. It prompted Glenn Reynolds to ask: "Why don't the Yale Law faculty like Hillary?"

Good question. And here's another: Even if the Yale Law faculty don't like this distinguished YLS alumna, why don't they at least send their (hopefully non-tainted) money her way? Don't they want her to remember them when she's President Clinton, looking to fill high-ranking Justice Department posts or spots on the federal bench? As the old saying goes, "Scratch a Yale law professor (or graduate) and you'll find an aspiring federal judge."

(The information originally appeared in this excellent Yale Daily News article by Andrew Mangino -- who, by the way, helped us out with the reporting for this piece on law firm economics and culture.)

Yale's Diversity Problem [Instapundit]
Profs donate heavily to Dems [Yale Daily News]

* A rave review for Saira Rao's Chambermaid. [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]

* How could we NOT link to a post entitled "Do Faculty Have a Constitutional Right to Sleep With Their Students?" [TaxProf Blog]

* A very interesting installment of The Glenn and Helen Show, in which they speak with Professor Richard Epstein about drugs and health care. [Instapundit]

The blogosphere is ablaze with discussion of the AutoAdmit lawsuit. We collect and summarize the commentary in this linkwrap.

(We read all the blogs, so you don't have to! You can thank us later.)

1. Students File Suit Against Ex-AutoAdmit Director, Others [WSJ Law Blog]

If you haven't done so already, read this post first. It contains the most detailed factual background about the case. You can also access the Complaint itself by clicking here (PDF).

2. Yale law students sue over "the scummiest kind of sexually offensive tripe" at AutoAdmit [Althouse]

Professor Ann Althouse has her doubts about this lawsuit:

So this is the 21st century? Where courts award punitive damages for offensive words and pictures? Isn't "the scummiest kind of sexually offensive tripe" exactly what we always used to say people had to put up with in a free country? Man, that was so 20th century!

3. Suing Autodmit [Instapundit]

Professor Glenn Reynolds -- who kindly links to our post, by the way -- largely agrees with Professor Althouse. He sarcastically observes: "Stuff that offends dumb hicks in the heartland is constitutionally protected. Stuff that offends Yale Law Students must be stamped out!"

More links, after the jump.

Shanetta Y. Cutlar, a high-ranking official of the U.S. Department of Justice, oversees the Special Litigation Section (SPL) of the Civil Rights Division. As chief of the SPL, Cutlar is a steward(ess) of our nation's civil rights laws.

And, of course, Cutlar is a great diva -- which is why we adore her so much.*

Those who get to see a great diva up close, or to work with one, are truly blessed. So what if divas are difficult? That's why we call them divas.

It should come as no surprise, then, that working for Shanetta Cutlar comes with a few occupational hazards. From a former employee at SPL:

I loved my position, duties and responsibilities. Unfortunately, in time I become a victim of Shanetta's vicious, often brutal attacks, of constant, uncontrolled rage.

I tried to tolerate and persevere. But eventually the stress began to take a physical toll on me. Down to my last few months or so with the Department, I suffered a bout of diarrhea, each and every morning, before going to work.

My nerves were wrecked. I soon realized I had to seek employment elsewhere outside of the Department.

So I left DOJ and Shanetta. Life is good again.

Color us incredulous. You sacrificed the opportunity to work under an amazing lawyer and leader because, well, you had a touch of the runs?

You need to toughen up. Your "problem" wasn't anything that couldn't have been solved with a family-sized bottle of Kaopectate. And a lifetime supply of Depends.

* Sorry, Shalini. We will not apologize for having a weakness for divas. We have loved divas for our entire life, ever since we popped out of one's womb.

For those of you who care (all six of you), we defend our fixation on divas after the jump.

A recent meme of the legal blogosphere: neckties.

We find this subject hard to resist, since it lies at the intersection of two of our favorite topics: fashion and law. Because of the staid fashion standards of the legal profession -- dark suits, white or blue shirts, black shoes (or brown if you're wild 'n crazy) -- one of the few ways male lawyers can express themselves sartorially is through their ties.

Here are a few quick links and thoughts:

* One of the more random things we've heard of ex-practicing-lawyers going into. But it's probably more fun than document review, or two-hour conference calls in which nothing is accomplished. [WSJ Law Blog]

* An excellent taxonomy of neckwear, from Raffi Melkonian of Crescat (who, as we know from his food-related posts, knows how to live the good life). [Crescat Sententia]

We agree with Raffi's endorsement of Zegna ties (and own about half a dozen ourselves). But we also have a weakness for the Hermès school of ties in fun patterns -- and would add Ferragamo to this grouping.

One of our favorite ties is a red Ferragamo, with a zany print of dancing Asian coolies (pictured at right). Back in our law firm days, when we sometimes felt like a highly-paid coolie, we'd wear this necktie as a form of silent protest. A $120 tie, emblazoned with dancing coolie workers, was the perfect embodiment of the Biglaw predicament.

* Finally, here are some necktie thoughts from Professor Glenn Reynolds. Brooks Brothers makes some nice ties, but they can be a little unexciting. So the Instapundit wisely balances these out with printed ties from museum shops. [Instapundit]

P.S. The best personal necktie collection we know of is owned by the Justice Department's Office of Sartorial Counsel (aka Ryan Bounds, Chief of Staff for the Office of Legal Policy).

We're delighted that our scoop about Yale Law School Dean Harold Koh pushing Linda Greenhouse over Justice Samuel Alito for the YLS Award of Merit has been picked up so widely. It even made the pages of the Holy Trinity of the Right-of-Center Blawgosphere: Instapundit, Volokh Conspiracy (Jonathan Adler), and Althouse.

As noted, our transcript of the deliberations was fictionalized and satirical. But it is based upon what we've learned about the process by which Greenhouse was selected.

If you disbelieve our account in its entirety, allow us to share with you some supporting information. This isn't the first time that Dean Koh has been accused of showing favoritism towards Linda Greenhouse. Consider the case of the Harry Blackmun papers.

Koh, a former law clerk to Justice Blackmun and advisor to his daughter Sally, played a major role in giving Linda Greenhouse exclusive, early access to Blackmun's papers -- much to the chagrin of other news organizations. As reported at the time by Tony Mauro:

Blackmun's daughter Sally, the executor for the papers, said in an interview last week that Linda Greenhouse, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Supreme Court correspondent for The New York Times, and Nina Totenberg, longtime Court correspondent for National Public Radio, have been given exclusive pre-release access to the papers for their respective media of print and broadcast journalism....

The Washington Post asked for early access before the exclusive arrangement was made, but was denied. Editors at the Post were described by one knowledgeable source outside the newspaper as "livid" over the favored treatment granted to the Times.

Executive editor Leonard Downie Jr. and Post attorney David Kendall of Williams & Connolly repeatedly sought reconsideration of the exclusive deal, without success, according to sources at the Post. The Post petitioned Sally Blackmun and Yale Law School professor Harold Koh, a former clerk to the justice and now an adviser to Blackmun.

A Post source says that Koh invited the newspaper to make a proposal for early access last July, but did not mention a deadline. According to the source, by the time the Post replied in September with a plan for non-exclusive early access, the decision had already been made to give the Times exclusive access.

Say it ain't so! Dean Koh had already made up his mind, in favor of La Greenhouse? Quelle surprise!

For her part, Greenhouse says she began talking with Koh last July, but did not seek exclusivity. The offer to give the Times the only print media preview "fell in my lap," she says....

Koh declined to comment on why Greenhouse and Totenberg were selected.

So what is the origin of Linda Greenhouse's Svengali-like power over Harold Koh?

We have a theory. Check it out, along with a bunch of interesting links, after the jump.

* Woo-hoo!!! Good news for online rumor-mongerers like ourselves. [Volokh Conspiracy; Instapundit]

* And a bit of bad news, too. [Concurring Opinions]

* We weren't the only ones who had fun at Federalistapalooza. [Southern Appeal]

* "Conservative civil war": Not just at the Federalist Society. [Andrew Sullivan; Instapundit; Ryan Sager]

* When the subject of gay marriage comes up, social conservatives bring out a parade of horribles -- including polygamy. Now Ann Althouse wonders: Is it really so horrible? [Althouse]

* While we're linking to contrarian thinking, here's a different take on L'Affaire OJ.: "Rupert Murdoch's relevant anatomy shrunk to the size of two shriveled peas." [Crime & Federalism]

* Some food for thought: "If the [anti-burqa] legislation is enacted, a Dutch woman could marry her lesbian partner, spend her life smoking a little hashish now and then -- and when the time comes, get a doctor's assistance in pulling the plug -- all well within Dutch law. But she couldn't ride the subway with a veil over her face. What an odd country." [PrawfsBlawg]

* Actually, Will, we think this is really cool. Who wants to tour Civil War battlefields when you can visit these instead? [Crescat Sententia]

After finding out your Favorite Supreme Court Justice (answer: Justice Scalia), we asked about your LEAST Favorite Supreme Court justice. And the result was surprising, at least to us.

Voter turnout was massive, with over 6,000 votes cast. Maybe everyone's in a voting frame of mind, with Election Day so close. Here's how you voted:

The "winner": Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, with a whopping 40 percent of ballots cast. Second place went to Justice David H. Souter, with 19 percent of the vote.

Thank you to the voters -- all 6,000 of you. And thanks to everyone who linked to the poll, especially Glenn Reynolds, Ann Althouse, and Jason Harrow (of SCOTUSblog).

We have a few cursory observations on these results, which appear after the jump.

Now that we have the able assistance of Stella Q for Non-Sequiturs -- check out her great post from yesterday -- we have no place for random links that catch our eye, but don't merit full treatment in a separate post. Blogospheric leftovers, if you will.

So here's a special midday "bonus edition" of Non-Sequiturs:

* "Law porn": Glenn Reynolds is not turned on. [Instapundit]

* Wherever there's a financial debacle, the plaintiffs' lawyers can't be far behind. [DealBreaker]

* Project Runway: We were thinking (and hoping) that Uli Herzner would win. But Professor Althouse called this one correctly. [Althouse]

* This paper sounds interesting. Can it justify damage awards that include payments for prostitute visits? [PrawfsBlawg]

* "[T]he Nietzschean alternative: a postmodern appropriation of pop culture that turns an entire class into a video game." Unorthodox? Certainly. But it also sounds kinda fun. [Concurring Opinions]

* Forget about Kansas' Kansas's Kansas' issues. What's the matter with Namibia? [WSJ Law Blog]

* CNN has its finger on the pulse of America -- and Orin Kerr is giggling. [Volokh Conspiracy]

* DLA Piper's Amy Schulman (at right): Leading litigatrix, or Dianne Feinstein doppelganger? [WSJ Law Blog]

* "Eugene Volokh" on Boston Legal: the mystery revealed. Congrats on the shout-out, Professor Volokh! [Volokh Conspiracy]

* We enjoyed this. Or, to do our best Instapundit impression: HEH.
[Concurring Opinions]

* Another funny interview story, courtesy of David Bernstein. As for why he didn't get an offer: Maybe he picked the wrong concealer? [Volokh Conspiracy]

* There's still time left for you to vote: Who is the Paris Hilton of the federal judiciary? [ATL]

* There appears to be a void in the blogosphere where rumor-mongering about law school faculty moves ought to be. [Is That Legal?; Concurring Opinions]

Note: We're happy to try and fill that void. So send us your tips, your juicy gossip about who in legal academia might be going where. The bigger the name, the better. If we receive a regular inflow of such info, we'll make it a weekly feature.

* New Jersey politics: Never a dull moment. [Wall Street Journal via Instapundit]

* Did Nancy Grace go too far in her grilling of Melinda Duckett? [MSNBC via Andrew Sullivan; Crime & Federalism]

* If you royally piss off a judge with a recusal request, which he denies, can you try to get him recused again? [New York Times via DealBreaker]

* Congrats to Andrew Sullivan and Glenn Reynolds. [Andrew Sullivan]

* Man with "suspicious package" arrested outside Supreme Court building. Write your own punchline -- it's Friday after 5, we're outta here. [SCOTUSblog]