Religion

  • Morning Docket: 08.22.16
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 08.22.16

    * “You’re going to make a federal case out of this – a dispute between two sorority sisters?” A fight between two sorority sisters recently landed in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, but it turns out the suit was dropped quicker than a misbehaving pledge. We’ll have more on this later today. [Philadelphia Inquirer]

    * “Generally, it is God who decides whether presidents get Supreme Court appointments.” Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg may be the oldest member of SCOTUS, but that doesn’t mean she’s preparing to step down, even if Hillary Clinton wins the presidency. She’s already hired clerks for the October 2017 term. [Washington Post]

    * The Eastern District of Michigan has ruled that in cases of employment discrimination, religious rights trump transgender rights. The ACLU says this case has set a “dangerous precedent,” in that it has “exempted [a business that was “not a particularly religious operation”] from civil rights law with regard to transgender people.” [WSJ Law Blog]

    * The ABA has closed a probe regarding allegations of religious discrimination (i.e., expulsion of students who left the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and bans of sexual activity between students of the same sex) that were said to have occurred at BYU Law School. The school is said to have changed its honor code. [ABA Journal]

    * Infamous Kentucky clerk Kim Davis has lucked out thanks to some actions taken by the Sixth Circuit. A new state law removed the names of clerks from marriage licenses, thus enabling the appeals court to refuse her claims, allowing a judge to toss a suit she was facing over her unwillingness to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. [WSAZ]

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  • Morning Docket: 04.20.16
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 04.20.16

    * Puff, puff, pass the vote! In honor of today’s nationwide holiday for cannabis aficionados, these are all of the states that have legalized marijuana, be it for either recreational or medical use. This year, at least 10 more states may legalize weed by ballot referendum for recreational use, and pot could be rescheduled by the Drug Enforcement Agency depending on the outcome of the upcoming election. [Refinery 29]

    * Members of student activist group Reclaim Harvard Law have demanded that the prestigious law school eliminate tuition completely. They propose that the school dip into its endowment to cover tuition, or cut costs like faculty salaries to make debt-free legal education a reality. This won’t happen, but it’s a nice thought. [Harvard Crimson]

    * The ABA is investigating Brigham Young Law’s policy of expelling ex-Mormon students. Per ABA guidelines, law schools can’t discriminate on the basis of religion, and yet the BYU honor code requires students to get annual endorsements from LDS Church members — endorsements for which former Mormons aren’t eligible. [WSJ Law Blog]

    * Pharma bro Martin Shkreli was dropped from a lawsuit related to his purchase of the only copy of the Wu-Tang Clan’s latest album, “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin.” It’s likely plaintiff Jason Koza, who claims his art was used for the album without his approval, dumped Shkreli due to a purchase-agreement indemnity clause. [New York Post]

    * Because a judge reduced his manslaughter conviction to criminally negligent homicide at the last minute, former NYPD Officer Peter Liang will not serve jail time for the 2014 shooting death of Akai Gurley. Liang once faced up to 15 years in prison, but instead he was sentenced to five years of probation and 800 hours of community service. [CNN]


    Staci Zaretsky is an editor at Above the Law. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments. Follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

  • Morning Docket: 04.15.16
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 04.15.16

    * Ted Cruz may not like dildos, but he doesn’t seem to mind legal weed. Earlier this week, the Republican presidential candidate said that while he opposes federal legalization of cannabis, states should be free to experiment because the Constitution allows for it. Colorado’s legalization of recreational marijuana is safe and sound, for now. [Denver Post]

    * “It was a very pleasant meeting, but it has changed nothing.” Senate Republicans may want nothing to do with confirming D.C. Circuit Chief Judge Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court, but they’ve sure been taking their sweet time telling him “no” during their courtesy meetings with him. Some of these seemingly pointless meetings have gone on for more than an hour. [New York Times]

    * Chief Judge Garland may be wasting his time with these lengthy meetings, though, because if the jurist isn’t confirmed before the upcoming presidential election, Senator Bernie Sanders said during last night’s Democratic debate that if he wins, he’d ask President Obama to withdraw his nomination, as he doesn’t think that Garland would pass his progressive litmus test on Citizens United. Are you still feeling the Bern? [TIME]

    * Lawmakers in several states have passed bathroom bills that enable bigotry in the name of protecting religious rights, but what you may not have known is that there is one lawyer behind them all. Mathew Staver of Liberty Counsel — who was recently in the news for representing Kentucky clerk Kim Davis — says he’s doing it to push back against the Supreme Court’s Obergefell ruling legalizing same-sex marriage. [CBS News]

    * Professor Richard Sander of UCLA School of Law, whose claim to academic fame is his “mismatch” theory of affirmative action, has been trying to get more than 30 years’ worth of data from the State Bar of California for quite some time in an effort to continue his research into the “large and persistent gap in bar passage rates among racial and ethnic groups,” and now he’s finally going to get his day in court. [WSJ Law Blog]

    * David Gherity, a former Minnesota lawyer who was falsely accused of setting his girlfriend on fire using accelerants like alcohol, lotion, hair spray, and fingernail polish remover, has filed a civil rights suit against the police and prosecutors who kept him in jail for about two months. Gherity, who was suspended from practice in 2004, alleges a violation of the “protected interest in his good name.” [Twin Cities Pioneer Press]


    Staci Zaretsky is an editor at Above the Law. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments. Follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

  • Morning Docket: 03.30.16
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 03.30.16

    * An odd order? Perhaps in an attempt to avoid yet another 4-4 split in a controversial case, SCOTUS justices have ordered parties on both sides of the contraceptive coverage battle in Zubik to file briefs describing how such coverage could be provided without religious groups having to put forth much effort to formally object. [Associated Press]

    * “It’s mind bogglingly obvious, but often gets lost in the mix. Apart from checking there aren’t any conflicts, clients are rarely put at the heart of these mergers.” Go figure, but according to a new report by professional services consultancy Gulland Padfield, law firm mergers usually don’t benefit clients in any way, shape, or form. [Am Law Daily]

    * It seems that Russian cybercriminal “Oleras” has hired hackers to break into the computer systems of 48 Biglaw firms so he can collect confidential client data and then trade on the stolen insider information. Thus far, he’s been unsuccessful. Has your law firm been targeted? If you’d like to know, check the list here. [Crain’s Chicago Business]

    * The NFL is so pissed that the New York Times recently published a story linking the league to the tobacco industry that it not only wrote a two-part rebuttal that was more than 3000 words long, but it also sicced Paul Weiss attorneys on the paper of record in search of a retraction, claiming that the story was defamatory in nature. [Yahoo! Sports]

    * “I will not go down. I want Bill Cosby in court.” A Los Angeles judge has ruled that model Janice Dickinson’s defamation case against Bill Cosby can move forward so that a jury can decide whether her allegations of rape are truthful, and further, whether a “liar” comment made by the comedian’s ex-lawyer, Marty Singer, was defamatory. [Telegram]

  • Morning Docket: 03.29.16
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 03.29.16

    * Legal showdown averted (for now): the feds were able to access the data on the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone without any help from Apple. [Washington Post]

    * A Harvard Law School grad stands accused of a $95 million fraud scheme — yikes. We’ll have more on this later. [ABA Journal]

    * Does a sentencing delay violate the Sixth Amendment right to a speedy trial? Some on SCOTUS seem skeptical. [How Appealing]

    * Georgia Governor Nathan Deal announces his intention to veto the Free Exercise Protection Act, which critics claimed would have protected discrimination as a form of religious liberty. [New York Times]

    * Hillary Clinton takes Republicans to task for their handling of the current Supreme Court vacancy. [Wisconsin State Journal via How Appealing]

    * Some thoughts from Professor Noah Feldman on the recent Seventh Circuit ruling about the use of form contracts on the internet (which nobody reads). [Bloomberg View]

    * Save money (on taxes), live better: a federal judge strikes down a tax levied by Puerto Rico on mega-retailer Wal-Mart. [Reuters]

    * The Bracewell law firm, now sans Giuliani, elects Gregory Bopp as its new managing partner. [Texas Lawyer]

  • Non-Sequiturs: 02.26.16
    Non-Sequiturs

    Non-Sequiturs: 02.26.16

    * Justice Thomas chats it up with a TMZ reporter about Lance Ito, NYU, and his lunch at Capital Grille. For as engaged as he is, it’s weird that he won’t divulge what he ordered, right? I assume it was a steak and probably some kind of cola. [TMZ]

    * “Hey, buddy… we’re going to take back your money because your old firm sucked. Sorry it took us four years to notice!” [National Law Journal]

    * Dewey know anyone breathing a little easier today? Former executive director Stephen DiCarmine and chief financial officer Joel Sanders saw 30 counts of grand larceny (15 each) dismissed today. [Law360]

    * Were you wondering when the next Supreme Court justice is going to die? Because there’s an app for that… apparently. [Slate]

    * Remember Judge Richard Cebull’s racist emails? Well, there are more, but we won’t get to see them. [National Law Journal]

    * T-Swift is now in the litigation finance game. Imma let her finish but I think some of these other litigation finance firms are the greatest of all time. [Mighty]

    * Lawyer suspended for Facebook misconduct. That’s a thing now. [Legal Profession Blog]

    * Keeping up the pressure: Fix the Court writes Chief Justice Roberts requesting faster access to Supreme Court audio in the name of transparency. He will probably go ahead and ignore this. [Fix the Court]

    * How do Biglaw bigwigs really live? Vivia Chen visits the home of our 2013 Lawyer of the Year, Roberta Kaplan of Paul Weiss. [The Careerist]

    * Attorney Renee Rabinowitz has had enough of this religiously cloaked sexism stuff. She’s suing El Al for making her switch seats because an ultra-Orthodox man refused to sit next to a woman. [New York Times]