Free Speech

Hulk Hogan victory might be temporary, but it is very real.

Donald Trump thinks his First Amendment rights are under fire. They aren't -- and this lawyer had to school him on it.

* “I’d hope they’d see reason but I wouldn’t bet the family farm on it.” Senate Republicans may be stomping their feet about confirming one of President Obama’s Supreme Court nominees, but it may behoove them to do it now before Hillary Clinton takes office with a Democrat-controlled Senate. [Common Sense / New York Times]

* Sincere congratulations to Damaris Hernández, who recently achieved a seemingly impossible feat at her Bigfirm. The 36-year-old attorney is the first Latina to become a partner at Cravath Swaine & Moore. She joins the 46 other Hispanic women who are partners at just a few of America’s largest law firms. [DealBook / New York Times]

* Lawmakers from the Garden State have demanded that Gibson Dunn and digital forensics firm Stroz Friedberg repay $2.8 million in legal fees in the Bridgegate case, the bulk of which were e-discovery charges to the tune of $2.3 million. Welcome to the absurdity that is document review, New Jersey! [Big Law Business / Bloomberg BNA]

* It looks like Apple isn’t the only tech company that’s dueling with the DOJ right now. Since “[t]he interest in secrecy does not last forever,” Twitter is mounting a First Amendment case against the Feds over its ability to publicly release data that allegedly contains details related to the government’s terrorism investigations. [WSJ Law Blog]

* The 10 customers who filed a class-action lawsuit against Subway over the sub shop’s less-than foot-long footlong sandwiches will only be able to afford 100 $5 footlongs each, because the lawyers on the case are walking away with $520,000 out of $525,000 settlement dollars — that’s 99 percent of the settlement. Fair? [Dayton Daily News]

I guess forcing institutions of higher learning to unequivocally value every opinion no matter how offensive ends when someone suggests the legal field needs more people of color.

$250,000 is not enough money to make Harvard Law do anything.

Twitter troll clears hurdle to suing other Twitter troll over trolling.

* Based on reading the oral-argument tea leaves, it sounds like the Supreme Court is about to school the teachers’ unions (and public-sector unions more generally). [How Appealing]

* Ring in the new year by making the register ring: a slew of Biglaw firms have secured (presumably lucrative) engagements working on the proposed $32 billion merger between drug makers Shire Plc and Baxalta Inc. [American Lawyer]

* By a vote of 82-6, and after a wait of more than 400 days, the Senate just confirmed Judge Luis Felipe Restrepo to the Third Circuit, making him the first Hispanic federal judge from Pennsylvania to sit on that court. [Associated Press]

* Good news for fantasy-sports fans: it’s not (yet) “game over” for DraftKings and FanDuel, thanks to a stay issued by a New York appellate court. [Bloomberg News]

* And bad news for student-loan-saddled law grads (like our own Shannon Achimalbe) who were hoping that SCOTUS might make it easier to discharge such debts through bankruptcy. [Wall Street Journal via ABA Journal]

* Does Sean Penn face legal risk for his interview of El Chapo, the infamous Mexican drug lord? [ABA Journal]

* A former federal prosecutor just secured a six-figure settlement and reinstatement from the Justice Department. [National Law Journal]

* U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara — who came so, so close to winning Lawyer of the Year honors — announced that Governor Mario Cuomo is off the legal hook for his controversial shutdown of the Moreland Commission, a panel aimed at investigating public corruption. [Law360]

* Avvo is starting to roll out a service featuring fixed-fee, limited-scope legal services through a network of attorneys (and Bob Ambrogi has the scoop). [Law Sites]

* Professor Peter J. Henning explores the implications of the end of the government case against hedge fund magnate Steve Cohen. [DealBook / New York Times]

If you ever wonder why some lawyers are concerned about not weakening the First Amendment in any way, consider this an ideal exhibit.

* Fear eroding free speech rights is as dangerous as you might imagine. [Huffington Post]

* Remembering the space strike — this day in history. [Lawyers, Guns and Money]

* Lawyers are smart, but not smart enough to avoid being scammed. [American Lawyer]

* On the societal import of lawyers. [Guile is Good!]

* Remembering the humor Joe Jamail left us with. [Coverage Opinions]

* Social media is changing the nature of evidence at trial. [Global Legal Post]

The Mall of America is treading on some thin ice.

* It’s the Miss Universe pageant lawsuit you’ve all been waiting for: attorneys at a Colombian law firm say they will be filing suit due to Miss Colombia’s crowning and de-crowning, noting “the crown is an acquired right that cannot be taken away from us.” [WGNO]

* The Federal Circuit handed down a major ruling yesterday, saying that the government can no longer bar the registration of offensive trademarks due to restrictions on free speech. This will likely be appealed to SCOTUS, but the Redskins must be pretty pumped. [Reuters]

* In an effort to avoid another Kim Davis fiasco (and to protect clerks’ religious beliefs), Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin has signed an executive order directing that his state prepare new marriage licenses without the names of county clerks. [Associated Press]

* Lil Wayne may be a “motherf**kin’ cash money millionaire,” but he reportedly can’t spare the cash to pay his attorneys’ fees. This marks the second time in recent months that he’s been sued for allegedly failing to pay his lawyers what they’re owed. [SPIN]

* Lakeisha Holloway, the woman accused of using her car to mow down and kill a pedestrian and injure many others on the Las Vegas Strip, has been charged with murder with a deadly weapon. She faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted. [NBC News]

Will the Supreme Court be capable of separating art from rap lyrics, or do they love opera too much?

If you freaked out over a viral video showing students eager to abolish the First Amendment, you're probably a bigger threat to American democracy than those kids.

Will this law face the same fate as one in a neighboring state?

Somewhere some graduate thesis on The Character And Motivations Of Gollum Née Sméagol is about to become actually useful.

* That was fast! When Howard Bashman (of our sister site How Appealing) talks, the U.S. Supreme Court listens. [How Appealing]

* She doesn’t mention it much on the campaign trail, but Carly Fiorina is the daughter of Article III aristocracy — the late Judge Joseph T. Sneed III, a prominent conservative on the Ninth Circuit. [New York Times]

* Is the supposed “hate crime” at Harvard Law School, involving the placement of black tape on the portraits of African-American law professors, actually a hoax? [Powerline via TaxProf Blog]

* Elsewhere in academia, Professor Glenn Reynolds wonders: “If a cabal of Evil Conservatives set out to destroy academia from within, what, exactly, would it be doing differently?” [Instapundit]

* Star Wars fans, discuss: “The Law is a Sith,” according to Professor Adam Kolber. [PrawfsBlawg]

* Can states bar Syrian refugees? Professor Ilya Somin thinks not (at least under current Supreme Court precedent). [Volokh Conspiracy]

* Thoughts from Professor Ronald K.L. Collins on Hines v. Alldredge, the occupational speech case previously discussed by Tamara Tabo. [Concurring Opinions]

* What can be done about problematic prosecutors? [New York Times via How Appealing]

Student free speech case inches closer to the Supreme Court.

This Term the Supreme Court could issue one of its most important rulings to date on the legal status of occupational speech -- speech performed in the context of one’s occupation or profession.

People up in arms over "political correctness" might want to take a second to think about what free speech really means.

Sure, politics is an icky business -- but should it be criminal?