Guns / Firearms

* Sam Bankman-Fried denied pre-trial release after arguing that his alleged witness tampering, not unlike the value of cryptocurrency, wasn’t what it looked like on paper. [Reuters]

* After opening door a crack to allow some transparency in proceedings during the pandemic, the federal courts look to curtail live audio access. [Law360]

* Lawyer informs Texas Senate that Ken Paxton approved every bit of investigation at heart of impeachment. [Texas Tribune]

* Trial to begin to decide constitutionality of “America’s most extreme gun control law.” The law just requires gun owners to get a permit and bans magazines over 10 rounds. Again, this is what passes for the “most extreme” law in the country. [Fox News]

* Gibson Dunn alters diversity scholarship criteria as activists ramp up threats to sue law firms for pursuing initiatives to make the profession less white. [Bloomberg Law News]

* Meanwhile, two law schools are back in compliance with ABA accreditors after improving faculty diversity and likely putting them out of compliance with these litigious activists (Another law school is back in compliance after improving its finances… which is less controversial). [Law.com]

* Governor asks to change state’s public records law to keep her travel under wraps. [ABC]

* Ron DeSantis rammed through massive tort reform in December to the delight of Florida residents who barely understand torts. They’re about to find out what it all means when insurance companies refuse to pay up for Idalia. [Mother Jones]

* Remember the Second Amendment exists to protect your right to hide guns in your belly fat. [People]

* NY AG says Trump overinflated his net worth by upwards of $2.2 billion in a shock to absolutely no one. [CNN]

* Texas GOP’s “Death Star” legislation, designed to give the state legislature the power to strike down local laws and ordinances destroyed like all Death Stars because of tiny, yet fatal, flaw. In this case it’s because it’s entirely unconstitutional. Wow… that’s much bigger than the womp rats I used to target in my T-16 back home. [Law360]

* Alex Murdaugh loses phone privileges. [NY Post]

* Squire Patton Boggs partner set to take break from violent, rough and tumble Biglaw world to referee Rugby World Cup. [LegalCheek]

* In new phase of Hollywood strike, workers have filed comments with the FTC asking it to probe industry consolidation. And while fair compensation is a great reason to break up Hollywood, at least someone has to be mad about WarnerBrosDiscovery doing… any of the things it’s done. [Bloomberg Law News]

* Federal courts consider continuing COVID-era streaming of proceedings. Just like all the ethical rules, this won’t apply to the Supreme Court. [Bloomberg Law News]

* Some firms have moved to four mandatory office days… but it’s been a “slow trickle.” And Biglaw isn’t used to slow trickles when it comes to policy changes. [American Lawyer]

* Judge rules state ban on high-capacity magazines does not violate Second Amendment. So start the clock on this getting struck down. [CNN]

* Biglaw attorney quits to bicycle from Canada to Argentina. [LegalCheek]

* Shocking no one, when police bar the ticky-tack justifications for pretextual stops, pretextual stops go down. [Reuters]

* More Twitter execs suing for unpaid legal bills. This guy really hates Biglaw fees, huh? [Law360]

* A slice of history when first-year associates were only making $70K. That’s $188K in today’s dollars. Of course private law school tuition averaged under $10K/year then, which under be around $27K/year in today’s dollars. Instead it costs around $50K so associates are still falling behind. [Intuitive Career Coaching]