Music

Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 07.18.17

* R. Kelly's lawyer responds to allegations that a bunch of women are trapped in the proverbial closet. [Entertainment Tonight] * The big news of the night was the slow, painful, uncovered death of the GOP tax cut. McConnell now says he'll push for a clean repeal of Obamacare and leave the "replace" part for later, which would theoretically take it out of the reconciliation process. And that means 60 votes or some drastic changes. This is either a bluff or a lot of people are about to learn more than they ever wanted to know about parliamentary rules. [ABC News] * Need judicial approval to tour the country? Sing it with me now... "Jed Gon' Give It To Ya."[Law360] * Justice Kagan with an amusing anecdote about being vetted by the Obama administration. [National Law Journal] * Plaintiffs' attorneys in the Trump University case say efforts to undo the settlement over notice concerns, "effectively ask this court to declare Rule 23 unconstitutional." Dude, I hate to break this to you, but that's what the Supreme Court's been saying for at least 10 years. * Disney is locked in an IP litigation over the technology they use to map actors' expressions onto CGI characters in movies like in Avengers: Age of Ultron, where they made a merciless robot fixated on world domination appear to have a soul. Sorry, did I say Avengers? I meant "a Bob Iger presentation at a Disney shareholder meeting." [Law.com] * Because all other problems in the country are settled, Congress is looking into overturning Washington D.C.'s assisted suicide law. [USA Today] * Charlie Hustle is suing Trump lawyer John Dowd formerly of Akin Gump for defamation. [Philadelphia Inquirer] * Google successfully staves off Labor Department request for compensation information in ongoing discrimination probe. God, Assistant can't give you any useful information. [Corporate Counsel]

By Joe Patrice
Non-Sequiturs

Non-Sequiturs: 02.10.16

* Macklemore, Imagine Dragons, Incubus, Miguel and Skrillex are headlining a benefit concert for the ACLU. [Salon] * Will district court Judge Amul R. Thapar be the nation’s first South Asian-American Supreme Court justice? [Bloomberg/BNA] * The ABA is urging President Trump to withdraw his travel ban. [New York City Bar] * The Federal Bar Council doesn't take kindly to Trump's tweets about federal judges. [FBC] * You know how your eyes glaze over halfway through a huge block quote? You should probably cut those down. [LawProse] * With Jeff Sessions as Attorney General, are we heading for a constitutional crisis? [The Slot] * Do you think George Conway will wind up as Solicitor General? [Law and More] * This seems troubling. [Slate]

By Kathryn Rubino
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 02.09.17

* Jeff Sessions has a new job. [CNN] * Beyoncé sued by YouTube star's estate. She'd better hire Becky with the good law degree. [NBC News] * David Boies is taking on human trafficking. Hopefully this fight doesn't require any travel today. [Litigation Daily] * Groups are suing to block Trump's proposal to eliminate two regulations for every one enacted. If you want safe drinking water, hope you like spoiled eggs and no airbags, motherf**kers! [Law360] * Speaking of political shenanigans with the law, the courts have put the kibosh on North Carolina's hilarious lame duck effort to limit the powers of the governor once they realized they lost it. [ABC News] * When lawyers go wrong. [Am Law Daily] * Scott Alvarez, the Fed's top attorney, is retiring. Or "leaving his current job." Let's not pretend there won't be a Biglaw of GC seat waiting for him if he wants it. [MarketWatch] * Is it legal for the president to delete Tweets? Probably not. [Forbes] * Putin signs a law decriminalizing a huge chunk of domestic violence claims. In case you were wondering what's on tap for after midterms. [Fox News]

By Joe Patrice
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 11.14.16

* Shortly after being urged to settle the Trump University lawsuit, lawyers for President-elect Donald Trump have filed a motion to continue the trial -- now scheduled to begin just after Thanksgiving -- until after his inauguration in January. If no settlement can be reached, we may get to see a sitting president on trial for fraud. [San Diego Union-Tribune] * Before he even nominates another judge to take the late Justice Antonin Scalia's seat on the Supreme Court, President-elect Donald Trump could significantly alter the high court's trajectory this term by undoing Obama administration policies on immigration, climate change, cost-free contraceptive care, and transgender rights. [Associated Press] * Many New York law schools saw their bar exam passage rates soar thanks to the state's first-time administration of the Uniform Bar Exam this past summer, but some law schools didn't fare quite as well and saw their passage rates decline. Which law schools did well and which ones didn't? We'll have more on this later. [New York Law Journal] * IMDb.com has filed suit against California over a new law set to take effect in January that will allow actors to conceal their ages in their biographies on the television and film site. The state believes this will prohibit age-based discrimination in Hollywood, but the website claims that the law infringes upon its First Amendment rights. [WSJ Law Blog] * "It is unfortunate that the DOJ continues to fight for an interpretation of BMI's consent decree that is at odds with hundreds of thousands of songwriters and composers (and) the country's two largest performing rights organizations," but it seems the DOJ hopes the Second Circuit will force BMI to change the way it collects royalties. [Reuters]

By Staci Zaretsky