Tax Law

* Earlier this week, Justice Samuel Alito blocked a Louisiana abortion law, and now a divided Supreme Court has done the same, with Chief Justice John Roberts joining with the Court’s liberals to protect women’s right to choose without undue burdens. Justice Brett Kavanaugh penned the dissent — so much for “precedent on precedent.” [USA Today]

* After some back and forth over the threat of a subpoena, Acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker has agreed to testify publicly on the Mueller probe before the House Judiciary Committee bright and early tomorrow morning. [Washington Post]

* “There’s no doubt that the talent wars in tax have definitely heated up.” As it turns out, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is really living up to its name in that it’s creating a lot of new jobs — for tax lawyers and accountants, that is. [Wall Street Journal]

* “I always thought of him as a good lawyer. I’m not so sure I think the same thing about him today.” Now that he’s serving as Trump’s counsel, New York lawyers simply “don’t understand” who the new and improved(?) Rudy Giuliani is. [Law.com]

* Students at Harvard Law really want the school to continue its support of a pilot federal clerk hiring program that prevents judges from offering clerkships until applicants have completed their second year of school. [Harvard Crimson]

* Lawyers representing Nick Sandmann, the Covington Catholic student who went viral after his run-in with a Native American elder during a D.C. protest, have sent an evidence-preservation letter to CNN prior to suing for defamation. [Daily Report]

For some, the the Tax Cuts And Jobs Act may not be as great as it sounded.

Remember that which school is right for you depends on your professional goals.

Hopefully the country does not collapse in on itself from its own weight like a black hole so we can all see my inevitable follow-up piece, Taxes II: A New Bracket. And This Time, It’s Personal.

Let’s remember that life isn’t perfect and we shouldn’t expect everything to happen the way we want it to.

And would Trump have a constitutional defense to the release of his tax information?

* President Trump wants a court to step in to determine whether Saturday Night Live may continue to “defame & belittle” him, wondering if it could be “collusion.” That’s our Trumpy! [New York Daily News]

* Aww, you thought you could build a natural gas pipeline across two national forests and the Appalachian Trail? Cute. The Fourth Circuit is so pissed that a three-judge panel quoted The Lorax in their opinion: “We trust the United States Forest Service to ‘speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues.'” [NPR]

* On Saturday night, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg drew a sold-out audience at the Museum of the City of New York where she participated in a Q&A session with Nina Totenberg and announced that Friday was her “first day doing [her] whole workout routine” after breaking three ribs. Get it, Your Honor! [NBC News]

* Move over, Aaron Schlossberg. Yet another New York lawyer has been caught on camera, this time physically attacking a fellow subway passenger as she shouts obscenities, spits on people, and lets loose with racial slurs. [American Lawyer]

* Her hips may not lie, but her tax filings allegedly do. Spain has charged pop singer Shakira with tax evasion thanks to her claimed Bahamian residency. [Forbes]

Tax lawyers devote more of their time to research than their peers in other practice areas.

A Tax LL.M. can be a good investment depending on what you are expecting out of the degree.

When you are facing large tax bills totaling several million dollars due to Section 280E, you will do odd things to minimize the tax burden.

* Senator Tim Scott has effectively killed the district court nomination of Thomas Farr. At this point, the administration could just grab another name out of the hat of tons of nominally qualified North Carolina Republicans. But instead they’ll just wait until the next session and redo this whole thing with their newly expanded majority to own the libs. [Courthouse News Service]

* It looks like Trump may actually be zeroing in on a new AG. [CNN]

* The tech industry expects federal data privacy legislation next year. I don’t know if these people have noticed, but it’s unclear this upcoming legislature could pass a National Ice Cream Day resolution. [Corporate Counsel]

* Former FBI chief James Comey is moving to quash a lame duck House subpoena. Comey’s publicly declared that he’s happy to testify before the committee in a public hearing. But, as you might imagine, the House Republicans don’t want a public hearing where they won’t be able to spin what happens. [Reuters]

* While everyone’s predicted the death of the billable hour, it turns out that the antiquated billing mechanism has an unlikely defender: the clients. [Law360]

* The new tax law will completely screw up divorces. Add that to the overseas manufacturing incentives as something Trump probably didn’t realize when he dropped this dud of a law on the country. [Fox17]

* Firms could get slapped with malpractice over substance abuse or poor mental health. [New York Law Journal]

After all these years, it's time to find out who 'Shannon Achimalbe' really is.

The practice is estimated to have cost taxpayers there €12 billion ($13.7 billion).

* Republicans’ control over the Senate grew after the midterm elections, but Democrats managed to take the House. Here are six interesting reasons why that means President Donald Trump could be in “huge legal trouble” now. [Law & Crime]

* Florida voters approved an amendment to their state constitution to restore felons’ voting rights, which will now be automatically restored after prison time is completed and restitution paid. That’s at least 1.4 million more voters! [Orlando Sentinel]

* Remember Kim Davis, the Kentucky county clerk who was jailed after she refused to sign marriage licenses for same-sex couples? Last night, she lost her reelection campaign to Elwood Caudill Jr., a Democratic challenger. [Lexington Herald Leader]

* In case you missed it, President Donald Trump chose former White House counsel and current O’Melveny of counsel A.B. Culvahouse to go Down Under to put another shrimp on the barbie serve as U.S. ambassador to Australia. [National Law Journal]

* A California appellate court has paved the way for former Winston & Strawn partner Constance Ramos to get out of an “unconscionable” arbitration agreement with the firm. This may be the first Biglaw gender bias case to make it to trial. [The Recorder]

* Sorry, but you can’t deduct the cost of your law degree on your taxes because it qualified you for a new trade or business. The U.S. Tax Court says that even with a shiny new J.D. in your possession, you’ve only enhanced your current skills. [Law360]

* Grab ’em by the public interest: Per a new Gallup survey, pre-law students don’t care about Biglaw money; no, they say the top reason to go to law school is to “pursue a career in politics, government, or other public service.” [Idaho Business Review]

* A group of crypto investors has filed suit against rapper T.I., alleging that they could not have whatever they like because he tricked them into backing FLiK Token. The Rubberband Man’s lawyer says, “Tip is truly disheartened by the lawsuit.” [Complex]

Whether you filed on time or if you filed at the last minute, here are a few things you should do between now and the end of the year.

Ed. note: In honor of Columbus Day (and Canadian Thanksgiving), Above the Law will be on a reduced publication schedule. We’ll be back in full force tomorrow.

* In case you somehow missed it, Brett Kavanaugh, who is “totally brilliant” per President Trump, was confirmed to the Supreme Court in one of the closest votes in American history (50 to 48). He was sworn in shortly thereafter by Chief Justice John Roberts and the recently retired Justice Anthony M. Kennedy. [New York Times]

* It’s certainly worth mentioning that Chief Justice Roberts received judicial misconduct complaints from the D.C. Circuit about Kavanaugh’s hearing testimony, but he decided to not to do anything about them. Now, people are accusing Roberts of being involved in some sort of a Kavanuagh cover-up. [Washington Post]

* As Kavanaugh mentioned during his confirmation hearing, he’ll be the first Supreme Court justice to have four women law clerks. Counting his clerks, women will make up a majority of the Supreme Court’s clerks for the first time in history. Nice work, Justice Brett. At least he’s good for something. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ [National Law Journal]

* “The women are against her.” How did Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg become the feminist pop culture icon that we know and love today when she was almost bypassed for her SCOTUS nomination because women didn’t trust her? [New Yorker]

* We’ve got a situation! Jersey Shore cast member Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino will be heading to federal prison for eight months on tax evasion charges. Expect his co-stars to starting referring to him as “The Incarceration.” [Courthouse News]

Judge Barry's financial disclosures were the key to this story.

* Brett Kavanaugh admits he played dice, but not for money. If you believe that, I’ve got some $80K baseball tickets to sell you. [Huffington Post]

* When you hear about people ignoring authorities and remaining in the path of a hurricane, you may not think of lawyers, but some attorneys in the path of Florence are embracing the opportunity to finally get some work done. [Law.com]

* El Chapo’s lawyer may have a conflict of interest. Saul Goodman couldn’t be reached for comment. [NY Post]

* D.C. Circuit set to hear case about the IRS’s obligation to turn over Trump’s tax returns. This is another of those cases where losing is its own victory — the tax returns are almost certainly less interesting than how aggressively he’s fighting this. [National Law Journal]

* Alyssa Milano partners with the Vera Institute of Justice promoting the SAFE Families Fund to protect immigrant families targeted by the government. [San Diego Union Tribune]

* Trump’s divorce lawyer has sold a tell-all book. That’s either a marketing lie or he has some client confidentiality issues. [Page Six]

* “Strangely my most memorable case was also in some respects my least enjoyable” — the best way to make a mark is to leave a scar. [Legal Cheek]

* Law schools in North and South Carolina have canceled classes for the foreseeable future so that students, faculty, and staff can evacuate the area and hunker down before Hurricane Florence arrives. Please be careful and stay safe, everyone. [Law.com]

* President Trump is eager to choose Emmet Flood to succeed Don McGahn as the next White House counsel. Ty Cobb, one of Trump’s former lawyers, is in Flood’s camp because he’s “battled investigations from the White House before—[and] that’s what will be coming.” [Wall Street Journal]

* Earlier this week, Bob Woodward said that former Trump attorney John Dowd told the president he couldn’t testify in the Russia investigation because he’s “disabled” and “can’t tell the truth.” That sounds just about right. [People]

* The University of California Berkeley School of Law may soon be doing away with almost all references to John Henry Boalt thanks to his racist views. Public comment on the issue will close on Halloween, and then Dean Erwin Chemerinsky may formally apply to dename Boalt Hall. Let’s see what happens with this one. [ABA Journal]

* “This is clear interference with an ongoing criminal investigation.” Representatives from the New York state tax department reportedly met with Michael Cohen’s attorney yesterday over the objections of Southern District of New York. [CNN]

* A family of conspiracy theorists: Donald Trump Jr. says he’s not worried about going to jail as a result of Robert Mueller’s Russia probe, but “[t]hat doesn’t mean they won’t try to create something” that could put him in jail. [USA Today]