Alabama Supreme Court

* “The ballot-selfie prohibition is like ‘burn[ing down] the house to roast the pig.'” Just in time for Election 2016, the First Circuit has struck down New Hampshire’s ballot selfie ban as unconstitutional, citing the fact that it curtailed voters’ free speech, and on top of that, the state was unable to identify any complaints of vote buying or intimidation. [POLITICO]

* Suspended Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore, who instructed probate judges to adhere to the state’s ban on same-sex marriage, even after the Supreme Court’s Obergefell ruling, says the ethics charges he faces are “ridiculous” since he never “encourage[d] anyone to defy a federal court or state court order.” [WSJ Law Blog]

* Wiley Rein lost two practice group leaders to DLA Piper this week. The firm, known for its media, telecom, government contracts, and IP practices, no longer has partners in charge of its telecom group or its wireless group, but it claims these departures were anticipated, and the practice groups were merged ahead of time. [Big Law Business]

* Cha-ching! The Caesars bankruptcy is ending, which means the “fee frenzy” for lawyers who were working on the case is about to dry up as well. Nine law firms have been involved in the case since the company first filed for bankruptcy in January 2015, and hundreds of millions of dollars of legal fees have already been assessed. [Am Law Daily]

* Many jurisdictions adopted the Uniform Bar Exam for the July 2016 administration of the bar exam, and it seems like it may have had the opposite effect on test-takers than what was intended. Graduates of this law school saw their bar exam passage rate drop by 13 percent since last year. We’ll have more on this later today. [Albequerque Journal]

* Did Chief Justice Roy Moore of the Alabama Supreme Court commit judicial misconduct when he instructed probate judges that the state’s same-sex marriage ban was still in effect despite the Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell? The state’s Court of the Judiciary has set a date for a trial-like proceeding on the ethics charges Moore faces for late September. [ABC News]

* If you want to go to law school and you’ve got your heart set on a particular institution, it may be in your best financial interests to apply early decision. A few law schools are now offering significant scholarship opportunities to early applicants — in some cases, full tuition scholarships are being handed out. [Law Admissions Lowdown / U.S. News]

* “Even innocent clients may not benefit from the fraud of their attorney.” Chevron Corp. has prevailed in a long-running environmental law case set in an Ecuadorian rainforest. Lawyers for the oil and gas company convinced the Second Circuit that an $8.65 billion judgment was obtained through attorney Steven Donziger’s bribery and fraud. [Reuters]

* The family of slain Florida State law professor Dan Markel has accepted a $40,000 settlement from the Consolidated Dispatch Agency in connection with a wrongful death case. Due to an “error by dispatchers,” it took approximately 19 minutes for ambulances to arrive at Markel’s home as he lay dying after being shot. [Tallahassee Democrat]

* This is why indebted law students can’t have nice things: while the American Bar Association may have changed its tune when it comes to law students earning pay for credit-bearing externships, it will allow law schools to be the ultimate arbiters on whether academic credit will still be offered for these job placements. [Law.com]

* You down with R.B.G.? Yeah, you know me! Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore wants SCOTUS Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Elena Kagan to be impeached for having performed same-sex marriage ceremonies. Haters gonna hate. [Huffington Post]

* Here’s a jury duty chart of those you’ll be forced to sit next to, from the “idiot who treats the Jury Foreman selection like a presidential campaign” to the “elderly woman who compares everything to an episode of ‘Matlock’ she once saw.” [Mandatory]

* It turns out that the state trooper who failed to do anything about Josh Duggar’s criminal sexual activity with a minor and allowed the statute of limitations to run had a penchant for child porn. According to court records, this guy is… pretty damn disgusting. [Jezebel]

* “May I please have some of that money you’ve got under the counter there, miss?” Are you really robbing a bank if you acted like a Boy Scout, asked nicely for money, and then received it — to the tune of $28,000? Kevin Underhill doesn’t think so. [Lowering the Bar]

* If you’ve never seen a Dealbreaker dramatic reading before, then here’s your sneak peek. Watch “the greatest intern Wall Street has ever seen” invite everyone and their mother to a party via company email, and then fail in the most epic sense of the word. [Dealbreaker]

* Meet David King of King v. Burwell, the epic Obamacare case to be argued before the U.S. Supreme Court today. [New York Times]

* And meet the two legal heavyweights who will be arguing the case before SCOTUS. [Politico via How Appealing]

* Meanwhile, another Supreme Court has put a stop to same-sex marriage down in Alabama — for now. [Buzzfeed]

* General David Petraeus reaches a plea deal, requiring him to plead guilty to a misdemeanor and pay a fine (but no prison sentence). [Washington Post]

* It’s not as sexy as Obamacare or marriage equality, but the collection of state sales tax on out-of-state purchases made online is a pretty important issue — and Justice Kennedy wants SCOTUS to revisit it. [How Appealing (linkwrap)]

* In the wake of a leadership shake-up, Cadwalader is beefing up its Houston energy practice — but is that a wise idea, with the price of oil spiraling downward? [American Lawyer]

* Finally, something that Elie Mystal and Jordan Weissmann can agree upon: dropping the LSAT is a bad idea. [Slate]

* A jury of eight men and 10 women will start hearing arguments today in the trial of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, defendant in the Boston Marathon bombing. [How Appealing (linkwrap)]

* Legal ethics guru Monroe Freedman, RIP. [ABA Journal]

* SWAT team called in to break up a poker game between a bunch of rich people. The militarization of the police seems like it’s going great. [Washington Post]

* The SPLC is lodging an ethics complaint against Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore after he explained that he intends to defy federal law. He’s such a delight. [WAAY TV]

* Rutgers-Camden’s student evaluation controversy unfortunately fits right into the grand scheme of legal industry misogyny. [Salon]

* South Carolina has finally vacated the convictions of the Friendship Nine — protesters busted for sitting at the diner counter who pioneered the “jail, no bail” strategy that dominated the 60s civil rights movement. It only took 54 years. [Huffington Post]

* Another day, another embarrassing development for the plaintiffs in King v. Burwell. This time it’s former Senator Ben Nelson who Obamacare challengers cite for their claim that the Senate never intended subsidies to go to states without their own exchanges. Well, Senator Nelson wrote his own brief blowing this theory out of the water. This is basically SCOTUS’s version of the Marshall McLuhan scene. [Washington Post]

* A list of upcoming books about the Supreme Court. [SCOTUSBlog]

* An enterprising law office discovered that the courts in Oklahoma publish social security numbers all the time. [Wirth Law Office]

* D.C. Circuit Judge Patricia Millett talks clerking diversity. [National Law Journal]

* UC Hastings Law student Hali Ford is competing on the 30th season of Survivor. Her interview video is below. [TV Grapevine]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8ydBekmEOw

* There’s nothing like boner talk in federal court: Juan Monteverde of Faruqi & Faruqi reaffirmed his claim that he was too drunk to get it up “consummate the act” during the time Alexandra Marchuk alleged he forced sex upon her. [Law 360]

* “There’s something deeply ironic about a judge seeking the right to ignore another judge’s ruling while crying ‘judicial activism.'” Justice Roy Moore of the Alabama Supreme Court wants judges to ignore a federal ruling on his state’s unconstitutional ban on gay marriage. [Reuters]

* Just days after the legal news media found out that Dentons would be tying the knot with Dacheng, the deal has officially been sealed. Talk about a shotgun wedding! Best wishes go out to 大成 Dentons for a happy, international marriage. [Am Law Daily]

* Elite litigation boutique Susman Godfrey will be consolidating its Dallas and Houston offices into one mega-office in 2016 after the firm’s lease in Dallas is up. Will all of the displaced attorneys remain with the firm? [Houston Business Journal]

* Can we talk… about wrongful death cases? A lawsuit has finally been filed against the outpatient endoscopy facility and physicians involved in the death of Joan Rivers, and details have been released as to the way the beloved comedian died. [CNN]