Guns / Firearms
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Non-Sequiturs
Non-Sequiturs: 04.29.18
* Kirkland & Ellis raiding Cravath is now officially “a thing”; it’s been covered in the newspaper of record. [New York Times]
* Extension requests: not just for law school papers, but for cert petitions too (and there’s no shame in seeking them; they’re often requested by prominent practitioners). [Empirical SCOTUS]
* Want to talk intelligently about the Michael Cohen
messcase with your friends? Start by reading this primer on “privileged” versus “confidential” client communications, by Joel Cohen (no relation) and Dale Degenshein. [Law and Crime]* Boycotts have a venerable history in terms of the law and the First Amendment — but they might be losing their effectiveness in the digital age, as noted media lawyer Charles Glasser explains. [Daily Caller]
* Eugene Volokh flags this interesting issue (and opinion): under what circumstances does denying a felon the right to own a gun violate the Second Amendment? [Reason / Volokh Conspiracy]
* Has the whole “emotional support animal” phenomenon gone too far at Yale? [Yale Daily News via Instapundit]
David Lat is editor at large and founding editor of Above the Law, as well as the author of Supreme Ambitions: A Novel. He previously worked as a federal prosecutor in Newark, New Jersey; a litigation associate at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz; and a law clerk to Judge Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. You can connect with David on Twitter (@DavidLat), LinkedIn, and Facebook, and you can reach him by email at dlat@abovethelaw.com.
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Crime
Biglaw Partner Guilty In Wife's Shooting Death
The Biglaw partner found guilty on all but the most serious charge. - Sponsored
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Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 04.18.18
* President Trump seems to be addicted to lawyers, and maybe someday he’ll be able to find another one like Michael Cohen who is “willing to sacrifice reputation, sanity, and perhaps a paycheck” to defend him. [Politico]
* Proskauer Rose and Jane Doe, the partner who sued the firm in a $50 million gender bias lawsuit, will be entering mediation to see if they can reach a settlement. At the same time, limited discovery will take place as to whether Doe is an “employee” under the anti-discrimination laws cited in the suit. [American Lawyer]
* Anthony Borges, a student who was shot five times while blocking a doorway to save other students during the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, has filed suit against Nikolas Cruz for for assault and battery. Perhaps we should be expecting more of these lawsuits in the future. [Sun Sentinel]
* Parents whose children were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012 have filed a defamation lawsuit against Alex Jones of Infowars. Jones responded to the lawsuit going on a 10-minute rant on his show about how his lawyers thought the suit was frivlous. [New York Times]
* Bonus season isn’t over yet — for staff members, that is. Mintz Levin recently awarded hundreds of its staff members with special bonuses to celebrate an increase in equity partner profits. [Big Law Business]
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Guns / Firearms
Everything Wrong With The Parkland Kids And Why You Should Support Them Anyway
Don't let the symbolism overtake reality. Because symbols have a nasty habit of being twisted. -
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Small Law Firms
Lawyer Accused Of Shooting Up Another Lawyer's Office Now Accused Of Running A Meth Lab... As One Does
This is shockingly unsurprising. -
Courts
Retired Supreme Court Justice Calls For Repeal Of Second Amendment
He called the Second Amendment 'a relic of the 18th century.' -
Crime
Women Don't Do Mass Shootings, It's Mostly Young White Men
All of these young men had access to weapons, and of them were angry. - Sponsored
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Crime
I Think Emma Gonzalez Should Sue These Alt-Right Fools For Defamation And False Light
They are smearing her with false images on social media, and there is, in fact, a law against that. -
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]
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Family Law
Lawmakers Pass 'Sara's Law' To 'Protect' Attorneys In Least Effective, Most Insulting Way Possible
Frankly, this law dishonors the career of a woman who fought to protect her clients from abuse. -
Law Schools
Law Students Walkout To Demand Action On Gun Violence In America
Did students at your law school participate in the walkout? -
Small Law Firms
When A Snippy Cease And Desist Letter Just Won't Do -- Lawyer Accused Of Shooting Up Adversary's Office
Attorney disputes shouldn't end in gunplay, but police say that's what happened here.
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Government
You Realize Arming Teachers Is Going To Lead To Black Students Getting Murdered By Their Teacher, Right?
If you give public employees guns, they will turn them on black people. -
Free Speech
I Do Not Think That Word Means What You Think It Means
The Tragedy of the Barred Attorney. -
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]
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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]
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Courts
Unaccountable Lifetime Employee Spends 14 Pages Whining About Waiting Periods As Nation Still Mourns Dead Children
Justice Clarence Thomas makes this stupid point so often that it was bound to drop after one mass shooting or another. -
Law Schools
FedSoc Event At A Shooting Range Is The Most Sadly Obvious Post-Parkland Story
Law students plan trip to the gun range in epic display of poor taste.