Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)

  • Morning Docket: 11.05.18
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 11.05.18

    * On Friday, Judge Eleanor L. Ross (N.D. Ga.) decided that Georgia’s “exact match” voting law was too restrictive, issuing a preliminary injunction against the law just days before the midterm election and ruling that the state must allow those who were flagged by the law — “individuals who are predominantly minorities” — to prove their citizenship and identity more easily. Strike one against Republican gubernatorial candidate and Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp. [Washington Post]

    * Unwilling to accept his potential fate in the election after having been dealt a blow by Judge Ross, Kemp announced on Saturday that he was investigating the Georgia Democratic Party for allegedly trying to hack the state’s voter registration system. Of course, he had little to no evidence to prove these allegations. [New York Times]

    * Speaking of the midterm election, you NEED TO VOTE tomorrow. No idea where your polling place is? Not an excuse. Find out right here. Click the link. [HeadCount]

    * “[O]ut of an abundance of caution due to security concerns,” Justice Brett Kavanaugh will skip the walking down the Supreme Court’s front steps with the chief justice following his formal investiture ceremony. Every other new justice has done so since 1975 when John Paul Stevens started the tradition. [Big Law Business]

    * James Polsinelli, name partner and founder of Am Law 100 firm Polsinelli, will be retiring from the firm on January 31, 2019. What will he do after he steps away from Biglaw? “I’ve got a golf game I’ve neglected for a long time, so I’ll see how much of it I can resurrect,” he said. Congratulations on wonderful career! [American Lawyer]

    * “I get to be a part of history”: Denia Perez, a DACA recipient, is the first Dreamer to be admitted to the Connecticut bar. The Quinnipiac Law graduate worked hard to change bar rules so that people like her with U.S. work authorization would be able to practice law in the state. She plans to practice immigration law. [NECN]

  • Morning Docket: 08.06.18
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 08.06.18

    * You know your client sucks when…: This weekend, President Trump admitted on Twitter that his eldest son’s 2016 Trump Tower meeting was held to “get information on an opponent,” not to discuss “a program about the adoption of Russian children,” as he’d dictated in his son’s earlier account. His lawyer, Jay Sekulow, then had to walk back a statement he’d made earlier to get in line with Trump’s comments, because “over time facts develop.” [Daily Beast]

    * A federal judge has ruled for the second time that the Trump administration’s decision to end the DACA program was unlawful, referring to the DHS’s reasoning as “a hodgepodge of illogical or post hoc policy assertions.” Not only that, but the judge ordered that DACA be restored. Ouch. [National Law Journal]

    * In other immigration news, a federal judge has rejected the Trump administration’s request that the ACLU locate deported parents for reunification with their children, noting that “for every parent who is not located, there will be a permanently orphaned child, and that is 100 percent the responsibility of the administration.” [USA Today]

    * Dean Elizabeth Magill of Stanford Law School will be leaving her job at the end of the upcoming academic year to become the provost of the University of Virginia. Stanford will begin the search for her replacement in September. [The Recorder]

    * After news of the class of 2017’s success in the job market comes last month’s loss of 2,100 jobs in the legal sector. Sorry ‘bout that, class of 2018. For those not entering Biglaw, you better hope those were all administrative jobs. [American Lawyer]

  • Morning Docket: 06.11.18
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 06.11.18

    * Guess which law school is on the verge of losing its accreditation? We’ll have more on this unsurprising news later today. [Arizona Republic]

    * When it comes to Milbank’s new $190K salary scale for associates, some general counsel and in-house leaders don’t seem to really care, and others are none too thrilled about it, but absolutely NONE of them want to pay for it. [Corporate Counsel]

    * How much does President Donald Trump detest AG Jeff Sessions? This much! The president says he’ll probably support legislation protecting marijuana activities in states where the drug has been legalized. [NBC News]

    * Pointing out numerous dueling injunctions in a Friday night filing, the Trump administration’s Justice Department is paving the way for a SCOTUS showdown over DACA — possibly as soon as sometime this summer. [BuzzFeed]

    * If you’re planning to someday become a Supreme Court clerk, you better make sure that your law school is following the new law clerk hiring plan. Justice Sonia Sotomayor is now the fourth justice to offer her support, following in the footsteps of Justices Kagan, Ginsburg, and Breyer. [National Law Journal]

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  • Morning Docket: 04.25.18
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 04.25.18

    * The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments today on the Trump travel ban case. What’s at stake here, aside from the high court potentially allowing the travel ban to become permanent? The legacy of the Roberts Court also hangs in the balance. A decision upholding the ban could very well be the next Dred Scott, Plessy, or Korematsu, and forever marring this Court’s record. [Take Care]

    * Is AG Jeff Sessions recusing himself from the investigation into Michael Cohen, or isn’t he? According to the DOJ, Sessions isn’t involved in any investigations “related in any way to the campaigns for president,” but according to news sources, he hasn’t decided to recuse himself from the Cohen probe quite yet. [Politico; Bloomberg]

    * Judge John Bates of the District of Columbia has ruled that the Trump administration’s decision to end the DACA program was “arbitrary and capricious” and “virtually unexplained,” and therefore “unlawful.” Judge Bates ordered that the government must not only continue DACA, but accept new applicants. He stayed his ruling for 90 days to give DHS a chance to explain itself. [Washington Post]

    * Kyle Duncan, President Trump’s fifteenth federal appeals court nominee who’s known for litigating disputes involving voter ID requirements, same-sex marriage bans, transgender bathroom access, and the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive mandate, was very narrowly confirmed to the Fifth Circuit. [Big Law Business]

    * According to the Harvard Law Women’s Law Association, there’s a glass ceiling at the school. The faculty is “overwhelmingly male,” and the administration is “turning a blind eye” to the success of women once they’re enrolled. Something has to change so women can achieve as much success as their male classmates. [Harvard Law Record]

  • Non-Sequiturs: 04.15.18
    Non-Sequiturs

    Non-Sequiturs: 04.15.18

    * Has it really come to this? Protesting a nice, nerdy, thoughtful law professor, simply because he questions the constitutionality of DACA (while supporting the DREAM Act)? [Josh Blackman]

    * How much should we read into Team Mueller’s reassurance to President Trump that he is a subject rather than a target of its investigation? Not much, according to veteran criminal defense lawyer Joel Cohen. [The Hill]

    * How would William Howard Taft have responded to attacks on judges? The POTUS turned SCOTUS chief was quite prescient about judicial independence — as explained by Jeff Rosen, author of a new Taft biography (affiliate link). [Volokh Conspiracy / Reason]

    * Speaking of SCOTUS, what’s it like to work in the Solicitor General’s Office? One of the OSG’s newest members, former SCOTUS clerk Jonathan Ellis, pulls back the curtain. [Penn Law via How Appealing]

    * How does Justice Gorsuch compare to Justice Scalia — not just in terms of personality, but also in terms of jurisprudence? [Empirical SCOTUS]

    * And speaking of Justice Gorsuch, congratulations to Tobi Young, who will be clerking for NMG in October Term 2018 — and who is believed to be the first enrolled citizen of a Native American tribe to clerk for the Court. (By the way, I have another SCOTUS clerk hiring roundup in the works, so please send me your hiring news.) [Chickasaw Nation]

    * Are you a healthcare lawyer? You might be interested in this new tool from Bloomberg Law. [Dewey B Strategic]

    * Friendly reminder: the Global Legal Hackathon is entering its final stage, and you’re invited — hope to see you on April 21! [Artificial Lawyer]

  • Morning Docket: 01.17.18
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 01.17.18

    * The Trump administration is planning to ask the Supreme Court for assistance in dismantling DACA. That is, because “[i]t defies both law and common sense” that a “single district court in San Francisco” has halted the Trump’s plans, the Supreme Court must intervene. [Washington Post]

    * Unlike the vast majority of law review articles, here’s one you may actually care about: According to the Harvard Law Review, Trump’s tweets aren’t law. We’re thrilled to report this isn’t fake news. [National Law Journal]

    * Some law schools are moving full steam ahead in their quest to accept the GRE over the LSAT for admissions purposes, but not this one. Marquette is going to sit around and wait for the ABA to make a decision before it does anything. [Marquette Wire]

    * Twenty-two state attorneys general have filed suit against the FCC in an effort to stop the repeal of net neutrality rules. Cross your fingers that something good happens here before your bill for internet access goes up. [San Francisco Chronicle]

    * Facing a $4.4 billion budget deficit, Governor Andrew Cuomo wants New York to pay for a study to see what the health, economic, and criminal justice impacts of legalizing recreational marijuana would be in the state. [New York Law Journal]

    * Yesterday, New Jersey lawmakers unanimously voted to approve former Bergen County Prosecutor Gurbir Grewal’s nomination to be state attorney general. Grewal is the first Sikh attorney general in U.S. history. Congratulations! [NJ.com]

  • Morning Docket: 01.10.18
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 01.10.18

    * Senators Cory Booker and Kamala Harris were both appointed to the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday afternoon. Booker is the first African-American man to ever serve on the SJC, and Harris is the second African-American woman to ever serve on the SJC. Congratulations! [The Hill]

    * Rescind immigration protection from current DACA recipients? Dream on! That’s not going to happen under Judge William Alsup’s watch. He issued a nationwide injunction to block the Trump administration from denying program renewals for “dreamers.” [Washington Post]

    * Sorry, North Carolina, but according to the Middle District, your congressional map is unconstitutionally gerrymandered. This is the first time that a federal court has blocked a congressional map because it was “motivated by invidious partisan intent.” [New York Times]

    * Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen has filed defamation suits against Fusion GPS and BuzzFeed over the Steele dossier following Senator Dianne Feinstein’s publication of a transcript of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s interview with Fusion’s co-founder. The legal action was announced over Twitter, obviously. [POLITICO]

    * “Lawyers like shiny things, and so there has been a huge spike in interest in blockchain law, especially over the last year.” This is just one of the reasons why so many Biglaw firms now have blockchain practice groups and task forces. [Big Law Business]

    * Norton Rose Fulbright has closed its doors in Abu Dhabi, making it the largest law firm to shutter an office in the Middle East. [American Lawyer]

    * Professor Toby Heytens of UVA Law has been named the next solicitor general of Virginia. He’ll be taking his second leave of absence from the law school during his term. He took his first leave to serve in the U.S. Solicitor General’s Office. [Daily Progress]

    * No, contrary to popular belief, Radiohead has not filed suit against Lana Del Rey for similarities between their hit song “Creep” and her song “Get Free” — but the band really should consider doing so, and their lawyers ought to become as “relentless” as Del Rey claimed on Twitter. Take a listen, here. [Rolling Stone]

  • Morning Docket: 01.08.18
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 01.08.18

    * Okay, let’s get this straight: Roy Moore’s Jewish lawyer isn’t Richard Jaffe, the one who voted for Doug Jones; no, Roy Moore’s Jewish lawyer is Martin Wishnatsky, the one who “has accepted Christ” as his savior. [Washington Post]

    * In our last Supreme Court Clerk Hiring Watch, we focused a bit on the fact that rumored retiree Justice Anthony Kennedy hired a full set of clerks for OT 2018, but in case you missed it, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg already has a full set of clerks for OT 2019. The Notorious one isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. [Newsweek]

    * Lawyers for the Department of Justice who are attempting to defend the Trump administration’s rescission of the DACA program have asked Judge William Alsup, who is handling the case, to ignore our “very stable genius” president’s recent tweets regarding the immigration policy. [The Recorder]

    * Evan Greebel, pharma bro Martin Shkreli’s ex-lawyer, is facing hard prison time for conspiracy, but one of the juror’s who convicted him is having second thoughts. The former Biglaw partner better hope that Judge Kiyo Matsumoto decides to reopen his case. [Big Law Business]

    * In what may have been some sort of a Christmas miracle, the legal sector witnessed a very slight uptick in jobs in December. Beggars can’t be choosers, so a gain of 600 jobs is better than nothing at all. Employment in the profession is still nowhere near where it once was before the recession. [American Lawyer]

    * Lewis Donelson, cofounder of Baker Donelson, RIP. [Memphis Business Journal]

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