Department of Justice

* Even Jonathan Adler, no fan of Obamacare, can’t support the Justice Department’s shift of position in the ongoing Affordable Care Act litigation out of Texas. [Volokh Conspiracy / Reason]

* John Lauro continues to protect the reputation of his client Wendi Adelson, ex-wife of murdered law professor Dan Markel. [2paragraphs]

* Meanwhile, another player in the Dan Markel case — David Oscar Markus, counsel to Charlie Adelson — argues that Attorney General William Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein made the right call on obstruction of justice. [The Hill]

* Speaking of the Mueller investigation, Brianne Gorod points out that Congress has the power to ask the district court to release grand jury transcripts and related information from the case. [Take Care]

* Whether or not you agree with Senator Marco Rubio’s proposed constitutional amendment to fix the size of the U.S. Supreme Court at nine justices, it’s not a bad idea to think about possible ways to restructure SCOTUS — as Gordon Renneisen does here. [Law360]

* Meanwhile, as the Court grapples with the cross-shaped war memorial case this Term, Rick Garnett wonders: can a liberal state favor one religion over others? [First Things via PrawfsBlawg]

* Legal tech M&A activity continues apace, with vLex’s acquisition of Justis. [Artificial Lawyer]

* President Trump claims that the FBI and the DOJ will be investigating the Jussie Smollett case because it’s an “absolute embarrassment to our country.” Meanwhile, in more realistic news, Chicago wants the Empire actor to pay $130,000 to cover the costs of the officers who worked on the case. [Wall Street Journal]

* According to Diane Feinstein, the Senate Judiciary Committee’s top Democrat, “the blue slip is essentially dead.” May the century-old tradition rest in peace. [Big Law Business]

* Jessie Liu, Trump’s pick for third-in-command at the Justice Department upon the recommendation of Attorney General William Barr, has withdrawn from consideration after facing conservative opposition for her association with the National Association of Women Lawyers, an organization she once led. [Reuters]

* C. Allen Parker, the former Cravath presiding partner who brought Biglaw the $180K salary scale and left the firm to become general counsel at Wells Fargo, will now serve as interim CEO and president at the troubled bank. Best of luck… [Corporate Counsel]

* In case you missed it, the NRA is planning to oppose renewal of the Violence Against Women Act due to provisions that would prevent people who have committed domestic abuse from obtaining firearms. That’s just swell. [The Hill]

* Roberta Kaplan, the founding partner at Kaplan Hecker & Fink who represented Edith Windsor in the landmark Supreme Court case that obliterated the Defense of Marriage Act and co-founded the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund, will be speaking at Harvard Law’s 2019 Class Day Ceremony. Congratulations! [Harvard Law Today]

* “This is not a normal vote. This will be a vote about the very nature of our constitution and the separation of powers.” The Senate voted to reject President Trump’s declaration of the national emergency, with 12 Republicans joining with their Democratic colleagues. Now, we’ll wait for the reality TV spectacular that will be the president’s first veto. [Washington Post]

* A poster of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was the target of anti-Semitic graffiti in New York. The NYPD’s Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating. We’ll have more on this later. [New York Times]

* Key prosecutors on special counsel Robert Mueller’s team are leaving, which could signal that the Russian election interference is coming to an end. The latest prosecutor to head for the exit is Andrew Weissmann, who led cases against Paul Manafort and Rick Gates. [NPR]

* Was President Trump “dangling the possibility of a pardon” in front of Michael Cohen as a way to keep his former lawyer from telling the truth? If that’s what happened, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler says it would’ve been a “terrible” abuse of power.[CNN]

* In a 420-0 vote, the House of Representatives “overwhelmingly” approved a resolution urging the Justice Department to make special counsel Robert Mueller’s full report available to Congress. This might matter. Maybe? [POLITICO]

* “About being fired, all I can say is it wasn’t my decision and I wish the center the best.” The Southern Poverty Law Center has fired its co-founder Morris Dees over a “personnel issue.” What happened here? [AL.com]

* Marc Jacobs has filed a motion to dismiss the copyright lawsuit filed by Nirvana over the designer’s use of Kurt Cobain’s yellow smiley face, claiming that the fashion house “reinterpreted the design to incorporate [a Marc Jacobs] branding element into an otherwise commonplace image.” [Hypebeast]

* Former U.S. Sen. Birch Bayh, author of the Title IX law, RIP. [ESPN]

* Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) of the House Intelligence Committee is none too pleased with the Justice Department at the moment. Apparently two unnamed senior officials said the DOJ might refuse to share special counsel Robert Mueller’s report with Congress, a claim Schiff called “absolutely insupportable.” [ABC News]

* Last week, Paul Manafort was sentenced to under four years in jail by Judge T.S. Ellis III (just a little less than the 19 to 24 years called for in the sentencing guidelines), and today, Judge Amy Berman Jackson could sentence him to up to 10 years behind bars. [The Hill]

* Michael Avenatti and Stormy Daniels have officially “broken up” (i.e., their attorney/client relationship has ended), and their announcement was obviously made on Twitter. Clark Brewster will now serve as her personal lawyer. [Daily Beast]

* In case you missed it, the federal judiciary announced a major change to how it will respond to allegations of sexual misconduct. Per Chief Judge Merrick Garland of the D.C. Circuit, it is now “misconduct not to report misconduct.” [Big Law Business]

* “[I]f this deal is not passed, then Brexit could be lost.” Unconvinced, British lawmakers have once again rejected Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit plan to leave the European Union. Will this be the end of Brexit? [USA Today]

* Women lawyers continue to push for lactation rooms in courthouses across the country, and now, the ABA House of Delegates has passed a resolution to make sure all courts create proper facilities for mothers who need to pump or nurse. [Law.com]

* Elon Musk claims that the Securities and Exchange Commission is trying to unconstitutionally censor him and “trample on” his First Amendment rights. This is all over a tweet on Twitter, mind you. [Wall Street Journal (sub. req.)]

* Reps. Jim Jordan and Mark Meadows have referred Michael Cohen to the Justice Department, claiming that they have evidence that Trump’s former fixer “committed perjury and knowingly made false statements“ during his testimony before the House Oversight Committee. [CNN]

* Meanwhile, thanks to Cohen’s testimony, Allen Weisselberg, the longtime chief financial officer of the Trump Organization who has already been granted immunity by SDNY prosecutors, will be called to testify before the House Intelligence Committee. [Daily Beast]

* Almost time to say hello to Judge Neomi Rao: The nominee to replace Justice Brett Kavanaugh on the D.C. Circuit got through the Senate Judiciary Committee on a party-line vote, and the full Senate is likely to vote her onto the bench. [NBC News]

* Lawrence Tu, the chief legal officer over at CBS, has resigned from his post and will be leaving the company in April. His leave follows the ouster of former CEO Les Moonves, who allegedly sexually harassed several employees. [New York Law Journal]

* Much to the Justice Department’s chagrin, a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit unanimously ruled that not only may AT&T acquire Time Warner but that such a combination would be unlikely to harm competition. [Wall Street Journal]

* Ho Ka Terence Yung, the ex-UT Law student who pleaded guilty to terrorizing an admissions interviewer after he was rejected from Georgetown Law, was just sentenced to almost four years in prison for one count of cyberstalking. [Law.com]

* Lincoln Bandlow, a Fox Rothschild partner who some have referred to as a “porn copyright troll,” got sanctioned $750 by a federal judge after missing court deadlines in at least two dozen of those porn infringement cases. [American Lawyer]

* States win big victory blocking Trump’s birth control rules from taking effect. Now I guess he’ll have to build a wall around vaginas too. [Law360]

* Former Sullivan & Cromwell chief John Merow and his wife were killed in an apartment fire on Saturday. [New York Law Journal]

* Quinn Emanuel adds Sandra Moser to co-head the firm’s white collar practice. [National Law Journal]

* Are the days of law firm expansion coming to an end? I’m guessing no. [Law.com]

* William Barr will now face the Senate’s rubber stamp treatment. Here’s a quick recap of this retread. [Vox]

* That was quick! House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she’d wait until the Mueller report came out to talk about the possibility of impeaching the president, but one of her colleagues is planning to re-introduce articles of impeachment against Trump on the first day of the new Congress. [CNN]

* The Senate Judiciary Committee has set a confirmation hearing for William Barr, the nominee for U.S. attorney general, on January 15, and he’ll get the “same fair and thorough vetting process” as all of his predecessors. Yeaahh… [National Law Journal]

* The DOJ won’t ask SCOTUS to block the appointment of a special prosecutor in former Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s quest to delete his pre-pardon guilty verdict on contempt charges — but that doesn’t mean his own lawyers will back down. [POLITICO]

* Connie Brenton, founder of the three-year-old Corporate Legal Operations Consortium (CLOC), is resigning from the organization, citing the board’s desire to move in “different directions.” Hope this doesn’t put a damper on CLOC’s upcoming conference! [Corporate Counsel]

* Guess which boutique firm is “building an army of killers,” and plans to “take over Boston in short order”? That would be Pierce Bainbridge, the self-proclaimed “fastest-growing law firm” in America. That’s a bit scary, but congrats! [American Lawyer]

* Jane Shay Wald, 72, is a partner emeritus at Irell & Manella who leads the firm’s trademark practice, and unlike our columnist Jill Switzer, she refuses to be referred to as a dinosaur: “I am senior, hear me roar. I’m no f***ing dinosaur.” [AGEIST]

* In 2018, what did Donald Trump talk about when he talked about the courts? Adam Feldman dives into the data to find out. [Empirical SCOTUS]

* Speaking of President Trump and the judiciary, he continues to appoint federal judges at a record pace — but the Democrats are doing everything they can to slow down his progress. [Bench Memos / National Review]

* If you care at all about affordable housing, then you should be heartened by these developments in the fight against exclusionary zoning, as discussed by Ilya Somin. [Volokh Conspiracy / Reason]

* Congratulations to the Department of Justice on its ninth consecutive year of civil health care fraud settlements and judgments exceeding $2 billion. [MedCity News]

* If you’re interested in the hot topics among law librarians, legal technologists, and others in the space, check out Jean O’Grady’s most popular stories of 2018. [Dewey B Strategic]

* And if you’re interested in the year that was in artificial intelligence and the law, check out the Artificial Lawyer’s roundup of notable news. [Artificial Lawyer]

* Condolences to the friends, family, and colleagues of Bre Payton, who passed away last week at the age of 26. [The Federalist]

* Veteran trial lawyer David Berg continues his series on “What It Takes To Win.” [YouTube]

* The D.C. Circuit awarded more than $501M in damages to the family of Otto Warmbier, the student who tortured so badly in North Korea that he was left deaf, blind, unable to speak, and died shortly after he returned home. [New York Times]

* Trump’s DOJ has filed many emergency SCOTUS requests to bypass lower courts, but here are the ones to watch: the asylum ban, the DACA wind-down, the transgender military ban, the citizenship census, and kids’ climate change. [PBS NewsHour]

* Ex-district judge and U.S. AG Michael Mukasey says Bill Barr is “probably the best-qualified nominee for U.S. attorney general since Robert Jackson in 1940.” Mukasey has also linked “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” to Islamic terrorism. [Wall Street Journal]

* Not even a weird video in character as Frank Underwood can help him now: Kevin Spacey has been accused of sexually assaulting a minor and is scheduled to be arraigned on a felony charge of indecent assault and battery. [Boston Globe]

* In case you missed it,after declaring war against the lack of diversity in the arbitration world, rapper Jay-Z managed to get the American Arbitration Association to commit to expanding its roster of black arbitrators. [Hollywood Reporter]