Log Cabin Republicans

* There are many questions, but no answers, as Judge Merrick Garland’s “final reckoning” approaches. His nomination will die if Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is elected, but would he be confirmed in a lame-duck session if Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton wins? In that case, if Senate Republicans refuse to confirm him after the election, will Clinton re-nominate him after she’s sworn in? Will he ever receive a hearing? Someone please help this poor man. [Reuters]

* With apologies to Judge Garland, the only thing that seems to remain certain is that Senate Republicans are firm in their stance that they’ll continue to prevent the late Justice Antonin Scalia’s seat on the Supreme Court from being filled. Senator John McCain, for example, asked supporters to re-elect him so he can assist his GOP brethren in “prevent[ing] that four-to-four split from tilting to the left.” [Huffington Post]

* According to FBI director James Comey, after review of additional emails found in an unrelated investigation into Anthony Weiner, there’s still no evidence that Hillary Clinton should face any criminal charges over the handling of her email communications while she was Secretary of State. Voters can breathe a little easier now, because there will be no indictments coming for the Democratic presidential nominee. [New York Times]

* Chadbourne & Parke has finally responded to partner Kerrie Campbell’s $100M gender discrimination suit, and the firm didn’t pull any punches, alleging that her practice area was a “poor fit” for the firm, that she “exhibited questionable legal judgment,” and that its decision to ask her to leave was for “entirely legitimate and proper business reasons and without a scintilla of consideration being given to her gender.” [WSJ Law Blog]

* “No purpose will be served by letting him rot in prison for years on end.” Judge Jed Rakoff, a longtime critic of federal sentencing guidelines, has sentenced Harvard Law School graduate-cum-Ponzi schemer Andrew Caspersen to four years in prison for his $38.5M fraud, even though prosecutors sought almost 16 years of time behind bars for his financial crimes — a proposition which Rakoff referred to as “absurd.” [Reuters]

* E. Barrett Prettyman Jr., founder of the first appellate practice, RIP. [Hogan Lovells]

* Janet Reno, first woman to serve as U.S. attorney general, RIP. [New York Times]

* Now that DADT has been repealed, the Ninth Circuit has tossed the Log Cabin Republicans case. How does that Paula Abdul song go? Two steps forward, two steps back? [Los Angeles Times] * Is this a new way of protecting taxpayers? In early 2012, Bank of America is going to start charging $5 a […]

This year has been a big one for LGBT rights litigation. There was Judge Vaughn Walker’s ruling in Perry v. Schwarzenegger, striking down Proposition 8’s ban on gay marriage in California. There were the Massachusetts decisions by Judge Joseph Tauro, holding unconstitutional section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). And in a decision […]