Election Law
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Law Schools
This Could Be Us
A book on changing the nature of democracy is actually a compelling read. -
Non-Sequiturs
Non Sequiturs: 04.28.19
* Adam Feldman poses — and answers — an interesting question: are particular justices more or less partial to certain lawyers’ or law firms’ positions? [Empirical SCOTUS]
* Speaking of the federal judiciary, Carrie Severino offers this helpful scorecard of President Donald Trump’s track record on judicial appointments — which underscores, as she notes, the importance of the 2020 elections. [Bench Memos / National Review]
* And speaking of President Trump, Joshua Matz and Laurence Tribe have this excellent explanation of why the Supreme Court does not have a role in adjudicating impeachments. [Take Care]
* In the wake of the Mueller Report, Ilya Somin pushes back against conventional wisdom and takes this position: “Not all foreign interference in elections is unjustified. Far from it, in fact.” [Volokh Conspiracy / Reason]
* Fair use in the copyright context is an infamously amorphous concept — so the Fourth Circuit’s recent ruling in Brammer v. Violent Hues Productions deserves your attention. [All Rights Reserved]
* Congratulations to Westlaw Edge, voted the “best new analytics product” by the readers of Dewey B Strategic. [Dewey B Strategic]
* And congrats to Kira Systems on being picked by Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner as its AI solution for “high-volume workstreams” across the firm. [Artificial Lawyer]
* If you’re a libertarian-leaning lawyer with two to six years of experience under your belt, check out these great employment opportunities over at IJ. [Institute for Justice via Volokh Conspiracy / Reason]
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Litigators
Ted Cruz's Lawsuit Makes A Good Point For Bad Reasons
There's a point worth making here, if you can ignore who is making it and his proposed solution.
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Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 02.19.19
* 16 states, including New York and California, filed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump yesterday — yes, on President’s Day — challenging his declaration of a national emergency. [NBC News]
* Meredith Watson, one of the women to accuse Virginia Lieutenant Governor and MoFo partner Justin Fairfax of sexual assault, writes in an op-ed that she’s willing to publicly testify about the allegations. [Washington Post]
* North Carolina elections shenanigans: state investigators the allege Republican candidate engaged in a “coordinated, unlawful and substantially resourced” absentee ballot strategy. [New York Times]
* Gibson Dunn is suing the Justice Department over their about face on online gambling. [Law.com]
* Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers really wants to bring medical marijuana to the badger state. [Huffington Post]
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Election Law
The Most Important Super Bowl Ad You'll See This Year
When did "every vote will be counted" become so controversial? -
Non-Sequiturs
Non Sequiturs: 01.06.19
* It’s baaack: partisan gerrymandering returns to the Supreme Court — and in the view of veteran SCOTUS watcher Amy Howe, it’s unlikely that the justices will duck the merits this time around. [SCOTUSblog]
* Article III standing and the Stored Communications Act: Orin Kerr argues that it should be viewed through the lens of property rather than privacy. [Volokh Conspiracy / Reason]
* Carrie Severino calls out Senate Democrats for their persistent — and in her view, unjustified — questioning of judicial nominees about their religious views and affiliations. [Bench Memos / National Review]
* Joel Cohen identifies an interesting issue: should a defendant prejudiced by government misconduct in a case receive a break at sentencing? [Law & Crime]
* Here are some highlights from Chief Justice John Roberts’s year-end report on the federal judiciary, courtesy of Howard Wasserman. [PrawfsBlawg]
* The new year is a time of beginnings — and endings. Concurring Opinions, you will be missed. [Concurring Opinions]
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Government
Stop Comparing Donald Trump's Campaign Finance Fraud With John Edwards's Case
The agreements today should forever end this stupid connection between Donald Trump's alleged crimes and John Edwards's acquittal. -
Government
Good Time To Point Out Voter ID Would Not Stop Republican Election Fraud
Watching the actual voter fraud in North Carolina shows how useless voter ID laws truly are. - Sponsored
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Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 11.29.18
* Trump’s talking about pardoning Manafort again. The power of the president to pardon people is clear, but the power of the president to tease a pardon to tamper with a witness is an interesting legal wrinkle. In a way, the pardon power is a Yoda conundrum: “do or do not, there is no publicly Tweeting signals.” [NPR]
* Speaking of Manafort, his attorneys claim their joint defense agreement covered his tipping off Trump on details of the Mueller investigation. Except… he pleaded guilty. That kind of ends the “joint defense” part. [The Hill]
* Jeffrey Epstein’s massive child sex ring allegations ended in a 13-month sentence and the prosecutor who bent over backward to protect him is now in Trump’s cabinet. Oh, and somehow Cy Vance’s obsequious starf**king ass shows up in this story because of course it does. [Miami Herald]
* It’s been a few days, so it’s time to remind everyone that the Big 4 accounting firms are about to wreak havoc on Biglaw. [American Lawyer]
* Stacey Abrams is suing over Georgia’s voting laws, and Professor Hasen is here to explain how brilliant this suit is. [Slate]
* Uber ordered to pay more than $1 million in fines because they failed to notice the surge pricing on data breach liability. [Corporate Counsel]
* Attorney poised to become godparent to royal baby. [Legal Cheek]
* The author of this piece is confused by how Republicans seem to completely misunderstand Section 230. It’s probably not confusing: they just want to kill it and lying about it is the easiest path. [The Verge]
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Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 11.13.18
* Matt Whitaker releasing opinion supporting Matt Whitaker. Well, that’s settled then. [Wall Street Journal]
* Tesla loses securities lawyer. They’d best take Elon’s Twitter machine away from him until further notice. [LA Times]
* I dunno, this still seems cheaper than an actual ticket. [Law360]
* Man with pet alligator calls Jungle Law to get his monster back. Are you unfamiliar with Jungle Law? Enjoy! [WDAF]
* Jones Day has hired 11 SCOTUS clerks which is supposed to be surprising except when the Court gets more Trumpist and every law firm but Jones Day gets less Trumpist, this is what one should expect. [National Law Journal]
* While Republicans continue to allege without evidence that Broward County broke election laws, it turns out a Republican stronghold allowed hundreds of illegal votes and no one seems to be too concerned about it. [Politico]
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Courts
The Racism Exposed In The Midterm Election Was Brought To You By John Roberts
Honest historians will lay the Republican success at voter suppression squarely at John Roberts's feet. -
Government
Overrated: 'Are Ballot Selfies Legal?' Underrated: 'You Are The Creeping Narcissism Destroying America'
Can not everything be about you for just one day? -
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Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 11.06.18
* Apparently there’s some kind of election today? In any event, law firms are taking on a huge role as volunteers. [American Lawyer]
* Flush with nearly $250 million in fundraising, Northwestern Law says it’s facing a “difficult time.” Time to cut back on those platinum casebooks. [Law.com]
* Pressure mounts in the UK to make all law firms — not just those bigger than 250 employees — publish gender pay gap data. Meanwhile, US law firms are still so iffy on whether or not to allow associates to give birth that parental leave is a huge deal. [LegalCheek]
* Weinstein defense team wants all charges dropped alleging faulty indictment process. It feels like this is an argument half of Riker’s could benefit from but won’t. [CNN]
* Calm before the storm? Supreme Court refuses to disturb ruling that the Second Amendment doesn’t protect randos carrying concealed weapons. I feel a lot of these punts are designed to let the Kavanaugh fervor die down for a year before they revisit women’s suffrage. [The Hill]
* Another day, another insider trading conviction overturned. [Law360]
* They’re all good lawyers, Brent. [Corporate Counsel]
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Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 11.05.18
* On Friday, Judge Eleanor L. Ross (N.D. Ga.) decided that Georgia’s “exact match” voting law was too restrictive, issuing a preliminary injunction against the law just days before the midterm election and ruling that the state must allow those who were flagged by the law — “individuals who are predominantly minorities” — to prove their citizenship and identity more easily. Strike one against Republican gubernatorial candidate and Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp. [Washington Post]
* Unwilling to accept his potential fate in the election after having been dealt a blow by Judge Ross, Kemp announced on Saturday that he was investigating the Georgia Democratic Party for allegedly trying to hack the state’s voter registration system. Of course, he had little to no evidence to prove these allegations. [New York Times]
* Speaking of the midterm election, you NEED TO VOTE tomorrow. No idea where your polling place is? Not an excuse. Find out right here. Click the link. [HeadCount]
* “[O]ut of an abundance of caution due to security concerns,” Justice Brett Kavanaugh will skip the walking down the Supreme Court’s front steps with the chief justice following his formal investiture ceremony. Every other new justice has done so since 1975 when John Paul Stevens started the tradition. [Big Law Business]
* James Polsinelli, name partner and founder of Am Law 100 firm Polsinelli, will be retiring from the firm on January 31, 2019. What will he do after he steps away from Biglaw? “I’ve got a golf game I’ve neglected for a long time, so I’ll see how much of it I can resurrect,” he said. Congratulations on wonderful career! [American Lawyer]
* “I get to be a part of history”: Denia Perez, a DACA recipient, is the first Dreamer to be admitted to the Connecticut bar. The Quinnipiac Law graduate worked hard to change bar rules so that people like her with U.S. work authorization would be able to practice law in the state. She plans to practice immigration law. [NECN]
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Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 11.01.18
* Supreme Court looks to further cripple class actions by killing off cases that chasten corporate misconduct but can’t feasibly reimburse every individual victim. So, if you’re planning to injure a bunch of people, make sure to do it in a small and difficult to track manner! [National Law Journal]
* Brexit comes to Biglaw as Kirkland moves its European hub to Paris. [International]
* Biglaw associate suing USA Gymnastics for all the reasons USA Gymnastics is getting sued these days. [American Lawyer]
* Tribes are suing North Dakota over its naked effort to disenfranchise Native Americans. [National Law Journal]
* Shocking absolutely no one, the EEOC finds that the #MeToo movement has not resulted in a surge in false allegations. [Law.com]
* This lawsuit against Spirit Airlines uses a lot of fast food analogies but misses the most apt: flying Spirit Airlines is like willfully going to the dirtiest Sbarro you can find and being shocked. [Law360]
* The legal battle over Selendy & Gay’s billings following the departure from Quinn Emanuel pits contractual obligations against legal ethics. [New York Law Journal]
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Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 10.26.18
* Chuck Grassley asking Justice Department to launch a criminal inquiry into Michael Avenatti and his client. So now Grassley cares about investigations. [Law360]
* Does Megyn Kelly have a prayer in her looming battle with NBC? Personally, I don’t think they should fire her — they should make her sit in her office and do nothing for 40 hours a week like they did with Ann Curry. Curry did nothing to deserve that — Kelly on the other hand…. [Law and Crime]
* NYAG suit over Trump Foundation breaching charity rules during the campaign looks like it’s got legs. [Courthouse News Service]
* Justice Kagan doesn’t completely blow off the idea of 18-year terms for the Court, which is something. [National Law Journal]
* Georgia seeks an emergency stay of the temporary restraining order barring the state from disenfranchising absentee voters because injustice delayed is injustice denied. [Daily Report Online]
* Lawyer couple disciplined for talking to each other. [Law.com]
* Japan’s letting the cryptocurrency industry police itself. This will end well. [MIT Technology Review]
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Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 10.25.18
* 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]
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Government
Now Witness The Firepower Of This Fully Armed And Operational Voter Suppression Battle Station
Republican voter suppression efforts are in full force.