Barack Obama

  • Non-Sequiturs: 08.26.16
    Non-Sequiturs

    Non-Sequiturs: 08.26.16

    * The definitive answer to the question only Elie Mystal cares about — Who in Game of Thrones would make the best lawyer? [LinkedIn]

    * It’s official: non-profit Truth in Advertising has filed a complaint with the FTC about the Kardashian/Jenner family’s sloppily labeled sponsored posts. [The Fashion Law]

    * Texas is forum shopping in its lawsuits against the federal government — and it’s working. [Huffington Post]

    * Sedgwick’s gender discrimination lawsuit could be headed to arbitration. [Law.com]

    * Despite knowing better, people are still going to law school. [Law and More]

  • Morning Docket: 08.04.16
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 08.04.16

    * Khizr Khan, the Gold Star father of a deceased Muslim soldier who offered a stern rebuke for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump during the Democratic National Convention, has taken his law firm’s website offline in the face of incredibly harsh criticism from many of Trump’s supporters. [RT]

    * This brings a whole new meaning to the term “gunner”: Earlier this week, a campus carry law went into effect at public schools in Texas, and law students at UT Law, Texas Southern Law, Texas Tech Law, Texas A&M Law, U. Houston Law, and North Texas Law may now bring concealed weapons with them to school. [Law.com]

    * Yesterday afternoon, President Barack Obama commuted the sentences of 214 prisoners, the most in a single act since at least 1900. According to White House counsel Neil Eggleston, the president’s work is “far from finished,” and he expects that clemency will continue to be granted through the end of his final term. [Big Law Business]

    * After a week of voter ID laws being struck down in battleground states, Texas has agreed to weaken its own voter ID law. Citizens without proper identification will now be able to present a government document with their name and address and sign an affidavit to vote. This will “open the door to voting” for many people. [New York Times]

    * In response to Freedom of Information Act requests, the Clinton Library has released more than 1,300 pages of files on Supreme Court nominee Chief Judge Merrick Garland. It’s really interesting to see what people who refuse to hold a vote for him now had to say when they voted on his D.C. Circuit nomination almost 20 years ago. [POLITICO]

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  • Morning Docket: 05.12.16
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 05.12.16

    * In case you missed it, one of the categories on Jeopardy! earlier this week was “Law Firms.” One of the questions that stumped a contestant was: “Tops for patent litigation per U.S. News & World Report, Fish & Richardson specializes in IP, short for this.” Come on, you dope, the very easy answer was “What is intellectual property?” [WSJ Law Blog]

    * After receiving overwhelming support in both the House and Senate, President Obama signed the Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA) into law yesterday afternoon. The DTSA is the most significant expansion of federal law in IP since the Lanham Act. Companies will now be able to file federal civil lawsuits for theft of trade secrets. [Law 360 (sub. req.)]

    * Mossack Fonseca, the law firm at the center of the Panama Papers scandal, says that it will be filing suit against the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists for leaking information that the firm alleges to be false. Attorneys at the firm say the ICIJ has forced them to “start aggressive legal action to protect [them]selves.” [France24]

    * “You don’t have to work for a 501(c)(3) or anything like that in order to be eligible. You just have to not make that much money.” More law schools are trying to entice students to attend by touting their low-income protection plans and loan repayment assistance plans. We hope your law school is willing to help you after graduation. [U.S. News]

    * Not to harsh your mellow, dude, but according to a recent study by AAA, fatal car accidents have “surged” in states where marijuana has been legalized. For example, in Washington, the number of fatal crashes involving stoned drivers increased from 8% to 17% from 2013 to 2014, the year recreational marijuana was legalized. [Inquisitr]

  • Non-Sequiturs: 05.06.16
    Non-Sequiturs

    Non-Sequiturs: 05.06.16

    * Are vacancies on the federal judiciary causing a crisis in North Carolina? It does have the longest-running hole on the federal bench. [Raleigh News Observer]

    * Jodi Arias is planning a wedding from prison. I don’t know you guys, I think those crazy kids might just make it. [Law and More]

    * If racism and the death penalty can never be separated, is the only just move to eliminate the death penalty? [Slate]

    * More revelations in the stomach-turning Sandusky case. Who at Penn State knew what when? [Lawyers, Guns and Money]

    * An analysis of cases where federal clemency has been granted that identifies trends in President Obama’s decisions. [LinkedIn]

  • Non-Sequiturs: 04.12.16
    Non-Sequiturs

    Non-Sequiturs: 04.12.16

    * Gauging the importance of Supreme Court decisions this Term based on media coverage. [Empirical SCOTUS]

    * Georgia is changing state law because UGA’s football coach thinks it might help the team cover up a scandal and somehow the legislature thinks this makes sense. [SB Nation]

    * Did President Obama outthink himself on the Merrick Garland pick? [Guile Is Good]

    * Using expert witnesses to defeat class certification… an emerging tradition. [The Expert Institute]

    * Some graphics cross-referencing the laws around “burners” and global terrorism. [imgur]

    * Restraining order be damned! Montgomery Blair Sibley is releasing D.C. Madam contacts for our viewing pleasure. [WTOP]

    * What lawyer Scott Limmer learned from a yoga retreat. [Law Reboot]

  • Morning Docket: 04.11.16
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 04.11.16

    * Professor Victor Williams of the Catholic University of America School of Law, who’s been called the “Republican Lawrence Lessig” by some, is running a write-in campaign for president with the sole intent of eliminating Ted Cruz as a candidate due to his birth in Canada. He alleges that the Texas senator committed ballot access fraud by falsely swearing that he was a natural born citizen. Thanks to Williams’s allegations, a primary disqualification hearing is being held today in New Jersey. [PR Newswire]

    * Does SCOTUS have a diversity problem? One justice thinks so. In the wake of President Obama calling attention to his nominee’s whiteness, Justice Sonia Sotomayor noted the Court’s homogeneity, saying that SCOTUS is currently at a “disadvantage from having [five] Catholics, three Jews, [and] everyone from an Ivy League school.” [TIME]

    * Here’s an interesting theory: According to Patterson Belknap senior partner Gregory Diskant, because the Senate has failed to give President Obama its advice and consent with regard to his Supreme Court nominee, it can be said the Senate waived its rights, leaving Obama free to appoint Judge Garland to the high court. [Washington Post]

    * “There is something seductively subversive about having a name that has a secondary street meaning, which, by the way, is not necessarily a bad thing to think of your lawyers as being.” MoFo — a law firm that’s perhaps known as Morrison & Foerster in more conservative circles — has fully embraced its sexy “street name.” [Big Law Business]

    * Prosecutors say former House speaker and disgraced Dickstein Shapiro partner Dennis Hastert paid $3.5M to silence a boy he sexually abused, and molested at least four more children. Because the statutes of limitations have long since run on those crimes, he’ll likely serve only six months for banking crimes related to his hush-money payoffs. [AP]