James Comey

* 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]

* ESPN removed announcer “Robert Lee” from coverage of the University of Virginia’s opening football game because… well, there’s a “Robert E. Lee” statue in Charlottesville and ESPN just assumes that everybody in the country has CTE and can’t figure out what’s real life anymore. [Deadspin]

* Two more female law professors are suing the University of Denver for pay discrimination. [Law.com]

* The former head of the FBI, James Comey, will be giving the opening address at Howard University, the nation’s most well-known black college. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. [The Root]

* We move ever closer to Kris Kobach having the authority to throw away votes he doesn’t like. [Election Law Blog]

* Galaxy Note 8 is out. I’m giddy imagining what will be wrong with this one. “The stylus goes into tracheotomy mode if your breathing is obstructed to 8 seconds, or you just have a big gulp of water.” “The phone automatically switches to its orgasmic vibrate function, when in a pocket or low-light environment.” “It has dual cameras, one for you, and one for the NSA.” Being an early adopter on the 8 is like being a human test subject for anti-venom manufacturers. [CNET]

* “Research Finds Justifiable Homicide Rulings More Likely to Benefit White Americans.” Oh, I remember being a 1L. I remember sitting on my chaise lounge in my apartment, reading my Crim Law, when it really hit me that the entire concept of “reasonableness” was designed by white people to make it okay for them to slaughter any black man who they perceived as a “threat.” I remember my non-law-student white roommate telling me that I was surely misunderstanding my homework. I remember wondering if “anybody else was aware of this.” And I remember the pain of learning that everybody else knew the system worked this way but there was nothing to be done about it. I… really hated law school. Every casebook is like an acid enema to clear your system of its expectation of moral decency. [Law Street Media]

* Hmm… I wonder if the officer who shot and killed the unarmed white lady is going to be in a little more legal trouble than any of the officers who shoot and kill unarmed black people? [Minneapolis Star-Tribune]

* John McCain’s excellent health care is temporarily delaying his ability to take health care away from millions. May he have the same recovery that people kicked off of Medicaid can expect. [VICE]

* If you told me that R. Kelly has a Midwestern sex cult where he holds women against their will, I’d believe you. In fact, the only shocking thing to me about that statement is the modifier “Midwestern.” [Buzzfeed]

* James Comey is writing a book. I assume the working title is “How To Lose Friends And Alienate People.” [Slate]

* “Ezekiel Elliott can tote the rock tho.” — Cowboys fans who have nothing else of value in their lives. [Deadspin]

* Is the decentralization of our elections a strength, or a weakness? It’s weird, if you were only worried about a nincompoop like Donald Trump and his band of family idiots fixing the election, it’s comforting to know that our system is too complicated for them to understand. But if you are worried about a capable global villain like Vladimir Putin, suddenly I don’t feel so good. [Brennan Center for Justice]

* Where does he get such wonderful toys?

https://twitter.com/BraddJaffy/status/887035702977933312

Elie Mystal is an editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at [email protected]. He will resist.

* CNN is suing to get a hold of Comey’s Trump memos. [CNN]

* Exactly whose ass is Sessions covering? [Slate]

* Gunning for Mueller. [Huffington Post]

* Jeh Johnson is the latest attorney offering public testimony in the Russia probe. [Politico]

* Intense confrontation on the courthouse steps at the Cosby trial. [Jezebel]

* Trump is being sued a bunch over emoluments — here’s what it all means. [Law Newz]

* The role of Trump’s anger in the Russia investigation. [Law and More]

* Has the legal scholarship bubble burst? [TaxProf Blog]

* Professor Ann Althouse wants to know: What’s the theory that take-home exams redress gender inequity? [Althouse]

* Legal analytics versus legal research: what’s the difference? Owen Byrd of Lex Machina explains. [Law Technology Today]

* Professor Noah Feldman is not a fan of the Ninth Circuit’s recent ruling on Trump Travel Ban 2.0. [Bloomberg View via How Appealing]

* And Professor Sam Bray is not a fan of nationwide injunctions in the travel ban litigation. [Volokh Conspiracy / Washington Post]

* My colleague Elie Mystal yesterday offered an ideological critique of Justice Ginsburg’s opinion in Morales-Santana; Professor Will Baude has a technical one (and I think he might be right). [PrawfsBlawg]

* Mollie Hemingway respectfully dissents from the James Comey lovefest.
[The Federalist]

* Maybe Comey already has a job lined up. [Chronicle of Higher Ed]

* A deeper dive into Gorsuch’s first opinion and how it stacks up with those of the other justices. [Empirical SCOTUS]

* Newt Gingrich sets land speed record on flip-flopping with his latest Bob Mueller tweet. [Salon]

* I already said it this morning, but it bears repeating. [Lawfare]

* Is it discriminatory to broadcast Cleveland Indians games? Canadian tribunal allows this argument to move forward. [Turtle Talk]

* What’s the official state exercise of Illinois? [Lowering the Bar]

* Interesting legal battle going on within the Catholic Church. [Canon Law Blog]

* President Donald Trump will reportedly visit the Supreme Court later this week for Justice Neil Gorsuch’s official investiture ceremony. Based on the president’s prior behavior, it may only be a matter of time before he refers to his appointee as an “absolute disaster” whose “mind is shot.” [USA Today]

* Former U.S. attorney Preet Bharara, who was fired by President Trump after he was asked to remain in his post, says phone calls he received from Trump made in an effort to “cultivate some kind of relationship” made him uncomfortable. In response, a spokesman for Marc Kasowitz called Bharara a “resistance Democrat,” and said “he deserved to be fired.” [Washington Post]

* In other news, Marc Kasowitz, who will likely be setting up an office on White House grounds where he can run President Trump’s defense, has reportedly told White House aides to hold off on hiring their own lawyers — a move that would only be in his client’s interest, and against their own. [New York Times]

* In defense to a lawsuit, the Justice Department has likened President Trump to George Washington (yup!), alleging that Trump isn’t violating the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution by accepting payments for goods and services like hotel bills and golf club fees from foreign governments. [Bloomberg]

* In the wake of former FBI director James Comey’s tell-all appearance before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Attorney General Jeff Sessions will now have to testify himself on the ongoing probe into Russian’s election interference. Hmm, what will the recused AG have to say for himself? [New York Times]

* “It was really disgusting and really scary.” Joseph Amico of Las Vegas was arrested after he allegedly called New York lawyer Douglas Wigdor a “n**ger lover” and threatened to blow up his firm. Wigdor is representing plaintiffs in a racial discrimination lawsuit against Fox News Channel. [New York Daily News]

* Miguel A. Méndez, Stanford Law’s first Latino professor, RIP. [Stanford News]

* It’s not the doctor’s fault he overprescribed opioid painkillers. It’s the pharmaceutical industry’s fault. [New York Law Journal]

* Norton Rose Fulbright is in late-stage merger talks with Australian firm Henry Davis York. [Law.com]

* Apparently Donald Trump did not watch the same hearing as the rest of us. [CNN]

* The California Attorney General is willing to go to war with Donald Trump over national monuments. [LA Times]

* Ah, the halcyon days of 2007. The House is determined to bring the financial regulations back to then. [Washington Post]

* Is this what the Bill Cosby defense has stooped to? [NBC News]

* In case you’re looking for some gift ideas. [Huffington Post]

* How I learned to stop worrying and love the First Amendment. [Slate]

* The most burning question after James Comey’s testimony. [The Slot]

* Remain ever vigilant. [Salon]

* Big new jobs in legal academia. [National Jurist]

* Remembering tax law legend Bill Andrews. [Tax Prof Blog]

* Will the Russia probe make stars of the lawyers involved? [Law and More]

* If you’re in New York and want to know more about litigation finance, check out this event. [Eventbrite]

* Ben Wittes on James Comey’s prepared testimony (which he’ll deliver tomorrow): “the most shocking single document compiled about the official conduct of the public duties of any President since the release of the Watergate tapes.” [Lawfare]

* Could the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program be eliminated — retroactively? Thoughts from Professor Gregory Crespi. [SSRN]

* The California Supreme Court appears less than enthused about a ballot measure that would compel the courts to decide death penalty cases more quickly. [How Appealing]

* Behind every great bestseller is… a tiger mother? How Amy Chua mentored J.D. Vance, author of Hillbilly Elegy (affiliate link). [The Atlantic]

* Picking up on Shannon Achimalbe’s post from earlier today, here’s additional financial advice for young lawyers. [SoFi]

* Legal technology is a godsend — but what do you do when problems arise? [Reboot Your Law Practice]

* Mark your calendars: one week from today, on June 14 in San Francisco, it’s the Battle of the (Law Firm) Bands! [Family Violence Appellate Project]

* The Supreme Court has a few options when it comes to President Trump’s travel ban. The justices can grant or deny certiorari to hear the case, or grant or deny a stay on lower court rulings blocking various aspects of the ban. Either way, this case could become moot before it’s ever heard. [New York Times]

* Meanwhile, the man who’s the worst client in the universe lashed out at Justice Department lawyers this morning in a series of Tweets, demanding that the travel ban be referred to as a travel ban instead of the “watered down, politically correct version they submitted to [SCOTUS].” Congrats on undermining your case! [New York Times]

* Get your popcorn ready, because according to two senior administration officials, President Trump will reportedly not be invoking executive privilege to block former FBI director James Comey from testifying before the Senate Intelligence Committee later this week in the ongoing Russia probe. [The Hill]

* During a speaking engagement at Harvard, the Supreme Court’s freshman, Justice Neil Gorsuch, recounted the time he met Sandy, the dean of Oxford’s naked sex doll, who was dressed in only a boa. Although she could be counted on for answers, Gorsuch said she didn’t provide him with any. [Washington Post]

* Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg will soon be the star of her very own fitness book. Co-authored by her longtime trainer Bryant Johnson and illustrator Patrick Welsh, “The RBG Workout: How She Stays Strong … and You Can Too!” (affiliate link) will be out the first week of October Term 2017. [Associated Press]

* Womble Carlyle is entering into a transatlantic merger with British firm Bond Dickinson to become Womble Bond Dickinson. The combined firm will have about 1,080 lawyers across 23 offices, with revenues exceeding $410 million. A spokesperson claims the tie-up will not result in layoffs. [News & Observer]