Sonia Sotomayor

* Don’t say we didn’t tell you this, but according to the latest report from Citi Private Bank’s Law Firm Group, the great Biglaw salary increase of 2016 is now being cited as a strain on law firm profits. Expenses are now growing faster than revenues at many firms. We’ll have more on this later today. [Am Law Daily]

* This is one promise that President-elect Trump is sticking to: Kellyanne Conway, his campaign manager, has confirmed that he will choose a Supreme Court nominee from the list(s) he released earlier this year: “You’ve seen the list of 21. The list has not changed.” You can see Trump’s shortlist(s) here and here. [Big Law Business]

* “Every good person has an obligation to both to continue being heard and to continue doing the right thing. We can’t afford for a president to fail.” Justice Sonia Sotomayor has spoken out about the results of the presidential election, and she thinks that we must guide President-elect Trump to make the right decisions for the country. [WSJ Law Blog]

* The American Bar Association’s Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar has sanctioned not one, but two law schools for their lax admissions standards. Valparaiso Law has been publicly censured and Charlotte Law has been placed on probation. We’ll have more on this later today. [National Law Journal]

* Judge William Duffin of the Eastern District of Wisconsin has denied a request made by state prosecutors to delay “Making a Murderer” subject Brendan Dassey’s release from prison. Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel says he will appeal Duffin’s ruling to the Seventh Circuit. Dassey is scheduled to be released on Friday. [Reuters]

* Results are out for the July 2016 administration of the South Carolina bar exam, and it appears that the Charleston School of Law is having trouble when it comes to its grads’ ability to pass. Barely half of test-takers from the law school passed (50.9 percent), down from 57.4 percent last year, and 65.3 percent the year before that. Whoops! [FITS News]

* No matter what Senator Ted Cruz says, when it comes to the Supreme Court, eight isn’t enough. In fact, according to what Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said at a recent New York City Bar event, “Eight is not a good number.” Justice Sonia Sotomayor agreed, stating, “I think we hope there will be nine as quickly as possible.” [Washington Post]

* The Supreme Court bar rarely meets, but when it does, it’s to honor the passing of a deceased justice. On November 4, the Supreme Court bar will convene to honor the late Justice Antonin Scalia, and the ceremony will be live-streamed, and several judges, law firm partners, law professors, and former clerks will give remarks. [Supreme Court Brief]

* “[T]his appeal presents a situation in which all the justices’ impartiality might be questioned.” Controversial Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore wants his suspension to be lifted, but all of his former judicial colleagues have recused themselves, so several retired judges will be hearing his appeal. [Associated Press via ABA Journal]

* China’s Ministry of Justice has ordered that all lawyers “support the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party.” Lawyers are prohibited from making statements that “reject [China’s] fundamental political system,” “endanger national security,” or “attack or slander” the judicial system. They could face disbarment for disobeying. [WSJ Law Blog]

* Justice Sotomayor with a sharp dissent in a death penalty case. [Empirical SCOTUS]

* The Kardashians are in more legal hot water — this time over the accessibility of their store’s website. [The Fashion Law]

* This is why listening is an essential skill for lawyers. [Katz Justice]

* Is there a moral obligation to vote? [Law and More]

* You may not like Billy Bush, but he’s not responsible for what Trump said. [Lawyers, Guns and Money]

* Law firms advising other law firms. [Big Law Business]

* The application of Federal Sentencing Guidelines in child pornography cases. [Versus Texas]

* “He has always said he’s given to politicians his entire career and he thinks the system is broken. A review of Donald Trump’s political donations show that the Republican presidential candidate has made campaign contributions to several to state attorneys general while they weighed decisions affecting his business, particularly in New York. What’s that about a “rigged” system? [Wall Street Journal]

* Carl Ferrer, the chief executive officer of Backpage.com, was arrested last night on in Houston, Texas, on a California warrant for criminal charges including pimping. If you recall, Backpage.com was recently in the news thanks to a Senate investigation into allegations that the site was helping to facilitate child sex trafficking. [Reuters]

* Per a report publish by Altman Weil, law firm merger and acquisition activity was way down in the third quarter of 2016. Last year at this time, the merger market was 40 percent more active. Why are so dormant? “[F]irms are waiting on the sidelines seeing if it will all work: 6,000-lawyer law firms and that type of thing.” [Big Law Business]

* “Congratulations to the ‘Nino’ Scalia Law School for memorializing, for celebrating this most remarkable judge and teacher.” Justices Kagan, Kennedy, Thomas, Breyer, Alito, and Sotomayor — attended the dedication for the school named after Scalia, while Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Ginsburg attended a dinner in his honor. [USA Today]

* “If students are graduating and they can’t pass the bar, that’s a big problem.” Law schools are coming around to the fact that it’s now a buyer’s market for students, and some will even allow 0Ls to “vet” their schools to evaluate the teaching methods being used. You can even check out professors’ résumés. [U.S. News & World Report]

* Sonia Sotomayor is proving she is a different kind of Supreme Court justice. [Guile is Good]

* Nick Denton gets a nice payday in exchange for a non-compete clause. [Wall Street Journal]

* Federal judge rules Ferguson School District violated the Voting Rights Act. [Huffington Post]

* Democrats are screwing up Obamacare — does this open the door to the single-payer option? [Slate]

* Even Mike Pence can’t keep a straight face when confronted with Trump’s “ideas.” [Salon]

* The battle over #sponsored posts continues. [Speechwriter-Ghostwriter]

* No maternity leave? No problem. Just learn the basics of an office birth. [Funny or Die]

* This is why Merrick Garland will still be Hillary Clinton’s choice for the Supreme Court. [Empirical SCOTUS]

* Robot lawyer looking to solve the problem of homelessness. [Slate]

* Justice Sotomayor explains what it takes to be a good judge. [News Minor]

* Advice for lawyers seeking a position in Hillary Clinton’s administration. [Law and More]

* On the constitutionality of the Supreme Court hearing court-martial appeals. [Just Security]

* “[He] exited the passenger seat wearing nothing but what appeared to be an adult diaper.” Andrew and Alecia Schmuhl, the husband-and-wife lawyers accused of torturing and nearly killing a law firm partner and his wife, are back in the news. Andrew’s trial began this week, and he’s utilizing an involuntary intoxication defense. [Washington Post]

* President Obama needn’t worry about what he’s going to do to keep busy after his presidency ends — job offers are already pouring in for him, including one from Bin Haider Advocates & Legal Consultants, a smaller firm in Dubai. But why go to the Middle East when he could easily become a partner at Sidley Austin? [Am Law Daily]

* “If I had my way, I would make pro bono a service requirement.” During the American Law Institute’s annual meeting, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said she thinks pro-bono work should be mandatory for lawyers, and that she “believe[s] in forced labor” when it comes to access to justice and closing the justice gap for the poor. [National Law Journal]

* Non-lawyers likely won’t be able to stake a claim in law firm ownership anytime soon since the ABA Commission on the Future of the Legal Profession failed to submit a formal proposal to the ABA House of Delegates before a deadline had passed. It’s just as well, as lawyers remain adamantly opposed to the proposition. [Big Law Business]

* IP lawyers better get ready to party like it’s 1999, because Minnesota lawmakers have introduced the broadly written Personal Rights in Names Can Endure Act, perhaps better known as the PRINCE Act, named for the recently deceased musician to establish a right of publicity for celebrities and their heirs within the state. [WSJ Law Blog]

* Professor Victor Williams of the Catholic University of America School of Law, who’s been called the “Republican Lawrence Lessig” by some, is running a write-in campaign for president with the sole intent of eliminating Ted Cruz as a candidate due to his birth in Canada. He alleges that the Texas senator committed ballot access fraud by falsely swearing that he was a natural born citizen. Thanks to Williams’s allegations, a primary disqualification hearing is being held today in New Jersey. [PR Newswire]

* Does SCOTUS have a diversity problem? One justice thinks so. In the wake of President Obama calling attention to his nominee’s whiteness, Justice Sonia Sotomayor noted the Court’s homogeneity, saying that SCOTUS is currently at a “disadvantage from having [five] Catholics, three Jews, [and] everyone from an Ivy League school.” [TIME]

* Here’s an interesting theory: According to Patterson Belknap senior partner Gregory Diskant, because the Senate has failed to give President Obama its advice and consent with regard to his Supreme Court nominee, it can be said the Senate waived its rights, leaving Obama free to appoint Judge Garland to the high court. [Washington Post]

* “There is something seductively subversive about having a name that has a secondary street meaning, which, by the way, is not necessarily a bad thing to think of your lawyers as being.” MoFo — a law firm that’s perhaps known as Morrison & Foerster in more conservative circles — has fully embraced its sexy “street name.” [Big Law Business]

* Prosecutors say former House speaker and disgraced Dickstein Shapiro partner Dennis Hastert paid $3.5M to silence a boy he sexually abused, and molested at least four more children. Because the statutes of limitations have long since run on those crimes, he’ll likely serve only six months for banking crimes related to his hush-money payoffs. [AP]