Brett Kavanaugh
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* There’s a lot to say about Brett Kavanaugh’s speech at Notre Dame Law School, but he used the opportunity to bash the US News rankings blasting the idea that the publication’s reputation survey can capture the quality of an education. His clerks this Term all went to Harvard, Yale, and Stanford. [CNN]
* Shearman & Sterling used to be a top 5 earning firm. Now it’s banking on a merger — that feels more like a takeover — to save it. What happened? [American Lawyer]
* Forum shopping has gotten to the point where attorneys pushing fringe legal theories have a 100 percent chance of landing a friendly judge. [The Nation]
* Ted Lieu proposes resolution to regulate AI written by AI. I guess we already let oil companies write environmental laws so this isn’t much different. [NBC]
* John Eastman disbarment proceedings coming soon. [The Guardian]
* Republicans target ESG rules. It’s one thing to complain about the SEC, but these proposals would bar investment funds from making demands on companies they own. So much for the free market! [Bloomberg]
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* Where does Justice Brett Kavanaugh fit along the ideological spectrum at the Supreme Court? Adam Feldman evaluates the evidence thus far. [Empirical SCOTUS]
* Speaking of SCOTUS, Frank Pasquale takes Neal Devins and Lawrence Baum’s new book, The Company They Keep: How Partisan Divisions Came to the Supreme Court (affiliate link), as a jumping-off point for exploring the political polarization of SCOTUS. [Balkinization]
* Texas v. Azar, the Obamacare case now pending before the Fifth Circuit, makes for unusual alliances — how often do you see Jonathan Adler, Nick Bagley, Abbe Gluck, and Ilya Somin on the same amicus brief? [Take Care]
* David Bernstein offers some thoughtful reflections — with which I happen to agree — on how some conservatives responded to the nominations of Neomi Rao and Jessie Liu. [Volokh Conspiracy / Reason]
* Joel Cohen has a question about Robert Mueller: “What did he know, and when did he know it?” [The Hill]
* And Cohen also has this interesting interview with Justice David Wecht of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, about an important (and disturbing) subject: the recent rise in anti-Semitism, in America and abroad. [Tablet]
* If you share my interest in litigation finance, then you might be interested in this great new resource: a comprehensive digital library of documents relating to the litigation-funding industry. [Litigation Finance Journal]
* What trends and technology will shape the future of the legal profession? Jean O’Grady discusses highlights from a new report by Wolters Kluwer. [Dewey B Strategic]
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* Many believe that today’s Supreme Court is one of the hottest benches in history; Adam Feldman uses data to assess the claim. [Empirical SCOTUS]
* As for who takes the SCOTUS bench, contingency plays a major role — along with credentials and conservatism, as Ian Millhiser explains. [ThinkProgress]
* Most people have their minds made up about Thursday’s Supreme Court confirmation hearings featuring Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and Judge Brett Kavanaugh — but if you’re still trying to process the proceedings, David Oscar Markus offers five simple rules for evaluating the witnesses. [The Hill]
* Ann Althouse has some reflections on Judge Kavanaugh’s emotional testimony and “present-day conservative masculinity.” [Althouse]
* David Bernstein proffers this interesting solution to the Kavanaugh nomination situation — but don’t hold your breath for its implementation. [Volokh Conspiracy / Reason]
* If the road to hell is paved with good intentions, “the EU is busy building a three-lane highway that leads to a particularly dark place,” according to Charles Glasser. [Daily Caller]
* Lawyer Luddites: “AI in the legal space is not scary,” as explained by David Kleiman of Bloomberg Law. [Artificial Lawyer]
* Indeed, as Greg Lambert argues, lawyers — especially “working partners” — need to join the innovation conversation. [3 Geeks and a Law Blog]
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* Is anything going on today? [BBC]
* Anything at all? [USA Today]
* Dan Snyder and Cadwalader settle their massive malpractice suit so Snyder can focus full time on his team’s inevitably heartbreaking collapse. [Law360]
* Speaking of Washington’s football franchise, the heiress of its former owner is facing criminal charges for allegedly saying, “hurry up Jew” before beating a lawyer in the head until he bled. Lovely organization Washington’s got there! [Fox News]
* After months of bad press, America’s tech giants are calling for a federal privacy law. Or, more accurately, after California passed a privacy law, America’s tech giants are calling for a neutered federal law to preempt California’s. [Reuters]
* Since Rod Rosenstein might be leaving our public lives as early as today, here’s an in-depth look at one of his most bonkers cases. [Washingtonian]
* DLA Piper adds the former ambassador to Argentina as a special advisor. In other news, David Mamet’s son used to be the ambassador to Argentina? Was anyone else tracking that? UPDATE: OK, I feel vindicated that I hadn’t missed something huge. DLA Piper confirms that he’s not actually David Mamet’s son. I would’ve thought that would have been a bigger deal. [National Law Journal]
* Amazon’s commitment to screwing over its workers and leaving taxpayers to foot the bill runs right up to the NLRA line. But it’s cool since that law won’t survive Kavanaugh’s first year. [Gizmodo]
* Why PwC’s new Fragomen partnership is a big deal. [Law.com]
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SCOTUS Nominee Brett Kavanaugh Problematic Opinion On Anti-SLAPP Laws
Digging through Kavanaugh’s rulings.
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* Brett Kavanaugh built up around $200K in debt buying Washington Nationals tickets. This may be the Federalist Society’s biggest vetting failure ever because all real conservative jurists would say they went $200K in debt buying Montreal Expos tickets. [Deadspin]
* Ohio pulls obscure law out of a hat to harass Stormy Daniels for daring to point out that Donald Trump is a scumbag. [NY Times]
* “Jesus never broke immigration law” says Evangelical Trumper whose religion is entirely based on a guy admitting he was an outlaw and getting the death penalty for it. [Vox]
* Just when you were getting used to WestlawNext, WestlawEdge is here to radically change the game. [LegaltechNews]
* Texas professors who don’t want to die will take their case to the Fifth Circuit. [CBS News]
* Lawyer says Shady orchestrated the assault on his ex. [Denver Post]
* Trump pardoned the thugs who put the lives of firefighters in danger and then inspired an armed standoff with federal officers and then Mike Pence’s buddy gave them a private jet home. [Oregon Live]
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The government’s weak excuses for violating its FOIA obligations must stop.