Racism

* An off-duty African-American police officer responded to gunfire heard from his apartment by grabbing his service weapon and heading out to assist his fellow officers. How do you think this blurb is going to end? If you answered “I don’t have enough facts yet to know the outcome,” you are an idiot or a child. If you answered “the white officers shot him,” you are right, of course. If you answered, “the white officers detained him, realized their mistake, released him, and then a late arriving officer shot him, and the police lied about it for a day until a newspaper reported out the story,” then you somehow knew that this went down in St. Louis. [New York Daily News]

* The Fifth Circuit lifted a ban on a bill that will allow Mississippi to discriminate against the gay community. Story time: I saw this story in Morning Docket, and just now tried to Google it for comment in this column. I couldn’t remember the exact details, so I just typed in “Mississippi gay bashing bill.” Couldn’t find what I was looking for. I thought a little and then tried “Mississippi religious freedom law,” boom, Google gave me all the links. Here’s the thing: I refuse to use the language of the oppressors. This bill is not about religious freedom, it’s about gay bashing. I’m going to call it as such, I’m going to tag it as such, and I hope others will join me in reserving “religious freedom” for worshipers while telling bigots exactly what they are. [USA Today]

* Undercover police officer handcuffs three teenagers on the National Mall for… selling water without a permit. The kids were black, of course. At this point, I’m pretty sure a police officer could be dying of thirst and I could have an entire river sloshing around in my backpack and I wouldn’t tip it out so that the officer could lick the water off of my foot. BECAUSE IF I REACHED FOR THE WATER THE DESICCATED OFFICER WOULD STILL SHOOT ME AND SAY HE THOUGHT I WAS GOING FOR A GUN. [U.S. News]

* Recipients of the prestigious Rangel and Pickering fellowships, aimed at helping minority applicants get started at the State Department, have been told by Trump’s State Department that only temporary, non-career positions are available to them this year. I think I’m okay with that, insofar as I don’t want any foreigner thinking that non-white Americans have a lot to do with this embarrassment of a country. We just work here. [Independent]

* I’ve got to do some plugs in a second, so my editorial sense tells me I should link to something funny to lighten the mood. Here’s a story about a world-famous comedian who will be touring America, town-hall style, to raise awareness about sexual assault. [NPR]

* Join David Lat for a happy hour — and Supreme Court talk — in Minneapolis on Monday. [Federalist Society Events]

* I was on the Brian Lehrer Show again, this time with Kai Wright, and I broke down like seven Supreme Court cases in half an hour, including basically wetting myself when they let me lead with REAL PROPERTY in the form of the Murr v. Wisconsin decision. [Brian Lehrer Show]

* Time to check in with the Alt-Right. Breitbart has an explosive report claiming that Trump officials are quietly instructing schools to call boys and girls the pronouns of their choice. “Education Officials Quietly Push Transgender Ideology Onto Schools.” It’s their second most commented on story, behind a Nancy Pelosi hit job. “The deplorables didn’t vote for this LGBTQLMFAO nonsense. Trump wasn’t elected to continue ovomits LGBTQLMFAO PCBS legacy, Trump was elected to End it.” Calling schoolchildren something that makes them feel comfortable and accepted = “Ovomits LGBTQLMFAO PCBS legacy.” I will never give in to these people, and I don’t care how many pollsters, spinsters, or allies tell me I have to in order to “win”. [Breitbart]

* Maybe Comey already has a job lined up. [Chronicle of Higher Ed]

* A deeper dive into Gorsuch’s first opinion and how it stacks up with those of the other justices. [Empirical SCOTUS]

* Newt Gingrich sets land speed record on flip-flopping with his latest Bob Mueller tweet. [Salon]

* I already said it this morning, but it bears repeating. [Lawfare]

* Is it discriminatory to broadcast Cleveland Indians games? Canadian tribunal allows this argument to move forward. [Turtle Talk]

* What’s the official state exercise of Illinois? [Lowering the Bar]

* Interesting legal battle going on within the Catholic Church. [Canon Law Blog]

Ed. note: Above the Law will not be publishing on Monday, May 29, in honor of Memorial Day. We’ll see you on Tuesday, May 30 — which is when we plan to issue our latest ATL Law School Rankings.

* A Texas police chief is under investigation for allegedly calling a woman a “black bitch” after an altercation in a Walmart parking lot. The police chief was giving his 14-year-old daughter driving lessons at the time, and I’m comfortable drawing a straight line from the police/father’s behavior to 53% of white women voting for Donald Trump. [The Root]

* I think this link has something to do with art. Potentially, there’s a lawsuit about somebody who copies art? I really don’t know. Somebody at Above the Law sent me a link about art, told me to put it here, but didn’t summarize the relevant art facts to me, and… well, I’m just not going to muster the focus to read a whole story about art. [Jezebel]

* Joel Cohen, Judge Jed S. Rakoff, and Judge Richard Posner debate “alternative facts,” because this is now an issue in our crumbling society. [Slate]

* Long Island family awarded over $8 million because cops Tased disabled man four times. [New York Law Journal]

* Preet Bharara says recently elected Montana Congressperson, Greg ‘The Body-Slammer’ Gianforte, would “face deportation” if he was an immigrant. [The Hill]

* Most respectable publications are reporting on Trump’s embarrassing performance in Europe. Do you think that has filtered all the way down to the white supremacist media that is in charge of the country? [Breitbart]

* Joe Lieberman is senior counsel at Kasowitz Benson, one of President Donald Trump’s go-to law firms, and now that he’s considered to be a frontrunner for FBI director, someone has been desperately trying to edit the firm’s Wikipedia page to remove Trump from its list of notable clients. Gizmodo did some investigation as to who was trying to cover up the fact that Lieberman has a relationship with Trump’s longtime lawyer, Marc Kasowitz. [Gizmodo]

* Now that Robert Mueller has been appointed as special counsel in the investigation of possible Russian interference in the 2016 election, the DOJ is exploring possible conflicts of interest with his former law firm, WilmerHale. Coincidentally, the firm represents former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, but its GC says Mueller had nothing to do with those matters. [Washington Post]

* “You ain’t going to impeach nobody. Try it and we will lynch all of you. You’ll be hanging from a tree.” Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) called for the impeachment of President Donald Trump on the House floor last week, and now he’s being threatened. Green is unwilling to allow the racial hostility to deter him from doing the “right thing,” which he believes, in this case, means proceeding with impeachment proceedings against the president. [Houston Chronicle]

* Much has gone down in the $50 million Jane Doe/Proskauer gender discrimination case since we last checked in. It seems that one judge ruled that Doe need not be unmasked and may continue to use a pseudonym in her action against the firm, and another judge ordered that notes from Doe’s mediation with the firm be preserved, as she claims that a fellow partner allegedly threatened to fire her because of her complaints while there. [ABA Journal]

* “I’ve never known how many students didn’t come because of the old building. I’m quite certain that none came because of the old building.” Twenty years and $80 million dollars later, and the University of South Carolina School of Law finally has a shiny new building to show off that the administration is hoping will not only entice new students to enroll, but also increase its U.S. News law school ranking next year. The school is currently tied for 88th place. [Post and Courier]

* IBM says Watson’s about to take away your job, which is an announcement IBM makes roughly every three months because they’re taunting us. [Corporate Counsel]

* Betty Shelby acquitted in the killing of a black motorist because apparently it’s always reasonable to believe a random black guy is going to pull a gun. [NBC News]

* Former client seeks $1.4 million back that it spent trying to disqualify BakerHostetler. [Law360]

* Latham’s Alice Fisher has pulled out of the FBI Director sweepstakes. All eyes are on Joe Lieberman right now, but folks G. Gordon Liddy is just sitting there raring to go. [National Law Journal]

* And apparently Sheriff Clarke (who I’m sure was Trump’s personal pick) is taking a Homeland Security job so he can focus on harassing the poor and disadvantaged without having to bother all those nice bankers. [New York Times]

* Judge Charles Breyer took a break from writing the best benchslaps of all time to issue a groundbreaking video game ruling citing Star Wars and Love Actually — two movies that should never, ever be mentioned in the same sentence. [Hollywood Reporter]

* Stupid fan lawsuit against Warriors center ZaZa Pachulia moves on. [KENS5]

* More horrific allegations from Ken Starr’s world-class leadership at Baylor. [Huffington Post]

* Airbnb will allow the government to audit hosts in order to test for racial discrimination. [The Guardian]

* Texas cop shoots and kills an unarmed black 15-year-old. [The Root]

* There’s no video, but Popehat has a nice little tale about an airline and airport police completely failing. [Popehat]

* If this had happened to Ann Coulter, conservatives would be concerned. But since it only happened to left-leaning women in Kentucky… crickets. [ABC]

* The Supreme Court doesn’t want to touch California’s ban on gay conversion therapy. Banning gay conversion therapy is, of course, the only reason to be happy Donald Trump hasn’t been repealed and replaced by Mike Pence. [ABA Journal]

* In case you missed it, on Friday night I debated Jenner Block’s Lindsay Harrison about the Constitution, and Seema Iyer about sex offenders. Check out the webcast here. [WNYC Studios]

* Richard Posner and Jed Rakoff face off over the death penalty. [Slate]

Elie Mystal is an editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at elie@abovethelaw.com. He will resist.

* Can you hear me now? Modern marvels of technology like cellphones and other electronic devices are barred from the Supreme Court during oral arguments, but yesterday, justice was interrupted by the ringing of… a Justice’s cellphone. Who was the culprit? The offending phone belonged to Justice Stephen Breyer. Oopsie! [AP]

* After a week charged with sexual harassment allegations and the ouster of Bill O’Reilly, just when Fox News thought its troubles were over, a group of current and former employees filed a class-action lawsuit against the network alleging “abhorrent, intolerable, unlawful and hostile racial discrimination.” The plaintiffs’ lawyers got in this zinger of a statement: “When it comes to racial discrimination, 21st Century Fox has been operating as if it should be called 18th Century Fox.” [DealBook / New York Times]

* Ever since it dumped Eversheds, Milwaukee-based Foley & Lardner has been out on the prowl for another merger partner, and it looks like the firm has finally found its ideal mate in New York boutique Friedman Kaplan Seiler & Adelman. The whole thing seems to be a bit “incestuous” if you ask us. We’ll have more on this later today. [Am Law Daily]

* Ahead of his confirmation hearing todays, Makan Delrahim, President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the antitrust division of the Department of Justice who’s been called a “centrist nominee,” has pledged to recuse himself from all matters involving his prior work as a lobbyist, including the merger between Anthem and Cigna. [Big Law Business]

* At some firms, like Ballard Spahr, senior partners must “transition[] their practices” by age 60, but at other firms, like Cozen O’Connor, age is nothing but a number. “We have so many lawyers who are extremely productive and terrific lawyers and if they want to work well into their 70s, God bless ’em,” says CEO Michael Heller. [Philly Inquirer]