Department of Justice

* Justice Department launches its bid to reverse LGBTQ rights. I’ll bet several liked beers that the timing isn’t a coincidence. [National Law Journal]

* Speaking of the Supreme Court, anthropomorphic hemorrhoid Charles Harder is asking the Court to get rid of Section 230 so every website can be sued into oblivion for defamation they don’t even commit. [The Verge]

* With Baker McKenzie chair Paul Rawlinson stepping down from exhaustion, other Biglaw managing partners line up to describe how hard they have it. [American Lawyer]

* Latham & Watkins partner takes Lording his position over everybody literally. [Legal Cheek]

* “Hey Google, what are sanctions?” [Law360]

* The DOJ may have won the stay it wanted, but it’s still staring down a trial over the census. [New York Law Journal]

* Judge set to resolve one of the many shady election law problems plaguing Georgia. [Courthouse News Service]

* Lawyer for Hughes Hubbard partner wants the other side to whip it out. [Law360]

* What if Martindale and Avvo came together into one website that no one looks at? [American Lawyer]

* Court says Michael Avenatti stiffed a contractor on the same day he’s kicked out of his office for being a deadbeat, further solidifying his position as the “liberal version of Trump.” [LA Times]

* Speaking of Trump, insurers can now kill your coverage over the pre-existing condition of “acne.” [NY Times]

* Justice Department advising agencies to lie about FOIA requests. Cool. [Courthouse News Service]

* In case you were wondering, the Mueller probe is not a witch hunt. [CNN]

* The Hong Kong Stock Exchange is now the number one IPO market in the world. Great job for the #MakeAmericaSecondRateAgain crowd! [International]

* Lawyer forcefully argues for Harvard admissions to reflect socioeconomic diversity. If this wasn’t a lawsuit bankrolled by white grievance they might be onto something. [Politico]

* 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]

* Jeff Sessions assures people that the Justice Department won’t be intimidated by the administration. Trump responds with intimidation effort, blasting Justice for not doing enough about the “other side” and then just lists a bunch of Republicans he doesn’t like. [CNN]

* The White House is crowing over an unsealed Starr investigation report that “fully exonerates” Brett Kavanaugh… as a media leak. The collective delusion over there that being a leak is the worst possible sin, and not, you know sexual harassment issues, continues to astound. [National Law Journal]

* The Trump administration continues its efforts to raise taxes on Americans who didn’t vote for him. [Law360]

* After Debevoise offered a comically cozy report to help Ohio State keep winning football games, it’s worth remembering the school still has another internal investigation going on into sexual abuse claims against the wrestling staff. [Corporate Counsel]

* The Texas lateral market is making a whole lot of money. [Texas Lawyer]

* K&L Gates gets the go ahead on Singapore merger. [International]

* Ady Barkan, an ALS patient who has become an activist for patients, announced a campaign to raise money for Susan Collins’s next opponent if she supports the Kavanaugh nomination. Over the course of 3 days, he’s raised over $130K. [Crowdpac]

* RelativityOne announces Allen & Overy to its list of clients. [PR Newswire]

* It’s the first day of the bar exam in a number of jurisdictions. These young lawyers have suggestions for your last month of freedom. [Young Lawyers Advisory Board]

* Jeff Sessions is withholding funding from local law enforcement. Just the latest example of Dummy the House Elf’s curious interpretation of being “tough on crime.” [NJ.com]

* Now Trump will meet with Mueller? Oh, he’ll talk to Mueller about anything but obstruction. So I guess they could discuss the weather. [Time]

* Stormy Daniels is getting a divorce. [NY Times]

* After a dicey back and forth with the ABA, NCCU has retained its accreditation. [News & Observer]

* The EU keeps fining American companies. American companies keep right on monopolizin’. [The Economist]

* Jonathan Turley goes all “get off my lawn” about Millennials and free speech. Magistrate Judge James Donohue points out that Millennials might appreciate free speech more if they had any reason to believe people like Turley weren’t trying to turn it into a pay-to-play right. [Courthouse News Service]

* A quick primer on the key Judge Kavanaugh opinions to understand before this grueling process gets underway. [Law360]

* Dianne Feinstein hiring MoFo to vet Brett Kavanaugh. [The Recorder]

* After briefly flirting with looking outside the two schools, the Supreme Court will remain exclusively for people who attended either Yale or Harvard (including Justice Ginsburg, who transferred from Harvard). [Washington Post]

* Uber brings in top Justice Department attorney. [Wall Street Journal]

* Harvey Weinstein spared fate of living on Riker’s Island after judge lets him out on bail. Just like any random person accused of raping three women would be! [Mercury News]

* The Young Lawyer Editorial Board scolds profession for slow progress on diversity. This drive has to start somewhere and it may as well be at the firms since it’s increasingly clear that the law schools don’t have the courage to do it. [American Lawyer]

* Ty Cobb going to scum punk shows now. I have no joke for this. [The Hill]

* According to Senator Mitch McConnell, Judges Raymond Kethledge and Thomas Hardiman would be the easiest to confirm, so he’s been trying to steer President Trump into choosing one of them to replace Justice Kennedy. On Saturday, the president was still undecided on his pick. Stay tuned for more… [New York Times]

* On Sunday, President Trump still hadn’t picked a judge to replace Justice Kennedy on the Supreme Court, but said he was “very close to making a decision.” At this point, we only know that the president has seemingly “los[t] much of his interest in” Judge Kethledge. Tune in tonight for his pick. Who will get his final SCOTUS rose?! [CNN]

* Despite the DOJ’s request for an extension on a deadline to reunite families that were separated at the border, Judge Dana Sabraw said the deadline must be complied with “unless there is an articulable reason.” Apparently “safety” is a concern now, but this would’ve been much easier if children hadn’t been lost in the system. [The Hill]

* In case you missed it, Judge Lynn Hughes of the Southern District of Texas, who is often the benchslapper, once more became the benchslappee when the Fifth Circuit called him out for allegedly making sexist remarks on the bench. [Texas Lawyer]

* Remember Keila Ravelo, the partner who allegedly bilked Hunton & Williams and Willkie Farr out of $7.8 million to lead a life of luxury? Following her November guilty plea on felony charges, she was recently disbarred. [American Lawyer]

* A Guatemalan woman seeking asylum in the United States has filed suit against the Trump administration, alleging that her 7-year-old son was taken from her at the border last month. She’s only spoken to him once, and desperately wants to be reunited with her child. [The Hill]

* Stop the inhumane insanity: A group of state attorneys general and former U.S. attorneys have written letters to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, demanding that he “immediately” reverse his policy of separating families at the border, letting him know that “the unfolding tragedy falls squarely on [his] shoulders.” [National Law Journal]

* After being dumped by McDermott Will, Michael Cohen has hired Guy Petrillo as his attorney. Petrillo is an ex-S.D.N.Y. prosecutor, which could make it easier for his client to negotiate a deal of some sort after he starts cooperating. [New York Times]

* Seyfarth Shaw has been slapped with a $40 million malpractice suit by Manhattan’s Blue Dog restaurant group, with claims that the firm “negligently, deceptively, and repeatedly” failed in its attempts to properly represent them. [American Lawyer]

* The Justice Department will be holding its annual DOJ Pride event on June 26, and it’s doubtful that AG Sessions will attend. To be honest, given his record, it’s probably better this way for the LGBT employees who’d be celebrating. [Washington Blade]

* Even the mainstream media is covering Biglaw’s new salary scale, but dare we say, our coverage is much better. Check it out here while you cross your fingers and pray that your firm follows the latest in associate compensation trends. [New York Post]

* “We don’t create or adjudicate under secret law or procedure.” Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe has filed suit against the Department of Justice, alleging that the DOJ has repeatedly refused to turn over any documents or identify any policy or procedures that were relied upon when firing him. [Associated Press]

* There’s no vacancy on the Supreme Court right now, but Demand Justice, a liberal nonprofit group, has already spent a hefty sum on digital attack ads against some of the judges on President Trump’s short list. Thus far, Judges Amy Coney Barrett of the Seventh Circuit, Brett Kavanaugh of the D.C. Circuit, and Amul Thapar of the Sixth Circuit have been treated to campaign coverage. [BuzzFeed]

* In case you somehow missed it, over the government’s antitrust objections, a federal judge has approved AT&T’s $85 billion acquisition of Time Warner following a six-week trial. They hope to close the deal by or before June 20. Have hope, everyone, maybe Time Warner Cable will actually function sometime soon. [USA Today]

* The ABA’s president has asked members of the House to oppose the part of the PROSPER Act that would end Public Service Loan Forgiveness, because “[w]ithout PSLF, the organizations that provide life- and livelihood-sustaining services will be even farther away from being able to meet these important challenges.” Plus, many law school graduates wouldn’t be able to survive. [ABA Journal]