Kari Lake

* Neil Gorsuch brands COVID-19 health edicts possibly “the greatest intrusions on civil liberties in the peacetime history of this country.” While some might remind him about slavery and segregation, I’m not sure we should be giving him any ideas. [USA Today]

* Mike McKool leaves McKool Smith. Remember Garfield Minus Garfield? It’s like that. [Reuters]

* Judge rejects candy company’s motion to dismiss in case of man trapped inside hardened chocolate for hours. Willy Wonka declined comment. [Legal Intelligencer]

* Nancy Abudu confirmed to the Eleventh Circuit and all it took was a staggering 495 days or so. [Atlanta Journal-Constitution]

* Justice Stevens working papers released. One gem involves Scalia chiding dissenters for worrying about damaging the Court’s legitimacy. That tracks. [ABA Journal]

* As part of broader efforts to diversify the ranks of special masters, some argue for rethinking the language of “master” itself. [Law.com]

* Kari Lake’s election challenge going about as well as her election did. [Courthouse News Service]

* Leonard Leo had Kellyanne Conway funnel tens of thousands of dollars from a non-profit to Ginni Thomas without a paper trail and with the explicit direction “No mention of Ginni, of course.” Totally normal and above-board thing to do! [Washington Post]

* Ed Sheeran prevailed in his copyright case as sharing chord progressions don’t make songs similar. [Law360]

* If a whistle blows in the woods and the bank can retaliate without repercussion, does it make a sound? The Supreme Court seems hopeful that the answer is no. [Bloomberg Law News]

* Ivanka Trump targeted by NYAG over discovery obligations with investigators leery of “why her volume of emails dropped from 1,200 per month in 2014 to 37 in 2016.” Yes, what could have happened in 2016 that inspired some urgency to curtail the digital paper trail? [Huffington Post]

* Google and Sonos head to trial in patent dispute over smart devices. Hey, Alexa? Why are you laughing? [Reuters]

* Biglaw financials are strong… so of course everyone’s talking about layoffs because America is going to gaslight itself into a recession one way or another. [American Lawyer]

* Court issues more sanctions over false voter fraud claims, tagging Arizona gubernatorial loser Kari Lake. Which probably makes her the front-runner for Trump’s running mate. [The Hill]

* Oh look! The majority of the Supreme Court is once again shifting their interpretation of the law in order to support right-wing political objectives! In a 5-4 decision the Court held Title 42 must be kept in effect during the appeal of a lower court’s decision to end the use of the public health law to quickly expel migrants that arrived to the United States amid the COVID-19 crisis. Justice Neil Gorsuch joined the dissent writing, “And it is hardly obvious why we should rush in to review a ruling on a motion to intervene in a case concerning emergency decrees that have outlived their shelf life.” [Law360]

* More law schools are kicking USNWR rankings to the curb. We’re now at 10 percent of law schools that say they will not participate in the ranking process. [Law.com]

* Kari Lake, the Republican that ran — and lost — for the Arizona governorship, may have avoided sanctions for using the courts to avoid accepting the election results, but that doesn’t mean she won’t be paying money. A Maricopa County Superior Court found Lake was responsible for the ~$33,000 in expert witness fees AZ Governor-Elect Katie Hobbs incurred. [Huffington Post]

* There may not be a ton Congress can do about Republican George Santos’s lies that won him his seat, but there are some suspicious campaign campaign finance disclosures… [Slate]

* 2022 was the year that Constitutional Law dramatically shifted (to the right). [ABA Journal]