Stephen Breyer

  • Morning Docket: 04.26.17
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 04.26.17

    * Can you hear me now? Modern marvels of technology like cellphones and other electronic devices are barred from the Supreme Court during oral arguments, but yesterday, justice was interrupted by the ringing of… a Justice’s cellphone. Who was the culprit? The offending phone belonged to Justice Stephen Breyer. Oopsie! [AP]

    * After a week charged with sexual harassment allegations and the ouster of Bill O’Reilly, just when Fox News thought its troubles were over, a group of current and former employees filed a class-action lawsuit against the network alleging “abhorrent, intolerable, unlawful and hostile racial discrimination.” The plaintiffs’ lawyers got in this zinger of a statement: “When it comes to racial discrimination, 21st Century Fox has been operating as if it should be called 18th Century Fox.” [DealBook / New York Times]

    * Ever since it dumped Eversheds, Milwaukee-based Foley & Lardner has been out on the prowl for another merger partner, and it looks like the firm has finally found its ideal mate in New York boutique Friedman Kaplan Seiler & Adelman. The whole thing seems to be a bit “incestuous” if you ask us. We’ll have more on this later today. [Am Law Daily]

    * Ahead of his confirmation hearing todays, Makan Delrahim, President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the antitrust division of the Department of Justice who’s been called a “centrist nominee,” has pledged to recuse himself from all matters involving his prior work as a lobbyist, including the merger between Anthem and Cigna. [Big Law Business]

    * At some firms, like Ballard Spahr, senior partners must “transition[] their practices” by age 60, but at other firms, like Cozen O’Connor, age is nothing but a number. “We have so many lawyers who are extremely productive and terrific lawyers and if they want to work well into their 70s, God bless ’em,” says CEO Michael Heller. [Philly Inquirer]

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  • Non-Sequiturs: 02.17.17
    Non-Sequiturs

    Non-Sequiturs: 02.17.17

    * Greeeeeaaaaat. Now it’s easier for states to defund Planned Parenthood. [Slate]

    * Scott Pruitt is the new EPA chief, but his open records issues continue. [Huffington Post]

    * Finding new job opportunities as you age. [Law and More]

    * Justice Breyer is an optimist. [Harvard Magazine]

    * Law school scholarships and market forces. [TaxProf Blog]

    * Kate Spade is exploring her options. [The Fashion Law]

    * Randy Maniloff interviews Karen Korematsu, daughter of the late, great Fred Korematsu. [Coverage Opinions]

    * RBG’s legacy. [YouTube via How Appealing]

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chLdAKe9ADw

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  • Morning Docket: 12.13.16
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 12.13.16

    * What happens when a Biglaw associate at a prestigious firm is allegedly injured so badly in the D.C. subway that he’s prevented from working as an associate at that firm? He files a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against the Washington Metro Transit Authority, obviously. We’ll have more on this later. [Big Law Business]

    * A federal judge has dismissed Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein’s bid for a recount in Pennsylvania as absurd, writing in a 31-page opinion that her theory of the hacking of the state’s electronic voting machines “borders on the irrational.” Ouch. [Reuters]

    * Justice Stephen Breyer continued his assault against capital punishment this week, dissenting from his Supreme Court colleagues’ decision not to hear a death row inmate’s case. In that dissent, he didn’t discuss the evidence against the inmate, but rather, he discussed the evidence against the death penalty in America. [New York Times]

    * Abortion-rights activists from the Center for Reproductive Rights have sought an injunction against the implementation of a controversial Texas regulation that would require the burial or cremation of fetal remains because it “imposes a funeral ritual on women who have … an abortion.” As if HB 2 wasn’t bad enough… [WSJ Law Blog]

    * School-by-school results from the July 2016 administration of the California bar exam have finally been released (albeit not publicly, until now), and considering that the overall pass rate was the lowest it’s been in 32 years, law schools did not fare well. Which did the best, and which did the worst? We’ll have more on this later. [The Recorder]

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  • Non-Sequiturs: 12.09.16
    Non-Sequiturs

    Non-Sequiturs: 12.09.16

    * So far, Justice Breyer has had the most to say during oral arguments. [Empirical SCOTUS]

    * The Sioux seem to have a temporary victory at Standing Rock, so what’s the next legal step? Holland & Knight’s James Meggesto weighs in. [Salon]

    * Ohio GOP looks to strip Cleveland of power. [Slate]

    * Did bad teaching prevent this guy from being a successful lawyer? [TaxLaw Prof]

    * North Carolina courts are against expansion. [The News & Observer]

    * Tales of ambition inside the Beltway. [Law and More]

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  • Morning Docket: 10.07.16
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 10.07.16

    * “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]

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