Elena Kagan

* “Everyone in America counts in the census, and today’s decision means we all will.” The Justice Department has officially confirmed that in light of the Supreme Court’s recent decision, a citizenship question will not be added to the 2020 Census. [Washington Post]

* Has Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg handed off the high court’s liberal torch to Justice Elena Kagan? Based on the fact that the Notorious RBG assigned the dissent in the partisan gerrymandering case, it sure looks like it. [NPR]

* Dozens of prominent Republicans plan to submit an amicus brief to the Supreme Court in support of a “common sense, textualist” ruling that the Civil Rights Act outlaws discrimination against LGBT people in the workplace. [New York Times]

* Allen & Overy and O’Melveny & Myers are still in merger talks, but this has been going on for more than a year now and it seems like it’s taking forever for anything to happen. [American Lawyer]

* Michael Avenatti, the Lawyer of the Year accused of bank fraud and embezzlement, is refusing to give up his desktop, iPhone, and iPad passwords to federal prosecutors in New York. [Big Law Business]

* Only four Supreme Court justices attended President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address last night. Chief Justice John Roberts was accompanied in the front row by Justices Elena Kagan, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh — who still likes beer, but was unable to participate in any #SOTU drinking games. [USA Today]

* Biglaw partnership classes are getting smaller and smaller, which is making it that much harder for women and minorities to advance at their firms. In fact, it’s becoming a scenario where “at the end of the day, when they look around and look at who’s now reached the level of seniority to be considered, they’re left with a lot of white men.” [American Lawyer]

* “I wouldn’t be surprised if the next industry to see a #MeToo movement would be in the legal industry.” It’s already happening, but it seems that the mainstream media is just now discovering that the legal profession is a prestigious breeding ground for sexual harassment. [CBS News]

* In case you missed it, earlier this week Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg made her first public appearance since undergoing a pulmonary lobectomy in late December to attend “Notorious RBG in Song,” a concert written and performed by her daughter-in-law. [Big Law Business]

* Vanessa Tyson, the woman who’s accusing Virginia Lt. Governor Justin Fairfax of sexual misconduct, has hired the same law firm Dr. Christine Blasey Ford used to guide her through her testimony against Justice Brett Kavanaugh. [Salon]

* Florida Coastal Law is reportedly ditching its owner Infilaw and its status as a for-profit institution to join with a non-profit university partner. The school is also planning to double or triple its student base. We’ll have more on this later today. [Jacksonville Business Journal]

* Jerry Sandusky will be resentenced for his child sex abuse conviction, since he received a mandatory minimum sentence of 30-60 years, and it has since become unconstitutional for judges to impose sentences based on mandatory minimums. Keep in mind, his new sentence could very well be the exact same. [Reuters]

* Which Supreme Court justice is apparently the best at throwing shade at her colleagues during oral arguments? It’s Justice Kagan. Sick burn, Your Honor. [National Law Journal]

* “Presidential harassment”? President Trump is blaming special counsel Robert Mueller’s election interference probe for his low Rasmussen Reports approval rating of 50 percent. Damn, when a pollster known for favoring the president is only giving him a 50 percent rating, you know it’s pretty bad. [POLITICO]

* Speaking of Robert Mueller, here’s a little preview of what you can expect from the court filings to be filed today which have to do with the implosion of Paul Manafort’s cooperation deal (i.e., “what may have pushed him to commit legal suicide”). Oh, and we may also see a possible sentencing plan for Michael Cohen. [USA Today]

* In case you missed it, Quinn Emanuel just announced its largest partner class ever. Fourteen attorneys will ascend to new heights at the firm, and half of them are women, which is very exciting. Congratulations to the firm! [Big Law Business]

* The holiday season is here, but that doesn’t give Biglaw associates an excuse to say “screw it” when it comes to what they’re eating. Here are some tips from a corporate wellness consultant on how to avoid weight gain and bloating. [Law.com]

* 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]

* No collusion! Michael Cohen’s shell company — the same one used to pay hush money to Stormy Daniels — received more than $1 million in payments from a company that’s been linked to a Russian oligarch with close ties to Vladimir Putin. The same oligarch was sanctioned by the Trump administration for election interference. Special counsel Robert Mueller is on it. [New York Times; CNN]

* If President Trump does sit down for an interview with the special counsel, he could make history if he decides to plead the Fifth Amendment. No American president has ever used the Fifth Amendment to avoid self-incrimination while still in office. [TIME]

* Is your law school following the new law clerk hiring plan? It better be, if your graduates want a chance to clerk with Justice Elena Kagan. The former law school dean says she’ll “take into account” in her own clerkship hiring whether law schools and lower court judges have complied with the plan. [National Law Journal]

* A former professor and an alumnus from Charlotte Law School have added the American Bar Association to their suit against the defunct for-profit school, claiming in an amended complaint that the ABA negligently certified the school and “failed to act as a reasonable accreditor” — which makes sense. [Law360 (sub. req.)]

* A 15-member panel comprised of Florida State University faculty, staff, students, and alumni want the name of their law school building to be changed. It’s currently named after former Florida Chief Justice B.K. Roberts, who worked to keep the University of Florida’s law school segregated. [News 4 JAX]

* Sorry, Tommy and Kiko, but you’re going to have to stay in your cages. The New York Court of Appeals refused to hear a habeus appeal on behalf of the chimpanzees, allowing a ruling that they are not legal persons and therefore have no legal rights to stand. At least the concurring opinion was a little less dour. [Reuters]

* According to Justice Gorsuch, you don’t need to “suppress[] disagreement” to be civil. Disagreeable, eh? Maybe this is why there seems to be such animosity between him and Justice Kagan. [Associated Press]

* President Trump has reportedly promised to pay $430,000 to “defray the costs of legal fees for his associates, including former and current White House aides.” Meanwhile, some of his former associates have lawyers’ bills from the Russia probe that are higher than that. [Axios]

* President Trump has apparently been interviewing candidates (i.e., Biglaw attorneys with close connections to Rudy Giuliani and Marc Kasowitz) for key U.S. attorney positions, which is outside the norm for most presidents. Despite the gravity of the situation, Senator Lindsay Graham had a clever quip about the situation: “It’s kind of an extension of ‘The Apprentice,’ I guess.” The ratings on this will be YUGE. [CNN]

* “She can leave the country or she cannot get her abortion, those are her options?” Over the objections of the D.D.C. judge who ruled that the government must allow an undocumented 17-year-old seeking an abortion to get one, thanks to the D.C. Circuit, she needs to find a sponsor and further delay the procedure. [New York Times]

* Ex-Kaye Scholer partner Evan Greebel is on trial for conspiracy, and he’s desperately trying to distance himself from his former client, Martin Shkreli. He claims this was a big misunderstanding, and that he was victimized by Shkreli. [Big Law Business]

* “Legal aid is critical after a natural disaster,” so the Florida Bar has raised the income cap for its online legal clinic so Floridians affected by Hurricane Irma can get legal assistance, and the Florida Bar Foundation has set aside $500,000 to support legal aid organizations. How generous! [Law.com]

* Sixteen years have passed since the September 11 attacks, but we’ve yet to try or convict any of the five men who are said to have planned the day that changed America, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged “architect of 9/11.” Some lawyers wonder why this “isn’t a cause for more outrage.” [Al Jazeera]

* In case you missed it, Irell & Manella has elected Ellisen Turner as its first African-American managing partner. Among the many accolades he’s earned over the course of his illustrious legal career, Above the Law once referred to him as a “hottie.” Congratulations on all accounts! [Big Law Business]

* Lawmakers from both parties are interested in holding hearings on the massive Equifax hack, and after outcry from state attorneys general about an arbitration clause that would have prevented those affected by the data breach from suing, the credit reporting agency has changed its terms of service. [The Hill]

* In the wake of Justice Scalia’s death, Justice Kagan says the remaining justices did everything they could to avoid 4-4 split decisions: “[W]e all made a very serious effort to try to find common ground even where we thought we couldn’t. It sort of forced us to keep talking to each other.” [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel]

* Which Biglaw firm is about to get a lot bigger? It’s Cozen O’Connor, apparently. According to CEO Michael Heller, he’d like to increase the firm’s head count to somewhere between 700 and 1,000 lawyers in the next five years. About 600 attorneys are currently working at Cozen. [Am Law Daily]

* R. Kelly’s lawyer responds to allegations that a bunch of women are trapped in the proverbial closet. [Entertainment Tonight]

* The big news of the night was the slow, painful, uncovered death of the GOP tax cut. McConnell now says he’ll push for a clean repeal of Obamacare and leave the “replace” part for later, which would theoretically take it out of the reconciliation process. And that means 60 votes or some drastic changes. This is either a bluff or a lot of people are about to learn more than they ever wanted to know about parliamentary rules. [ABC News]

* Need judicial approval to tour the country? Sing it with me now… “Jed Gon’ Give It To Ya.”[Law360]

* Justice Kagan with an amusing anecdote about being vetted by the Obama administration. [National Law Journal]

* Plaintiffs’ attorneys in the Trump University case say efforts to undo the settlement over notice concerns, “effectively ask this court to declare Rule 23 unconstitutional.” Dude, I hate to break this to you, but that’s what the Supreme Court’s been saying for at least 10 years.

* Disney is locked in an IP litigation over the technology they use to map actors’ expressions onto CGI characters in movies like in Avengers: Age of Ultron, where they made a merciless robot fixated on world domination appear to have a soul. Sorry, did I say Avengers? I meant “a Bob Iger presentation at a Disney shareholder meeting.” [Law.com]

* Because all other problems in the country are settled, Congress is looking into overturning Washington D.C.’s assisted suicide law. [USA Today]

* Charlie Hustle is suing Trump lawyer John Dowd formerly of Akin Gump for defamation. [Philadelphia Inquirer]

* Google successfully staves off Labor Department request for compensation information in ongoing discrimination probe. God, Assistant can’t give you any useful information. [Corporate Counsel]