Guns / Firearms

Non-Sequiturs

Non-Sequiturs: 03.25.18

* Brad Karp and Christopher Boehning of Paul, Weiss make the case in favor of stripping gun manufacturers and sellers of their statutory immunity from suit in most negligence and product liability actions. [New York Times] * Remember the Moonlight Fire case? Ten state AGs have filed an amicus brief in support of the cert petition. [U.S. Supreme Court] * It's almost time to file your taxes -- and the Supreme Court just made it a little bit easier to cheat on them. [Volokh Conspiracy / Reason] * In other SCOTUS news, the Court is taking its sweet time in handing down opinions this Term, as Adam Feldman observes. [Empirical SCOTUS] * And speaking of Adam Feldman, he's now working with SCOTUSblog -- congratulations to both parties! [SCOTUSblog] * Leading media lawyer Charles Glasser looks at the challenges that corrections pose to the media (both print and digital). [Daily Caller] * Vineeta Vijayaraghavan points out that gun violence doesn't spare the elite, noting that firearms killed three of her Harvard classmates (including Professor Dan Markel). [USA Today] * Cambridge Analytica, a data analytics consulting firm, has been widely condemned for its work on the 2016 Trump election campaign -- but it's not clear that its conduct violated data-protection laws or even Facebook policies, according to Tim Pullan of ThoughtRiver. [Artificial Lawyer] * Professor Michael Dorf remembers lawyer, author, and editor Julie Hilden, who passed away earlier this month. [Dorf on Law]

By David Lat
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 02.22.18

* Only 23 percent of law school grads think their education was worth the cost. That number seems high. [CNBC] * Apparently, judges can't use their office to trade leniency for nude photos. You learn something new every day. [Courthouse News Service] * Professor Epps patiently explains how bad Clarence Thomas is at basic constitutional law. [The Atlantic] * Ogletree slapped with a sexual harassment suit on the heels of a big gender discrimination suit. Somebody over there really needs to learn labor law. [The Recorder] * Just as a recap: Protecting minority voting rights -- not a priority for the DOJ. Challenging a settlement to give people $2 wine coupons -- absolutely a priority for the DOJ. [National Law Journal] * Summer programs are shrinking again, so go ahead and start panicking. [American Lawyer] * Boies is leading a coalition challenging the "winner-take-all" electoral system -- but not the Electoral College itself -- as an affront to "one person, one vote." Because when I think about improving fairness, it's turning over the task of choosing Electors to gerrymandered maps. [Bloomberg] * School superintendent about to get a crash course on basic constitutional law. [Washington Post]

By Joe Patrice
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 02.21.18

* Lawyers for Brendan Dassey of Making a Murderer have filed a writ of certiorari, asking the Supreme Court to review a decision made by the en banc Seventh Circuit that upheld his conviction for murder. Earlier, a federal magistrate overturned his conviction and a panel of the Seventh Circuit affirmed. This is totally going to be in the show’s sequel. [ABC 2 WBAY] * A step in the right direction for gun control? During a Medal of Valor ceremony at the White House, President Trump announced that he'd directed Attorney General Jeff Sessions to draft regulations that would effectively ban the use of bump stocks. Now we'll just wait a few months to see some action on AR-15s... [USA Today] * Could it be? Could Justice Neil Gorsuch be on your side when it comes to privacy? Believe it or not, “[h]e may even become the Supreme Court's next swing vote on Fourth Amendment issues,” and this term he’ll have more than an ample opportunity to swing on the issues of digital privacy and police search warrants. [VICE News] * If you thought you couldn't get rid of your student loans in bankruptcy, you were likely be right, but that could change. The Trump administration is looking into what it takes for borrowers to meet the "undue hardship" threshold for the discharge of federal loans in bankruptcy, and may clarify the standard. [Wall Street Journal] * In perhaps the best student event ever, Howard Law rented out an entire movie theater so that students, faculty, staff, and alumni could see an opening-night screening of Black Panther. The school's SBA co-hosted the awesomeness with Georgetown Law’s Black Law Students Association. Congratulations! [Law.com]

By Staci Zaretsky