Deaths

* Several people were reportedly shot this morning at a GOP baseball practice, including House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, who is now in stable condition. The gunman is in custody. We may have more on this later today. [The Hill]

* The Supreme Court has granted Acting Solicitor General Jeff Wall more time to file papers in order to respond to the recent Ninth Circuit decision upholding a lower court decision which blocked President Donald Trump’s travel ban. This means that any action taken by the high court on the administration’s emergency pleas for certiorari will be even further delayed. [Reuters]

* “I am protecting the right of the president to assert [executive privilege] if he chooses.” Attorney General Jeff Sessions seemed to have no desire to speak about his interactions or conversations with President Donald Trump regarding James Comey’s handling of the Russia probe during his Senate hearing yesterday, and didn’t feel the need to provide a real legal basis for his refusal to answer questions on the topic either. [New York Times; Washington Post]

* In the meantime, even though rumors have been swirling about President Donald Trump’s supposed desire to fire special counsel Robert Mueller, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein says he has no reason to fire Mueller at this time: “If there were good cause, I would consider it. If there were not good cause, it wouldn’t matter to me what anybody says.” [Law360 (sub. req.)]

* Marc Kasowitz may have taken a “career-defining” role representing the “predisent,” but one wonders what will happen to his law firm while he pursues this ambitious undertaking. Kasowitz Benson could suffer when it comes to recruiting new talent to the firm thanks to its leader’s choice of clientele, not to mention the fact that its revenue has been on the decline. [Am Law Daily]

* In an effort to fight the “historic drug epidemic” that in no way involves marijuana, AG Jeff Sessions has asked Congress to roll back the Rohrabacher-Farr amendment, which prohibits the DOJ from using federal funds to prosecute states that have instituted their own laws authorizing the “use, distribution, possession, or cultivation of medical marijuana.” [Washington Post]

* Herma Hill Kay, the first female dean of Berkeley Law, RIP. [The Recorder]

* Congratulations to Howard Bashman and our sister site How Appealing on 15 great years! [How Appealing]

* Roger Ailes, RIP. [Instapundit]

* Fellowships for training law professors are now a thing — but are they a good thing, wonders Professor Paul Horwitz? [PrawfsBlawg]

* “Immigration, Freedom, and the Constitution” — reflections on these timely topics from Professor Ilya Somin. [Volokh Conspiracy / Washington Post]

* Professor Leah Litman breaks down Rod Rosenstein’s appointment of Robert Mueller as special counsel in the Trump/Russia investigation. [Take Care]

* Tips from cyberspace lawyer Andrew Rossow for victims of the recent “WannaCry” ransomware attack. [Huffington Post]

* What dystopian hell have we landed in? The Vice President of the United States is touting an anti-abortion  “A-Team.” Stop the world, I wanna get off. [Huffington Post]

* The double standard just may be too much for the Sessions Department of Justice to bear. [Litigation Daily]

* NYPD has closed its investigation into the death of Judge Sheila Abdus-Salaam, though the medical examiner has yet to determine cause of death. [Law and More]

* A lawyer’s death provides inspiration to help repair the system. [Guile Is Good]

* Is it possible there’ll be an actual check on Jeff Sessions? [Slate]

* Don’t think you’re safe just because you have employer-provided health care. [Salon]

* Checks and balances, how do they work? President Donald Trump seems to be looking for anyone and anything to blame for his first 100 days in office being bungled, and he’s finally settled on the rule system that controls the Senate, calling it a “very rough system,” an “archaic system” that’s “really a bad thing for the country.” [The Guardian]

* In other news, according to Reince Priebus, President Trump’s chief of staff, something that the White House has looked into is changing libel laws to make it easier to sue news organizations, but “[h]ow it gets executed or whether that goes anywhere is a different story.” Wow. [CNN]

* One things for sure — there’s no Supreme Court retirement watch here: Described as “exuberant,” Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg recently exclaimed that she “love[s] her job,” and that Justice Elena Kagan must be absolutely thrilled about Neil Gorsuch’s confirmation, since that means she’ll no longer have to suffer through the incredibly boring tasks typically given to the high court’s junior justice. [National Law Journal]

* “The logic of the decision is hard to accept. You’re OK’ing a system that perpetuates the inequity in compensation for women.” In a disheartening opinion, the Ninth Circuit said employers may legally pay women less than their male counterparts for the same work based exclusively on differences in their prior salaries, even though those differences were recently ruled discriminatory under the Equal Pay Act by a lower court. [CBS News]

* A second suspect has been arrested in the fatal April 10 shooting of Cook County Associate Judge Raymond Myles. Earl Wilson, 45, a man who is “no stranger to the criminal justice system,” was charged with first-degree murder. Per prosecutors, this was a robbery gone wrong, and Myles was not supposed to be killed. Myles is the first Chicago-area judge to be fatally shot in more than three decades. [Chicago Tribune]

* Late last week, the Hollywood Reporter released its annual ranking of the best attorneys who serve the nation’s most glamorous celebrities — the Hollywood 100 — which is always celebrated like “lawyer Christmas in Hollywood for a day.” How many Biglaw attorneys made the list in the tenth edition of the rankings, and how well represented are each of their firms? We’ll have more on this later. [Big Law Business]

* An interesting look at the life and career of Gloria Allred — who has litigated groundbreaking civil rights cases as well as TMZ fodder. [Coverage Opinions]

* Lawyer Jose Baez intends to investigate the death of his client Aaron Hernandez, who was found dead in his prison cell after apparently hanging himself. [Deadspin]

* Footnote of the day (gavel bang: Raffi Melkonian aka @RMFifth Circuit). [Twitter]

* Professor Jonathan Adler still has doubts about the Emoluments Clause lawsuit against President Trump (although it’s much stronger now, thanks to some additional plaintiffs). [Volokh Conspiracy / Washington Post]

* Professor Glenn Reynolds has some doubts about diversity (although I suspect he strongly supports intellectual diversity). [Instapundit]

* Professor Ann Althouse has her doubts about… Democrats (even though she has voted for more Democrats than Republicans over the years). [Althouse]

* And Professor Eugene Volokh has his doubts about the constitutionality of this order. [Volokh Conspiracy / Washington Post]

* In honor of national haiku poetry day, here are some verses from Dean Dan Rodriguez of Northwestern Law. [PrawfsBlawg]

* Congrats to the ACLU of Massachusetts, the national ACLU, the state public defender’s office, and Fick & Marx LLP on a huge and historic win! [ACLU]