Porngate

* The “best way to get a handle on a circuit judge’s judicial philosophy is to look at the judge’s concurrences and dissents,” but that’s a bit problematic in Chief Judge Merrick Garland’s case — in his 19 years on the D.C. Circuit, he’s only dissented 16 times. That’s less than one dissent for each year he’s been on the bench. We’d probably be able to get to know him better if he got a hearing. [Big Law Business / Bloomberg BNA]

* Recent law school graduates aren’t thrilled about their life choices: Per a survey of more than 7,000 law school alumni, less than half of those who graduated since 2000 “strongly agreed” that if given the chance, they’d choose to go to law school again, and just 20 percent “strongly agreed” that law school was worth the cost. [WSJ Law Blog]

* “[L]aw schools systematically deceived students with misleading statistics, with the blessing of the American Bar Association.” The jury’s verdict in the Alaburda v. TJSL case continues a long history of law schools being left unaccountable and off the hook for their disingenuous employment and salary statistics. [DealBook / New York Times]

* “I was not ‘instructed’ to strike black jurors so much as I was advised or encouraged to do so as a matter of trial strategy.” Assistant District Attorney Nathan Wood of Wharton County, Texas, has accused his boss of excluding black residents from juries in criminal cases to improve the prosecution’s odds of receiving guilty verdicts. [Houston Chronicle]

* One week after resigning from the Pennsylvania Supreme Court over his role in the infamous “Porngate” scandal, citing “disgust” with his conduct, former Justice Michael Eakin was fined $50,000 by the state’s Judicial Conduct Board. At least Eakin will be able to keep his state pension, with an estimated $140K annual value. [Associated Press]

Justice Michael Eakin is really sorry about his offensive emails. Should that be good enough?

* Nobody puts Bernie in the corner! The Democratic race for president has been a little more exciting ever since the Bernie Sanders campaign sued the Democratic National Committee over a data breach involving Hillary Clinton’s voter information. [New York Times]

* Everyone else and their mother has been disciplined in the Pennsylvania Porngate scandal — except for AG Kathleen Kane’s twin sister, prosecutor Ellen Granahan. Her emails were just as awful, but nothing’s going to happen to her. Ain’t nepotism grand? [Morning Call]

* A few weeks ago, Dentons announced that it was interested in swallowing up two Latin American firms, and now a three-way merger has been approved. With 7,400 lawyers, Dentons will become an even bigger Biglaw behemoth. [Big Law Business / Bloomberg]

* The house always wins? Before its sale to billionaire casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, Las Vegas Review-Journal reporters were asked to investigate and write about a judge who may soon make a ruling adverse to his interests. [DealBook / New York Times]

* Arkansas Law wants to dismiss Prof. Robert Steinbuch’s suit over its admissions data. The school’s defense essentially amounts to this: “Just because we accidentally gave you all that info last time doesn’t mean we’ll do it again now.” [Arkansas Democrat-Gazette]

A cache of offensive emails sent and received by a member of a state's high court remind us how broken this court system really is.

* “When it’s convenient, we’re alumni; when it’s not convenient, we are not alumni.” Grads of Texas Wesleyan Law — which is now known as Texas A&M Law — are suing because the school won’t grant them new degrees or recognize them as alumni. Harsh, y’all. [Houston Chronicle]

* The ABA Journal wants to know who you think the smartest judge in the U.S. is. Let’s hear it for the wonderful women of the Supreme Court: Justices Sandra Day O’Connor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan. [ABA Journal]

* Now that same-sex marriage is legal across the country, it only seems logical that bans on adoptions by same-sex couples should be overturned. Mississippi will have Roberta Kaplan of Windsor fame to thank when its ban is struck down. [New York Times]

* Pa. Attorney General Kathleen Kane has claimed innocence with regard to the criminal charges she recently racked up. She blames the entire ordeal on blowback from the state’s “Porngate” scandal. AG Kane has got one hell of a moneyshot. [Philadelphia Inquirer]

* Did you know that there’s such a thing as barbecue law? Further, did you know that a Biglaw attorney who serves as counsel at Norton Rose Fulbright who’s never handled a barbecue case has cornered the market on BBQ law books (affiliate link)? [Legal Times]

* After being temporarily suspended as part of “Porngate” for trafficking in “highly demeaning portrayals of members of various segments of the population, including women, elderly persons, and uniformed school girls,” Seamus McCaffrey retires from the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. [Philadelphia Daily News] * A group of women lawyers in Miami has called for NBC to cancel Bad Judge because it “depicts a female judge as unethical, lazy, crude, hyper-sexualized, and unfit to hold such an esteemed position of power.” Indeed there’s no place for depicting women judges that way on TV. Especially when Miami is perfectly capable of depicting them that way in real life. [Crushable] * Epic trademark infringement. [Legal Cheek] * Crazy pro se guy slapped down in Canada. [Lowering the Bar] * While almost everyone else is seeing lower applications, USC Law saw a 5 percent bump. [USC Gould School of Law] * Stanford and Dartmouth in hot water over election law charges in Montana. Apparently piercing the imaginary veil of non-partisanship in judicial elections is the problem and not the whole idea of judicial elections in the first place. [Montana Standard]

It turns out trading porn is the least of the allegations against Justice McCaffrey....