Jed Rakoff

* The unstoppable Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg maintains her three-Term streak as author of the Supreme Court’s first signed majority opinion — and, interestingly enough, it’s a unanimous affirmance of the Ninth Circuit (opinion by my former boss, Judge Diarmuid O’Scannlain). [Empirical SCOTUS]

* When he’s not busy issuing landmark decisions (and feeding his clerks to SCOTUS), Judge Jed Rakoff (S.D.N.Y.) writes erudite essays for the New York Review of Books — like his latest, a review of Joel Richard Paul’s new biography of Chief Justice John Marshall (affiliate link). [New York Review of Books]

* President Donald Trump is transforming the federal judiciary with his youthful and conservative appointments — but the extent of the transformation should not be exaggerated, for reasons identified by Ed Whelan. [Bench Memos / National Review]

* Ann Althouse analyzes some of the juiciest passages in Michelle Obama’s new memoir (affiliate link). [Althouse]

* It has been a long time — specifically, more than four years — since the Department of Justice has issued an opinion about the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, as FCPA guru Mike Koehler points out. [FCPA Professor]

* Peter Schuck responds, in thoughtful and civil fashion, to the (many) critics of his and Rogers Smith’s argument that the Fourteenth Amendment does not require birthright citizenship for the children of unlawfully present aliens. [PrawfsBlawg]

* After last Tuesday’s elections, in which Louisiana approved a state constitutional amendment requiring a unanimous jury to convict in a criminal case, Oregon is the only state that allows conviction in some criminal cases without a unanimous jury — and Gerard Magliocca wonders if this is constitutional. [Concurring Opinions]

* He’s no stranger to our pages, but Isaac Lidsky — the child actor (Saved By The Bell) turned first blind SCOTUS clerk turned successful entrepreneur — still has many insights to share, as he does in this wide-ranging podcast with Goli Kalkhoran. [Lessons From A Quitter]

* Interested in volunteering at a DACA renewal clinic? You can do it even if you’re not an immigration lawyer. Sign up here to get training and match with a site in need of your assistance. [Lawyers for Good Government]

* Adding healthy habits to your already packed schedule can seem like an impossible task, but you really can do it. [Corporette]

* Sad but true (and not at all surprising): Americans don’t know squat about the Constitution. [Volokh Conspiracy / Washington Post]

* Judge Jed Rakoff issues an important opinion outlining the contours of “fair use.” [Copyright Alliance]

* Biglaw behemoth Dentons has created a network to connect PR professionals. That’s an interesting move for a firm that already counts more than 7,000 lawyers under its umbrella. [Law and More]

* David Lat chats with employment lawyer Matt Steinberg about how transparency is transforming the employer/employee relationship. [Akerman]

* The First Amendment chalks up a much needed win: Southern District of New York Judge Jed Rakoff dismisses Sarah Palin’s defamation lawsuit against the New York Times. [The Slot]

* Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan is pushing the state forward on police reform, even without the assistance of the Department of Justice. [Washington Post]

* Donald Trump Jr. is scheduling a date — a private date — with the Senate Judiciary Committee. Sounds like sexy times. [CNN]

* Even former clerks of Justice Antonin Scalia can be convinced of the social good of class actions. Vanderbilt Law professor Brian Fitzpatrick’s new article on class actions preventing corporate wrongdoing is creating quite the dustup in conservative circles. [Reuters]

* Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr is defending Pepe the Frog… against the alt-right groups that want to co-opt the cartoon for white supremacist purposes. [Law.com]

* The assault on voting rights continues — a new Indiana law is purging voters from the rolls without notifying them or affording them an opportunity to respond. [Daily Beast]

* R. Kelly’s lawyer responds to allegations that a bunch of women are trapped in the proverbial closet. [Entertainment Tonight]

* The big news of the night was the slow, painful, uncovered death of the GOP tax cut. McConnell now says he’ll push for a clean repeal of Obamacare and leave the “replace” part for later, which would theoretically take it out of the reconciliation process. And that means 60 votes or some drastic changes. This is either a bluff or a lot of people are about to learn more than they ever wanted to know about parliamentary rules. [ABC News]

* Need judicial approval to tour the country? Sing it with me now… “Jed Gon’ Give It To Ya.”[Law360]

* Justice Kagan with an amusing anecdote about being vetted by the Obama administration. [National Law Journal]

* Plaintiffs’ attorneys in the Trump University case say efforts to undo the settlement over notice concerns, “effectively ask this court to declare Rule 23 unconstitutional.” Dude, I hate to break this to you, but that’s what the Supreme Court’s been saying for at least 10 years.

* Disney is locked in an IP litigation over the technology they use to map actors’ expressions onto CGI characters in movies like in Avengers: Age of Ultron, where they made a merciless robot fixated on world domination appear to have a soul. Sorry, did I say Avengers? I meant “a Bob Iger presentation at a Disney shareholder meeting.” [Law.com]

* Because all other problems in the country are settled, Congress is looking into overturning Washington D.C.’s assisted suicide law. [USA Today]

* Charlie Hustle is suing Trump lawyer John Dowd formerly of Akin Gump for defamation. [Philadelphia Inquirer]

* Google successfully staves off Labor Department request for compensation information in ongoing discrimination probe. God, Assistant can’t give you any useful information. [Corporate Counsel]

Ed. note: Above the Law will not be publishing on Monday, May 29, in honor of Memorial Day. We’ll see you on Tuesday, May 30 — which is when we plan to issue our latest ATL Law School Rankings.

* A Texas police chief is under investigation for allegedly calling a woman a “black bitch” after an altercation in a Walmart parking lot. The police chief was giving his 14-year-old daughter driving lessons at the time, and I’m comfortable drawing a straight line from the police/father’s behavior to 53% of white women voting for Donald Trump. [The Root]

* I think this link has something to do with art. Potentially, there’s a lawsuit about somebody who copies art? I really don’t know. Somebody at Above the Law sent me a link about art, told me to put it here, but didn’t summarize the relevant art facts to me, and… well, I’m just not going to muster the focus to read a whole story about art. [Jezebel]

* Joel Cohen, Judge Jed S. Rakoff, and Judge Richard Posner debate “alternative facts,” because this is now an issue in our crumbling society. [Slate]

* Long Island family awarded over $8 million because cops Tased disabled man four times. [New York Law Journal]

* Preet Bharara says recently elected Montana Congressperson, Greg ‘The Body-Slammer’ Gianforte, would “face deportation” if he was an immigrant. [The Hill]

* Most respectable publications are reporting on Trump’s embarrassing performance in Europe. Do you think that has filtered all the way down to the white supremacist media that is in charge of the country? [Breitbart]