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  • Non-Sequiturs

    Non-Sequiturs: 06.11.15

    * More whining about President Obama opining on Supreme Court cases while the justices “deliberate” — as though anyone’s opinion is up in the air. Apparently presidents have rarely done this. Fun fact: cynical lawyers have rarely gotten to the Supreme Court to attack a president’s landmark legislation on a tortured textual reading, but here we are. [The Volokh Conspiracy / Washington Post]

    * It’s like the Hangover. Except in prison. With more drugs. [Legal Juice]

    * Hey, remember when Jeb Bush got behind a law that required rape victims to publish their sexual histories in the newspaper until the law was shot down by the courts two years later? Good times. [Salon]

    * The Right proclaims Jeb Bush really doesn’t believe in publicly shaming women for having sex. Hm. See item 3 supra. [Legal Insurrection]

    * Wow. The Senate actually passed something. It’s a resolution hailing the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments. Is it a sign of my cynicism that I’m shocked even that got approved? [Constitutional Accountability Center]

    * Why the rationale of Roe doesn’t really matter. [Lawyers, Guns & Money]

    * Fourth Circuit panel snipes at each other over whether to call out overzealous prosecutors. It got so bad they actually sealed the opinion. [Maryland Appellate Blog]

    * Derek Khanna has a new report on patent reform written with Lincoln Labs. The fundamental premise: patents are not encouraging innovation any more. [Lincoln Labs]

    * Watchdog is reporting that Kroll Associates conveniently overlooked dozens of terrible LSAT scores in its report on University of Texas admission standards. It bears repeating: just how dumb must Abigail Fisher be to not get into this school? [Watchdog]

    * A short memoir about suing The Grateful Dead. [The Faculty Lounge]

  • Non-Sequiturs

    Non-Sequiturs: 06.09.15

    * It’s the 800th Anniversary of the Magna Carta. Have you ever read it? Because it includes some stereotypically troubling thoughts on Jews. [St. Louis Post-Dispatch]

    * The lawyer from the Lady Chatterley’s Lover obscenity trial is 100 years old. So… take that, “clean living.” [Daily Mail]

    * Tennessee Law Review hosted a Third Amendment Symposium. Professor Reynolds waxes philosophic on whether the Third Amendment might limit government intrusiveness into domestic affairs in areas as diverse as computer spyware, “affirmative consent” laws, and childrearing. Sounds like one of them pinko commie “non-Originalist” readings to me. [Instapundit]

    * In a sign of the times, there’s a new information service providing analysis of critical legal issues related to cybersecurity, data protection, and data privacy challenges. But since most lawyers still think “banning personal email” is the height of cybersecurity, it may be a bit advanced for you. [The Cybersecurity Law Report]

    * Davis Polk associate Elyssa Friedland has a new book titled Love and Miss Communication (affiliate link) about a Biglaw associate fired for sending too many personal emails at work. As we just wrote before, that won’t be a problem at a lot of firms anymore. [Amazon]

    * We talked about lawyers meditating, so now let’s talk about lawyers and taijiquan. [Katz Justice]

    * Kudos to Lucosky Brookman LLP for raising over $155,000 for Save a Child’s Heart with its Second Annual Charity Golf Outing. [Lucosky Brookman LLP]

    * Richard Hsu chats with Mark Lemley, Stanford Law professor and founder of Lex Machina, about playing video games. Something we understand here at ATL. [Hsu Untied]

  • Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 05.22.15

    * Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich isn’t the only politician who will be joining Dentons. After Dentons completes a merger with McKenna Long & Aldridge, former DNC Chair Howard Dean will also be working for the largest law firm in the world. YEEEAAAH! [The Intercept]

    * Now that New York has adopted the Uniform Bar Exam, other states are considering it. Hurry up, because the UBE will “break down the long persistent barriers that keep lawyers from moving” — which isn’t a bad thing. [National Law Journal]

    * In half a century of reproductive and gay rights cases, it’s worth noting that “arguments based on a right to privacy have tended to weaken and crack; arguments based on equality have grown only stronger.” Let’s see what SCOTUS does in June. [The New Yorker]

    * All six of the Baltimore police officers who were arrested following the death of Freddie Gray have been indicted on homicide and assault charges. Despite the fact there’s now an indictment, the officers’ lawyers are calling the prosecution’s case weak. [New York Times]

    * “Can you #trademark a #hashtag?” It’s somewhat of a tricky issue for people who are trying to register their marks at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, but these attorneys from IP powerhouse Morrison & Foerster have a pretty good explanation. [Law.com]

  • Non-Sequiturs

    Non-Sequiturs: 05.14.15

    * The NFLPA is appealing the 4-game suspension Tom Brady received in the wake of the Wells Report. It’s more probable than not that he’ll lose. [CNN]

    * Lawyer tackles his own client trying to flee the courtroom. Great, now litigators have to start worrying about the long-term effect of concussions. [Legal Cheek]

    * New rankings are out and Thomas M. Cooley Law School (or WMU or whatever) is NUMBER 1! Seriously. For real. Find out why… [Georgetown Law via TaxProf Blog]

    * The Wright Brothers: The Original Patent Trolls. [Concurring Opinions]

    * Are you into spy thrillers? What about lengthy treatises on standing? Well, then you’re in luck. [Dorf on Law]

    * A Washington prosecutorial office rocked by misconduct allegations. Ho hum, prosecutors break the rules. But the source — a whistleblowing veteran prosecutor — is a new twist. [The Open File]

    * The jury is deliberating on Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s fate in the Boston bombing trial [Law and More]

    * The final two items both focus on agricultural regulations. First, a look back at the life of Roscoe Filburn, the wheat farmer at the center of Wickard v. Filburn. Now I’ll never not see Homer Simpson when I think of that case. [Lawyers, Guns & Money]

    * Second, if you aren’t following the raisins takings case, basically the government takes a share of the annual raisin crop for its own use… without compensating the growers. Put aside the constitutionality, that’s startlingly inefficient when the government encourages farmers to shift away from a crop the government needs. Here’s a video about the farmers at the center of the case. [YouTube]

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFbzLPJtYPE

  • Non-Sequiturs

    Non-Sequiturs: 04.28.15

    * Trying Meredith Grey for wrongful death. Can we put her on How To Get Away With Murder and then have Hydra massacre them all in an all-purging ABC Network fire? [Lowenthal & Abrams]

    * If the Supreme Court dismisses a case as improvidently granted, it’s a DIG. If they did it in the past, was it DUG? Professor Carissa Byrne Hessick ponders the linguistics that we’d never ever have considered. And that probably bodes well for us. [PrawfsBlawg]

    * Did you hear about that two-way mirror that a bar installed to watch the women’s room? Police say no privacy rights were implicated, because apparently women understand that the bathroom door was unlocked so they expected guys to walk in on them. Stellar legal analysis. [Jezebel]

    * NYC moves into the 20th Century with its summons process. No, that’s not a typo and yes, that’s still a good thing. [LFC 360]

    * It’s important to remember that the revelation that David Messerschmitt may have led a double life doesn’t mean that it doesn’t happen all the time. And we’re not talking about a Matt Murdock-style double life here, which doesn’t happen much. [Law and More]

    * Nice shout out to Lexis-Nexis Blog for getting into the content production game. [Forbes]

    * In the post-Jenner announcement world, here’s what employers can do to help transgender employees. A good start would be “don’t be Saks.” [LXBN]

    * Interviewing people waiting in line for Supreme Court oral arguments and lamenting how much of their day is wasted because we can’t have a goddamned camera in the room. [Fix the Court]