FOIA

* A “robot lawyer” startup, that once focused on parking tickets, is now helping users file FOIA requests. Hope the platform can’t write the Morning Docket… [TechCrunch]

* A new lawyer for the Trump Campaign allegedly argued that Kamala Harris was not a natural-born U.S. citizen. [Forbes]

* The Department of Justice is suing the State of Alabama over allegedly substandard prison conditions. [NPR]

* Jerry Falwell, Jr. has dropped a defamation lawsuit he filed against Liberty University. [New York Post]

* A federal judge has approved a class action of fighters suing the UFC for allegedly being a monopoly. They should have put a trial by ordeal clause in their contracts, may be quicker to settle this dispute in the octagon… [Bloomberg Law]

The government's weak excuses for violating its FOIA obligations must stop.

Legal technology allows agencies to review and produce documents quickly and efficiently. So why is the EPA so bad at this?

The decision to deny TPS status to Haitians was marred by Trumpian bigotry.

They're also abusing their FOIA discretion, but at least the police do that all the time.

The most "transparent" FCC ever is not very transparent.

What a mess.

* You can shake a female co-worker’s hand and not get cooties, I promise. [Adequate Man]

* Why did you decide to go to law school? [Corporette]

* A Freedom of Information Act request has revealed the stunning way the Department of Homeland Security ordered its agents to treat Congresspeople and lawyers in the aftermath of the travel ban. [Daily Beast]

* How will you survive if your legal job is replaced by artificial intelligence? [Law and More]

* Oliver Stone has gotten to the CIA. [Politico]

* Like true crime TV shows? You’ll appreciate Netflix’s new spoof. [Salon]

* The Trump administration does not understand the whole concept of popularity. [Lawyers, Guns & Money]

* Who can help Governor Cuomo solve his transit woes? [Cityland]

FOIA THAT MAN!

* Sometimes lawyers really can do good work. Let’s try and remember that this Thanksgiving. [Guile is Good]

* More people against marriage equality are blatantly disregarding the law. [Slate]

* Honestly, does this sh*t even surprise you anymore? Ben Carson doesn’t know much about who actually wrote the Constitution. [Talking Points Memo]

* Score 1 for the First Amendment and the good folks at Cartoon Network. [Gawker]

* Does mass surveillance even work to stop terrorism? [Pacific Standard]

* How much should your law firm spend on marketing? [Law Reboot]

Did you know that 87% of experienced arbitrators report *always* trying to follow applicable law in rendering an award? That will come as a surprise to many critics who like to complain that arbitrators do not adhere to established law.

* Mike Brown, the man at the center of the would-be South Carolina restaurant racial discrimination suit, has a post over at xoJane telling his story. [xoJane] * Time for a Team Prenda update! Now they are making really embarrassingly terrible “your mom” jokes. [Popehat] * Contrary to Elie’s tweet, there is kind of a legal angle to the debacle at the VMAs that was Miley Cyrus dancing with an aging Michael Keaton dressed as Beetlejuice Robin Thicke. MuckRock has submitted a FOIA request to find out how many complaints were filed with the FCC. Unfortunately, my bet is that the number is more than zero, despite the FCC having no legal authority over indecency on MTV. If you have no idea what we’re talking about, here’s a collection of GIFs. [MuckRock] * Shots fired! Law Librarian Blog snarks on Law Professor Blogs 2.0 re-design. Palace Intrigue: Blogger Edition. [Law Librarian Blog] * A new website provides an online course in general deposition prep for witnesses. Will this work? Pro: Deposition prep involves haphazard application of life lessons from a lawyer’s individual career and a professionalized course is beneficial. Con: Why would a firm forfeit all those billable hours to a third-party? [The Perfect Witness] * Not every law school is cutting back. San Joaquin College of Law is expanding its enrollment. It’s not ABA-accredited, so all these students are sure to land on their feet. [KFSN] * Since we’re likely to be at war with Syria by the end of the week, here’s a thoughtful piece on the legality of intervention in light of the UN charter and moral obligations. [Boston Review]

The socioeconomic voyeurism continues. Today we look at faculty salaries at Berkeley Law.

Do you attend a public law school? You can probably look up how much your professors and dean earn.

Does the federal government do pointless things? That's what Justice Scalia seems to think.

* Hey, “regular students” with “regular backgrounds,” you may be able to get a job as a SCOTUS clerk, because Justice Clarence Thomas is the Supreme Court’s honey badger in that he doesn’t give a sh*t about rankings. [Seattle Post-Intelligencer]

* Because $1.05 bill wasn’t quite enough, Apple is asking for additional damages in its patent war lawsuit against Samsung. Ohh, come on, Judge Koh, it’s just an extra $535 million. Everyone else is doing it, come on. Just give us the money. [Bloomberg]

* The D.C. Circuit suit about White House visitor logs is kind of like a recurring issue we see with law schools, in that transparency here means “[w]e will disclose what records we want you to see.” [National Law Journal]

* Skadden is teaming up with local legal aid groups to start a pro bono initiative in D.C. We hear they’ll be handing out gift cards as a show of appreciation to those who sign up. [Capital Business / Washington Post]

* Sumner Redstone recently donated $18M to BU Law. Will his successor be as charitable? From Columbia Law to Shearman & Sterling to media mogul: meet Philippe Dauman, CEO of Viacom. [New York Times]

* “The employment statistics really are the collective impact of individual choices.” And one of them was attending law school anyway, despite all of the negative media attention they’ve received. [Cincinnati Enquirer]

* Remember the Harvard Law student who ran for Student Government President and pledged to resign after rewriting the organization’s constitution? Well, he graduated, but at least he got a draft in. [Harvard Crimson]

Way back in 2008, Elie noted with derision the University of Michigan's "Wolverine Scholars" Program. He wasn't the only one. The initiative allowed Michigan undergraduates with very high GPAs to get into Michigan Law without having to take the LSAT. There's been much less fanfare about the end of the program than there was about its start, but we obtained some FOIA documents....

* We expected this would happen. The Osama Bin Laden death photos have been FOIA’d. [The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times] * Some Biglaw firms are freezing associate pay? Blimey! [Roll On Friday] * What is Monica Goodling — now known as Monica Krempasky, since her 2008 marriage to RedState founder Michael Krempasky — […]

Everybody has an opinion on whether or not the Obama administration should release kill shots of Osama bin Laden. It’s a tough question. And there are intelligent ways to disagree with the president’s opinion (see Jon Stewart’s impassioned plea). Or you could just call the president a pussy accuse the president of “pussyfooting” on Twitter, […]

There’s some good news this week for those people whose blood boils at the mention of Citizens United. The Supreme Court proved that it is not always sympathetic to the rights of corporations — and is even willing to have some fun at their expense. Chief Justice John Roberts penned a tongue-in-cheek opinion lambasting AT&T […]