Election Law

  • Morning Docket: 10.26.16
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 10.26.16

    * Somebody cry Justin Timberlake a river, because the pop star is currently under investigation for taking a ballot selfie in his home state of Tennessee. He may face up to 30 days in jail and a fine of $50 for posting a picture of himself at a polling station on his Instagram account, where it was seen by his more than 37 million followers. [Reuters]

    UPDATE: Amy Weirich, District Attorney General of Shelby County, Tennessee, said the following as to Timberlake’s alleged violation of the state’s ballot selfie law: “No one in our office is currently investigating this matter nor will we be using our limited resources to do so.”

    * If Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump were to win the election, he’d be entering the presidency with an unprecedented number of unresolved legal cases. At present, Trump has at least 75 pending lawsuits, and they’d follow him to the White House where he’d continue to be dogged by them, leaving him distracted. [USA Today]

    * “Diversity is the future; embrace it or you’re obsolete.” According to Andrew Glincher, Nixon Peabody’s managing partner, his firm has tried to increase its diversity because while the legal profession itself is “focused on past and precedent,” his firm is “future-focused,” and he finds that a diverse workforce makes his teams better overall. [Forbes]

    * Want to attend a law school that will teach you about real-life music issues? Want to attend a law school that’s produced some of the most well-known music lawyers in the country? Then you may want to attend one of these 10 law schools (many in the T14), handpicked by Billboard for their elite alumni practicing in the music field. [Billboard]

    * Citing changes in donor participation, Big Bend CrimeStoppers has reduced the reward being offered for information leading to an arrest in the 2014 killing of Florida State law professor Dan Markel. Considering three suspects have been arrested and charged — and one of them has already taken a plea deal — this isn’t so bad. [Tallahassee Democrat]

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  • Morning Docket: 10.11.16
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 10.11.16

    * As we previously mentioned, London-based firms CMS and Olswang and international firm Nabarro were considering entering into a merger. Partners at all three firms have officially voted in favor of the merger, which will close in May 2017. The new firm will operate under the CMS name. We’ll have more on this later. [Legal Week]

    * “The infringement has been affirmed, now it’s whether this huge judgment should be affirmed.” In the Supreme Court’s first design patent case in more than 120 years, Samsung will face off against Apple today, where the smartphone companies will duke it out over how much Samsung should have had to pay for copying the iPhone. [Reuters]

    * “Justice [Ruth Bader] Ginsburg no longer needs to worry about whether she seems threatening to the Court. She is the Court.” A new linguistics research study tells us what we can learn from Justice Ginsburg’s accent as a lawyer versus her accent as a Supreme Court justice, and how all lawyers make accommodations in their speech. [TIME]

    * By edict of a federal court — and over Governor Rick Scott’s objections — Florida’s voter registration deadline has been extended to 5 p.m. Wednesday thanks to Hurricane Matthew’s interference with last-minute sign-ups. Florida’s Democratic Party alleged many voters would be “severely burdened” by the hurricane’s effects. [CNN]

    * Sorry, social justice warriors: Harvard Law 1Ls wanted to feed the university’s striking dining services workers at their sections’ social committee events, but Dean Marcia Sells shut down their plans, saying it “does not seem to make sense for us to encourage … students to bring in food to feed workers who are on strike.” [The Concourse / Deadspin]

  • Non-Sequiturs: 09.15.16
    Non-Sequiturs

    Non-Sequiturs: 09.15.16

    * A considered case for pardoning Edward Snowden by Timothy Edgar, who was on the team responsible during the George W. Bush administration for determining that most of the secret surveillance programs had a firm basis in law. [Lawfare]

    * The Virginia Supreme Court denied an effort by Republican legislators to find Governor McAuliffe in contempt over an effort to restore voting rights to felons. [Richmond Times-Dispatch]

    * The “Urban Cowboy” threatens to sue New York City. Most importantly, he’s lawyered up with Richard Luthmann, the Staten Island lawyer who previously sought trial by combat. This should be fun. [Gothamist]

    * An omnibus look at what the election means for the courts. Beyond Justice Peter Thiel, of course. [Law.com]

    * Many University of Chicago professors have denounced the “no safe spaces” publicity stunt from a few weeks ago, but the law school has largely missed the point of the dispute stayed out of the fray. [WSJ Law Blog]

    * You don’t see many paeans to the Lochner era, but here’s one. [Library of Law and Liberty]

    * Oregon has settled with Oracle over the state’s troubled health exchange. [Oregonlive]

    * Walking meetings improve productivity. Yeah, I’ve watched West Wing reruns too. [TaxProf Blog]

    * ATL Editor Kathryn Rubino talks politics on the latest Today’s Verdict. [BronxNet]

  • Morning Docket: 09.15.16
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 09.15.16

    * Judge Posner tells lawyer for Mike Pence: “You are so out of it.” Was he talking about the case or the election? [LA Times]

    * Vibrator sparks class action of bachelorette party attendee class. [Corporate Counsel]

    * Bayer is looking to buy Monsanto and multiple Biglaw firms are working on this headache. [The Am Law Daily]

    * Former Simpson Thacher clerk gets 46 months for insider trading. [Law360]

    * Guess who is funding the battle over pot legalization? [The Intercept]

    * The next Brown v. Board? [Law.com]

    * The least shocking lawsuit award goes to this suit claims Georgia’s voter registration laws violate federal law. [ABC News]

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  • Non-Sequiturs: 08.31.16
    Non-Sequiturs

    Non-Sequiturs: 08.31.16

    * SCOTUS is having none of the North Carolina voter ID bullsh*t. [Huffington Post]

    * Being a good defense lawyer is about finding and owning the paths to winning. [Katz Justice]

    * Some people really want to give UNT Dallas College of Law another shot at accreditation. [Texas Lawyer]

    * The lowdown on the recent decision requiring class action plaintiffs to disclose litigation funding. [Dando Diary]

    * A comparison of how Hurst and Whole Woman’s Health have been applied differently by state courts. [Empirical SCOTUS]

  • Morning Docket: 08.08.16
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 08.08.16

    * Today, the ABA will vote on a proposed change to the model rules of professional conduct that would prohibit harassment and discrimination by lawyers while practicing law. This may put an end to sexism in the law, but critics say it will chill zealous representation. [DealBook / New York Times; Seattle Times]

    * “[I]f the polls continue to show that vulnerable Republicans are experiencing backlash, there will be greater momentum to give Garland a hearing during the lame duck.” If Donald Trump continues to return unimpressive poll results, some say that Supreme Court nominee Chief Justice Merrick Garland could receive a hearing after all. [The Hill]

    * “Changing our state’s election laws close to the upcoming election … will create confusion for voters and poll workers.” Last week, the Fourth Circuit struck down North Carolina’s voter ID law, and now, North Carolina plans to ask the Supreme Court to allow that law to stand via stay in light of the upcoming presidential election. [Reuters]

    * Who are fourteen of the most successful Harvard Law School alumni of all time? Would it surprise you that five of them are Supreme Court justices, two of them are U.S. presidents, three of them are would-be U.S. presidents, two of them are business magnates, and only one is actively practicing law as an attorney? [Business Insider]

    * Julie Kay, intrepid reporter on the business of law, RIP. [Daily Business Review]

  • Morning Docket: 08.04.16
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 08.04.16

    * Khizr Khan, the Gold Star father of a deceased Muslim soldier who offered a stern rebuke for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump during the Democratic National Convention, has taken his law firm’s website offline in the face of incredibly harsh criticism from many of Trump’s supporters. [RT]

    * This brings a whole new meaning to the term “gunner”: Earlier this week, a campus carry law went into effect at public schools in Texas, and law students at UT Law, Texas Southern Law, Texas Tech Law, Texas A&M Law, U. Houston Law, and North Texas Law may now bring concealed weapons with them to school. [Law.com]

    * Yesterday afternoon, President Barack Obama commuted the sentences of 214 prisoners, the most in a single act since at least 1900. According to White House counsel Neil Eggleston, the president’s work is “far from finished,” and he expects that clemency will continue to be granted through the end of his final term. [Big Law Business]

    * After a week of voter ID laws being struck down in battleground states, Texas has agreed to weaken its own voter ID law. Citizens without proper identification will now be able to present a government document with their name and address and sign an affidavit to vote. This will “open the door to voting” for many people. [New York Times]

    * In response to Freedom of Information Act requests, the Clinton Library has released more than 1,300 pages of files on Supreme Court nominee Chief Judge Merrick Garland. It’s really interesting to see what people who refuse to hold a vote for him now had to say when they voted on his D.C. Circuit nomination almost 20 years ago. [POLITICO]