Guns / Firearms

* Law firm expenses outpaced revenue for the first half of 2019 and there’s no way that’s going to come back and haunt us. [American Lawyer]

* The DOJ is siding with Led Zeppelin in the Stairway to Heaven copyright fight. Good to know this DOJ has everything else under control. [Rolling Stone]

* California has a new law that says police should only kill when “necessary” and consider the kind of dystopian world we live in where this needed to be spelled out in a law. [NPR]

* Barr announces new BOP head to exploit Epstein’s death for the sake of some boondoggle in prison spending. [Courthouse News Service]

* The NRA tried to insert itself into Oliver North’s deposition in an act of stunning chutzpah. They got denied. [Law360]

* A follow-up on law student’s suicide and his family’s efforts to help others. [Good Men Project]

* CFTC faces scrutiny for “being honest.” [National Law Journal]

People trying to regulate guns simply aren't bold enough.

* Accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, who’d reportedly been taken off suicide watch, died by suicide this weekend as he awaited trial. AG Bill Barr is “appalled,” and has called for an investigation into the circumstances of Epstein’s death. [New York Times]

* In light of Epstein’s death, his victims want prosecutors to turn their sights upon Ghislaine Maxwell, who has been described as the financier’s “protector and procurer, his girlfriend and his madam.” [Washington Post]

* Will the Supreme Court be able to delay hearing cases about expanding Second Amendment rights considering the fact that this country has quite the problem with mass shootings? Not too hopeful here. [USA Today]

* Joel Sanders, defunct firm Dewey’s former CFO, wants his criminal conviction to be tossed out and his $1 million fine to be vacated with it. [New York Law Journal]

* So much for those Biglaw raises… According to a report recently published by the ABA, lawyers’ wages have been pretty stagnant, growing slower than inflation from 2017 to 2018. [Big Law Business]

* Jones Day partner Don McGahn sued for failing to comply with House subpoena. [National Law Journal]

* Short seller argues that Burford is out of money in move that pits highly sophisticated calculated gamblers against highly sophisticated calculated gamblers. [American Lawyer]

* A reminder that the Supreme Court is going to hear a case that could allow employers to fire women for not acting feminine enough. [Vice]

* ICE deported a guy to Iraq who had never lived there, didn’t speak Arabic, and who subsequently died unable to secure insulin. [Slate]

* Biglaw is making the diversity officer role more senior and more powerful. [American Lawyer]

* MGM complaining that federal government gives tribes “monopoly” over casinos. That’s… that’s not how this works. [Courthouse News Service]

* National Review is arguing for “red flag laws” in an editorial that it will deny ever publishing once the GOP quietly kills this issue. [National Review]

Every Florida story has some random detail that the author pretends is normal just to toy with us.

The white supremacist ideology has been rising for years, but if we want to fight it effectively, we should take the lessons learned by other communities and organizations.

Gorsuch and Kavanaugh are just the tip of spear in the Republican attempt to protect gun violence for a generation.

Universal background checks is the easy move, making gun manufacturers liable will move the needle.

* Two back-to-back mass shootings were committed by domestic terrorists this past weekend, killing at least 29 people with dozens more injured. Lawmakers must do something, anything about America’s gun problem. [Wall Street Journal]

* Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell claims that he “saved the Supreme Court for a generation” by denying Judge Merrick Garland a confirmation hearing because those shouldn’t be held during presidential election years — unless the president up for election is Donald Trump. [Bloomberg]

* In other news related to Senator McConnell, he’s currently recovering from fracturing his shoulder this weekend, but plans to “continue to work from home” on not doing anything about gun control. We’d offer some thoughts and prayers, but you know how meaningless those are. [CBS News]

* Per this D.C. judge, the Trump administration’s latest move to bar those who did not cross the border at a designated port of entry from seeking asylum violates the Immigration and Nationality Act. How many strikes will it take for this one to get appealed to SCOTUS? [CNN]

* Louis Vuitton wants to keep senior in-house attorney Andowah Newton’s sexual harassment claims in arbitration, while she’d prefer to have her voice be heart in court under New York’s new #MeToo law. [Big Law Business]

* Spinderella, sue it up one time: the famous DJ is suing Salt-N-Pepa alleging not only that the group failed to pay her hundreds of thousands of dollars in royalties, but that she was underpaid for appearances and sometimes wasn’t even paid at all. [Showbiz CheatSheet]

Bill Brewer's apparently charging them $97K a day.

* Okay, fine, whatever, the Trump administration is apparently going to look for a way to add a citizenship question to the 2020 Census. We’re governing by tweet these days, and this is the latest information on this debacle. [Washington Post]

* And it looks like the way President Trump is thinking of adding a citizenship question to the 2020 Census is through an executive order. The Justice Department has until this afternoon to straighten this out. [ABC News]

* Nope, you still can’t use money that was supposed to go to the Defense Department to build a border wall. The Ninth Circuit upheld an injunction on the use of these military funds just before the holiday. [Los Angeles Times]

* Which Biglaw firms have received the most money from presidential candidates’ 2020 election campaigns? As you might have guessed, lawyers from Jones Day have gotten a lot to Republicans, and lawyers from Perkins Coie have gotten a lot to the Democrats. [National Law Journal]

* Prosecutors have dropped the manslaughter charge filed against an Alabama woman who was five months pregnant and lost her unborn child after being shot in the stomach. Congratulations, Alabama! Way to be normal! [CBS News]

* If you’re interested in going to law school, you should know that the average debt for the class of 2018 was pretty hefty at $115,481 — that’s $130,900 for private school graduates and $89,962 for public school graduates. Good luck paying it off! [Nerdwallet]

* Matthew Benedict, a student at Buffalo Law, RIP. [New York Law Journal]

One of the shot judges was charged, but the details of his involvement are sketchy.

This is *almost* as dangerous as a cellphone.

* A survey of what mental health initiatives look like across the legal industry. It may not be great, but it’s better than the mental health initiatives of a decade ago which amounted to, “we’re comping your dinner, quit your whining.” [Law.com]

* Porn star Ella Hughes (don’t worry, these links are safe for work) has completed her law degree — but not after having to face a lot of abuse from classmates. [Legal Cheek]

* Alex Jones is not having a great week — what with all the child porn and the threatening lawyers stuff. [The Wrap]

* Speaking of conspiracy theory-spinning talk show hosts, Brett Kavanaugh’s now quoting Dennis Prager in SCOTUS opinions. Cool cool. [Alternet]

* The Wendy Moore gender discrimination suit against Jones Day appears to be over. Until the next one. [The Recorder]

* Texas just killed a law that would have banned guns in airports because if you’re going to strap yourself into a tin can at 30K feet, you may as well feel sheer terror on the ground too. [Texas Tribune]

* Judge threatens Shearman with ethics charges. [Law360]

Shot in the groin?

Stephen Paddock left a collection of 47 guns valued at more than $62,000, many of which were used in his horrific mass murder.

* “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]

* It’s probably sociopathic to make “I just killed a deer” part of your online dating banter, but it’s downright stupid when you make it part of your online dating banter while trying to woo a game warden. [CNN]

* Ahoy maties! Maritime firms Jones Walker and Fowler Rodriguez merge. [Daily Business Review]

* Coming legal developments that could revolutionize the law. [Law.com]

* Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law now covers police officers shooting innocent people in the back. [Slate]

* Federal judge calls for “bone-crushing” discovery. Hopefully the sets a new precedent and judges start asking for “disemboweling” briefing and “waterboarding” voir dire. [Law360]

* Another online J.D. program — and this one’s bringing in students with higher LSAT scores than the residential program. [New York Law Journal]

* The good and bad news for employers when it comes to workplace class actions. Isn’t the good news for employers always, “the Supreme Court is about to make these illegal”? [Corporate Counsel]

Grand jury delivers bad news for Cody Wilson.

* 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]