Federal Judges

She calls for increases privacy protections for federal judges.

Feast your eyes on the complete roster of Supreme Court law clerks for October Term 2020.

The lack of professional diversity may not be as glaring, but it's still important.

Plus the 10 most recent classes of Bristow Fellows, and the law schools and lower-court clerkships from whence they came.

Let's hope that SCOTUS sticks with these reforms post-pandemic.

Our thoughts go out to his family, friends, and colleagues during this difficult time.

A Center for American Progress study breaks down diversity throughout the system and it's not good.

These changes will last a lifetime.

Traditional feeder judges largely overlap with academic feeder judges.

Which law schools and lower-court judges produced the most SCOTUS clerks for this Term?

Claims liberals made him do it.

The impact of Trump’s nominees will be felt long after he leaves office.

With this group, Trump has been able to put his unique stamp on the federal judiciary by plucking nominees based on characteristics unrelated to previous judging.

* Immediately after John Bolton lost his job, a true genius tweeted that he’d signed with the Patriots. It looks like he might return to Kirkland which is basically the same thing in legal circles. [National Law Journal]

* Supreme Court decides government can circumvent international law while asylum rules get litigated. Cool. [NY Times]

* Dentons just added five firms across Africa in one day. [American Lawyer]

* “Chief Counsel of Digital Citizenship” is an actual title a major company came up with for a lawyer presumably after spinning the buzzword wheel. [Corporate Counsel]

* Latest appellate judge pick was so mealy-mouthed and evasive that even the Republicans snapped at him before they’ll ultimately vote down the line to give the racist myth peddling jackhole a lifetime job. [Huffington Post]

* Former Big 4 partner gets a year for fraud. [Law360]

* What exactly would happen if California stood up for college athletes? [Sports Illustrated]

* John Hinckley seeks sentence adjustment so he can move to California and get into the music business which is a sentence no one ever expected. [AP]

Even with the laudable notion of a more diverse judiciary, aspects of this plan may actually function towards cutting off the nose to spite the face.

* “The Supreme Court is not well. And the people know it.” Senate Democrats have issued a warning to the members of the highest bench in the land: “heal [thy]self” lest you be restructured to reduce political influences. [Fox News]

* In case you missed it, the Trump and McConnell reelection campaigns are trying to turn the controversial Supreme Court confirmations of Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh into a fashion statement — for $35 or more, that is. [Washington Post]

* Rather than continue in her quest for justice against Jones Day using her real name, Jane Doe 4 has been dropped as a named plaintiff in the $200 million gender bias suit against the firm. [Big Law Business]

* According to the latest statistics from the
American Bar Association, the federal judiciary is unsurprisingly overflowing with white male judges, but at least women seem to be catching up. [Law.com]

* For the first time in history, women make up the majority of the first-year entering class at the University of Alabama School of Law. Roll tide! [6WBRC]

Our favorite federal judge is at it again.

Sophia Chua-Rubenfeld, daughter of Amy ‘Tiger Mother’ Chua and Jed Rubenfeld, will clerk at the Supreme Court this coming Term -- along with these other impressive young legal minds.

* President Donald Trump has appealed a federal judge’s order allowing the House Oversight and Reform Committee’s subpoena of his financial records to the D.C. Circuit, where — GASP! — Merrick Garland serves as chief judge. The fact that Garland is involved apparently matters a lot to the MSM, you guys. [The Hill]

* “The memo says they don’t have to assert a legitimate legislative purpose — or any purpose at all.” According to a confidential draft IRS memo, tax returns must be given to Congress upon request, unless the president claims executive privilege. This pretty much blows up Trump’s rationale for refusing to turn over his taxes thus far, but opens up a whole new way for him to avoid doing so. [Washington Post]

* “The Supreme Court is stacked against us for the first time in my lifetime. I feel like it’s scarier than ever before.” As hundreds of people protested state abortion bans before the Supreme Court, Democratic presidential candidates joined in, lending their support to all the women gathered. [Reuters]

* Meet Leonard Leo, the Federalist Society executive Vice President who serves as Trump’s unofficial judicial adviser to make the federal judiciary “great” (i.e., extremely conservative) again. How’s he doing that? With millions upon millions of dollars of “dark money.” He didn’t want to talk about that part of it. [Washington Post]

* Buckley, the law firm formerly known as Buckley Sandler, has filed suit against Johnny Depp, claiming that the actor skipped out on about $350K in legal fees and costs. Leave the poor man alone, he’s got better things to spend his money on… like scarves. [American Lawyer]

This time around, there's an interesting little twist.