Border Wall

GoFundMe Border Wall Toppled By Swarm Of Furious Butterflies

Butterflies with legal briefs get a temporary restraining order.

Morning Docket: 08.02.19

* Is SCOTUS Trump's "lap dog" -- at least concerning the border wall? "[T]hat the majority rushed to give the administration everything it asked for, tells us all we need to know about the Supreme Court at this moment -- and sadly, frighteningly, tells President Trump the same thing." [New York Times] * Where has Leah Wilson, the California bar's executive director, been amid all of the madness concerning the state's unhead of leak of its bar exam essay topics? As it turns out, Wilson's son took the test this week, so she was "walled off" from everything having to do with the massive screw-up. [The Recorder] * That's all, folks! The Judicial Conference’s Committee on Judicial Conduct and Disability officially has no interest in taking another look at the previously rejected misconduct complaints against Justice Brett Kavanaugh related to his Supreme Court confirmation testimony. [National Law Journal] * Cozen O'Connor recently acquired the Miller Law Group, one of California's largest woman-owned employment law firms, and the combination will help bolster the Biglaw firm's headcount in its its San Francisco and Los Angeles offices. Congrats! [Big Law Business] * In case you missed it, Cyntoia Brown, the woman who'd been serving a life sentence since she was 16 years old and got her sentence commuted after catching Kim Kardashian's attention (and the attention of the reality star cum law student's legal team), will be released next week. [Refinery29]

Supreme Court’s WALL Decision Means ‘Rule Of Law’ Now Just For Show

Laws are of no more use here.

Morning Docket: 07.29.19

* The House Judiciary Committee has (finally) opened an impeachment investigation against President Trump, and has asked a federal judge to supply subpoenaed grand jury information related to Robert Mueller's probe. [Washington Post] * "I was OK this last term. I expect to be OK next term. And after that we'll just have to see." Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has no immediate plans for retirement, saying that she'll continue to take things "year by year" and "stay on this job as long as [she] can do it full steam." [CNN] * In case you missed it, here's what SCOTUS justices have done on their summer vacation thus far: they're allowing the Trump administration to use $2.5 billion of funds that were previously allocated to the Defense Department to start construction on the border wall. [New York Times] * Just as LeClairRyan finds itself gasping its presumptive last breaths, the firm finds itself on the wrong end of a gender pay discrimination case. [Big Law Business] * A federal judge has dismissed Nick Sandmann's $250 million defamation lawsuit against the Washington Post. This probably means that Sandmann's similar suits against CNN and NBC will be dismissed soon as well. [USA Today]

Morning Docket: 07.05.19

* Okay, fine, whatever, the Trump administration is apparently going to look for a way to add a citizenship question to the 2020 Census. We're governing by tweet these days, and this is the latest information on this debacle. [Washington Post] * And it looks like the way President Trump is thinking of adding a citizenship question to the 2020 Census is through an executive order. The Justice Department has until this afternoon to straighten this out. [ABC News] * Nope, you still can't use money that was supposed to go to the Defense Department to build a border wall. The Ninth Circuit upheld an injunction on the use of these military funds just before the holiday. [Los Angeles Times] * Which Biglaw firms have received the most money from presidential candidates’ 2020 election campaigns? As you might have guessed, lawyers from Jones Day have gotten a lot to Republicans, and lawyers from Perkins Coie have gotten a lot to the Democrats. [National Law Journal] * Prosecutors have dropped the manslaughter charge filed against an Alabama woman who was five months pregnant and lost her unborn child after being shot in the stomach. Congratulations, Alabama! Way to be normal! [CBS News] * If you’re interested in going to law school, you should know that the average debt for the class of 2018 was pretty hefty at $115,481 — that’s $130,900 for private school graduates and $89,962 for public school graduates. Good luck paying it off! [Nerdwallet] * Matthew Benedict, a student at Buffalo Law, RIP. [New York Law Journal]

Morning Docket: 07.01.19

* In case you missed it, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he'd be willing to entertain a Democratic president’s Supreme Court nominee in 2021 because it would be "politically unsustainable" to hold open a vacancy for so long -- but that doesn't mean there'd be a confirmation. [POLITICO] * It's sick that we need a federal court order to get this done, but... conditions for migrant children must be improved immediately at Border Patrol facilities in Texas because right now, they "could be compared to torture facilities." [New York Times] * A judge has permanently enjoined the Trump administration from diverting $2.5 million in military funds to construct a wall on the southern border. We imagine there will be some Twitter rant about "Obama judges" coming soon. [The Hill] * October Term 2018 was pretty strange and we saw SCOTUS justices making strange bedfellows in their opinions, with Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh joining the high court's liberals in the majority for one of the most FUCT-up cases. [NBC News] * Hoping to open your own firm or join a small law firm after graduation from law school? If that's the case, then you might be interested to know that average compensation in this area of the legal profession is down, with women earning incomes 36 percent lower than their male counterparts. [Law.com]

Morning Docket: 02.27.19

* Cooley Law's most infamous graduate goes down: Following his guilty pleas on federal felony charges -- some of which were allegedly related to his work for Donald Trump -- Michael Cohen has been disbarred. [New York Law Journal] * Meanwhile, Michael Cohen is going to be testifying today before the House Oversight Committee, and Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL 1st District) allegedly took it upon himself to tamper with the witness via tweet. [Tampa Bay Times] * Here’s Michael Cohen’s opening statement, where he states, “For the record: Individual #1 is President Donald J. Trump.” [CNN] * “Is your oath of office to Donald Trump or is it to the Constitution of the United States? You cannot let him undermine your pledge to the Constitution.“ The House of Representatives voted to overturn Trump’s national emergency declaration at the southern border. Next stop, the Senate... [New York Times] * The D.C. Circuit unanimously upheld the validity of Robert Mueller’s appointment as special counsel. This is the first time that a federal appellate court has weighed in on the appropriateness of Mueller's role in the Russia probe. [National Law Journal] * High school and college students have been waiting in line for days holding places for people to watch today’s oral arguments at the Supreme Court. The price of justice in America is high, and they’re being paid top dollar to camp out in front of the high court. [CNBC] * A Virginia police officer accidentally fired his gun during a traffic stop involving two students from William & Mary Law. According to reports, a bullet ricocheted off the ground and struck the car's door, but thankfully no one was injured. [Flat Hat News]

Morning Docket: 01.25.19

* President Trump is preparing to declare a national emergency at the country’s southern border. A draft order is in the works, and $7B+ will be used to build the president’s wall to fix the humanitarian crisis he helped to create. [CNN] * Longtime Trump ally Roger Stone was arrested early this morning in connection with special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe. He’s been charged with seven counts: one count of obstruction of an official proceeding, five counts of false statements, and one count of witness tampering. [Washington Post] * Were you planning on taking the D.C. bar exam in February? Not so fast. Thanks to the government shutdown, you might not be able to do so. We'll keep you updated. If you've been waiting to get sworn in after passing the July 2018 bar, keep waiting -- potentially for a while. [Law.com] * Michael Cohen's lawyer, Lanny Davis, has called for a criminal investigation into Rudy Giuliani for his alleged witness tampering because "calling out a man’s father-in-law and wife in order to intimidate the witness is not fair game." [The Hill] * Like it or not, women still carry the bulk of their childcare duties, and lawyer moms often find themselves "deploy[ing] tactical maneuvers" to get the job done. At least millennials are doing what they can to eliminate motherhood bias. [Law.com] * Congratulations to Kimberly Mutcherson of Rutgers-Camden, who was recently named as the co-dean of Rutgers Law School. She will be the first African-American and first LGBTQ law dean at Rutgers University. Well done! [Daily Targum] * Believe it or not, you can still do a lot of extracurricular activities during law school. Just ask Ted Bundy. He killed up to eight women while he was a student at Utah Law. We hope your preferred activities are more... normal. [Salt Lake Tribune]

Can All Lawyers Just Admit The Wall Will Never Be Built Because Of The Fifth Amendment?

We're fighting about something that will never be built, and every lawyer knows it.