Constitutional Law

Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 09.07.18

* 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]

By Staci Zaretsky
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 07.25.18

* 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]

By Staci Zaretsky