Electoral College

  • Morning Docket: 12.20.16
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 12.20.16

    * So much for Prof. Lawrence Lessig having flipped at least 20 Republican electors: Only two “faithless electors” from Texas refused to cast their votes for President-elect Donald Trump, choosing John Kasich and Ron Paul instead. At the end of the day, more Democrats chose not to support their party’s nominee, Hillary Clinton. [The Hill]

    * Sorry, but Chief Justice John Roberts won’t grant your emergency petition to force the Senate hold a confirmation vote on President Obama’s SCOTUS pick, Judge Merrick Garland (D.C. Cir.). Instead, Judge Garland will resume hearing cases on January 18, and President-elect Trump will make his nomination after his inauguration. [Reuters]

    * With the new year almost upon us and 2017 financial forecasts being made for the largest firms in the country, the great salary increase of 2016 has come up again and again as a major cost suck for some Biglaw firms. How costly was it? According to Aric Press, “[t]his will cost the average Am Law 100 firm, with headcount at 930 lawyers, about $11.6 million a year, or $57,300 per equity partner.” [Big Law Business]

    * Working Mother is surveying law firms to determine which ones offer the best environment for lawyers with kids. The publication will release a list of the 50 best firms, and the deadline for participation is February 10. Help your firm get recognized for something that could help steer the direction of an associate’s career. [ABA Journal]

    * Are you running behind on purchasing your gifts this holiday season? Worry not, because thanks to the legalization of marijuana in these eight jurisdictions, you can give your friends and family the gift of ganja without being criminally prosecuted: Colorado, Massachusetts, Nevada, California, Maine, Alaska, and Washington, D.C. [INVERSE]

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  • Non-Sequiturs: 12.19.16
    Non-Sequiturs

    Non-Sequiturs: 12.19.16

    * North Carolina’s governor-elect announced legislators will meet tomorrow to repeal their terrible bathroom law. [LawNewz]

    * The first trailer for the legal television show The Good Fight, the CBS streaming spinoff of The Good Wife, is here, and piles on the sex. [Slate]

    * Ohio elector resigns from the electoral college in order to keep her day job. [Election Law Blog]

    * Women receive lower grades in large law school classes. [TaxProf Blog]

    * A difficult, but important read: a letter from a woman to the man that raped her. [Huffington Post]

    * Huma Abedin gets to be the scapegoat for some looking for a patsy for Hillary Clinton’s loss. [Law and More]

    * Nearly a thousand lawyers, policy experts, and activists are expected to attend a “counter-inaugural” conference in D.C. on Jan 21-22, 2017, featuring speakers like Sam Munger (SiX), Tom Goldstein (co-founder of SCOTUSblog), Nan Aron (Alliance for Justice), Jonathan Lowy (Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence) and Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD). The conference will begin after the (free) Women’s March on Washington on Saturday morning. Learn more and register here. [Rise Above]

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  • Non-Sequiturs: 12.16.16
    Non-Sequiturs

    Non-Sequiturs: 12.16.16

    * I’ve had an interesting week. [Simple Justice]

    * But at least I’m real. [Popehat]

    * Next week will be an interesting week for the Electoral College. [Balkinization]

    * Huma Abedin’s lawyers politely request that the FBI explain exactly how they screwed over America. [New York Daily News]

    * I don’t really understand the Department of Justice “bid rigging” investigation into ad agencies. I don’t really understand why it’s important. But apparently some ad execs could go to jail behind this, so I understand that whatever is happening is pretty cool. [Business Insider]

    * Ashley Madison agrees to a $1.6 million settlement with the FTC over its alleged failure to protect user data. That doesn’t seem like a lot to me. That seems like a “my wife saw my info on Ashley Madison and I had to sleep on the couch for a week” kind of penalty. Not a “my wife saw my info on Ashley Madison and now I live in my brother’s basement while the lawyers figure out how often I can still see my children” penalty. [ABA Journal]

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  • Non-Sequiturs: 11.28.16
    Non-Sequiturs

    Non-Sequiturs: 11.28.16

    * The political anger against big banking in general and Wells Fargo, specifically, could hurt their forced arbitration efforts. [Cowboys On The Commons]

    * Warner Brothers’s settlement over paying — and not disclosing that fact — influencers to subtly promote its video game Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor. [The Fashion Law]

    * The California Bar is considering a ban on client-attorney sex. [Law and More]

    * Rumor has it Steve Bannon is totally fine with suppressing black voter turnout. [Huffington Post]

    * Yes, the electoral college sucks, but they are still going to elect Donald Trump. [Slate]

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  • Non-Sequiturs: 11.25.16
    Non-Sequiturs

    Non-Sequiturs: 11.25.16

    * Orin Kerr isn’t persuaded by Larry Lessig’s argument in favor of the Electoral College picking Hillary Clinton as president. [Volokh Conspiracy / Washington Post]

    * What do people think of President-elect Donald Trump’s appointments so far? Survey says…. [Instapundit]

    * If the justice(s) Trump appoints to SCOTUS end up overturning Roe v. Wade, what would happen next? [New York Times via How Appealing]

    * Speaking of the Donald, not everything is his fault. [Guile is Good]

    * No, this wasn’t said by Trump: “I am not a racist and my voters are neither. They are people who want their country back and who are sick and tired of not being listened to.” [Althouse]

    * Congratulations to the 177 lawyers from 76 firms who were just named Law360’s 2016 MVPs! [Law360]

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