Morning Docket: 05.31.23

* When the Supreme Court tried to deflect the heat from Clarence Thomas taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in gifts, the justices signed an ethics pinky swear. Alito breached it within the month. [Slate] * Corporate legal departments are hiring smaller law firms to save money. I swear we wrote this exact same story... the last time there was a whiff of rate hikes only to have everything return to normal in a year. [Corporate Counsel] * Sam Bankman-Fried preparing to blame Fenwick & West for everything. [Fortune] * Texas lawmakers unveil new anti-ESG laws to limit insurance carriers from considering environmental issues. You know... the environmental issues they're being asked to pay for. I'd like to limit life insurers from considering my career as a crocodile wrestler too, but c'est la vie. [Bloomberg Law News] * The family at the center of the opioid crisis can successfully shield themselves from liability because that's what corporations do! [Courthouse News Service] * NLRB goes after non-compete agreements and it's honestly a little shocking that they haven't always been going after non-compete agreements. [Law360] * Chris Christie announcing a presidential run next week. Over/under on the number of times he mentions that he was a prosecutor in his kickoff speech? I'm setting the line at 9. [CNN]