Constitutional Law

Although both sides utilize the principle of individual liberty on narrow issues, embracing it generally remains difficult.

Serious fault lies with originalists, who distort Founding anti-establishment liberty as discrimination against religion.

SCOTUS has an opportunity to reverse this trend and insist that those who have been constitutionally wronged have some available means to vindicate their violation.

* In case you missed it, Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh refused to condemn President Donald Trump’s attacks on the judiciary (specifically, his insults of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg), refused to say whether he believed same-sex marriage was a constitutional right, and once again denied discussing the Mueller probe with anyone at Kasowitz Benson. What will happen today? [Washington Post]

* President Donald Trump has reportedly called Attorney General Jeff Sessions “a dumb Southerner” and an “idiot” without an Ivy League law degree who “couldn’t even be a one-person country lawyer down in Alabama.” This Alabama Law professor wonders what’s so bad about a degree from Alabama Law. [New York Times]

* Per a new study from the American Bar Association, the sky is blue and women and minorities continue to face racial and gender bias within the legal profession. But, here are some tools to fight these problems. [DealBook / New York Times]

* Allen & Overy has published its 2018 gender pay gap figures, and it’s the first U.K. firm to include data from its “overwhelmingly male” partners in its disclosures. A&O’s median gender pay gap is 39 percent, a slight improvement. [Financial Times]

* It seems that the Justice Department no longer thinks that employers should be forced to consider job applicants with criminal histories, going against Obama-era guidance that the EEOC has been following since 2012. [National Law Journal]

* In an historic opinion, India’s Supreme Court ruled that gay sex between adults is not a crime, casting aside an “irrational, arbitrary, and incomprehensible” colonial-era law that made the act a punishable offense within the country. [Times of India]

* Fire alarms sounded at Miami Law as smoke poured through vents into a student lounge, and some students evacuated their classrooms, but others ran back in to save their laptops. Well, obviously — they’re law students, after all. [Miami Hurricane]

Never forget that even in the current political climate, our civil liberties were meant to be nonpartisan.

Nino and Me will appeal to readers who appreciate good writing on multiple levels.

And Trump can't even fire her because she has a lifetime appointment.

We speak with Judge Jeffrey Sutton about amending state constitutions versus the federal constitution, originalism versus living constitutionalism, and the growing prestige of state judiciaries.

When it comes to American constitutional law, state judges don't get no respect -- and this needs to change, as Judge Jeffrey Sutton argues in an important new book.

* Lanny Davis, lawyer to Michael Cohen, was instrumental in leaking the Trump/McDougal tape to CNN last night. It’s now official: Cohen has turned on Donald Trump. Listen to it here. [CNN]

* Michael Avenatti, lawyer to porn actress Stormy Daniels, says he’s interested in discussing a settlement with Michael Cohen about his client’s “hush agreement” to keep quiet about her 2006 affair with Trump. Avenatti says a meeting was scheduled, then canceled by Cohen’s other lawyer, and now they’re calling each other liars. This is all par for the course. [CNN]

* A split three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit has ruled that the Second Amendment allows the open carrying of guns in public. This comes two years after the court ruled that the Second Amendment did not allow the concealed carrying of guns in public. You can expect this to be appealed to the Ninth Circuit en banc. [Associated Press]

* Dentons has come out swinging with denials against a sexual harassment case that was filed by a business development specialist last month, claiming that not only is the suit without merit, but that it also “misappropriates” the #MeToo movement. We’ll have more on thisinteresting development later today. [American Lawyer]

* If you live in a two-lawyer household, should you be sharing client secrets? The Ohio Supreme Court is about to answer that question for us, since there’s apparently no case on the books about anything remotely like this. [Big Law Business]

* If you’re thinking about applying to law school ahead of a career in politics, then you may have to work a little harder to — wait, nevermind, you can go to pretty much any law school since having a J.D. seems to be the gateway to government. [U.S. News]

The quest to make revoking birthright citizenship a 'mainstream' view needs to end.

#AllAmendmentsMatter

* Justice Kennedy may be stepping down from the Supreme Court, but that doesn’t mean he won’t have a job. The dean of the University of the Pacific’s McGeorge School of Law already called the soon-to-be retireee and offered him a teaching position. Will Kennedy become a law professor? [Sacramento Business Journal]

* The suspect in the Capital Gazette shooting has been identified as Jarrod Ramos. Ramos filed and lost a defamation suit against the newspaper in 2012 for correctly reporting that he’d pleaded guilty to criminal harassment. At least five people were killed during the shooting spree, and several others were seriously injured. [CNBC]

* Does the death penalty violate the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution? At this rate, we may never find out because the Supreme Court keeps turning down cases challenging the issue. Justice Breyer is getting really upset about this, and dissented in both of the Court’s denials this week. [National Law Journal]

* Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is known to her fans as the Notorious R.B.G., and now she’s got an album that’s bears the exact same name. “Notorious R.B.G in Song” is a musical tribute that was created by her children, and even includes jokes about her horrible cooking skills. [WOSU Radio]

* Remember Leicester Bryce Stovell, the lawyer who claimed via failed lawsuit that he was NBA legend LeBron James’s father? He just got disbarred. [American Lawyer]

* According to President Trump’s lawyers in a confidential memo sent to special counsel Robert Mueller, the President can’t obstruct justice because the Constitution allows him to “if he wished, terminate the inquiry, or even exercise his power to pardon.” Tell that to Bill Clinton. [New York Times]

* President Trump was complaining via tweet about the costs of the special counsel’s “Russian Hoax Investigation” this weekend, but as it turns out, the costs of the President’s trips to Mar-a-Lago dwarf the costs of Mueller’s legal bills, so there’s that. [The Hill]

* Speaking of the Russia investigation, despite numerous past denials, Trump’s lawyers also admitted in that confidential memo that the President “dictated” his Donald Trump Jr.’s statement on his 2016 Trump Tower meeting with Russians where he reportedly hoped to get dirt on Hillary Clinton. [Slate]

* Rudy Giuliani says that he doesn’t think it’s a good idea for President Trump to testify before Mueller because “our recollection keeps changing.” That’s an eloquent way of saying that they’re having trouble keeping their fibs in line. [CNN]

* The latest U.S. jobs report was just peachy, but the story for lawyers was a little less rosy. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the legal profession lost about 200 jobs last month, and about 1,000 jobs since last May. [American Lawyer]

Confessing to criminal activity on Facebook is a poor strategy.

Students are asked to go back in time and defeat Brown. That's... not cool.

Everyone remembers the Clinton affair, but who really remembers all the rest?

It's the story of our founding document, told through profiles of ten great individuals who shaped it.

He called the Second Amendment 'a relic of the 18th century.'

We need an amendment to restrain the Constitution's violent nature.