Hobby Lobby
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Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 04.02.20
* Even though RBG has continued to hit the gym during the COVID-19 pandemic, Justice Breyer has been cooped up at his home cooking pot roast, having video nights with his grandkids, and going on an occasional jog while maintaining social distance. [Wall Street Journal]
* A Texas pastor has filed a lawsuit seeking to hold religious services despite shelter-in-place orders related to COVID-19. [Daily Mail]
* Austrian authorities are facing a class-action lawsuit over their handling of a massive COVID-19 outbreak at a popular ski resort. Avoiding COVID-19 can be my latest excuse to avoid hitting the slopes… [CNN]
* A federal judge has publicly reprimanded a lawyer for threatening opposing counsel and falsely claiming that anti-semitic insults were made against him. [Reuters]
* Despite earlier efforts to stay open, Hobby Lobby stores in certain locations will be closed amid shelter-in-place orders enacted because of COVID-19. [CBS News]
* Law enforcement is warning that anyone who attempts to avoid an arrest or citation by faking COVID-19 symptoms could face serious consequences. We’ve all tried to get out of a ticket at some point, but this is really low. [ABC News]
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Labor / Employment
Hobby Lobby Defies Closure Orders, Rebrands Itself An Essential Vendor Of Medical Supplies
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Labor / Employment
Hobby Lobby Orders Stores To Stay Open, Citing HR Memo From Jesus Christ
Tapdancing on a popsicle stick, no doubt.
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Non-Sequiturs
Non-Sequiturs: 07.07.17
* Indiana Jones v. Hobby Lobby. JUSTICE ALITO delivered the opinion of the court. [Held] As applied to closely held corporations, regulations prohibiting the purchase of stolen antiquities violate the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which clearly states the Christian companies like Hobby Lobby can indirectly fund ISIS should the black market or stolen artifacts have relevance to their deeply held beliefs. Petitioners’ claim that it belongs in a museum is denied. [NBC News]
* The Supreme Court lifted the injunction against Wisconsin’s “cocaine mom” law, which allows the state to send expectant mothers to jail because it claims jurisdiction over the unborn fetus. It just goes to show that it’s better to be unborn in Wisconsin than actually having to live there. [ABA Journal]
* States are suing because Betsy DeVos is delaying Obama regulations designed to protect students from for profit colleges. Given that the head of one of these “universities” is now the President of the United States, I do wonder what good a few regulations are going to do. The fox is already in the hen house, do I really care if he opens the gate for the rest of his friends? At this point, I blame the dumb ass chickens for being such easy prey anyway. [U.S. News]
* Man arrested for assaulting his roommate during an argument about Star Wars vs. Star Trek. We don’t know what side he was on, but I’d like to point out that the alleged assailant is black. Dear everybody who called me “oreo” in middle school: this brother here was willing to go to jail over Trek v. Wars. He grabbed the blade end of a knife with his bare hands. Please, go tell him he’s not black enough because he has a deeply held opinion about science fiction. Report back how that goes for you. [The Root]
* Penn State football is being counter-sued by a coach who claims that there were “intolerable” working conditions. I know nothing about the veracity of the coach’s claims, but I’m pretty sure they could have forced him to diagram plays in his own blood and that wouldn’t make the top ten “intolerable things that have happened in the Penn State locker room.” [Deadspin]
* Obviously, the big Alt-Right story this week was the CNN blackmail letter. The Alt-Right pot caught the kettle being black as night with CNN’s veiled doxxing threat. The thing that’s weird about the Alt-Right’s obsession with CNN is: they seem to be the only ones watching the network. Like, this story details CNN’s recent ratings struggles, but who is really surprised by that? CNN is not a #resistance network, and it’s not a white supremacist network. Running a network for “moderates who like to be screamed at by partisans from both sides,” seems like a good idea to who? CNN is not balanced: it just gives equal airtime to both extremes, creating a dystopian false equivalency that venerates Don Lemon’s ability to make every thoughtful person on the planet hate his guts. If CNN is the great scalp the Alt-Right wants to take, they can have it. Wake me up when they come for the NewsHour. [Breitbart]
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Non-Sequiturs
Non-Sequiturs: 10.13.16
* Workplace safety — especially when it deals with beloved actor Harrison Ford — is no laughing matter. And a Disney subsidiary is paying ~$2 million as a result. [io9]
* A look at the oral argument in Peña-Rodriguez v. Colorado. [Slate]
* This whole “publicly traded company” thing isn’t working out so great for Slater & Gordon. [Law and More]
* A new summons for Governor Chris Christie over Bridgegate. [Huffington Post]
* Despite SCOTUS ruling, there haven’t been many Hobby Lobby copycats. [Politico]
* Copyright suit over the classic “Who’s On First” routine stays dead. [Hollywood Reporter]
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Prisons, Religion
Religious Freedom For Everyone (Except Prisoners)! A Tragic Tale Of Incarceration And Spaghetti.
Is religious freedom only important when it protects those on the outside or is something more fundamental at work here? The answer is a little of both depending on how you look at it. -
Non-Sequiturs
Non-Sequiturs: 08.31.15
* Ugh, you throw one stinkin’ party that infringes on the Pokemon copyright and the lawyers shut you down. Buzzkills. [Vice]
* You know what Ryan Phillippe loves to do? Run around without his shirt on and talk about how his Stanford Law girlfriend is awesome. Dontcha love it when a piece of man meat has respect for the T-14? [Daily Mail]
* Are you
gambling in Vegasattending the ILTA conference today? Come Hear Legal Bytes play favorites of the legal industry like Old Technology Blues and Lawyers Love Lexis. [Business of Law Blog]* Just in time for OCI season — what should you do if your Biglaw dreams go pop? [Underdawg Law]
* You’re not alone feeling the Biglaw burnout after a few years, but maybe technology can help? [Bloomberg BNA]
* Greeeeeaaaat… Now employers can deny employees birth control for non-religious reasons. [Think Progress]
* Opening lines to opinions can really set the tone. Take a look at this forceful start from an old Ninth Circuit decision. [Volokh Conspiracy]
* Podcast with the curmudgeon of the legal profession, Mark Herrmann. [Hsu Untied]
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Gay, Gay Marriage
People Are Mad At Indiana For Discrimination Authorized By Hobby Lobby
Did people forget that the Court authorized this discrimination a year ago? - Sponsored
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Document Review, Gay Marriage, Law Schools, Movies, Non-Sequiturs, Police, SCOTUS, Suicide, Supreme Court
Non-Sequiturs: 10.21.14
* That didn’t take long. John Oliver’s Supreme Court dogs have already been used to recreate Hobby Lobby. The entire Hobby Lobby argument. [Above the Law] * Squire Patton Boggs is representing the pharmaceutical company promoting Ebola drugs. Or, as CNN would put it, EVERYONE AT SQUIRE PATTON BOGGS HAS EBOLA!!!! [Law and More] * China Central Television advises citizens not to name themselves “Lawyer.” Good advice. [CCTV News] * Slate posits that appealing gay marriage decisions to the Supreme Court may violate Rule 11. They’re wrong, but that’s what they’re positing. [Slate] * Dr. Ruth is incredibly impressive. Next time you complain about the job market, try moving somewhere with no understanding of the language and getting your own TV show. [What About Clients?] * Documentary about eDiscovery going on a six-city tour. This way other people can understand how much it sucks to do document review. [Bloomberg BNA] * UC Hastings students are protesting their own graduation. [Change.org] * Judges are an autocratic lot, and as long as we inflate the criminal justice system, many of them will be subpar and autocratic, which is an unfortunate combination. [Katz Justice] * A man arrested for a carjacking and shooting up an apartment last week is — per our sources — a law student at Florida Coastal. Probably testing out the Crim issue spotter. [News4Jax] * Are lawyers the new dentists? Or something like that. [TaxProf Blog] * Man attempting suicide by cop told detectives he’d wanted to be killed and was disappointed in the officers’ marksmanship. [Seattle Times] -
Antonin Scalia, Job Searches, Non-Sequiturs, Religion, Supreme Court, Women's Issues
Non-Sequiturs: 09.18.14
* Judge Mark Fuller is back in the news, with Senator Richard Shelby leading a chorus of legislators calling for the judge to resign in light of his domestic violence arrest. [All In with Chris Hayes / MSNBC] * Further fallout from Hobby Lobby: suborning child labor is free exercise. Hurray! [Time] * It’s not just that female partners aren’t getting ahead of their male counterparts, they’re falling further behind. Probably not leaning in enough or whatever the latest insulting sound byte is. [The Careerist] * After learning that Yale is going to start teaching basic financial literacy, more advice on managing student debt is cropping up. [Boston.com] * A Nevada state judge checks out the other side of the bench, pleading guilty to a federal conspiracy rap. [Las Vegas Sun] * Well there’s something I hadn’t thought of: classifying spankers as pedophiles for the purpose of custody hearings. [Law and More] * This is an important life lesson kids: when you’re in a car, don’t light the driver on fire. [KTVB] * Walking down the (very short) memory lane of Justice Scalia’s liberal moments. [Slate] * More on Lateral.ly and its effort to replace headhunters. Basically it’s the Tinder of job hunting. [Washington Post] * Suffolk seems to have given up on advertising to appeal to a false sense of local pride. So now a new law school has taken up that same banner… -
Fashion, Fashion Is Fun, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, SCOTUS, Supreme Court
Notorious R.B.G. Loves Being Called Notorious R.B.G.
What did Justice Ginsburg say on the subject of her retirement? -
Copyright, Debra Wong Yang, Education / Schools, Gay, Law Schools, Non-Sequiturs, Police, Religion, SCOTUS, Sexual Harassment, Supreme Court
Non-Sequiturs: 07.14.14
* Man claims his former employer discriminated against him because he was an atheist. Yep, this Hobby Lobby thing isn’t going to have any repercussions at all. [Lewiston-Auburn Sun Journal] * Speaking of atheists and SCOTUS, the Court may have authorized the Town of Greece to get all religiousy at town board meetings, but an atheist is stepping up to the plate to deliver an invocation. Freedom of religion does mean he gets a turn. [Rochester Homepage] * There’s an icky sexual harassment story coming out of an elite L.A. school. And they’ve hired an elite law firm to investigate. [Gawker] * Cops do hear some pretty funny stories when they pull people over. [Legal Juice] * If you’re out of work, here’s an idea: this solicitor-to-be posted a selfie with a pigeon on Facebook and got an offer — along with a lot of publicity. [Legal Cheek] * Is the future of legal education online? Perhaps the better question is, “How will law schools overcharge when they no longer have brick-and-mortar facilities?” [Tipping the Scales] * A judge explains that incest and pedophilia aren’t such big deals anymore because gay people are accepted. Wow. [Jezebel] * Are you keeping up with Kirby v. Marvel? Because Jack Kirby’s estate is making a run at the Supreme Court in a case that affects billions. Embed below… [Bloomberg] -
Gay, Labor / Employment, Politics, Religion, Texas
There Are No HEROs: The Fight Between LGBT Rights And Religious Objectors Gets More Polarized
Does the debate over LGBT rights and religious freedom suffer from a dearth of diverse perspectives?
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Bar Exams, Legal Ethics, Non-Sequiturs, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, SCOTUS, Summer Associates, Supreme Court, Technology
Non-Sequiturs: 07.08.14
* The criminal codes violated in Transformers: Age of Extinction. Violations of the code of good filmmaking not included. [The Legal Geeks] * Remember the guy who turned Justice Ginsburg’s Hobby Lobby dissent into a song? It turns out he’s been recording a song a day since 2009 and that was his first hit. Congrats! Hopefully next Term Justice Alito can declare suffocating orphans constitutional so this guy can have a follow-up. [Music.mic] * How to end an internship? The key is drunkenly denouncing all your bosses in public. Oh, how to end an internship positively? Well, then I’m going to need some advice. [Corporette] * Fracking interests have a new plan to promote the well-being of those living in affected areas: pay them $50,000 to grant universal releases. This doesn’t make fracking sound dangerous at all. [Pro Publica] * Hey folks taking the New York bar exam at the Javits Center! Order your lunch. [Custom Gourmet] * Insurance companies are asking American customers to go to Tijuana for medical care. “I know you need heart surgery, but have you considered how awesome it would be to take in a donkey show after your release?” [New Republic] * Mitchell Epner, who is basically our Donald Sterling beat reporter, has a recap of the first day of the proceedings. [mitchellepner] * Conviction for multiple sexual assaults “can be the basis of an interim suspension of his law license.” Seems like that should be a little more definite. [Legal Profession Blog] * One of the underappreciated challenges in state and local governance is the inability to permalink statutes. [Government Executive] -
Gay, Guns / Firearms, Non-Sequiturs, SCOTUS, Student Loans, Supreme Court, Technology
Non-Sequiturs: 07.03.14
Ed. note: Above the Law will have a reduced publishing schedule on Friday, July 4, in observance of the day when Will Smith beat those aliens. * Two state supreme courts rejected the bids of guns rights advocates to give felons the right to own guns. But if you outlaw guns, only outlaws… wait, that slogan doesn’t work here. [The Volokh Conspiracy / Washington Post] * Hobby Lobby fallout. Religious groups are asking President Obama to accommodate their “sincerely held belief” that gay people don’t deserve jobs. [Talking Points Memo] * On the other hand, Hobby Lobby opens the door to student loan forgiveness. [Tyler Coulson] * People hated talking to Steve Jobs about their work. Was it because kids these days don’t understand the value of hard work? Or was it because computer geeks are notoriously introverted? [What About Paris?] * Don’t discriminate against people getting divorces — they’ve got enough to worry about. [Adjunct Law Prof Blog] * Some legal academics think bank executives should be paid in bonds. Here are some arguments against that. [Fortune] -
Antonin Scalia, Federal Judges, Quote of the Day, Samuel Alito, SCOTUS, Supreme Court
Is Alito Trying To Unseat Scalia As King Of The Supreme Court's Conservative Bench?
It's Justice Alito's time in the sun, and winter is coming for Justice Scalia. -
Constitutional Law, Health Care / Medicine, Politics, Religion, Samuel Alito, SCOTUS, Supreme Court, Women's Issues
Who Do You Take Seriously In The Hobby Lobby Debate?
Conservative columnist Tamara Tabo offers her reflections on the Supreme Court's ruling in Hobby Lobby. -
Music, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, SCOTUS, Sex, Supreme Court
The Notorious RBG's Hobby Lobby Dissent... IN SONG!
If you're not retiring, maybe you should consider hiring this guy to draft your opinions for you. -
SCOTUS, Social Media, Social Networking Websites, Supreme Court, Technology, Thomas Goldstein, Twittering
Angry Mob Takes To Twitter To Scream At SCOTUSBlog For Hobby Lobby Decision
Whoever is in charge of the SCOTUSblog account responded with the second language that is innate to all lawyers: sarcasm. -
Health Care / Medicine, Religion, Samuel Alito, SCOTUS, Supreme Court, Women's Issues
Hobby Lobby And The True Gangsta Life Of Justice Alito
Hobby Lobby and the gangsta life of Justice Alito.