Department of Justice

* Colin Kaepernick, who remains unsigned six weeks into the season, has filed a grievance against the NFL and its owners alleging collusion under the latest collective bargaining agreement, claiming that he’s been deprived of employment in retaliation for “bringing awareness to peculiar institutions still undermining racial equality in the United States.” [Bleacher Report]

* Harvey Weinstein was planning to file suit against the New York Times for defamation, but Charles Harder, the hot-shot lawyer who brought down Gawker, has left the media mogul’s legal team. Harder is the third lawyer to step away from this representation, following moves made by Lisa Bloom and Lanny Davis. [Deadline]

* Attorney General Jeff Sessions has rolled back protections for transgender people in the workforce and in education, but the Department of Justice is taking a hard line when it comes to federal hate crimes that have been committed against the very people his policies have thrust into potential danger. [New York Times]

* Harvard Law students and alumni want major improvements to be made to the school’s public service loan assistance program, saying their alma mater has “fallen behind its peer schools” when it comes to supporting graduates who work in public interest. Will HLS act to preserve its stature, or to help its own? [Harvard Crimson]

* Even though women account for more than 40 percent of the school’s student body, there aren’t enough women’s bathrooms at the University of South Dakota School of Law, and students who’ve been forced to wait in long lines are pretty pissed that the administration has done such a piss-poor job of handling this issue. [Wichita Eagle]

* Federal law enforcement’s crackdown on NCAA coaches has likely brought an end to Rick Pitino’s career. That said, we thought his career was over when we all learned that Louisville hired hookers for recruits so maybe he still has a shot. [ESPN]

* Law firm mergers continue at a record place. Yep, there’s no fundamental market weakness here at all. [Am Law Daily]

* DOJ lawyers face an unpleasant grilling at the Second Circuit. Maybe someday Sessions can disinvite judges he doesn’t want criticizing his unsupported legal theories. [Slate]

* Women losing pregnancies while detained by the administration. I’d say we’re going to look back on this era of immigration policy in horror, but we can probably go ahead and be horrified now. [Huffington Post]

* The USD Alumni Board has weighed in on the Wax/Alexander op-ed. They take a “let’s all come together” approach, which isn’t wrong as much as it seems asymmetric. When one-side throws bombs about cultural superiority, decrying divisiveness puts the onus on the wrong side side to move. [Motions Online]

* The most likely grants from the long conference. [Empirical SCOTUS]

* Here’s how you get $4 billion in punitive damages (hint: be in Texas). [Law.com]

* Yes, it’s true: Jeff Sessions came thisclose to resigning as attorney general, after Donald Trump berated him following the appointment of special counsel Bob Mueller in the Russia probe. [New York Times]

* Bye-bye to blue slips? It wouldn’t exactly be “nuclear,” since their treatment has varied greatly over the years. [BuzzFeed]

* The State Bar of California tries to cut down the arguments in favor of a lower cut score on the bar exam. [ABA Journal]

* Technology platforms are driving an increase in transparency that’s having profound consequences for the employer/employee relationship (as I recently discussed on the podcast of Akerman employment-law partner Matt Steinberg). [Akerman]

* Embattled Equifax has turned to Phyllis Sumner and King & Spalding for much-needed legal help in the wake of its massive data breach. [Law.com]

* Statutory interpretation question: can you be both the victim and the perpetrator in a child pornography case? [How Appealing]

* The ranks of nonequity partners continue to grow; has this trend gone too far? [Big Law Business]

* Prosecution of individuals in cases of corporate wrongdoing (aka the Yates Memo), and Justice Department policy on enforcement of federal marijuana laws in states where it has been decriminalized — both are “under review” at the DOJ, according to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. [Law.com]

* The Supreme Court, without any dissents, has allowed the Trump administration’s refugee ban to stand while the case proceeds, temporarily staying a Ninth Circuit ruling to the contrary. As my colleague Elie Mystal wondered yesterday, “Why is Kennedy stepping on the Ninth Circuit here? Why do any of them want this?” [New York Times]

* Not that recommending prosecutions is part of her job, but White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders thinks that the Justice Department might want to prosecute former FBI director James Comey because his leaks “were improper and likely could have been illegal.” [Washington Post]

* “It’s going to be death by a thousand cuts if people keep leaving at this rate.” Ropes & Gray seems to be leaking partners like a sieve. In fact, 19 partners have parted ways with the firm since this past January. Not to worry, because according to management this is fine. [Legal Week]

* Lynne Hermle, a partner in the labor and employment practice group at Orrick, thinks that in-house counsel need to adopt their own versions of the Mansfield Rule when hiring and staffing their trial teams. Why not have a woman lead your trial team? Juries tend to listen to them. [Business Insider]

* Rob Ranco, a Texas personal injury attorney who landed himself on the front page of Breitbart last week after tweeting that he’d “be ok if #BetsyDevos was sexually assaulted,” resigned from his firm, agreeing with his managing partner that he’d crossed “a line that simply cannot be uncrossed.” [Law.com]