Department of Justice
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DOJ Issues Perhaps The Last Law Enforcement Investigation Report We’ll See For The Next Four Years
From the parting-shot-from-the-Civil-Rights-Division dept
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Law Firm Confidentiality Can’t Be Left To The Honor System
‘Hey, please don’t open this’ is not a policy.
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Justice Department Investigating Tesla’s Self-Driving Claims
Puffery vs. ‘Elon Take The Wheel.’
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* George RR Martin among the authors suing OpenAI for allowing the algorithm to train on their work. Did the AI learn to sit on an anticipated project for over a decade? Because otherwise it’s not clear what it’s learning from Martin. [Reuters]
* Former DHS Secretary turned security consultant Michael Chernoff warns that AI needs proactive guardrails. Great point… now go back to collecting millions of dollars from the Supreme Court to tell them they did a great job investigating the Dobbs leak without bothering to interview the most likely suspects. [Bloomberg Law News]
* Attorney attempted to attend two CLEs at once. Most would call this blatantly unethical, but it’s also impressive multitasking. [ABA Journal]
* The Feds closed up the investigation into Los Angeles water and power billing violations — involving allegations of attorney misconduct — without charging anyone. [LA Times]
* SEC issues new rules to bar funds from touting ESG work when they aren’t really investing in ESG work. A sound policy that won’t matter when Republicans ban private enterprise from spending money on causes they don’t like. [Law360]
* DISCO hit with a securities class action over financial disclosures. [Legaltech News]
* Which seems to be the least of the problems over there. [Daily Mail]
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* Harlan Crow got a tax break for designating his superyacht as a profit-seeking venture. Though it seems like its voyages were limited to shuttling around his buddies like BFF Clarence Thomas. [Pro Publica]
* California Supreme Court rules that U.S. Supreme Court can’t boss it around. [SF Chronicle]
* Trump’s legal team heads to Judge Cannon’s courtroom today to give us another peak at how wacky this case will be. [Reuters]
* AI is often touted for access to justice, but without care it might make things worse. [Financial Times]
* USC Law appoints first Black dean. [Law.com]
* College athletes can earn money now, which means they can be scammed now. [Bloomberg Law News]
* Criminal division of the Department of Justice losing its boss to private practice. [Law360]
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Government Appeals Social Media Ban To … UGHHH, The Fifth Circuit
YOU get a prior restraint! And YOU get a prior restraint!
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* Department of Justice likely to get involved in PGA/LIV merger. Weird how spending major Biglaw dollars calling one of them a monopoly might backfire when you try to merge with them. [Law360]
* After inviting thorough mocking of their legal acumen, Harlan Crow’s lawyers at Gibson Dunn back away from original “let’s just do contempt” offer and suggest a meeting with Senate staffers. [NBC News]
* Speaking of… comparing Clarence Thomas to the “lowliest” federal worker is a stark reminder that John Roberts is running a cesspool of ethical compromise. [Bloomberg Law News]
* Batman defeats Italian designer in trademark dispute. Not that it matters… that guy will break out of Arkham and be designing clothes again within a couple months. [Reuters]
* “There Is One Group the Roberts Court Really Doesn’t Like.” Take a guess! It’s fun because there’s at least three or four groups it could be! [New York Times]
* Move over law firms, legal technology vendors poised to become next fashionable cyber target. [Legaltech News]
* A dive into K-Pop and contracts. [LegalCheek]
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* Much like everyone else, law firms have no interest in paying Twitter. [LegalCheek]
* Lawyers think the profession has gotten less civil, but that’s just what those degenerate scumbags would say. [ABA Journal]
* A nice guide to the lawyers working with Jack Smith on Trump’s classified documents case. [ABC News]
* No sooner did we note in this here column that New York would rewrite the rules to make criminal defense work even harder than NYC’s prosecutors reversed their push for the change. They don’t have a vote, but it’s taken a lot of the effort. [NY Times]
* Eleventh Circuit issues 2-1 opinion that suppressing the rights of Black voters is acceptable, but only if you’re coy enough. [Reuters]
* DC Circuit won’t break up Meta’s Instagram and WhatsApp acquisitions. If only they could undo the whole “Meta” part of Facebook. [Law360]
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* NY prosecutors signal that Donald Trump is about to be indicted. It’s probably a misdemeanor for falsifying records to bribe Stormy Daniels into silence, but it’s something. [Huffington Post]
* Speaking of bribery, the trial of the Fox executives accused of bribing soccer officials results in split verdict. The only proper result for a case about a sport that drags on forever and ends in a draw. [Courthouse News Service]
* Alex Murdaugh is appealing his conviction based on… well, the filing doesn’t say but I’m sure those crazy kids will come up with something. [The Hill]
* Brett Favre’s lawyer says his defamation claims against commentators addressing the Mississippi welfare scandal are a “slam dunk.” Which is the wrong sport. [Awful Announcing]
* DoNotPay hit with class action lawsuit. Maybe the algorithm can defend them here! If the company is willing to bet a million on its ability to win a SCOTUS case, it can surely do this pro se. [CBS News]
* DOJ opposing efforts to keep judges from enhancing sentences for minor crime convictions based on allegations where the jury acquitted. See, this is a reason to be furious with Merrick Garland. [Reuters]
* Do you still use paper business cards? Should you upgrade to one of the objectively cooler options out there or are you too much of an American Psycho fan to give up paper? [Daily Business Review]
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FBI Invites Public In On Its Forfeiture Racket, Promises Them A Cut Of The Take
Take a bad thing and make it badder.
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Do Your Google Searches Count As Speech? You Better Hope So.
Look… I can explain why William Jackson Harper is in my recent search history.
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Announcements, Events, Legal Technology
Our weekly roundup of news and announcements from the Evolve the Law and legal tech community.
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Justice Department Releases Its Dangerous & Unconstitutional Plan To Revise Section 230
I guess we shouldn’t have expected anything better.
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* Even Jonathan Adler, no fan of Obamacare, can’t support the Justice Department’s shift of position in the ongoing Affordable Care Act litigation out of Texas. [Volokh Conspiracy / Reason]
* John Lauro continues to protect the reputation of his client Wendi Adelson, ex-wife of murdered law professor Dan Markel. [2paragraphs]
* Meanwhile, another player in the Dan Markel case — David Oscar Markus, counsel to Charlie Adelson — argues that Attorney General William Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein made the right call on obstruction of justice. [The Hill]
* Speaking of the Mueller investigation, Brianne Gorod points out that Congress has the power to ask the district court to release grand jury transcripts and related information from the case. [Take Care]
* Whether or not you agree with Senator Marco Rubio’s proposed constitutional amendment to fix the size of the U.S. Supreme Court at nine justices, it’s not a bad idea to think about possible ways to restructure SCOTUS — as Gordon Renneisen does here. [Law360]
* Meanwhile, as the Court grapples with the cross-shaped war memorial case this Term, Rick Garnett wonders: can a liberal state favor one religion over others? [First Things via PrawfsBlawg]
* Legal tech M&A activity continues apace, with vLex’s acquisition of Justis. [Artificial Lawyer]
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* In 2018, what did Donald Trump talk about when he talked about the courts? Adam Feldman dives into the data to find out. [Empirical SCOTUS]
* Speaking of President Trump and the judiciary, he continues to appoint federal judges at a record pace — but the Democrats are doing everything they can to slow down his progress. [Bench Memos / National Review]
* If you care at all about affordable housing, then you should be heartened by these developments in the fight against exclusionary zoning, as discussed by Ilya Somin. [Volokh Conspiracy / Reason]
* Congratulations to the Department of Justice on its ninth consecutive year of civil health care fraud settlements and judgments exceeding $2 billion. [MedCity News]
* If you’re interested in the hot topics among law librarians, legal technologists, and others in the space, check out Jean O’Grady’s most popular stories of 2018. [Dewey B Strategic]
* And if you’re interested in the year that was in artificial intelligence and the law, check out the Artificial Lawyer’s roundup of notable news. [Artificial Lawyer]
* Condolences to the friends, family, and colleagues of Bre Payton, who passed away last week at the age of 26. [The Federalist]
* Veteran trial lawyer David Berg continues his series on “What It Takes To Win.” [YouTube]
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EFF, ACLU Petition Court To Unseal Documents From DOJ’s Latest Anti-Encryption Efforts
The DOJ lost its attempt to break into Facebook but got the court to keep its failure under wraps.