Government Shutdown

* “Trump is screaming. He’s so mad at Rudy.” After yet another botched interview, President Trump is reportedly “furious” with Rudy Giuliani, and word on the street is that he’s being told to dump the former New York mayor before any additional damage can be done. Best of luck, because he very obviously needs it. [Vanity Fair]

* Justice will prevail… at least until the end of the month: The federal judiciary is still clinging to life amid the government shutdown, and the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts just announced its final funding extension to continue operations through January 31. [National Law Journal]

* The Supreme Court’s conservative wind just low-key alerted the nation that big changes could be on the way by deciding to hear a Second Amendment case for the first time since 2010. Will the high court swing further to the right now that its perennial swing justice has retired? [Washington Post]

* Stormy Daniels’s lawsuit against President Trump could be tossed out of court because there no longer seems to be a case. “They admitted what we said all along,” ATL’s 2018 Lawyer of the Year Michael Avenatti said. “So any attempt by anyone to claim that this is not a victory for Stormy Daniels is completely bogus and nonsense and dishonest.” [TIME]

* The ABA’s House of Delegates will reconsider a 75 percent bar pass rate within two years of graduation for law schools to maintain their accreditation. This time around, the proposal could actually pass. Stay tuned, because the effort to push through a stronger bar pass standard will be taken up this coming Monday. [Law.com]

* Congratulations to Chief Judge Stephen Dillard (@JudgeDillard) of the Georgia Court of Appeals, who was recently named as the state’s Twitter laureate. Just as you take judicial notice of my birthday each year, I take editorial notice of your constant kindness. Thank you for being you! [Daily Report]

* Adam Feldman explores the possible effect on the Supreme Court of replacing Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg with a staunch conservative — e.g., Judge Amy Coney Barrett. [Empirical SCOTUS]

* Speaking of SCOTUS, here’s Ilya Somin’s read of the tea leaves in Knick v. Township of Scott, an important Takings Clause case.  [Volokh Conspiracy / Reason]

* Stephen Embry disagrees with Joe Patrice’s suggestion that junior lawyers are going extinct, but Embry acknowledges the major effect that technology is having, and will continue to have, on legal practice and employment. [TechLaw Crossroads]

* Charles Glasser looks at what might have caused the political polarization of the modern media and its consumers. [Daily Caller]

* The prospect of Michael Cohen testifying publicly before Congress is making some people giddy — but it’s not without its downsides, as Joel Cohen explains. [The Hill]

* What can we learn from official Washington utterances about the shutdown? Here’s some intel from VoxGov, via Jean O’Grady. [Dewey B Strategic]

* Not all provisions of the Bill of Rights are created equal, according to Gerard Magliocca. [PrawfsBlawg]

* David Berg draws lessons for trial lawyers from the genius of Joe Jamail’s use of hypothetical questions. [YouTube]

* In this bombshell report, it was revealed that almost immediately after President Trump fired former FBI director James Comey, the agency launched a criminal and counterintelligence investigation into whether Trump was working on Russia’s behalf. No collusion? [New York Times]

* “They’re not God, after all. They could be wrong.” Meanwhile, Rudy Giuliani says the president’s legal team should be allowed to “correct” special counsel Robert Mueller’s report before anyone else gets to read it, including members of Congress. [The Hill]

* Uh-oh… The longer the government shutdown continues, the longer certain practice areas are going to be in limbo. In fact, law firms “might see a dip [in billable hours] in the first quarter, depending on how much longer this goes on.” [American Lawyer]

* “If a school can’t get enough of its students to have a high enough pass rate, then there’s a problem.” The ABA is again pushing for a 75 percent bar pass rate within two years of graduation for a school to retain its accreditation. [Wall Street Journal]

* Joshua Davis, the lawyer who sued Ticketmaster over tickets he purchased to see “Hamilton” on the wrong day due to a tech glitch, got a quick settlement out of the ticket broker — and now he won’t miss his shot to see the show. [Texas Lawyer]

* Patricia Wald, the first woman appointed to the D.C. Circuit, RIP. [Washington Post]

* A happy 200th birthday to Cravath, which celebrates its bicentennial in 2019 (and which has launched a sharp-looking, historically rich microsite for the occasion). [Cravath/200]

* According to Dayvon Love, “the policy response from mainstream political institutions and the Democratic Leadership in Maryland to the issue of gun violence and homicide in the Black community is mired in racism.” [Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle]

* The current Term of the Supreme Court doesn’t boast many blockbusters — but some cases are more interesting than others, as Adam Feldman points out. [Empirical SCOTUS]

* Illegal aliens, guns, and strict liability, oh my! Eugene Volokh breaks down Rehaif v. United States, which SCOTUS just agreed to hear. [Volokh Conspiracy / Reason]

* The Supreme Court has taken an increased interest in intellectual property in recent years — and if it wants to tackle issues of copyright infringement in the digital age, Capitol Records v. ReDigi could be a good vehicle. [All Rights Reserved]

* Speaking of supreme courts, Florida’s is likely to shift rightward, as Ed Whelan explains. [Bench Memos / National Review]

* If you’re getting lots of questions from friends and family about the constitutional law of shutdowns, check out this helpful explainer from Zachary Price. [Take Care]

* And if you have thoughts on what legal publishers got right and wrong in 2018, Jean O’Grady would like to hear from you. [Dewey B Strategic]

* In case you missed President Trump’s wall speech, he stopped short of declaring a national emergency at the border (lost that bet), instead referring to the situation as a “growing humanitarian crisis” — a “manufactured” one, per Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. [USA Today]

* Remember the contempt order against a state-owned foreign corporation that Chief Justice Roberts stayed in the Mueller probe? The Supreme Court restored it, and that company filed for cert under seal. Suspense! [National Law Journal]

* Speaking of the Mueller investigation, Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein, who has been overseeing the probe more or less since it began, is planning to quit his job in the coming weeks after William Barr is confirmed as the new attorney general. [ABC News]

* “I don’t want to speculate about her health, but it doesn’t seem like a good sign.” Justice Ginsburg missed oral arguments two days in a row, which has prompted much concern about her well-being. Please stay strong, RBG. We need you! [The Hill]

* Justice Kavanaugh released his very first decision, and in keeping with legendary SCOTUS tradition, it looks like he was assigned an easy-peasy, “one-issue, unanimous opinion to write.” One down, and only a countless number to go. [Big Law Business]

* Puff, puff, pass along your résumé: Biglaw behemoth Dentons recently poached a partner from Jones Day to run its marijuana practice, and he’s hiring people who want to work for the “number one firm” in the cannabis industry. [Business Insider]

* Law students are being screwed by the government shutdown. Students who were supposed to extern at federal agencies may have to go without these “huge components on their résumé,” and that’s got to be a horrible experience. [Law.com]

* Senator Ted Cruz has proposed a constitutional amendment that would set term limits for those in the Senate (two six-year terms) and House of Representatives (three two-year terms) because “[t]erm limits on members of Congress offer a solution to the brokenness we see in Washington, D.C.” [Business Insider]

* Speaking of terms, the grand jury’s 18-month term in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation was set to expire this past weekend, but Chief Judge Beryl Howell of the D.C. District Court extended it for up to six months since the jurors’ work is “in the public interest.” [CNN]

* The federal judiciary has enough money to stay afloat until January 11, and then, per a spokesman for the U.S. courts, “[i]t’s really a judge-by-judge, court-by-court determination” when the courts start operating under the Antideficiency Act “to support the exercise of Article III judicial power.” [Fortune]

* Hot on the heels of its decision that a ban on racist trademark registrations violated the First Amendment, the Supreme Court will decide whether a similar ban on “scandalous” marks is unconstitutional as well. [Law360]

* Do we need a Rooney Rule for federal law clerks? According to Judge Vince Chhabria of the Northern District of California, it might be the solution to increasing the amount of diversity — of people of color and of law school representation — in the clerks’ candidate pool. We’ll have more on this later today. [National Law Journal]

* Out of the mouths of babes federal judges: “Those conclusions – that the president’s statements on national security are not always to be taken literally or to be trusted – are legal victories for his Justice Department….” Did you think you’d ever see a something like this written about the U.S. president? That’s our Trump! [USA Today]

* A good New Year’s resolution for the federal judiciary? Chief Justice John Roberts says that while progress has been made when it comes to protecting law clerks from sexual harassment, “[t]he job is not finished until we have done all that we can to ensure that all of our employees are treated with fairness, dignity, and respect.” [Washington Post]

* The American Federation of Government Employees, a labor union for federal employees, has filed suit against the government, claiming that requiring essential employees to work without pay during the shutdown — an “inhumane” practice for people who don’t know when their next paycheck is coming — violates the Fair Labor Standards Act. [CNN]

* Barbara Underwood really made a name for herself during her short tenure as New York’s first female attorney general. After she was thrust into the role, she quickly began her assault against President Donald Trump, eventually taking down his charitable foundation after alleging that he was using it as a front for his his private businesses and political campaign. [NBC News]

* Yet again, it’s time for women in Biglaw to celebrate fractional achievements for gender equality. According the Diversity and Flexibility Alliance, 39 percent of new partners named at Am Law firms were women, which was a “slight uptick,” but “the numbers really haven’t changed that much in the last five years.” Hooray. [Big Law Business]

* It’s a new year, so you know there are going to be a bunch of interesting new laws. Here are just a few: In California, domestic-violence convicts can lose their gun rights for life; in Hawaii, physician-assisted suicide is now legal; in Virginia, legislators and their staff members must undergo mandatory sexual-harassment training; and in New York City, non-binary people can now list their gender as “X” on birth certificates. [Wall Street Journal]

* How awesome is Ruth Bader Ginsburg? The Supreme Court justice had two cancerous growths removed from her left lung on Friday and voted from her hospital bed to reject Trump’s asylum ban. Nothing can keep her down. [NBC News]

* Acting AG Matt Whitaker is getting to know the President in the same way his predecessor did. Word on the street is that Trump was royally pissed that Whitaker allowed federal prosecutors to make him look bad in Michael Cohen’s criminal case. [CNN]

* Just because the government’s shut down doesn’t mean your federal cases will be put on hold. Federal courts have funding to get through three more weeks, and “the Southern District of New York will NOT shut down.” [New York Law Journal]

* As a result of the government shutdown, the Violence Against Women Act was allowed to expire, which means that programs to assist victims of sexual assault, domestic abuse, and stalking will be left without funding. Ugggggh. [Roll Call]

* A former employee at UT Law was recently indicted on charges of theft, money laundering, and abuse of official capacity. He’s been accused of taking $300K or more from the law school and faces up to 99 years in prison. [Austin American-Statesman]