Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 08.27.25

* Parents sue OpenAI after chatbot encouraged son in his suicide efforts. [CNN]

* Wisconsin judge charged with obstructing an ICE arrest by barring officers from courtroom not entitled to judicial immunity from criminal charges. This is the correct outcome in a world before Trump v. United States, but it's pretty stupid in a world afterward. [Reuters]

* Lawyer running Trump's antisemitism task force has long, not-so-great record of "client disputes and scathing judicial rebukes." [Pro Publica]

* Retired judge indicted for sexually assaulting assistant. [ABA Journal]

* Man accused of spitting on National Guard troops occupying D.C. is a lawyer. [WUSA9]

* Polsinelli accuses partner of taking $1.5M fee on way out the door. [Law.com]

* Anthropic settles with authors suing over training data obtained from pirate sites. [Law360]

Morning Docket: 08.26.25

* After Supreme Court conservatives invented a whole new legal standard to prevent Trump from firing Federal Reserve governors, Trump claims — without much support — to have fired Federal Reserve governor. Stocks react… predictably. [WSJ] * Trump also explained that he’s suing over the Senate’s use of blue slips. And like the worst 1L […]

Morning Docket: 08.25.25

* Federal government takes roughly 10 percent stake in Intel with Skadden's help. Wonder if Skadden did it pro bono... [Bloomberg Law News]

* Inmate moved out of low-security prison after publicly criticizing the idea of moving a convicted sex trafficker into the facility. They're going to keep Ghislaine Maxwell from talking about Donald Trump no matter how many people get in the way. [Daily Mail]

* Justice Gorsuch scolded lower courts for not treating shadow docket orders as binding precedent. In the words of the iconic commercial "that's not how any of this works." [One First]

* JP Morgan paying $330 million over 1MDB case. [Bloomberg Law News]

* Musk settles half billion dollar suit over wrongful Twitter terminations. [Law.com]

* Judge blocks White House efforts to cut off funds to cities Trump doesn't like. [Reuters]

* D.C. Circuit denies Judge Newman's appeal of her suspension on jurisdictional grounds, but said the case raises constitutional concerns. What with it being an illegal pocket impeached of a sitting federal judge and all. [National Law Journal]

Morning Docket: 08.22.25

* Judge rules that Florida must abandon publicity stunt prison known as "Alligator Alcatraz." [Washington Post]

* In Only Fans litigation, AI imagines cases like viewers imagine the cam girl is really in love with them. [National Law Journal]

* Chandra Levy prosecutor sanctioned. [Reuters]

* Military judge named head of SEC enforcement because of all those deep securities law issues tackled in the USMJ. [Corporate Counsel]

* AI mergers feed business to top Biglaw firms. Yet again, everyone's making money off AI except the AI companies. [Bloomberg Law News]

* First time bar passage is up! [ABA Journal]

* Lawyers sit down to discuss "our teacher and unparalleled trial lawyer Gerry Spence." [YouTube]

Morning Docket: 08.21.25

* This Eric Adams ally corruption story has everything: snacks, questionable lawyering, and a wad of cash. [The CITY]

* A Trump US Attorney in Virginia abruptly resigns. Hmmmm... wonder what's going on there. [Bloomberg Law]

* Ninth Circuit clears way for Trump to end Temporary Protected Status for immigrants from Nicaragua, Honduras and Nepal. [Reuters]

* Is revenge a good justification for a federal case? We'll see! [Law and Crime]

* Federal government, nit the courts, is the right mechanism to unseal the Epstein files. I'm sure the Trump administration will act on the any day now! [Law360]

* All the damage Trump can do to elections -- it's a depressing read! [Slate]

Morning Docket: 08.20.25

* Clients diversifying outside counsel options after Biglaw Surrendergate. [American Lawyer]

* Ed Martin has taken the fact that even Senate Republicans thought he was too stupid to be a U.S. Attorney and turned it into a career harassing Trump's political grudges through the Justice Department. [NY Times]

* Administration proposes taking public service loan forgiveness away from grads who work with groups that support Trans rights. [ABA Journal]

* New fallout from Supreme Court's haphazard rejection of Chevron: workers have fewer legal options to hold employers accountable for enabling client harassment. [Bloomberg Law News]

* Kilmar Abrego moves to drop charges based on the DOJ only prosecuting him to cover up the fact that they wrongfully sent him to a torture camp. [Reuters]

* FCC considering regulatory changes to deliver windfall to the commissioners' inevitable future employers. [Law360]

* Lawyer charged with murder. [WSMV]

Morning Docket: 08.19.25

* DLA Piper bringing everyone back to the office 4 days a week, leaving attorneys an extra day of the week to schedule all their interviews.[American Lawyer]

* White House sending its social media teams with on FBI arrests. "Yo, it's ya boy Steve, here at the qualified immunity channel..." [Reuters]

* Alina Habba is legally the U.S. Attorney of New Jersey according to Alina Habba. [Law360]

* Judge slims down Ozempic suit. [Legal Intelligencer]

* Paul Weiss and Reed Smith accused of multimillion dollar coverup. [Bloomberg Law News]

* Newsmax coughs up $67 million for lying about the 2020 election. [NPR]

* Fifth Circuit resuscitates student group's lawsuit against college over banning drag show citing First Amendment, thus overturning Kacsmaryk opinion that had been based on... vibes. [Courthouse News Service]

Morning Docket: 08.18.25

* Article highlights efforts surrendering firms have taken against Trump administration, which certainly seems like the sort of publicity those firms would hope to promote amid talent and client defections. [American Lawyer]

* Supreme Court imposing rule of guess as it tries to obscure its actions. [National Law Journal]

* Burford Capital considers moving litigation finance to new level with equity stakes in law firms. [Financial Times]

* Trump's D.C. stunt has "no exit strategy." Though as its own exit strategy from the Epstein files it's doing great. [NPR]

* Norton Rose tried its hand as a tech startup. It didn't work. [Bloomberg Law News]

* Federal judiciary begins rule debates. [Law360]

* Penn Law suspends scholarship in honor of its first Black woman graduate. [Philadelphia Tribune]

Morning Docket: 08.15.25

* Which firms are stockpiling fleeing government lawyers? [National Law Journal]

* Report suggests Russian hackers were inside PACER for years. [Bloomberg Law News]

* Trump administration targeting legal Ukrainian refugees now. [WSJ]

* AI hallucinations hit Australian murder case. [ABC]

* NFL loses bid to resolve Brian Flores discrimination case with its own kangaroo arbitration. [Law360]

* Supreme Court allows social media age check law to remain in effect. [Reuters]

* Gerry Spence dies at 96. [AP News]

Morning Docket: 08.14.25

* Diligent journalism students devote a lot of words to "some law students are losers and join FedSoc to feel good about themselves and get jobs their grades could never justify." [Harvard Crimson]

* Swapping courses? [ABA Journal]

* Milbank carries the love across the pond. [LegalCheek]

* In what shouldn't be controversial news, bad judges continue to be very bad at law. [Bloomberg Law News]

* How are we still talking about this guy? [NPR]

* $40B here, $40B there, pretty soon you're talking about real money. [Law360]

* ILTACON update from Legal Tech News's newest. [LegalTech News]

Morning Docket: 08.13.25

* Elon Musk threatens to sue Apple because OpenAI somehow performs better than his model that calls itself "MechaHitler." [CNBC]

* "Crypto" and "fraud"? How are those words possibly linked. [Law360]

* Diversity experts fired from cowardly law firms face a tough market of equally cowardly potential employers. [American Lawyer]

* SCOTUS going to bring back torturing gay children as a treat for their fans. [Bloomberg Law News]

* ABA opposes Trump's law firm crackdown proving they have more guts than some of the law firms. [Reuters]

* Ohtani might be adding historic legal troubles to his plate. [SF Gate]

Morning Docket: 08.12.25

* Taft and Morris Manning announced merger. [Law360]

* Unqualified judge's husband putting his groomsman in charge of enforcing white collar crime. In case you wanted to track what happens when the dumbest people imaginable have power. [Bloomberg Law News]

* ABA adopts resolution against assault on rule of law. [Reuters]

* Harvard lawyer greases wheels of fascism. [New York Times]

* Anthropic's IP case carries on. [The Recorder]

* Hold the phone! The Supreme Court is taking cases based on politics?!? [National Law Journal]

Morning Docket: 08.11.25

* Lawyer shifts career to OnlyFans content. [NY Post]

* Trial over Trump's use of military for domestic policing begins. [Reuters]

* Former copyright chief thinks she got fired for suggesting AI companies have to respect IP law. [Law.com]

* Justice Department going after Tish James for pointing out that Trump's businesses cooked books. [ABA Journal]

* Supreme Court sees opportunity to promote more bribery. [Bloomberg Law News]

* New allegations added to Tom Goldstein case. [Reuters]

* Judge wants everyone in the Lively-Baldoni scuffle to play nice. [Law360]

Morning Docket: 08.08.25

* Tariffs starting to drag down client earnings. [Bloomberg Law News]

* Reed Smith putting a cheerful face on massive defections to Crowell. [American Lawyer]

* An interview with Andry Hernández, the makeup artist the Trump administration kidnapped and sent to El Salvador torture prison. [Bulwark/YouTube]

* Law license reform efforts dismissed by casually branding applicants as weak. It's not just for America anymore! [LegalCheek]

* Does Greg Abbott have a case against Texas Democrats? No, of course not. [Lawfare]

* Historians will debate when the federal government went started to go off the rails, but this is a pretty compelling case for INS v. Chadha. [SSRN]

* Ghislaine Maxwell's lawyer says he loves representing the underdog. Just another one of those "underdogs" who the entire Justice Department has retooled itself around buying their silence. [Vanity Fair]

Morning Docket: 08.07.25

* DOJ seeking sanctions against lawyer for taking immigration pro bono case. [Politico]

* To Elon Musk's chagrin, appellate court once again upholds the legality of the SEC imposing gag rules on voluntary settlements. [Reuters]

* Woman sees charges dropped after hiring Brad Bondi. Is this necessarily related? No. But this is exactly why he couldn't credibly serve as head of the DC Bar at the same time his sister runs the DOJ. [ABC News]

* Following up on the lawyers who responded swiftly to Biglaw surrender deals. [Bloomberg Law News]

* Oklahoma tribe uses FOIA request to uncover effort by senator to redefine Cherokee status to strip group of its rights. [Law360]

* Small firms yet again taking up the slack abandoned by Biglaw. [National Law Journal]

* Trump's rewiring of the federal justice system to tamp down its independence could have long-term ramifications. [ABA Journal]