Above the Law

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The DOJ’s Week Of Disaster — See Generally

The Streisand Effect Finds Its Spirit Animal: The Atlantic published an article based on multiple insider accounts of Kash Patel’s drinking prompting the FBI Director to promise swift legal retaliation. He made good on that pledge with a flimsy $250 million defamation complaint (possibly drafted by AI), that only managed to look weaker the more he talked about it.

DOJ Does A Solid For The KKK: Acting AG Todd Blanche and FBI Director (for the moment…) Kash Patel announced criminal charges against the Southern Poverty Law Center for its work gathering intelligence on known hate groups. But apparently no one bothered to double-check the charging documents, because the indictment fails to allege a whole element.

S&C’s Letter To The Court, Translated: ‘Please’: Sullivan & Cromwell submitted an emergency filing asking a federal court not to sanction the firm after discovering their filings were riddled with AI hallucinations.

Powell Pwns Pirro: Adding to the DOJ’s woes this week, Jeanine Pirro tried to quietly extricate the Justice Department from its phony case against Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.

Freedom Of Religion Means Everyone Is Free To Worship The Way The Fifth Circuit Tells You: The Fifth Circuit embarked on some quirky mental gymnastics to explain why Texas can demand public schools post the Ten Commandments in every classroom is not “establishment of religion.”

When The Law Is On Your Side, Pound The Law; When The Facts Are On Your Side, Pound The Facts; When You Have Neither, Pound The Leak: Uncovered memos reveal Chief Justice Roberts’s deeply cynical role in inventing the Supreme Court’s new hyperactive shadow docket as a policy instrument.

Ranking Law Schools: By buildings, real estate, practical training, and Biglaw job prospects.

Law Professor’s Love Letter To Hungarian Authoritarianism: Jonathan Turley is just a Republican talking points pullstring toy at this point, but his lament over the fall of Viktor Orban is conspiracy theory stuff.

It’s 10 p.m. Do You Know Where Your Partners Are?: Because the lateral market keeps churning, with Paul Weiss losing prominent appellate partner to Davis Polk.

Corporate Clients Memory Hole DEI: Corporate legal departments, which once loudly demanded diversity commitments from outside counsel, are now quietly letting those commitments expire, in what we in the journalism business call “a pattern.”

The Federalist Society’s Extremely Normal Evening: A Federalist Society event intended to present the legal case for DHS immigration operations as something other than what they are encountered mild friction when the protesters outside declined to pretend otherwise.

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Big Names Polking Around — See Also

Kannon Shanmugam Is Headed To Davis Polk & Wardwell: Best of luck to the firm’s new Supreme Court and appellate practice!

Wave Goodbye To The ICE/IRS Firewall: One small step toward losing billions in taxable income at a time.

The Government’s Poor Case Against The Southern Poverty Law Center: They didn’t even include the elements of the crime!

Protestors Protest DHS Lead Counsel’s Talk At UCLA: Make the most of free speech on campus while you can.

It’s Bigger In Boston: Check out the area’s most prestigious Biglaw firms!

We’re Calling A 2-1: The Biglaw EO cases are headed to the D.C. Circuit.

Resources

Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 04.24.26

* Justice Department charges soldier who made $400,000 betting on Maduro capture. Weirdly, no action at all on whoever keeps making million dollar oil shorts minutes before Trump announces imaginary Iran deals. [ABC]

* Freshfields partners with Anthropic to build AI tools. [Legal IT Insider]

* Davis Polk unveils new appellate practice after snagging Paul Weiss practice co-chair. [American Lawyer]

* Spirit Airlines likely to get taxpayer bailout. The government should give them the bare minimum, and then charge extra for each additional necessity. [Law360]

* PE eyes PI practice. [Law.com]

* Judge Salas on the dangers of weakening data privacy laws. [Reuters]

* Junior lawyer makes pageant finals. [Legal Cheek]

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No Facts, No Problem! — See Also

Fifth Circuit’s Stuart Kyle Duncan Shows You Can Go Far Without Doing The Reading: Also, the Establishment Clause doesn’t matter anymore.

Keeping It Real About Real Estate Law: These schools should be at the top of your list!

Exercise Judgment: AI can help you, but you still need to be at the helm.

Goodbye, DEI: Companies have given up the commitment to diversity song and dance.

Law Student Is On An Amazing Jeopardy Run!: Representing New Jersey and Seton Hall!