Barack Obama

* Barack Obama is churning through moves in the last few days of his presidency. Besides the high-profile commutation of Chelsea Manning’s sentence, he’s busy on land preservation, immigration, Guantanamo Bay and education. [CNN]

* A new report from the Congressional Budget Office is putting pressure on Republicans to decide what comes next, after they repeal the Affordable Care Act. [Washington Post]

* Eighteen people were arrested on the steps of the Supreme Court for protesting the reinstatement of the death penalty 40 years ago. [Law.com]

* A former USC football player apologized for lashing out at his attorney. Owen Hanson told VICE Sports his plea deal on charges of running an offshore gambling drug trafficking ring was a “bait and switch.” He’s since walked backed from those comments and affirmed he took the deal of his own volition. [LA Times]

* Chief Justice John Roberts will swear in Donald Trump as President of the United States on Friday. A look back at Trump’s insults lobbed at the Chief. [National Law Journal]

* This is what happens when judges try to be cool. [Daily Report]

* Loretta Lynch’s powerful farewell. [Huffington Post]

* Daring Donald Trump to perjure himself. [Slate]

* President Obama commuted the majority of Chelsea Manning’s sentence. [New York Times]

* Despite similarities to the Nazis, Germany’s top court refused to ban the far-right National Democratic party. [The Guardian]

* How to make your emails actually convert into new business. [Law and More]

* President Obama is making his call for criminal justice reform in the Harvard Law Review. [Harvard Law Review]

* Take cover, the amici are coming! [Empirical SCOTUS]

* Ho-Love is doubling down on Philly. [Biz Journals]

* The polling game ain’t what it use to be, and so Nate Silver turns his attention to making college football more like a debate tournament. [FiveThirtyEight]

* A look back at the sensational Menendez trial. [Law and More]

* A tribute to Judge Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain of the Ninth Circuit, who takes senior status this week. [National Review]

* Advice to help make that resolution stick. [Huffington Post]

* Are conservative partners giving smaller bonuses to female associates? Per the results of a recent study, political ideology impacts how partners allocate discretionary income to associates based on gender. If you thought this couldn’t happen in Biglaw since bonuses are largely lockstep by class year, think again. The firm studied has 1,000+ lawyers. We’ll have more on this later. [Am Law Daily]

* “We’ve got one of the country’s finest jurists, who I happened to have nominated to the Supreme Court and who’s going to continue to serve our country with distinction as the chief judge on the D.C. circuit, Merrick Garland is here.” President Obama hasn’t withdrawn his SCOTUS nomination, but his White House Hanukkah party introduction of the jurist indicates he’s all but given up on Garland’s confirmation. [Washington Post]

* “Just because you didn’t go to law school doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have more time to bond with a new child.” Lowenstein Sandler has adopted a gender-neutral family leave policy that’s being offered to all of the firm’s employees — not just its lawyers. Congrats to the firm on taking an important leap towards parental equality. [Big Law Business]

* According to the latest ABA data, first-year law school enrollment has increased for the first time since 2010. Don’t get too excited over this news, because only 36 more 1Ls were enrolled in law school in 2016 compared to 2015, and one of the schools with the largest enrollment increase (Indiana Tech) is closing for good. [National Law Journal]

* “Once again, public schools have decided that their commitment to diversity does not extend to Christians.” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is going to war over a religious Charlie Brown Christmas poster that was banned from a local middle school. AG Paxton has filed suit, but some say he did so as a distraction from his own indictment. [Reuters]

* The new treatise on race and the law in the post-Obama age. [The Crime Report]

* A deep dive into the Iowans on Trump’s SCOTUS shortlist. [Des Moines Register]

* And two of the Coloradans too. [Denver Post; Denver Post]

* Plus more on who might be Trump’s pick for Solicitor General. [Empirical SCOTUS]

* Rural areas really need lawyers. [KCUR]

* The latest legal challenge to Brexit. [The Independent]

* Does Mark Zuckerberg have political aspirations? [Law and More]

* RIP retired federal judge, Miles Lord. [ABC]

* Get your Grinch on: 16 of the best holiday themed lawsuits.[Reeves Law]

* Legal tech and the fight for civil rights. Not everyone thinks they’re sitting this one out. [Curo Legal]

* Drain the swamp my ass. Donald Trump SCOTUS pick won’t be on board for campaign finance reform. [Salon]

* President Obama ‘pardoned’ his last turkey. [DCist]

* Yes, the Trump Foundation’s self dealing is disturbing, no the Donald probably won’t face any legal liability over it. [Politico]

* How do you measure the “Scalia-ness” of the next Supreme Court Justice? [SSRN]

* Useful reading: the surgeon general’s latest report on substance abuse. [Law and More]

* It remains unclear if Biglaw has the stuff to withstand an AI onslaught. [CNBC]

* Can internment camps happen again? “Yeah, you know why? Because at the time we went to camp, we had the same Constitution.” [Jezebel]

* The rules surrounding prosecutorial misconduct. [Versus Texas]

* Just in time for the holiday, President Obama commutes the sentences of 79 federal prisoners. [Clemency Project]

* What legal tech do lawyers actually use? [Practice Panther]

* Rhonda Crawford, the Illinois law clerk who allegedly posed as a judge and was running unopposed for her own judgeship, was indicted for her judicial impersonation. Crawford does not intend to drop out of the race for a seat on the bench, despite the state bar ethics commission seeking to suspend her license to practice. [Chicago Tribune]

* London firms CMS and Olswang are merging with international firm Nabarro for a three-way combination that’s set to close in May 2017 and operate under the name CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang, but rumor has it an American firm wants to get in on the action. Will Hunton & Williams join in for four-way fun? [The Lawyer]

* “[M]aybe Republicans can stop with the 60-something repeal votes they’ve taken … and just work with the next president to smooth out the kinks.” President Obama hopes that maybe when his second term in the White House is over, his signature healthcare law can be fixed. He doesn’t even care if they change its name to “Reagancare.” [Reuters]

* “The panic is starting to set in. Those who have a lot of interests at stake need to do work now.” Lawyers across the pond are poised for a profitable 2017 thanks to people scrambling for legal advice following Brexit, but those billables won’t last forever; after all, lawyers aren’t “immune to a broader economic slowdown.” [Big Law Business]

* More law schools are partially or completely covering bar exam preparation costs for their students, but with pass rates plummeting across the nation, you must be curious if this trend has had any positive effect. It worked for Loyola New Orleans and Southern University, whose pass rates for first-timers increased quite a bit. [ABA Journal]

* Guess? has the edge in its latest trademark dispute with Gucci. [The Fashion Law]

* President Obama is making the judiciary more diverse, and it is changing the courts. [Law360 (sub. req.)]

* U.S. District Court Judge Mark Walker benchslaps Florida over its voter ID laws. [Slate]

* On the need for a safeguard against racism in the jury room. [Jost on Justice]

* Has the Supreme Court not been getting enough air time in the 2016 election? [Huffington Post]

* The defendants to testify in Bridgegate. [Law and More]

* The scary part is I am not even surprised by the allegations in the latest Trump lawsuit. [Los Angeles Times]

* An intimate look at Marilyn Mosby and the aftermath of the Freddie Gray case. [New York Times]

* President Obama is bringing sick days to more Americans. [Slate]

* Unequal treatment of women in law firms can start at the interview. [Medium]

* NYC settles over the death of an inmate at Rikers Island. [Huffington Post]

* In criminal cases, you’ve got to be in it to win it. [Katz Justice]

* Tiffany & Co. is taking on discount store Costco over counterfeit goods. [The Fashion Law]

* An in-depth look behind Sixth Circuit Judge Damon Keith’s powerful dissent in Ohio’s voting rights case. [Slate]

* The first successful veto override of the Obama presidency is for a bill to let the families of victims of 9/11 sue Saudi Arabia. [New York Times]

* We’re having a birthday! [Law and More]

* The basics of courtroom etiquette. [Versus Texas]

* We’ve mentioned this contest before, but just a reminder to vote; the deadline is this Friday. [Big Law Business]

* Everything you need to know about dealing with referral sources. [Reboot Your Law Practice]

* Benjamin Ferencz, attorney who prosecuted Nazis, is pledging $10 million to fight genocide. [Huffington Post]

* Florida AG Pam Bondi admits she took donation money from Donald Trump when she was toying with an investigation of Trump University, but says she has no regrets about keeping the cash. “If I had returned it, you would have reported ‘Bondi accepted a bribe, got caught and returned it.” [AP]

* Could President Barack Obama sue Donald Trump over the “birther” conspiracy? If so, what would be his cause of action? He could potentially file suit for defamation, but as a public figure, he’d have an uphill battle proving actual malice and damages. [Big Law Business]

* Ahmad Rahami, the man accused of Saturday’s bombings in New York and New Jersey, has been federally charged with use of a weapon of mass destruction, bombing, destruction of property, and use of a destructive device. His bail has been set at $5.2 million. There’s been no word yet as to whether he has hired an attorney. [CNN]

* According to Judge Alison Nathan of the Southern District of New York, bitcoins are, in fact, money — at least under this federal anti-money laundering statute. If you think “funds” are “pecuniary resources… generally accepted as a medium of exchange or a means of payment,” you better believe bitcoins are a form of money. [WSJ Law Blog]

* “We think that they are attempting to use civil discovery to get around the limits on criminal discovery in the criminal case.” According to Gloria Allred, the civil sexual abuse case her client has filed against Bill Cosby in California is going to be put on the back burner for a time into his criminal charges can be more fully litigated. [Reuters]