Morning Docket: 09.01.15

* ABC News chief legal analyst Dan Abrams is suing his neighbors over his lawyerly lair -- and one of the defendants is a Biglaw partner at a top firm. Expect more on this later. [New York Post] * Speaking of Biglaw, a familiar tale of financial performance: gross revenue at Am Law 100 firms grew by 4 percent in the first half of 2015, but driven by rate increases rather than demand growth. [American Lawyer] * If you want the Supreme Court to hear your case, try to steer your cert petition clear of the "long conference," known as the place "where petitions go to die." [New York Times] * Speaking of SCOTUS, the Court won't come to the rescue of the Kentucky county clerk who refuses to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples -- time to issue those licenses or quit, Kim Davis. [How Appealing] * But the justices did come to the (temporary) rescue of former Virginia Governor Robert McDonnell, allowing him to remain free until SCOTUS acts on his petition for certiorari. [SCOTUSblog via How Appealing] * Are criticisms of the S.E.C.'s administrative-law procedures correct? Here's a study from Professor David Zaring. [New York Times] * The Show-Me State leads when it comes to showing defendants to their deaths: Missouri has displaced Texas as the "epicenter of the American death penalty." [The Marshall Project] * Speaking of capital punishment, I predicted that these particular Ninth Circuit judges wouldn't be too sympathetic to this challenge to the death penalty -- and based on yesterday's oral argument, it seems I was right. [How Appealing]