Religion

Trump's got troubles.

* It’s official: Justice Clarence Thomas hasn’t asked a question during oral arguments at the Supreme Court in a decade. No other justice in history has ever done something like this, but Justice Thomas is “confident enough in his own skin not to care.” [MSNBC]

* Who would make a better SCOTUS justice, Judge Sri Srinivasan of the D.C. Circuit or U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara? President Obama may be wondering when deciding whether to appoint the high court’s first Asian-American justice. [New York Daily News]

* Judge H. Russel Holland was presiding over the DOJ’s action against two allegedly discriminatory polygamous cities on the Utah-Arizona border when he was rushed away in an ambulance. He had a terrible case of bronchitis. Feel better, Your Honor! [AP]

* Gowlings, Canada’s second-largest firm, merged with UK-based Wragge Lawrence Graham to form an international firm with 1,400+ lawyers in 10 countries. Accept our cautionary congratulations, since layoffs usually follow mergers of this size. [Reuters]

* Aww, how cute! After working as a fully integrated firm for almost two years, Squire Patton Boggs has announced its first-ever merger with another firm. Welcome San Francisco-based firm Carroll Burdick & McDonough to the party. [Plain Dealer]

* Mayer Brown is relying on a lateral associate to help its Cuba practice shore up client relations on the island through all of her connections there, which have been described as “hot property.” She even got her own press release. [Big Law Business / Bloomberg]

This must have been... awkward.

* The 5 questions employers shouldn’t ask in job interviews. “Does this look infected?” inexplicably fails to make the list. [Law360]

* Cleveland is suing Tamir Rice’s family for not paying for the ambulance that picked him up after he got gunned down by police. In the contest for “Worst Place In America,” Cleveland just keeps racking up points. [Slate]

* Mark Cuban continues harassing the SEC with amicus filings over their haphazard enforcement antics. Being rich and a little bit obnoxious finally serves a public purpose. [Litigation Daily]

* Ikea has lost the trademark in its own name in Indonesia. This seems as good an opportunity as any to link to this video. [Coconuts Jakarta]

* Department of Justice sues Ferguson for years of pervasive racial discrimination. This comes after the city rejected a negotiated deal, because whenever the federal government has you dead to rights you should absolutely piss all over the deal they offer. [Huffington Post]

* NASA employees barred from writing “Jesus” in newsletter. Some are calling this a religious freedom issue, but that’s ridiculous — this is a scientific credibility issue. You’re NASA! You’ve been up there and know he’s not hanging around on a cloud. [Corporate Counsel]

* Sanctioned former Mintz Levin associate brings defamation claims against newspapers. [The Am Law Daily]

They're not monsters; in fact, they're relatively normal.

Sooner or later -- probably sooner -- this is an issue that this law school will have to come to grips with.

The hypocrisy of the Anglican church is off the charts.

* If you were a Biglaw partner at a troubled firm who managed to escape before the sh*t really hit the fan, and you now feel bad for those you left behind, don’t worry. We know you might not be familiar with emotions, but “[i]t’s a legitimate human feeling.” [Big Law Business / Bloomberg BNA]

* Just when you thought Ted Cruz was eligible to run for president, some renowned legal scholars have crawled out of the woodwork to state the complete opposite — and some have even published law review articles about it. [WSJ Law Blog]

* Those contract attorneys who sued for overtime pay at their doc review jobs made an impact, but it might not have been the kind they were hoping for. Many law firms and staffing agencies have stopped offering overtime work at all. [New York Law Journal]

* Florida’s death row inmates are stuck in legal limbo now that SCOTUS invalidated the state’s capital punishment sentencing regime as unconstitutional. Maybe the state where people go to die should consider repealing its death penalty altogether. [Reuters]

* Oh my God (but not his): An atheist lawyer is suing to remove the phrase “In God We Trust” from all U.S. currency because he says it violates the separation between church and state. He’s filed God-related lawsuits in the past, and lost them all. [Cleveland.com]

Reality is just a little blurred in the Ted Cruz camp.

* In his annual report on the state of the federal judiciary, Chief Justice John Roberts asked that lawyers stop treating each other like garbage and do their best to “avoid antagonistic tactics, wasteful procedural maneuvers and teetering brinksmanship.” [New York Times]

* Justice Antonin Scalia, the Supreme Court’s “lightning rod for controversy,” recently said during a small speaking engagement that the government not only can, but should, support religion. After all, “God had been very good to us.” [AP]

* Albany Law’s dean says don’t believe the horror stories you hear about law school, especially since “[t]his is a really good time to apply.” It’s worth noting that she wasn’t able to pay off her loans until she was a tenured law professor. [Albany Times Union]

* The Arkansas Law (Little Rock) professor who’s suing his school over access to public records has added a retaliation claim to his complaint thanks to the “allegations of two rogue, race-baiting professors.” Ooh, that sounds juicy! [Arkansas Democrat Gazette]

* Is your favorite music streaming service screwing your favorite musicians out of their hard-earned cash? Spotify may soon be facing yet another multimillion-dollar class-action lawsuit over artists’ royalty payments (or the lack thereof) in 2016. [Billboard]

* Michael G. Oxley, co-sponsor of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, RIP. [New York Times]

What do you think about Donald Trump's "highly political" proposal?

Whatever you might think of Trump’s plan as a policy matter, it is in full accordance with the Constitution, as columnist Kayleigh McEnany explains.

The acting and editing in Spotlight are top-notch; does it deserve the Academy Award?

* Donald Trump has been having a rollicking good time on the campaign trail as the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination, but he may have to take a break to testify in a trademark dispute over “Trump Your Competition.” [WSJ Law Blog]

* It seems that Venable has been dragged into a huge Facebook stock scam, and thanks to a former partner’s alleged conduct, the Biglaw firm is now being accused of assisting a con man in a $11.3 million fraud related to the social media giant’s initial public offering. [New York Post]

* The Obama administration has finally made a move in the SCOTUS case filed by Oklahoma and Nebraska seeking to overturn legal weed in Colorado. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli thinks the justices would have to be high to even entertain it. [Reuters]

* Trinity Western Law grads were previously banned from practicing law in British Columbia, Canada, due to the Christian school forcing students to sign abstinence pledges, but because of this recent ruling, the tides have turned. [NewBostonPost]

* “This will not be the end of the road for solitary confinement reform, but we really think it’s a watershed moment.” Thanks to a $62M settlement, New York will be changing the way it deals with solitary confinement in state prisons. [New York Times]

* After finding out that Justice Scalia was rejected from two of his top-choice schools, the ABA Journal wants you to reflect on your own rejections and acceptances. Where did you apply to law school, and where did you decide to go? Let us know. [ABA Journal]

* Charlie Sheen, not one to beat around the bush, got right down to business in a motion to dismiss his ex-fiancée’s lawsuit, calling her an “extortionist who gets paid for sex as a prostitute and porn star.” Looks like someone could use some anger management. [Fox News]

* If you’ve been following the circus sideshow that is Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, you know that he’s proposed a ban on Muslims entering the country. Needless to say, this is likely completely unconstitutional, and many law profs agree on this point. [WSJ Law Blog]

* The GC of Allstate says law firm billing rates are way too damn high. Her pet peeve? “[T]he way law firms bill, the hourly rate system, and the fact that rates go up, or at least they try to have them go up year, after year, after year.” [Big Law Business / Bloomberg]

* Everything’s bigger in Texas, except for this law school’s tuition: Texas A&M Law has announced that it will be lowering its in-state tuition by more than 15 percent, and then freezing it at that level for four years for all entering and current students. [PRNewswire]

* If you’re a minority who’s thinking about applying to law school, there are several important things you ought to take into consideration, including which schools will provide you with a “supportive, nurturing, mentoring environment.” [U.S. News]

Judge Posner is known for his willingness to take swings at those above him in the judicial hierarchy.

Why are lawyers not more aggressive about rewriting the Bible to make themselves more loved?

* DraftKings and FanDuel aren’t going to take a knee and allow New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman to rip away their gamblers clients. Both daily fantasy sites have refused to stop conducting business in New York, and have instead filed suit against Schneiderman with some hefty Biglaw backing. [WSJ Law Blog]

* During a recent speaking engagement at the University of St. Thomas School of Law, Justice Antonin Scalia explained why he writes such scathingly quotable dissents: “I’m writing dissents mainly for you guys—for law students. I know it will be in the casebooks.” [University of St. Thomas NewsRoom]

* SCOTUS granted cert in a challenge to Texas abortion laws, and some wonder how this decision will affect other states’ laws. If the justices don’t think these restrictions represent an undue burden, then women may as well hang up their ovaries and go home. [Reuters]

* We’ll have to rely on old faithful, Justice RBG, to raise the torch for women. She recently sat down for tea with Gloria Steinem to discuss women’s rights. “Ruth is better at getting along with people with whom we profoundly disagree,” says Steinem. [New York Times]

* The “least sexy” part of a merger? If you want to know what took the Dentons / Dacheng merger so long to be formalized, Dentons CEO Elliott Portnoy says it had to do with website, logo, communications, and marketing issues. [Big Law Business / Bloomberg]

I pray that justice comes for this cult.

Even the Pope has an opinion on Kim Davis.