SCOTUS
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Samuel Alito, SCOTUS, Supreme Court, U.S. Attorneys Offices
And This Is Why God Made Appellate Lawyers
Justice Alito shows his sense of humor. -
Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 10.12.15
Ed. note: In honor of Columbus Day (and Canadian Thanksgiving), Above the Law will be on a reduced publication schedule today. We will be back in full force tomorrow. Stay tuned for today’s news!
* Who is Amy Berman Jackson? If you’ve been watching Jeopardy! lately, you’ve probably been trying to figure out which law firm reigning champion Matt Jackson works for as a paralegal. In the meantime, it’s worth noting that his mother is a D.D.C. federal judge. [Washington Post]
* Another SCOTUS term is upon us, and while Chief Justice Roberts tends to cast his votes on the issues through a conservative lens, there’s talk that he could be a “wildcard.” Hmm, perhaps Justice Kennedy will have a pal to swing with this year. [MSNBC]
* Choose your path wisely: Bloomberg Markets released its ranking of the 50 most influential people last week, and not a single practicing lawyer made the cut. Attorneys who chose career alternatives, however, made a killing. [Big Law Business / Bloomberg]
* Marcel Aubut, who recently resigned in disgrace from his position as Canadian Olympic Committee president after allegations of sexual harassment and inappropriate touching came to light, has also decided to leave his Biglaw firm and seek counseling. [NBC Sports]
* Late last week, California adopted an exacting digital privacy law that will require police to get warrants to access all manner of electronic information, from emails to texts to metadata. Please thank the Golden State for keeping your sexts safe. [WSJ Law Blog]
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Trivia Question of the Day
How Much Inane Supreme Court Trivia Do You Know?
Do you know this Supreme Court tidbit?
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Non-Sequiturs
Non-Sequiturs: 10.08.15
* Even Bill Cosby cannot escape the power and force of the American judicial system. [Gawker]
* A #tbt look at a bygone era when people took honest-to-goodness lunch breaks. [Slate]
* Let the fanfic commence! Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg tells of the time Justice Scalia serenaded her. [Huffington Post]
* More people pile on Mary Jo White. [Above the Law]
* A primer on the legal issues that will dominate the next year. [Pacific Standard]
* The British legal system is going to war over offensive tweets. [Overlawyered]
* The closing you use at the end of your email can say a lot about you. [Daily Lawyer Tips]
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Guns / Firearms, SCOTUS
Vigilante Justice And The American Gun Nut
How the Court created the Home Depot nutjob. -
Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 10.07.15
* Dewey know what Justice Robert Stolz will do now that the jury has declared itself deadlocked on most charges? Tune in later today. [American Lawyer]
* A case brought by law student turned privacy activist Max Schrems has triggered a European court ruling that Facebook won’t “like.” [How Appealing]
* King & Spalding associate Ethan Davis talks about how he prepared for his argument yesterday before the U.S. Supreme Court. [National Law Journal]
* Thanks to sentencing reform, the Justice Department will release about 6,000 inmates from prison starting later this month. [New York Times]
* Speaking of the DOJ, BP will settle Deepwater Horizon oil spill claims with the feds for a whopping $20 billion. [ABA Journal]
* Elsewhere in news of embattled companies, Volkswagen is turning to Mayer Brown for help in dealing with the emissions scandal that stinks to high heaven. [American Lawyer]
* 50 Cent’s malpractice suit against his ex-lawyers seeks 7.5 billion cents. [Law360]
* When legal recruiters sue each other, things can get ugly — fast. [American Lawyer]
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SCOTUS, Supreme Court
Supreme Court Conservatives' Famous Last Words
To see what lies ahead for the high court’s conservatives in October Term 2015, columnist Tamara Tabo looks back at some of the famous last words of last Term. -
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Politics, SCOTUS
Time Spent On SCOTUS Bench Makes Justices Lean Left
Which of your favorite SCOTUS justices will be next? -
Morning Docket, SCOTUS, Supreme Court
Morning Docket: 10.05.15
* Today’s the first Monday in October, and we all know what that means. The Supreme Court starts its Term as disapproval of its work reaches a new high for recent years. [Gallup via How Appealing]
* And here’s Adam Liptak’s excellent overview of the new Supreme Court Term, so you can sound smart at cocktail parties this month. [New York Times]
* In other SCOTUS news, Senator Bob Menendez is fighting the bribery charges against him by relying upon a high court decision he once condemned — can you guess which one? [The Record How Appealing]
* Which presidential candidates get the most in campaign contributions from Silicon Valley lawyers? The second-place finisher might surprise you. [The Recorder]
* Elsewhere in presidential politics, Hillary Clinton will announce new gun-control proposals later today. [New York Times]
* Don’t rush off to law school just yet, but the legal sector did gain a few thousand jobs last month, layoffs notwithstanding. [American Lawyer]
* Dewey have any idea of when this jury will reach a verdict? [Law360]
* Super-mediator Kenneth Feinberg’s latest challenge: pension reform. [National Law Journal]
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Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 09.29.15
* PETA’s general counsel swears his organization isn’t monkeying around when it comes to asserting the IP rights of Naruto the selfie-taking monkey, but he may have to deal with a jungle of jurisdictional issues first. [Motherboard / VICE]
* Mmmm, Dewey smell a mistrial? On the eighth day of deliberations in the criminal trial of D&L’s former leaders, the jurors likely made defense counsels’ hearts skip a beat when they asked the judge for instructions on what to do concerning their undecided colleagues. [WSJ Law Blog]
* Chief Justice John Roberts, who has voted conservatively in 85 percent of the Supreme Court’s most divisive 5-4 decisions, apparently isn’t conservative enough for our conservatives. It’s the damn Affordable Care Act. Thanks, Obama. [New York Times]
* According to the latest Acritas Global Elite Law Firm Brand Index 2015, for the sixth year running, Baker & McKenzie has the most recognizable Biglaw brand in the world. DLA Piper will continue to “churn [those] bill[s], baby!” in second place. [PR Web]
* Take the deal: Ex-House Speaker Dennis Hastert, who’s accused of hiding large sums used as hush money to conceal his prior sexual misconduct, is negotiating a plea deal with prosecutors. If he were convicted at trial, he’d face up to 10 years in prison. [Reuters]
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Non-Sequiturs
Non-Sequiturs: 09.28.15
* Marriage equality, religious freedom, voting rights, campaign finance reform, racial justice… one civil rights issue outweighs them all: the composition of the Supreme Court. [Talking Points Memo]
* Reminder to all the fresh lil’ 1Ls out there: you just might find love. [Go Knoxville]
* I’m glad someone is fact-checking How To Get Away With Murder; watching that show was getting exhausting. [Refinery 29]
* How quickly what is considered “offensive” changes. [What About Paris?]
* The latest review of Supreme Ambitions (affiliate link), by Katelyn Kye of Major, Lindsey & Africa (note: some spoilers). [In Brief]
* Try not to let the misery of the courtroom get you down. [Katz Justice]
* Taking a look at the process of adopting legal tech. [Law Technology Today]
* A tribute to how Doug Kendall changed the way liberals talk about the constitution. The founder of the Constitutional Accountability Center, Kendall passed away this weekend. [Think Progress]
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Religion, SCOTUS
Stats Of The Week: Catholicis Ubique Sunt
Catholics, who make up just under a quarter of the U.S. population, enjoy outsized representation at the highest levels of law and government.
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Non-Sequiturs
Non-Sequiturs: 09.24.15
* Is it possible to bounce back in Biglaw after a bad performance review? [Corporette]
* Justice Alito takes his place with the far-right in recent anti-gay comments. [Slate]
* Great tips to turn your terrible interview moments into wins. [Law and More]
* Good news for law students in Louisiana. Scholarship money is up for grabs! [Harrell & Nowak]
* New York Law School hosts the first annual Internet Safety Conference. [New York Law School]
* Leave your legal job, refinance your loans, and become a be a full time author. Respect. [Time]
* Careful what you blog or you could get suspended. [Legal Profession Blog]
* The Bard comes out on top of SCOTUS citations. [ABA Journal]
* The latest in legal events includes the ATL Academy for Private Practice. [Codex]
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Religion, SCOTUS
Catholic Justices Spurn Pope’s Joint Sermon Of Congress
I wish all the justices skipped the Pope's speech, but I'm surprised these three did. -
Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 09.24.15
* Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Anthony Kennedy, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg will be in attendance during Pope Francis’s Congressional address. Here’s hoping a certain someone doesn’t nod off in the middle of it. [National Law Journal]
* This courthouse clerk is accused of trying to go out with a little too much style after being fired from his job. He allegedly tossed thousands of pages of court documents in the garbage before leaving the building, and he now faces up to 10 years in prison. [Houston Chronicle]
* Lawrence Mitchell, the former dean of Case Western Reserve University School of Law, was supposed to return to the school this year after taking a sabbatical. Instead, he resigned. When it comes to this creeper, maybe that’s a good thing. [Cleveland Scene]
* Sorry to burst your bubble, law schools, but if you think spending millions to complete major building projects during a serious downturn in applicants will result in a “Field of Dreams” type of situation, you’re flat-out wrong. [Big Law Business / Bloomberg BNA]
* Good news, everyone! Thanks to this appeals court decision, registered sex offenders in Wisconsin will now be able to take pictures of children in public. Child predators have never, ever been so excited to assert their First Amendment rights. [WSJ Law Blog]
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Privacy, Samuel Alito, Supreme Court
Justice Alito Says SCOTUS Is Clueless On New Tech, Which Makes Privacy Cases Even Harder
The justice has called on Congress to legislate on the latest in technology. -
Elena Kagan, Stephen Breyer, Supreme Court
This Is What Happens When Two Supreme Court Justices Play Video Games
Justice Kagan dishes on what it's like to play video games with Justice Breyer. -
Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 09.16.15
* Justices Kennedy and Breyer seemed to be champing at the bit for a prolonged solitary confinement case last Term, and now they may have the opportunity to weigh in on one. Let’s see if the Supreme Court decides to let Justice Kennedy swing his vote around. [New York Times]
* We all know that Mark Cuban isn’t that big of a fan of the Securities and Exchange Commission, but now he’s trying to inject himself into the debate over the agency’s use of in-house administrative law judges by way of filing a brief in support. [WSJ Law Blog]
* Winston & Strawn elected Jeffrey Kessler to serve as its co-chair. He’s got experience running firms with others — he once served as a member of Dewey’s four-partner Office of the Chairman before the firm completely imploded. [Big Law Business / Bloomberg BNA]
* IU Maurer Law is teaming up with Chapman and Cutler, an Am Law 200 firm, to create a two-year rotational program in finance and law. There’s just one catch: this is only for recent college graduates, not law school graduates. Oops! [Indiana Daily Student]
* Lucrative niche alert: They’re calling this the green rush, but we don’t need to remind attorneys that green is also the color of money. By 2020, the market for legal recreational marijuana is going to be booming, with billions of dollars in business. [Fortune]
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Supreme Court, Television
Justice Breyer vs. Stephen Colbert
Justice Breyer shows up on The Late show and ends up yelling at the host...