Ninth Circuit

Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 02.03.16

* Sorry, Berners, but you'll have to start the revolution somewhere else: Students at Georgetown Law have been barred from campaigning for Bernie Sanders on campus because administrators say it would threaten the law school's tax-exempt status. [Hit & Run / Reason] * A group from Kasowitz Benson's lucrative insurance recovery practice, including its leader, Robin Cohen, is leaving for McKool Smith, but name partner Marc Kasowitz doesn't seem to mind one bit. He says it'll help the firm out in the long run. [Big Law Business / Bloomberg BNA] * Obama is expected to nominate Judge Lucy Koh of the Northern District of California, she of the Apple v. Samsung patent feud, to the Ninth Circuit. It's too bad the likelihood of her getting through the Senate right now is "close to zero." [San Jose Mercury News] * Hole singer Courtney Love's "Twibel" (Twitter plus libel) victory against her ex-lawyer in the first case to ever go to trial over a defamatory tweet was recently upheld by a California appellate court. Retweet and Like. [THR, ESQ. / Hollywood Reporter] * Mmm, cheese-product sticks! Fast-food conglomerate McDonald's is facing a class-action suit over its sometimes cheeseless mozzarella sticks, with allegations that they're not made with "100 percent real cheese" and "real mozzarella" as advertised. [Eater]

By Staci Zaretsky
Non-Sequiturs

Non-Sequiturs: 01.28.16

* How Planned Parenthood's aggressive legal strategy launched them from the defensive to the offensive. [Reuters] * David Boies just saved Natalie Portman's ass. Yes, you read that correctly. [The Hollywood Reporter] * Don't be cute and try and violate a restraining order via Facebook. [Associate's Mind * Arizona wants out of the Ninth Circuit. Good luck with that. [AZ Governor] * Not recommended judicial behavior: hanging a portrait of Adolf Hitler in the courthouse's Hall Of Heroes. Looks like Oregon's Judge Vance Day is learning that the hard way. [Raw Story] * You can't skirt defamation laws by complaining to a disciplinary committee -- a doctor files a complaint against an attorney who blogged about him. [New York Personal Injury Attorney Blog] * Writing fiction was "liberating" for this attorney. Check out the new crime novel, A Stirring in the North Fork (affiliate link), to see what he's talking about. [Teamster Nation] * Despite how sensationalized they can be, the insanity defense is really quite rare. [Huffington Post] * Even if you aren't rich, you still need a prenup. [My Bank Tracker]

By Kathryn Rubino
Non-Sequiturs

Non-Sequiturs: 12.16.15

* In a moving long-form piece, the Marshall Project details how the criminal justice system failed a rape victim. [The Marshall Project] * "As a debater, a product of Jesuit schooling, a scholar of religion, and a legal scholar, I was taught that words matter. Rational discourse matters. Setting an example matters." NYU President John Sexton makes a powerful statement on the rise of Islamaphobia. [NYU] * Eric Schniederman is in the news for a reason unrelated to fantasy football -- he's banning the sale of realistic toy guns this Christmas. [Press Connects] * David Lat pontificates on this year's bonuses. [Big Law Business / Bloomberg BNA] * That judge who held 3 kids in contempt for refusing to visit their father now faces disciplinary action. [Jezebel] * In economic terms, what do painkillers really cost? [Law and More]

By Kathryn Rubino
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 11.13.15

* Steven Metro, an ex-managing clerk at Simpson Thacher who was accused of passing insider info about mergers and other business transactions to his law school buddy in a $5.6 million insider trading scheme, has pleaded guilty. He faces up to 20 years in prison. [Reuters] * Remember Keila Ravelo, the Willkie Farr partner who allegedly stole millions from that firm and her prior firm, Hunton & Williams? It turns out her involvement in the $5.7 billion MasterCard/Visa antitrust settlement could ultimately become its kiss of death. [Big Law Business / Bloomberg] * Chief Judge Morrison England (E.D. Cal.) says he and his colleagues are incredibly overworked, sometimes putting in more than 80 hours per week. It's too bad it doesn't make a difference -- the court is at a "crisis point" in its backlog of cases. [WSJ Law Blog] * Last summer, a federal judge ruled the death penalty was unconstitutional in California because an appeals process with the "slight possibility of death" was cruel and unusual. Here's a real shocker: the Ninth Circuit overturned the decision. [New York Times] * Embattled Pennsylvania AG Kathleen Kane is well past the point of having 99 problems, but there's no end in sight. Former prosecutors have filed suit against her, alleging she retaliated against them for exposing her alleged criminal misdeeds. [Tribune-Review]

By Staci Zaretsky
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 09.15.15

* "We're going to the Jersey Shore, bitch!" This probably isn't the kind of marketing that Jackson Lewis had in mind when the firm announced it was going to be opening an office north of Seaside Heights. Associates, you better get ready for some very serious GTB (gym, tan, billable hours). [Big Law Business / Bloomberg BNA] * Kim Davis may be back to work at the Rowan County Clerk's Office in Kentucky, but that doesn't mean she's done with her fight to not do her job. She'll be suing Gov. Steve Beshear for failing to provide her with a religious accommodation. [Talking Points Memo] * Some progress has been made in the infamous "dancing baby" case thanks to a recent Ninth Circuit decision. As it turns out, "copyright law does not authorize thoughtless censorship of lawful speech.” Prince would've wanted it this way. [WSJ Law Blog] * Public interest problems: When you work in Biglaw, performing a high number of pro bono hours may keep you from "doing the amount or quality of billable that it takes to advance in the firm, because there's only 24 hours in the day." [Crain's Chicago Business] * Necrophilia is apparently still legal in several of our fine states, but a lawmaker in Massachusetts is trying to get a law on the books that would make sex with the dead illegal. It's already illegal for Massholes to have sex with animals, so it's only fair. [Metro]

By Staci Zaretsky
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 09.01.15

* ABC News chief legal analyst Dan Abrams is suing his neighbors over his lawyerly lair -- and one of the defendants is a Biglaw partner at a top firm. Expect more on this later. [New York Post] * Speaking of Biglaw, a familiar tale of financial performance: gross revenue at Am Law 100 firms grew by 4 percent in the first half of 2015, but driven by rate increases rather than demand growth. [American Lawyer] * If you want the Supreme Court to hear your case, try to steer your cert petition clear of the "long conference," known as the place "where petitions go to die." [New York Times] * Speaking of SCOTUS, the Court won't come to the rescue of the Kentucky county clerk who refuses to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples -- time to issue those licenses or quit, Kim Davis. [How Appealing] * But the justices did come to the (temporary) rescue of former Virginia Governor Robert McDonnell, allowing him to remain free until SCOTUS acts on his petition for certiorari. [SCOTUSblog via How Appealing] * Are criticisms of the S.E.C.'s administrative-law procedures correct? Here's a study from Professor David Zaring. [New York Times] * The Show-Me State leads when it comes to showing defendants to their deaths: Missouri has displaced Texas as the "epicenter of the American death penalty." [The Marshall Project] * Speaking of capital punishment, I predicted that these particular Ninth Circuit judges wouldn't be too sympathetic to this challenge to the death penalty -- and based on yesterday's oral argument, it seems I was right. [How Appealing]

By David Lat