31 Search Results for: "scalia, doma"

The principle of states' rights has of course been utilized as a pretext for ignoble purposes. That doesn’t make every intrusion by the federal government a noble endeavor though.

What were the best quotes from today's Defense of Marriage Act arguments in the Supreme Court? Here are Michelle Olsen's top five.

Why does Justice Scalia make the controversial comparison between anti-sodomy laws, on the one hand, and laws against bestiality or murder, on the other?

I will not see the likes of her in my remaining lifetime.

It's possible for a single justice to swing the court, it just depends on the IP subject matter.

Let's just admit the USPTO makes mistakes.

Calm down, people; Justice Anthony Kennedy's retirement does not spell the end of same-sex marriage.

Candidates include current and former judges, prosecutors, Biglaw partners, and other impressive individuals.

Most folks don't cite embarrassing, racist precedent, but...

* The New York Times has obtained Donald Trump’s tax records from 1995, revealing a nearly $916 million loss that would have enabled him to cancel out an equivalent amount of taxable income over an 18-year period. Marc Kasowitz, name partner of Kasowitz Benson, represents Trump, and has threatened the paper with “prompt initiation of appropriate legal action” for its publication of his client’s tax records. [New York Times]

* George Mason University will host a grand opening ceremony this week for the twice renamed Antonin Scalia School of Law Antonin Scalia Law School — a ceremony that five SCOTUS justices will reportedly attend — and some students and faculty are planning to protest the Koch brothers’ funding of scholarships by wearing red tape over their mouths to symbolize their voices being taken from them. [Big Law Business]

* Katherine Magbanua, the woman who is suspected of connecting Florida State University law professor Dan Markel’s alleged killers, Sigfredo Garcia and Luis Rivera, with the family of Markel’s ex-wife, Wendi Adelson, has been arrested on murder charges. According to police, she has “received numerous benefits from the Adelsons since Markel’s murder.” We’ll have more on this later today. [Tallahassee Democrat]

* According to Judge Beth Bloom of the Southern District of Florida, Orlando-based firm Butler & Hosch violated the WARN Act when it closed suddenly in May 2015 and conducted mass layoffs of more than 700 employees without giving them 60 days of advance notice. The firm, which is bankruptcy, could be on the hook for millions of dollars in damages. We may have more on this later today. [Orlando Sentinel]

* Following the embarrassment that was former Stanford swimmer Brock Turner’s light sentence in the sexual assault of an unconscious woman at his school, California Gov. Jerry Brown has broadened the state’s legal definition of rape to include penetration with a foreign object, mandate prison time if the victim was unconscious at the time of the assault, and forbid judges from granting probation or parole in such cases. [Reuters]

* “Frankly, USD has been a bit behind in that, in part, up until 2014, we had no problem with the bar exam. When you’re hitting in the high 80s or 90s, you don’t worry about much.” Unofficial results from the South Dakota bar exam are out, and after years of declines in passage rates for graduates of South Dakota Law, administrators are ready to take action now that only about 50 percent of graduates passed the test. [Argus Leader]

* “I was empty and then this woman walked into my life. I didn’t think it would happen again and it did. She is it.” LGBT rights pioneer Edie Windsor, the plaintiff whose Supreme Court case rendered DOMA unconstitutional in 2013 and laid the groundwork for the high court to declare that marriage equality was a fundamental right just two years later, remarried in New York last week. Our very best wishes! [New York Times]

Time for the presidential debate drinking game.

Whoa -- this is some big Biglaw news!

Conservatives have something new to bitch and moan about.

Congratulations to Jim Obergefell and all the parties and their lawyers on this historic win.

* Law students (and prospective law students)! Figure out your expected class rank with this handy calculator. [Witnesseth]

* Elie wonders if law students are getting dumber. [Redline]

* Great law review article, or greatest law review article? Judge M. Margaret McKeown’s “Culinary Ambiguity: A Canonical Approach To Deciphering Menus.” [Harvard Law Review]

* Remember the lawyer caught billing 29-hour days? The guy pleaded his case to the Ohio Supreme Court and they won’t give him the time of day. [Ohio Supreme Court]

* Veterans Day seems like the right time to remember the Feres Doctrine, which bars armed forces personnel from suing the government for negligence. How ridiculous is the Feres Doctrine? Justice Scalia thinks we need to allow more negligence suits! [Legal Funding Central]

* A sad story of a married partner romancing a married young associate that ends in her death. [Missouri Lawyers Weekly]

* If you support Obamacare, is there any reason for optimism in King v. Burwell? [Lawyers, Guns & Money]

* In case you were ever interested in eminent domain in a galaxy far, far away. [The Legal Geeks]

* Casino sends promotions to “compulsive gamblers” on a voluntary opt-out list. The casino calls it a “software issue.” What are the odds on that? [Ars Technica]

* A former Texas judge earned a reprimand for violating the state constitution and seven ethical canons in three years. Gauntlet thrown, judges aspiring to enter our pages. [Houston Chronicle]

ATL editors David Lat and Joe Patrice debate: When is a chicken sandwich just a chicken sandwich?

* “[J]ust because something is constitutional doesn’t mean it’s the best idea, or even a good one.” Perhaps we’ve given Chief Justice John Roberts a little too much to do. No wonder he’s gotten cranky. [Opinionator / New York Times]

* “It’s raining lawsuits.” As Justice Scalia predicted, in the wake of the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Windsor case, gay couples across the nation have banded together to challenge bans on same-sex marriage. [NBC News]

* The Fourth Circuit ruled that state authorities in Maryland can’t arrest and detain people just because they look like they might be illegal immigrants. They can only do that in Arizona. [Baltimore Sun]

* No more fun during sequestration, ever! Judges, get ready to kiss your “lavish accommodations” at judicial conferences goodbye, because Senator Tom Coburn is on the case. [National Law Journal]

* For all of the talk that Biglaw is in recovery, summer associate hiring just isn’t what it used to be. Summer class sizes shrank since last year. We’ll have more on this later today. [Am Law Daily]

* On Friday, the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar will consider making changes to its law school accreditation standards. Yes, the ABA does have standards. [ABA Journal]

* Open wide and suck this down: A film on the life and times of porn star Linda Lovelace may be lost to the cutting room floor because Deep Throat’s rights holders are seeking an injunction. [The Guardian]

Some of the week's big events in review.