Marijuana

* Yes, it’s true: Jeff Sessions came thisclose to resigning as attorney general, after Donald Trump berated him following the appointment of special counsel Bob Mueller in the Russia probe. [New York Times]

* Bye-bye to blue slips? It wouldn’t exactly be “nuclear,” since their treatment has varied greatly over the years. [BuzzFeed]

* The State Bar of California tries to cut down the arguments in favor of a lower cut score on the bar exam. [ABA Journal]

* Technology platforms are driving an increase in transparency that’s having profound consequences for the employer/employee relationship (as I recently discussed on the podcast of Akerman employment-law partner Matt Steinberg). [Akerman]

* Embattled Equifax has turned to Phyllis Sumner and King & Spalding for much-needed legal help in the wake of its massive data breach. [Law.com]

* Statutory interpretation question: can you be both the victim and the perpetrator in a child pornography case? [How Appealing]

* The ranks of nonequity partners continue to grow; has this trend gone too far? [Big Law Business]

* Prosecution of individuals in cases of corporate wrongdoing (aka the Yates Memo), and Justice Department policy on enforcement of federal marijuana laws in states where it has been decriminalized — both are “under review” at the DOJ, according to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. [Law.com]

* The past and future of law reviews. Somehow whenever I think of the future of law reviews, I think of this. [The Faculty Lounge]

* Has anyone else noticed Trump’s lawyers sound a lot different all of a sudden? [Vanity Fair]

* Lisa Bloom’s got a lawsuit against Usher over supposedly giving women herpes. Frankly, that’s not the worst thing Usher’s unleashed on an unsuspecting populace. That’s what he has to answer for. [Jezebel]

* The marijuana crackdown may be coming soon. [Slate]

* This reads like a New York City government scandal, but then you read the details and it’s just… not. [New York Daily News]

* This guy really doesn’t like legal AI. [Legal Cheek]

* It’s been a few days, but here’s a recap of The Legal Geeks’ presentations at SDCC. [The Legal Geeks]

* I like football, I really do. But, uggh. It is getting harder and harder to justify. [Deadspin]

* The only law John Kelly will ever have to understand. [Clickhole]

* I mean… this will never get passed. But, legalizing marijuana and combating the racial injustice of the war on drugs is a great idea. [Huffington Post]

* Things don’t look good for public-sector unions in front of the Supreme Court. [Lawyers, Guns and Money]

* Tips for building a great work style. [Corporette]

* Charting the government’s responsibility for segregation. [Chronicle of Higher Education]

* There’s a club forming for JDs who have been given the boot by President Trump. [Law and More]

* “If it’s what you say I love it especially later in the summer.” An anonymous government official has said that Justice Department Special Counsel Robert Mueller will be taking a hard look at the emails disclosed by Donald Trump Jr. and the meeting discussed within them in his investigation into any possible collusion with Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election. [CNN]

* President Trump has a rare opportunity to reshape the federal judiciary, and with close to 150 vacancies, he’s attempting to do just that. That being said, many people are understandably worried about the prospect of Trump’s judicial picks because “[w]e’re seeing nominees, including Gorsuch, who are going to turn back the clock on hard-fought rights and liberties.” [Bloomberg News]

* Demand for legal services may be sluggish at best, but that’s not stopping law firm leaders from making bullish projections for the future. According to the latest report from Citi Private Bank, law firm managing partners are cautiously confident in the outlook for their businesses. We may have more on this later today. [Am Law Daily]

* In what seems to be an effort to catch up with modern times, the American Bar Association’s Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar is considering adding gender identity and ethnicity to existing law school accreditation rules regarding diversity, nondiscrimination, and equal opportunity. [ABA Journal]

* Notes from the weed line: In this op-ed, former Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura says that if President Trump decides to somehow reverse state laws that have legalized marijuana, then not only would those states be potentially bankrupted, but such action could also trigger another economic collapse across the entire nation. [CNBC]

* Several people were reportedly shot this morning at a GOP baseball practice, including House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, who is now in stable condition. The gunman is in custody. We may have more on this later today. [The Hill]

* The Supreme Court has granted Acting Solicitor General Jeff Wall more time to file papers in order to respond to the recent Ninth Circuit decision upholding a lower court decision which blocked President Donald Trump’s travel ban. This means that any action taken by the high court on the administration’s emergency pleas for certiorari will be even further delayed. [Reuters]

* “I am protecting the right of the president to assert [executive privilege] if he chooses.” Attorney General Jeff Sessions seemed to have no desire to speak about his interactions or conversations with President Donald Trump regarding James Comey’s handling of the Russia probe during his Senate hearing yesterday, and didn’t feel the need to provide a real legal basis for his refusal to answer questions on the topic either. [New York Times; Washington Post]

* In the meantime, even though rumors have been swirling about President Donald Trump’s supposed desire to fire special counsel Robert Mueller, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein says he has no reason to fire Mueller at this time: “If there were good cause, I would consider it. If there were not good cause, it wouldn’t matter to me what anybody says.” [Law360 (sub. req.)]

* Marc Kasowitz may have taken a “career-defining” role representing the “predisent,” but one wonders what will happen to his law firm while he pursues this ambitious undertaking. Kasowitz Benson could suffer when it comes to recruiting new talent to the firm thanks to its leader’s choice of clientele, not to mention the fact that its revenue has been on the decline. [Am Law Daily]

* In an effort to fight the “historic drug epidemic” that in no way involves marijuana, AG Jeff Sessions has asked Congress to roll back the Rohrabacher-Farr amendment, which prohibits the DOJ from using federal funds to prosecute states that have instituted their own laws authorizing the “use, distribution, possession, or cultivation of medical marijuana.” [Washington Post]

* Herma Hill Kay, the first female dean of Berkeley Law, RIP. [The Recorder]