Above the Law

* Baker Botts files SCOTUS brief reminding them what wedding cakes look like. Someday we'll look back on a case designed to create second class citizens and think, "oh right, that's the one where the Supreme Court decided with the help of a picture book." [National Law Journal]

* Pepe the Frog's creator is going nuclear with his intellectual property challenges against the Nazi scum who've turned his character into a mascot. [Engadget]

* Trader seeks to withdraw guilty plea after government shows him evidence that he probably didn't commit a crime. The more you ponder that sentence, the more troubling it is. [Law 360]

* There are more female equity partners than ever, which means still not very many. [Am Law Daily]

* BuzzFeed hires Roy Black in the defamation case over the Trump dossier. Specifically, this case is about the allegations in the dossier that Aleksej Gubarev hacked the Democrats, but that's no fun, so let's remember the dossier also talked about Russian pee parties. [Law.com]

* A review of the federal government's merits and amicus arguments this Term and it's an aggressive invitation to legislate from the bench. So much for railing against "activist judges"! [Empirical SCOTUS]

* Harvard University is hoping Trump's NLRB changes labor law so they can crush unionization efforts on campus. Damn liberal, socialist colleges. [Labor Notes]

* Here's one to make some of you feel very old: Toys R Us files for bankruptcy. [Huffington Post]

DEAR GOOD ATTORNEYS, THANK YOU FOR NOT WORKING FOR TRUMP: At some point, we have to realize that Donald Trump receives such shoddy and borderline unethical legal representation because quality, ethical lawyers simply refuse to work for him. No really good attorney would talk about client confidences over lunch in a public restaurant. Even most mediocre attorneys wouldn't talk about undisclosed documents pertinent to an ongoing investigation that are locked in a safe! But Trump attorney Ty Cobb... he did those things. Read here, and thank you for your lack of service.

I MEAN, WE HAVE A STAFF ATTORNEY WHO PLEADED GUILTY TO CHILD PORN TODAY: And yet I'm still somehow more disgusted by Ty Cobb. Cobb was in SIDEWALK SEATING. ANYBODY could have walked by. And he's talking about responsive documents locked in a safe? Maybe Trump should hire this Paul Weiss staff attorney next. At least he TRIED to distribute kiddie porn IN SECRET. Read the gross details here.

MOTEL 6 LEAVES THE LIGHT ON FOR ICE AGENTS: Franchises in Arizona have been sending the names of its guests to ICE just in case they don't have their papers. I'd say, "I'll never stay in a Motel 6 because of this." But, like, I'll never stay in a Motel 6 because there is no where I need to go so badly that it's worth staying in a Motel 6. "Would you like to come see Jesus in concert?" Sure! "Only rooms available are at the Motel 6." I'll catch it when it comes on Netflix. But, if you needed another reason, read it here.

AN INTERVIEW ON ORIGINALISM: David Lat interviews author Ilan Wurman, who wrote A Debt Against the Living: An Introduction to Originalism. Read the interview here.

I DON'T THINK COPS WILL READ THE ORIGINALISM BOOK THOUGH: Originalism presupposes a set of rights and responsibilities agreed to at the founding of this country. Cops, for the most part, don't acknowledge those kinds of textual restraints on government power. I bet they'd read The Leviathan, though. The raw power of the state of nature is what the cops are always trying to bring us back to. Read about St. Louis PD here.