SCOTUS
-
Non-Sequiturs
Non-Sequiturs: 09.14.15
* Here’s a tip to grab a few minutes of down time at a law firm. [Daily Lawyer Tips]
* 9th Circuit makes a move to save the honey bee. [Earth Justice]
* More July bar results are in, and… they aren’t good — just like Erica Moeser predicted. [Bar Exam Stats]
* A trio of lawsuits suggest that Trump University (basically a bunch of seminars, so one day you can declare bankruptcy just like Donald Trump) is nothing but a scam. Kinda like a certain presidential campaign I know. [The Slot]
* Supreme Court clerk feeder judges: still white and male. [Slate]
* How can you work the trend and be an un-lawyer? [Law and More]
-
SCOTUS, Stephen Breyer
Supreme Court Justice Says He'll Probably Retire... At Some Point
Will President Obama be able to appoint another Supreme Court justice before his second term is up? - Sponsored
Profit Powerhouse: Elevating Law Firm Financial Performance
In this CLE-eligible webinar on April 10th, we’ll explore the most common accounting pitfalls and how to avoid them for your firm. -
Non-Sequiturs
Non-Sequiturs: 09.08.15
* Sonia Sotomayor talks about feeling like an outsider on the court… aaaaaaaand this is what white privilege means. [Slate]
* Vehicles you can still get a DUI while driving: Barbie Jeep, Zamboni, wheelchair, inflatable raft, motorized beer cooler. [Lowering the Bar]
* Step into the political slime and see how the halted campaign finance investigation into Scott Walker is being used to undermine regulations. [PR Watch]
* Fascinating speculation on who should be Donald Trump’s running mate — assuming, arguendo, the end times are upon us and he wins the Republican nomination. [Law and More]
* Debating Harvard Law professor Larry Lessig’s theories about the presidency. [Pacific Standard]
* Bound by Law? Tales of the Public Domain, a cheeky comic book sponsored by Duke’s Center for the Study of the Public Domain is fun and useful for lawyers and nonlawyers alike. [Open Culture]
* Yes, Ohio, a man’s family does include his wife. [Volokh Conspiracy]
* Perverse incentives dominate Chinese victim compensation laws and drivers try to kill any pedestrians they may hit. [Slate]
-
Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 09.01.15
* ABC News chief legal analyst Dan Abrams is suing his neighbors over his lawyerly lair — and one of the defendants is a Biglaw partner at a top firm. Expect more on this later. [New York Post]
* Speaking of Biglaw, a familiar tale of financial performance: gross revenue at Am Law 100 firms grew by 4 percent in the first half of 2015, but driven by rate increases rather than demand growth. [American Lawyer]
* If you want the Supreme Court to hear your case, try to steer your cert petition clear of the “long conference,” known as the place “where petitions go to die.” [New York Times]
* Speaking of SCOTUS, the Court won’t come to the rescue of the Kentucky county clerk who refuses to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples — time to issue those licenses or quit, Kim Davis. [How Appealing]
* But the justices did come to the (temporary) rescue of former Virginia Governor Robert McDonnell, allowing him to remain free until SCOTUS acts on his petition for certiorari. [SCOTUSblog via How Appealing]
* Are criticisms of the S.E.C.’s administrative-law procedures correct? Here’s a study from Professor David Zaring. [New York Times]
* The Show-Me State leads when it comes to showing defendants to their deaths: Missouri has displaced Texas as the “epicenter of the American death penalty.” [The Marshall Project]
* Speaking of capital punishment, I predicted that these particular Ninth Circuit judges wouldn’t be too sympathetic to this challenge to the death penalty — and based on yesterday’s oral argument, it seems I was right. [How Appealing]
-
Clarence Thomas, SCOTUS, Supreme Court
A Supreme Court Justice Who Does His Job Well, But Bores The New York Times While Doing It
Conservative columnist Tamara Tabo's take on Adam Liptak's recent (and controversial) article about Justice Clarence Thomas. -
Non-Sequiturs
Non-Sequiturs: 08.28.15
* Curious about what Ant-Man has to say about Civ Pro? And while you’re there vote for ATL fav Legal Geeks for best podcast in The Geekie Awards. [Legal Geeks]
* Speaking of podcasts, here’s a great one about the movement to abolish the death penalty, with a particular focus on the recent spate of botched executions. [Punishment Podcast]
* Update from the wide world of organized labor — yes, that’s still a thing — there is a major steelworkers lockout with employers advertising on Craigslist to get scabs to work 84 hours a week of hard labor. See this is EXACTLY why we need unions. [Lawyers Guns and Money]
* The latest in James Woods’s suit to reveal the anonymous Twitter user that called him names: Twitter sends the actor a harshly worded letter. [The Hollywood Reporter]
* Should the Supreme Court take up a case to have the remains of Jim Thorpe moved from Pennsylvania to Oklahoma? [The Hill]
* Was the latest decision on protesting in SCOTUS plaza motivated by personal factors? [Fix the Court]
* Today’s the 60th anniversary of the murder of Emmett Till, whose death was a catalyst in the civil rights movement. [Time]
-
Donald Trump, Federal Judges, Politics
Leave. Donald Trump's Sister. Alone!
Hey Jeb Bush, this is not cool, okay? -
Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 08.27.15
* Should town clerks opposed to gay marriage be required to issue licenses to all couples? The Sixth Circuit says…. [How Appealing]
* John H. Ray III, the African American ex-associate at Ropes & Gray who claimed the elite firm discriminated against him, loses in court again, this time before the First Circuit. [National Law Journal]
* Vester Lee Flanagan aka Bryce Williams, the Virginia television broadcaster who killed two colleagues on-air before killing himself, was also no stranger to the legal system: he filed multiple lawsuits alleging racial discrimination. [New York Times]
* Why are in-house lawyers more likely than their non-attorney corporate colleagues to fall for phishing emails? [ABA Journal]
* Dewey know when the prosecution will rest in this seemingly endless trial? Probably today. [Wall Street Journal]
* State judges get nasty with each other in Oregon. [Oregonian]
* Federal judges around the country are advocating for a second look at how defendants get sentenced. [New York Times]
* The Dilly in Philly: Paul Clement v. Ted Olson. [Am Law Litigation Daily]
* A T14 law graduate turned “traveling artist” gets charged with criminal sexual assault in Chicago. [Chicago Tribune]
* Speaking of sexual assault laws, Emily Bazelon explains how the St. Paul’s Rape Case shows why these laws must change. [New York Times]
* Update: convicted Colorado movie theater shooter James Holmes didn’t get just a life sentence, but 12 life sentences — plus 3,318 years on top of that. [CNN]
* Linda Hirshman, author of the forthcoming book Sisters in Law: How Sandra Day O’Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg Went to the Supreme Court and Changed the World (affiliate link), explains how Justices O’Connor, Ginsburg, and Sotomayor brought wisdom to SCOTUS (but where’s the love for Justice Kagan?). [Slate via How Appealing]
- Sponsored
This AI-Powered Document Tool Will Meet You Where You Are
Lexis Create provides simple access to internal and external knowledge — directly within Microsoft Word. -
Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Where Can You Get A Ruth Bader Ginsburg Manicure?
We expect RBG nail designs like this will soon be all the rage. -
Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 08.24.15
* It looks like the other slutty shoe has officially dropped. Two law firms have filed a $578 million class-action lawsuit against adultery dating site Ashley Madison for breaching their clients’ privacy rights. Impact Team must be thrilled. [TIME]
* Gov. Chris Christie says that if he’s elected president, he won’t nominate anyone with a Harvard Law or Yale Law degree to SCOTUS. Non-Ivy law schools better start priming and primping their most successful grads on the off chance Christie gets the nod. [CBS News]
* Case Western Law decided that two heads are better than one, because Jessica Berg and Michael Scharf were just permanently appointed to serve as co-deans. We can’t think of any other law school with a dynamic duo of deans like this. [Crain’s Cleveland Business]
* In Biglaw, romantic wranglings can follow you beyond the grave: Thomas Hale Boggs Jr.’s estate is doing battle with a woman who claims she had a relationship with the former head of Patton Boggs — and now she wants some of his property. [National Law Journal]
* He may be “used to playing on a different court,” but Michael Jordan really took it to the hole on this case. Defunct grocery store Dominick’s Finer Foods must now pay the sports star $8.9 million for using his name in a steak ad without his permission. [NBC News]
-
Clerkships, Feeder Judges, SCOTUS, Supreme Court, Supreme Court Clerks
Supreme Court Clerk Hiring Watch: Ranking The Non-Traditional Feeder Judges
Which state-court and federal district judges send their clerks to the U.S. Supreme Court? -
Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 08.20.15
* You’ve heard about what it’s like to be a Supreme Court clerk, but we bet you’ve never heard about what it’s like to be a Supreme Court intern. It’s apparently the “opportunity of a lifetime” to do errands and prepare lunch and meals for Justice Sonia Sotomayor. [Supreme Court Brief]
* If you’re trying to file an effective brief with the Supreme Court, it’s best to write in “relatively short sentences, with a non-confrontational tone.” In other words, you really shouldn’t be trying to emulate Justice Scalia’s “jiggery-pokery” flair. [Big Law Business / Bloomberg BNA]
* Wachtell Lipton may interested in going “big brother” on its associates, but when it comes to the Securities and Exchange Commission, the firm wants to steer clear of such voyeurism by doing away with clients’ quarterly reports. [Wall Street Journal (sub. req.)]
* This judge didn’t play “just the tip” when it came to piercing his corporate veil: Paul Hansmeier of copyright-troll firm Prenda Law must pay sanctions to the tune of $64,000 after he drained cash from another one of his firms and then dissolved it. [Ars Technica]
* Texas Tech Law is introducing a “brain-training” seminar for its first-year law students that will “maximize their brains’ performance.” One wonders if they took such a course before law school if they’d be enrolled in the same place. [Lubbock Avalanche-Journal]
-
Religion, Weddings
Should Town And County Clerks Opposed To Gay Marriage Be Required To Issue Marriage Licenses To All Couples?
Whatever happened to the noble tradition of resignation on principle?
Sponsored
Legal AI: 3 Steps Law Firms Should Take Now
This AI-Powered Document Tool Will Meet You Where You Are
How Generative AI Will Improve Legal Service Delivery
Sponsored
Early Adopters Of Legal AI Gaining Competitive Edge In Marketplace
Profit Powerhouse: Elevating Law Firm Financial Performance
-
Politics, SCOTUS, Supreme Court, Supreme Court Clerks
A New Trend Among Supreme Court Clerks?
Why are so many former SCOTUS clerks flocking to Capitol Hill? -
Non-Sequiturs
Non-Sequiturs: 08.17.15
* A look back at the impact Justice Scalia’s signature snarky style has had on the high court. [Jost on Justice]
* Decry “big government” all you want, but this is a great use of its power: one Wal-Mart declared a public nuisance. [Law and More]
* A horse! A horse! My law license for a horse! One attorney faces sanctions for his love of racing horses. [Legal Profession Blog]
* The NLRB might have dashed Northwestern’s football players’ unionization hopes, but they still won a lot of concessions. [Fox Sports]
* More than 50 days after the landmark Obergefell case, there are still pockets of the country where same-sex couples can’t get married. [BuzzFeed]
* What can the RNC offer Donald Trump to GTFO of the Republican primary? [Funny or Die]
-
Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 08.14.15
* Judge Lance Mason, who was suspended from his duties earlier this year, recently pleaded guilty to charges related to a brutal attack made on his wife. He’ll be sentenced in September, and faces up to 36 months in prison. [Northeast Ohio Media Group]
* No one will be getting lucky in Kentucky under this clerk’s watch: Two months after SCOTUS declared a constitutional right to same-sex marriage, this state court clerk is still turning away gay couples and refusing to issue marriage licenses. [New York Times]
* Per the latest report from Citi Private Bank’s Law Firm Group, even though this year started out well, the bank is revising its financial performance forecast, and not in a good way. Hopefully firms will be able to weather the latest monetary storm. [Am Law Daily]
* Starting in mid-October, lawyers and law firms will be able to purchase .law domain names. A few influential law firms — DLA Piper, Skadden Arps, and SCOTUSblog-affiliated Russell & Goldstein — have gotten first dibs on them. Congrats! [WSJ Law Blog]
* Law librarians at large and medium-sized firms feel underutilized and underpaid, and that’s unfortunate, because like Liam Neeson in Taken, they’ve got a very particular set of skills, skills they’ve acquired over a very long career. [Big Law Business / Bloomberg BNA]
-
Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 08.13.15
* “When it’s convenient, we’re alumni; when it’s not convenient, we are not alumni.” Grads of Texas Wesleyan Law — which is now known as Texas A&M Law — are suing because the school won’t grant them new degrees or recognize them as alumni. Harsh, y’all. [Houston Chronicle]
* The ABA Journal wants to know who you think the smartest judge in the U.S. is. Let’s hear it for the wonderful women of the Supreme Court: Justices Sandra Day O’Connor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan. [ABA Journal]
* Now that same-sex marriage is legal across the country, it only seems logical that bans on adoptions by same-sex couples should be overturned. Mississippi will have Roberta Kaplan of Windsor fame to thank when its ban is struck down. [New York Times]
* Pa. Attorney General Kathleen Kane has claimed innocence with regard to the criminal charges she recently racked up. She blames the entire ordeal on blowback from the state’s “Porngate” scandal. AG Kane has got one hell of a moneyshot. [Philadelphia Inquirer]
* Did you know that there’s such a thing as barbecue law? Further, did you know that a Biglaw attorney who serves as counsel at Norton Rose Fulbright who’s never handled a barbecue case has cornered the market on BBQ law books (affiliate link)? [Legal Times]
-
Money, SCOTUS, Supreme Court
Top Supreme Court Advocates Charge How Much Per Hour?
Appearing before the high court involves high billing rates -- but that doesn't make those rates unreasonable. -
Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 08.07.15
* Graffiti artist Rime alleges that Katy Perry wore a dress designed by Moschino that ripped off some of his copyrightable work. This dark horse has injected herself into a lot of IP issues this year. Your lawyer fans thank you. [WSJ Law Blog]
* The Seventh Circuit is totally sorry about the case that it completely forgot about for the past five years. It seems that the court pleadings were “placed in the wrong stack” on remand from the Supreme Court in 2010. Congratulations, America: This is your justice system. Oopsie! [ABA Journal]
* Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane has been charged with perjury, conspiracy, obstructing justice, and several other crimes in connection with a grand jury leak. She’s the second state AG to be criminally charged this week. Nice job. [USA Today]
* Arizona Summit Law filed a motion to dismiss former employee and alumnus Paula Lorona’s pro se retaliation and consumer fraud lawsuit with prejudice. The school claims the complaint is pleaded deficiently. Well… you educated her. [National Law Journal]
* Rapper Busta Rhymes was charged with second degree assault this week after he allegedly threw a protein drink at a gym employee. His lawyer calls the charge “a bunch of bull.” Hmm, we apparently should’ve listened when he told us he was dangerous. [MTV]
-
Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 08.06.15
* Another American doctor is accused of illegally killing another lesser-known lion in Zimbabwe, but this time, Biglaw is in the doctor’s corner. Apparently when you’re a hunter who’s become the hunted, you turn to Blank Rome. [Am Law Daily]
* Where Dewey eat when allegedly conspiring to scam the firm’s creditors about its financial situation? According to testimony in the D&L trial, criminal activity reportedly tastes better when paired with fine dining experiences. [WSJ Law Blog]
* At some point in the very near future, it’s likely that one or more new Supreme Court justices will need to be appointed, and some say that it’s obvious that Justice Don Willett, the Tweeter Laureate of Texas, is plotting a course to be a nominee. #blessed [Forbes]
* The Fourth Circuit handed down an important opinion on cellphone location records, and it looks like the police need a warrant. Thanks for the circuit split. Quick, someone write a law review note before SCOTUS takes it. [Volokh Conspiracy / Washington Post]
* For some would-be law students, applying early decision may not be the right choice. After all, if you think you can get into ALL of the T14 schools, we bet you’d probably like to see if your huge ego is correct. [Law Admissions Lowdown / U.S. News & World Report]