Credit cards

Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 01.11.17

* After hearing powerful testimony from victims' relatives, a federal jury sentenced Charleston church shooter Dylann Roof to death. [BuzzFeed] * Dahlia Lithwick on yesterday's Jeff Sessions hearing: the nominee "will be handily confirmed," and Democrats "are rightly very, very afraid." [Slate] * An interesting puzzle for the Supreme Court: free speech and credit card fees. [New York Times via How Appealing] * Also from Howard Bashman, also about free speech: Gibson Dunn partner Miguel Estrada "warns City of Philadelphia that his hourly rate is very expensive." [How Appealing] * More about Morrison & Foerster snagging former Justice Department national security chief John Carlin -- the latest in a series of high-profile hires of former government lawyers, including Kathryn Thomson and Jessie Liu. [Law.com] * Some good news out of the Charlotte School of Law: students might be getting their spring semester loan proceeds after all. [ABA Journal] * Speaking of money, Volkswagen is going to pay a lot of it -- perhaps $4.3 billion in fines -- to resolve the federal criminal investigation into its cheating on vehicle emissions tests. [New York Times]

By David Lat
Non-Sequiturs

Non-Sequiturs: 01.10.17

* The Supreme Court blocks the North Carolina special election until they decide whether they'll hear the case. [Talking Points Memo] * If Trump opens up libel laws, he could find himself in hot water. [Gizmodo] * Paul Smith's campaign against the gerrymander. [Slate] * This is just glorious: former Senator Al D'Amato got kicked off of a JetBlue flight. [MarketWatch] * At least Ivanka cares about ethics laws. [Fashionista] * Charlotte School of Law will be open this semester. [ABA Journal] * I'm sure this will be an even-tempered website, not at all prone to hyperbole and jumping to conclusions. [Business Insider] * Fox News settles the sexual harassment claims against Bill O'Reilly. [New York Times] * Biglaw's wishful thinking. [Law and More] * Merchants take their desire to pass on credit card costs to consumers to the Supreme Court. [Big Law Business]

By Kathryn Rubino
Non-Sequiturs

Non-Sequiturs: 01.11.16

* That time when an embarrassing photo from law school came back to haunt MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred. [NBC Sports] * This is one way to get people interested in tax law -- put a princess on trial. [Wall Street Journal] * This may be the most innocuous set of scandal pictures you will ever see, but the Iranian national soccer team's goalie still got arrested over them. [Screamer] * Why won't America, land of immigrants, let an immigrant be president? [Vox] * Burn! You may have already signed away your right! The real truth behind credit card agreements. [My Bank Tracker] * Yeah... you really should read those homeowners association rules. [Legal Juice]

By Kathryn Rubino
Biglaw

Morning Docket: 04.14.14

* “[T]he one thing Windsor does not do is clearly establish a nationalized definition of marriage.” No one will be surprised when the same-sex marriage cases wind up before the Supreme Court. [National Law Journal] * Law firm mergers continue to hum along at a record pace, but whether they’ll actually work out is another question entirely. Only time will tell if we’ll see another “spectacular flameout.” [Wall Street Journal (sub. req.)] * “The billable hour’s day has passed.” Eighty percent of law firm leaders believe hourly billing may soon be going the way of the dodo in favor of alternative billing arrangements. [Capital Business / Washington Post] * Despite its anti-gay policies, Trinity Western University Law has been granted approval from the Law Society of British Columbia to open its doors. And here we thought Canadians were supposed to be polite. [GlobalPost] * If you want to take an “Law and _____” class, sign up for Law and Traumatic Brain Injuries at GW Law. Having a TBI yourself seems like a requirement for enrollment, but shockingly, it’s not. [New York Times] * Times are so rough that God can’t even get a credit card. Instead of casting plagues upon the earth, he’s suing Equifax — though we’re sure he wouldn’t mind if the credit agency reps caught lice. [New York Post]

By Staci Zaretsky
Baseball

Non-Sequiturs: 08.09.13

* This gem of a listing just showed up in the “legal/paralegal jobs” section of Craigslist. Be sure to send a “nude picture” with your résumé! Perhaps someone has been watching too many Maggie Gyllenhaal films. If it gets taken down a screenshot is here, and the klassy alternative picture in the listing is here. [Craigslist] * From the “no good deed goes unpunished” department, Georgetown Law has figured out how to bilk taxpayers into covering the costs of increasing tuition. The federal government forgives law school debt for those in the public sector if they agree to make an income-based payment. Georgetown is covering those costs, passing it on to future students (who also won’t be paying it back), and then encouraging students to shelter income to guarantee the school comes out ahead. This is why we can’t have nice things. [Wonkblog / Washington Post] * The always outspoken Judge Kopf shares his thoughts on Shon Hopwood’s selection as a clerk for Judge Janice Rogers Brown. Judge Kopf sentenced Hopwood to 147 months in the 90s. [Hercules and the Umpire] * A delightful “man bites dog” story: a bank didn’t read a customer’s amendments to a credit card application before issuing him a card and went to court whining about how hard it is to pay attention to the fine print. Boo hoo hoo. [The Telegraph] * How to deal with your mistakes. This only applies to associates, though. Partners have two steps: (1) find an associate; (2) blame the associate. [Associate's Mind] * Everything’s bigger in Texas, including their misreading of the Supreme Court’s precedent. [Election Law Blog] * China is way serious about prosecuting corruption. [Legal Juice] * The Mets muscle man whose comic inability to open a water bottle went viral on YouTube is actually a lawyer from White Plains. If you haven’t seen the clip yet, it’s after the jump. Watching the water bottle battle is the only excuse for subjecting yourself to a Royals-Mets game…

By Joe Patrice
Legal Ethics

Morning Docket: 08.27.12

* Unhappy with eleventy billion dollars in damages due to Apple, Samsung will begin its appeals, perhaps even to the Supreme Court (because you know that SCOTUS wants a bite at the proverbial literal patent apple). [Wall Street Journal] * And speaking of that jury award, jury foreman Velvin Hogan had this to say about it: “We wanted to make sure it was sufficiently high to be painful, but not unreasonable.” Yeah, because a billion dollars in damages isn’t unreasonable at all. [Reuters] * Do judges with lawyerly license plates avoid traffic infractions instead of getting tickets? The New York Commission on Judicial Conduct is investigating this issue of epic importance. [New York Law Journal] * If bill collectors are threatening to sue you over your credit-card debts, you better pray that your case lands on Judge Noach Dear’s docket, because in his courtroom, “it’s dismiss, dismiss, dismiss.” [New York Post] * Hippies can file lawsuits, too: Burning Man starts today, but the event’s organizers claim that its Nevada venue is pursuing a new theme in view of a “drastic increase in fees” — burning money. [All Things Digital] * Protestors should be allowed to act however they want when carrying prohibited machetes in Republican National Convention event zones. This was the first, and definitely the coolest, RNC arrest made. [ABC News]

By Staci Zaretsky
Antitrust

Morning Docket: 08.09.12

* Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg may be the oldest member of the high court, but she’s still one bad ass bitch. She broke two ribs in June, and still fulfilled all of her duties on the bench. We <3 RBG! [Reuters] * While merchants will now be able to charge more when customers use credit cards, they might not get much else from this Visa / MasterCard settlement because of an American Express catch-22. [New York Times] * The Garden State just got a little greener (in a sticky icky way): starting today, doctors in New Jersey will be able to register their patients for the Department of Health’s medical marijuana program. [Star-Ledger] * After some highly questionable opposition from government officials, the city of Macon, Georgia, has approved the placement of a park bench in memory of slain Mercer Law grad Lauren Giddings. [Telegraph] * Kansas Law received a $1M donation to support scholarships. The dean is thrilled, because the school will be able to compete to attract and retain students who will someday be unemployed. [Lawrence Journal-World] * The verdict is in on who reigns as the highest paid TV personality. Even if you pee on her leg and tell her it’s raining, Judge Judy will be able to afford the dry-cleaning bill, because she’s loaded. [New York Daily News] * Even if you’re a ho fo’ sho, that doesn’t mean you can’t do business in a ho-tel, mo-tel, or Holiday Inn. An Australian court ruled that denying prostitutes rooms was discriminatory. [International Business Times]

By Staci Zaretsky