Sentencing Law
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Courts
A Truck Driver Sentenced To 110 Years In Jail For Causing A Deadly Freeway Accident Results In A Closer Look At Colorado's Consecutive Sentencing Law
This seems to be a case where an overly strict criminal law has produced an anomalous result. -
Government
Roger Stone Sentenced To Three Years, Countdown to Pardon in 3...2...
Couldn't happen to nicer ratf*cker! - Sponsored
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Crime
Sentencing Reform Serves The Interests Of Victims And Safer Societies
Instead of invoking subjective, unequally applied concepts of 'mercy' within our harsh system of criminal sentencing, victims and society would be better served by simple pragmatism.
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Non-Sequiturs
Non Sequiturs: 03.10.19
* “I Thought I Could Be A Christian And Constitutionalist At Yale Law School. I Was Wrong.” So writes Aaron Haviland, a 3L at Yale Law School. [The Federalist]
* But if you can survive YLS as a conservative, you might thrive in the world beyond — just ask Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), who’s now a powerful voice on judicial nominations. [Bench Memos / National Review]
* How often does the Notorious RBG see a brief citing the Notorious BIG? Check out this fun read, filed in the Supreme Court on behalf of a constellation of hip-hop stars represented by Alex Spiro and Ellyde Thompson of Quinn Emanuel. [Supreme Court of the United States via New York Times]
* Yes, I’ve been on a hiatus from Twitter — and maybe I’m on to something, if you agree with Stephen Cooper. [Spectator]
* “For your information,” Georgia trial judges, “the Supreme Court has roundly rejected prior restraint.” [Volokh Conspiracy / Reason]
* Retired Judge Nancy Gertner (D. Mass.) believes that U.S. sentencing needs reform — but Paul Manafort’s case is far from the ideal vehicle for it. [Washington Post]
* Congratulations to Fastcase on its latest alliance, this time with credit-reporting giant TransUnion. [Dewey B Strategic]
* And congrats to Neota Logic on its new Dashboard feature, which sounds nifty. [Artificial Lawyer]
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Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 03.08.19
* Paul Manafort got 4 years out of a possible 24. A lot of breathless ranting will come out of this but the reality is 4 years is a significant amount of time to be incarcerated and the guidelines are crazy. Don’t be mad that Manafort got too little, be mad that the system generally (and Judge Ellis in particular) unquestioningly applies the guidelines to give far too much to poor and minority defendants. [CNN]
* Frankly, the charges that should earn Manafort heavy jail time are the charges of lying to the Mueller probe because that’s where there’s a significant interest in setting punitive disincentives. And Judge Jackson may have a very different view on how “otherwise blameless” Manafort’s been. [Daily Beast]
* While we’re on these never-ending Trump orbit stories, Michael Cohen is suing Trump for legal fees since, he points out, all his problems stem from work he did in the official course of his duties. [New York Law Journal]
* Wearing a disguise to court is totally normal lawyer behavior. [New York Times]
* Orrick joins the $1B revenue club. [The Recorder]
* Remember the drunken airline rant lady? She’s facing jail time. [Legal Cheek]
* George Mason receives largest gift in school history, but it’ll never match the gift they gave prospective students the ATL community when they descriptively renamed their law school ASS Law. [Inside Higher Ed]
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Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 02.25.19
* Some think Justice Clarence Thomas may be dropping hints that he’s about to retire (e.g., this little First Amendment gem), but those who know him well think he’s getting ready for a conservative revolution, and he’s got an army of former clerks to back him up. [CNN]
* It’s Mueller time! Special counsel Robert Mueller’s sentencing memo for Paul Manafort is 800 pages long and makes the president’s former campaign chairman out to be a “hardened” and “bold” criminal who “repeatedly and brazenly” broke the law and “presents a grave risk of recidivism.” [New York Times]
* A federal judge has ruled that the all-male military draft that requires men to register with the Selective Service System is unconstitutional, as “the time has passed” for debate on women’s roles in the armed services. [USA Today]
* Paul Manafort’s get out of jail free card might not save him from more charges. New York prosecutors are ready to file a case against Donald Trump’s ex-campaign chairman if he’s pardoned by the president for all of his other crimes. [Bloomberg]
* Benjamin Rauf, the Temple Law School graduate accused of killing one of his classmates in a drug deal gone bad, has pleaded guilty to manslaughter and a weapons charge and been sentenced to 15 years behind bars. [Delaware News Journal]
* Thanks to ATL’s 2018 Lawyer of the Year Michael Avenatti, R. Kelly was indicted and arrested on 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse. His bond was set at an “exceedingly reasonable” $1 million, but he’s already spent some time in jail because he couldn’t come up with the $100,000 bail needed to leave. [Chicago Tribune]
* In case you missed it, Brooklyn Law School graduate Shawn Sinclair was kicked out of the running to become DJ Pauly D’s girlfriend on MTV’s “Game of Clones” because she’s more “dinner, couch, sweatpants” than “gym, tan, laundry.” [MTV]
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Non-Sequiturs
Non Sequiturs: 01.06.19
* It’s baaack: partisan gerrymandering returns to the Supreme Court — and in the view of veteran SCOTUS watcher Amy Howe, it’s unlikely that the justices will duck the merits this time around. [SCOTUSblog]
* Article III standing and the Stored Communications Act: Orin Kerr argues that it should be viewed through the lens of property rather than privacy. [Volokh Conspiracy / Reason]
* Carrie Severino calls out Senate Democrats for their persistent — and in her view, unjustified — questioning of judicial nominees about their religious views and affiliations. [Bench Memos / National Review]
* Joel Cohen identifies an interesting issue: should a defendant prejudiced by government misconduct in a case receive a break at sentencing? [Law & Crime]
* Here are some highlights from Chief Justice John Roberts’s year-end report on the federal judiciary, courtesy of Howard Wasserman. [PrawfsBlawg]
* The new year is a time of beginnings — and endings. Concurring Opinions, you will be missed. [Concurring Opinions]
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Courts
After Judge Brings Up Treason, Will Michael Flynn Be Getting Jail Time?
This hearing got really weird, really quickly. - Sponsored
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Government
The Struggle To Pass The First Step Act Is A Continued Disgrace
The bill is extremely modest in its reforms, yet the opposition remains uncompromising and committed to a campaign of false, fear-mongering rhetoric. -
Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 10.22.18
* Remember how Trump promised that he’d “fight for” the transgender community while he was campaigning? Perhaps he meant that he’d fight to erase them. The Trump administration is reportedly considering defining sex under Title IX “based on immutable biological traits identifiable by or before birth.” [New York Times]
* Democratic senators in Washington are refusing to return their blue slips for Perkins Coie partner Eric Miller, a Ninth Circuit nominee, and Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley is pissed. Slow your roll, Chuck. I thought we didn’t care about blue slips anymore? [The Recorder]
* About half of lawyers in the United Kingdom say they’re not ready to deal with Brexit. That’s okay. The United Kingdom isn’t ready to deal with Brexit either — and 40 percent of lawyers think their Biglaw firms will try to escape the UK because of it. [Am Law International]
* In case you missed it, Paul Manafort showed up at the Eastern District of Virginia on Friday afternoon in a wheelchair, citing health concerns as his attorney requested an expedited sentencing date. Manafort seems to have gotten what he wanted, and will be sentenced there on February 8. [National Law Journal]
* During his inauguration speech, the University of Virginia’s new president, James Ryan — a UVA Law graduate who once worked as a UVA law professor — pledged that tuition would be free for students whose families earned less than $80,000 a year. We wonder if that applies to law school tuition as well. [WTTF Fox 5]
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Government
American Prisoners Are Striking To End Their Own Enslavement And It’s Time To Pay Attention
No punishment justifies the government forcing people to work without pay. -
Health / Wellness
When Drug Addiction Is A Crime, Not A Sickness
If we acknowledge that drug addiction is a brain problem and not a criminal act, is it fair to incarcerate people who relapse?
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Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 07.18.18
* Special counsel Robert Mueller is seeking immunity for up to five witnesses who are set to testify in Paul Manafort’s upcoming bank and tax fraud trial. Oooh, who are these mystery parties and why do they deserve amnesty? [USA Today]
* Just how conservative is Judge Brett Kavanaugh? Using Judicial Common Space scores, Kavanaugh lands “just to the left of the arch-conservative [Justice Clarence] Thomas.” Yay. [FiveThirtyEight]
* Be careful out there, small firms. According to a report from the Association of International Law Firm Networks, it’s not Biglaw firms that should be afraid of the Big Four, but instead, independent firms in mid-sized markets. [American Lawyer]
* Remember Evan Greebel, the ex-Biglaw partner who was convicted of conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud thanks to his representation of pharma bro Martin Shkreli? Per his colleagues, after his “terrible encounter with the devil incarnate,” Greebel shouldn’t get jail time like his former client. [New York Law Journal]
* When it comes to law school applications, it’s very helpful to know the difference between early decision (binding) and early action (nonbinding), but it’s even more helpful to know the difference between out-of-state tuition (drowning in loans) and in-state tuition (treading water in loans). Do your research, applicants! [U.S. News]
* Robert Traurig, co-founder of Greenberg Traurig, RIP. [Daily Business Review]
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Sentencing Law
It’s Time To Hold Prosecutors Acountable
Harsh and discriminatory sentences aren’t just about the law, but about choices made by people responsible for enforcing them. -
White-Collar Crime
The Brock Turner Recall: Who Needs Judicial Independence, Anyway?
Striking back against a judge for going too soft on a defendant will only hurt more people in the end. -
Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 06.07.18
* Stormy Daniels has accused her former lawyer of being a Trump puppet, which I think is called a Trumpet. [Politico]
* EPA Senior Counsel Sarah Greenwalt has resigned because lawyers always find a way to bolt a sinking ship. [The Cut]
* Judge orders Above the Law all-star Richard Luthmann to get a psych evaluation. [New York Post]
* Law schools are failing students of color, which is less of a newsflash than something people need to be constantly reminded about. [Nation]
* Philly hears from dozens of criminal justice experts speak out over a proposed sentencing algorithm that they say will further cement racial inequalities. Because it will. [Philadelphia Inquirer]
* Global law firms are returning to Tokyo so aging partners can live out Lost in Translation. [International]
* In-house attorneys produce another music video to convince people to call velcro “hook-and-loop.” [Corporate Counsel]
* Biglaw loves mob prosecutors for some reason. [Law360]
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Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 04.16.18
* Michael Cohen has until 2 p.m. this afternoon to produce the names of his clients with proof of their relationship, lest his attorneys’ temporary restraining order over the alleged privilege of the “thousands, if not millions of documents” that were taken in the FBI raid upon his office get tossed. [New York Law Journal]
* In other news, President Trump wants to review all of the material that was seized by the FBI from his lawyer Michael Cohen before federal investigators are able to take a look at it — after all, as the president says, attorney-client privilege “is dead.” [Washington Post]
* Many partners at Allen & Overy are “dead against” the firm’s reportedly proposed merger with O’Melveny & Myers, which is probably just fine, considering the fact that O’Melveny “[has] no plans to merge [with A&O] and never [has].” [Legal Week]
* Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein is supposed to make his debut at the Supreme Court later this month on April 23 to argue a case regarding sentencing guildelines on behalf of the United States government. We’ll see how things go if he’s already been fired by President Trump by the time oral arguments roll around. [CNN]
* According to Senate Republican Cory Gardner of Colorado, now that he’s struck a deal with President Trump that will undercut Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s recission of the Cole memo, he’ll be happy to puff-puff-pass votes on all of the Department of Justice nominees he’s been holding up. [Washington Post]
* “[T]op tier firms [must] take a more ‘people-centric’ approach, and break the tyranny of the billable unit as the overriding priority.” This managing partner says that work/life balance and mental health for lawyers will never improve unless the legal profession addresses “onerous billable hour targets.” [Lawyers Weekly]
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Biglaw
Former Skadden Associate Is First To Be Sentenced In Mueller Probe
He'll probably lose his license to practice law, too. -
The Year Women Achieved Equality In America
OK, maybe not total equality, but it was an important milestone.