Supreme Court

  • Morning Docket: 05.16.17
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 05.16.17

    * Was your firm disabled by a cyberattack? Probably not if you’re still reading this. [Am Law Daily]

    * All these “classified intelligence” headlines miss the point. It’s not like Trump told them the nuclear codes or anything — he warned them about a possible terror plot. The problem is that haphazard handling of secrets could mess up future intelligence gathering and put sources at risk. And, of course, that Trump’s going to address a burgeoning national security scandal on Twitter. [Courthouse News Service]

    * If you think movie theaters are a racket, well, the Department of Justice thinks that’s worth looking into. [Law.com]

    * Dean Erwin Chemerinsky explains why firing James Comey didn’t spark a constitutional crisis — but that’s about the only good thing he has to say about the administration. [Newsweek]

    * German law enforcement’s search of local Jones Day offices was legal. VW plans to turbocharge an appeal. [Reuters]

    * This may come as a shock, but Arizona Summit Law School isn’t doing well. [Arizona Central]

    * Conan has to go to trial on joke theft allegations. [New York Times]

    * What to know about the Supreme Court’s latest arbitration decision. Besides “y’all are screwed,” of course. [Law360]

  • Non-Sequiturs: 05.15.17
    Non-Sequiturs

    Non-Sequiturs: 05.15.17

    * On the one hand, Trump men seem to have an unhealthy relationship with their daughters. On the other hand, celebrating your daughter’s sexuality is a thing that’s kind of progressive. [BBC]

    * Neil Gorsuch will likely recuse himself from this burping case if it comes to the Supreme Court. Which is too bad, because his 10th Circuit dissent in the underlying case seems exactly right. [NPR]

    * It’s always fun when Uber loses in court. [Forbes]

    * The ACLU is going to fight Donald Trump every day. [ACLU]

    * I have an opinion on masturbation as speech… I’m just going to keep it to myself. [Popehat]

    * All those U.S. Senators who confirmed Jeff Sessions should be forced to answer for his actions now. [The Root]

    * “Trump revealed highly classified information to Russian foreign minister and ambassador” — Headline, Washington Post. I mean, of course he did. Nobody is surprised. Nobody will stop him. [Washington Post]

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  • Non-Sequiturs: 05.02.17
    Non-Sequiturs

    Non-Sequiturs: 05.02.17

    * A look at how behavior on the Court has changed since Justice Gorsuch’s began serving. [Empirical SCOTUS] * Is General Counsel Dianne Brandi likely to be the next head to roll of Fox News? [Law and More] * We’ve all seen the local news and after school specials — cyberbullying is a real phenomenon. […]

  • Morning Docket: 05.02.17
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 05.02.17

    * Fewer than 18 percent of federal appeals have oral arguments because federal judges think your argument is just as dumb as the rest of us. [Law.com]

    * Mark Geragos files $100 million lawsuit against Ja Rule and the other organizers of Fyre Festival because rich people can’t be forced to live like poors without consequences. [Variety]

    * Former Acting Solicitor General Ian Gershengorn says, “I feel like I am standing on the shoulders of giants,” which is just a tad sly considering he’s returning to the firm he worked at for 12 years. [National Law Journal]

    * Speaking of the exodus to the private sector, the “Government to Debevoise Pipeline” rolls on with SEC Enforcement’s FCPA chief Kara Brockmeyer joining the firm. For those keeping track this pipeline has now officially created more jobs than the Keystone Pipeline promised. [Corporate Counsel]

    * Maybe we’ll make this whole roundup about moving to private practice! Crowell & Moring adds former Homeland Security Chief of Staff Paul Rosen. [Politico]

    * Fox Rothschild does what anyone else who spends time in Los Angeles does: moves to Seattle. [Legal Intelligencer]

    * The Supreme Court made it harder to sue a foreign government that seizes American assets. Good thing America’s leadership is focused on sound diplomacy and doesn’t needlessly provoke countries by describing them as “a mess.” This should work out well. [Law360]

    * The folks behind the Bar Exam Stats blog have opened a Law School HQ, a new site with a broader focus. [Law School HQ]

  • Non-Sequiturs: 05.01.17
    Non-Sequiturs

    Non-Sequiturs: 05.01.17

    * Airbnb will allow the government to audit hosts in order to test for racial discrimination. [The Guardian]

    * Texas cop shoots and kills an unarmed black 15-year-old. [The Root]

    * There’s no video, but Popehat has a nice little tale about an airline and airport police completely failing. [Popehat]

    * If this had happened to Ann Coulter, conservatives would be concerned. But since it only happened to left-leaning women in Kentucky… crickets. [ABC]

    * The Supreme Court doesn’t want to touch California’s ban on gay conversion therapy. Banning gay conversion therapy is, of course, the only reason to be happy Donald Trump hasn’t been repealed and replaced by Mike Pence. [ABA Journal]

    * In case you missed it, on Friday night I debated Jenner Block’s Lindsay Harrison about the Constitution, and Seema Iyer about sex offenders. Check out the webcast here. [WNYC Studios]

    * Richard Posner and Jed Rakoff face off over the death penalty. [Slate]


    Elie Mystal is an editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at elie@abovethelaw.com. He will resist.

  • Morning Docket: 05.01.17
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 05.01.17

    * Checks and balances, how do they work? President Donald Trump seems to be looking for anyone and anything to blame for his first 100 days in office being bungled, and he’s finally settled on the rule system that controls the Senate, calling it a “very rough system,” an “archaic system” that’s “really a bad thing for the country.” [The Guardian]

    * In other news, according to Reince Priebus, President Trump’s chief of staff, something that the White House has looked into is changing libel laws to make it easier to sue news organizations, but “[h]ow it gets executed or whether that goes anywhere is a different story.” Wow. [CNN]

    * One things for sure — there’s no Supreme Court retirement watch here: Described as “exuberant,” Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg recently exclaimed that she “love[s] her job,” and that Justice Elena Kagan must be absolutely thrilled about Neil Gorsuch’s confirmation, since that means she’ll no longer have to suffer through the incredibly boring tasks typically given to the high court’s junior justice. [National Law Journal]

    * “The logic of the decision is hard to accept. You’re OK’ing a system that perpetuates the inequity in compensation for women.” In a disheartening opinion, the Ninth Circuit said employers may legally pay women less than their male counterparts for the same work based exclusively on differences in their prior salaries, even though those differences were recently ruled discriminatory under the Equal Pay Act by a lower court. [CBS News]

    * A second suspect has been arrested in the fatal April 10 shooting of Cook County Associate Judge Raymond Myles. Earl Wilson, 45, a man who is “no stranger to the criminal justice system,” was charged with first-degree murder. Per prosecutors, this was a robbery gone wrong, and Myles was not supposed to be killed. Myles is the first Chicago-area judge to be fatally shot in more than three decades. [Chicago Tribune]

    * Late last week, the Hollywood Reporter released its annual ranking of the best attorneys who serve the nation’s most glamorous celebrities — the Hollywood 100 — which is always celebrated like “lawyer Christmas in Hollywood for a day.” How many Biglaw attorneys made the list in the tenth edition of the rankings, and how well represented are each of their firms? We’ll have more on this later. [Big Law Business]