Republicans

Speaking Of The Supreme Court, Have You Seen Who Scott Walker Nominated?

For just a taste of the kind of white men (and they will be, exclusively, white males) Trump will bring, take a look at who Scott Walker just appointed to the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

Donald Trump Jr. Really Should Have Read His Dad’s Platform Before Speaking At The RNC

He hates regulations like Dodd-Frank, so he must be PSYCHED about his dad’s promise to bring back Glass-Steagall.

What Would President Trump Do With The Criminal Justice System?

The good and the bad of the GOP platform.

Did This Candidate For Judge Get Kicked Out Of The County Fair Or Did He Just Vomit?

Witnesses describe the would be judge's behavior as a "temper tantrum."

Morning Docket: 05.06.16

* "I find it highly amusing and somewhat heartening to know that Donald Trump is indirectly subsidizing the defense of undocumented immigrants." Jones Day may be representing presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, but the firm is also fighting for the rights of more than 100,000 undocumented refugees, all of whom Trump would likely want to see deported if he were to be elected as president in November. [Yahoo!] * Believe it or not, but Donald Trump's political career in the Republican Party closely tracks that of a Biglaw legend of the bar. In 1940, Wendell Willkie of Willkie Farr & Gallagher fame was an outsider presidential candidate with absolutely no public service experience to his name -- just like Trump. Willkie later went on to lose the election, and only time will tell if Trump will suffer a similar fate in Election 2016. [Big Law Business] * Professors at George Mason University have demanded that the law school's renaming to honor the late Antonin Scalia be delayed until school leaders answer their questions about the funding of scholarship monies being tied to the ongoing service of the current dean, but according to law school senior associate dean David Rehr, "[e]ven with this action, we are moving forward ... and expect a favorable resolution." [Washington Post] * After receiving the largest gift in its history, Pace Law has been renamed in honor of an environmentalist, and will now be known as the Pace University Elisabeth Haub School of Law. The donors do not want the amount of their gift to be disclosed, but Pace says it's comparable to the $30 million and $25 million gifts George Mason and Villanova respectively received for their recent name changes. Congratulations! [WSJ Law Blog] * The trial between Sumner Redstone and Manuela Herzer over the media mogul's mental competence is slated to begin today and will last for a week. With lurid allegations about the 92-year-old's supposed sexual proclivities, his penchant for eating steak through a feeding tube, as well as his incontinence, this is sure to be an incredibly salacious matter that will play out in the public eye. [DealBook / New York Times]

Morning Docket: 05.02.16

* Arizona Law's plans to scrap the LSAT in favor of the GRE has angered the Law School Admission Council terribly. In fact, LSAC's general counsel says the school's new policy may violate the organization's bylaws, so it may boot Arizona Law from its membership, thereby cutting the school out of its applications and admissions clearinghouse. We'll have more on this news later today. [Wall Street Journal (sub. req.)] * Tom Brady of the New England Patriots hasn't filed an appeal of the Second Circuit's reinstatement of his four-game suspension yet, but you can bet your ass that it's coming soon, because the quarterback just made the ultimate Hail Mary legal hire by adding Ted Olson to his team of lawyers. Sports fans can look forward to a bid for an en banc Second Circuit hearing, or even a possible flea flicker to the Supreme Court. [NBC Sports] * "Republicans haven't been satisfied to simply hobble the court's ability to function. In recent weeks, they have gone to remarkable lengths to impugn the integrity of the justices and thus the legitimacy of the court." The New York Times Editorial Board has a piece that essentially begs Republicans to stop their shenanigans, give Judge Merrick Garland a hearing, and "rescue the Supreme Court from limbo." [New York Times] * Law firm merger mania is already in full bloom this spring, but which Biglaw firm was one of the first to bite the bullet? It looks like it's Husch Blackwell, which is merging with Milwaukee-based Whyte Hirschboek Dudek, effective July 1. The combined firm will have more than 700 attorneys, 19 offices, and it will likely be among the country's 100 top-grossing law firms. We hope redundancy layoffs won't follow. [Journal-Sentinel] * "We respect other professors' point of view, but it's less than (8 percent) of the academic faculty." Some professors are outraged over Mason Law being renamed after the late Justice Antonin Scalia, but the university isn't budging, and plans to stick with its new name since administrators "believe that the Antonin Scalia Law School, once it's approved, will be one of the top law schools in the country." [Big Law Business] * Law students, you make think you know what a gunner is, but you haven't met this prodigy yet. Eighteen-year-old Ahmed Mohamed will be the first student to attend the University of Southern Florida College of Medicine and the Stetson University College of Law at the same time. If you hurry, you may be able to convince this genius to join your study group. You'll surely be the envy of all of your new friends. [ABC Action News]

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]

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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.

Non-Sequiturs: 03.24.16

* You may have heard about North Carolina’s new anti-LGBTQ law (and the inauspicious circumstances surrounding its passage), but it seems unlikely to withstand constitutional muster. [Slate] * In the latest case before the Supreme Court over the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive provision, the conservative justices -- all male, natch -- fail to grasp the basics of contraceptives, insurance. [Talking Points Memo] * Previewing the issues in United States Army Corps of Engineers v. Hawkes surrounding finality under the Clean Water Act. [SCOTUSblog] * Republicans are in favor of open-carry laws, but what about at their own convention? [Gawker] * Vice President Joe Biden has some biting words over Congress’s obstructionist plan over Merrick Garland’s nomination. [Huffington Post] * Is there really strong opposition to free trade? Has the U.S. plunged into a policy without caring about the repercussions of said policy? [Lawyers, Guns and Money] * Jian Ghomeshi was acquitted on sexual abuse charges, and now the complaining witnesses are talking about their experiences with the justice system. [Jezebel]

Research Proves Women Should Not Work For Republicans

This is why every female associate needs to know her boss's politics.

Stat Of The Week: Public Confidence In SCOTUS At Historic Low

Less than one-third of U.S. citizens express confidence in our highest court.