LGBT Bathroom Bills

Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 03.30.17

* North Carolina lawmakers say they've reached a deal to repeal the state's controversial bathroom bill. I wonder how those negotiations went: "Hey, this law is awful and is costing our state billions. Let's get rid of it." "Okay." I mean that's probably not how it went, but it's how it should have gone. [Reuters] * Five University of California law schools are sharing the wealth after an improper foreclosure verdict results in a big punitive damages award. The judge directed a portion of that money to go to the law schools -- $4 million each -- earmarked for consumer law education and direct legal services. [Law.com] * Hawaii successfully converted the TRO on the Trump administration's Muslim Ban 2.0 into a preliminary injunction. [Hogan Lovells] * Seattle is the first city to sue over the Trump administration's threats against sanctuary cities. [LA Times] * Bridgegate results in prison sentences. Bridget Kelly was sentenced to 18 months, and Bill Baroni got 2 years. [New York Times] * Doublespeak -- the environment edition. [Politico] * Is Sean Spicer is lying about whether the White House really wants former acting Attorney General Sally Yates to testify to Congress? [The Hill] * Judge Andrew Napolitano is back at Fox News, and back to conspiracy theories. [CNN]

By Kathryn Rubino
Non-Sequiturs

Non-Sequiturs: 03.27.17

* The untold story behind the Anita Hill hearings. [Highline] * This could be big: a Second Circuit concurrence says Title VII already includes prohibitions against sexual orientation discrimination. [Slate] * How the GOP learned to stop worrying and love regulations. [Politico] * Jeff Sessions makes the first move against sanctuary cities. [Pacific Standard] * What lawyers can learn from watching television. [Law and More] * Pay equity moves to the hockey rink. [The Hill] * Bad laws will cost you. [The Slot]

By Kathryn Rubino
Non-Sequiturs

Non-Sequiturs: 09.14.16

* Bar exam results from Washington. Numbers are down... is the state's alternative lawyer program partly responsible? [Bar Exam Stats] * Important advice for a young attorney: consider the billing rates of your practice group. [Bobogado] * Now the ACC is pulling out of North Carolina over the wide-ranging discrimination bill -- superseding local ordinances protecting against LGBT discrimination generally -- that dumb, reductionist types insist on calling the "bathroom law." [CBS Sports] * Acquittals require the human connection. [Katz Justice] * And if you don't believe that one, here's the psychology to back it up. [Law360] * You can get out of stuff by fearing documents? [Lowering the Bar] * This sponsored post from our site is worth a look, featuring an interview with a general counsel and a managing partner on the fallout from the Moneylaw associate salary bumps. [Above the Law] * Sad news tonight as Finnegan mourns the passing of Ford Farabow, one of the firm's founding partners. [Finnegan]

By Joe Patrice
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 05.26.16

* David Mourey, the former assistant dean for bar preparation and academic success at Barry Law, was fired after students continued to fail the bar exam, but in a recently filed gender discrimination and retaliation lawsuit, he claims he was discriminated against because he was "singled out for discipline by an all-female management team." We may have more on this later. [Orlando Sentinel] * Despite the wishes of the public and rumors of his firing in the face of the Baylor University coverup of reports of rape and sexual assault by football players, "Ken Starr is [still] president and chancellor of Baylor University." According to a university spokeswoman, the school has not yet finished reviewing Pepper Hamilton's report on the matter, but Baylor will likely make an announcement by June 3. [Associated Press] * "We are willing to fight this all the way to the Supreme Court if we have to." Eleven states have filed suit against the Obama Administration in an effort to get around its guidance on transgender rights for children in schools, calling the policy a "massive social experiment." The states suing are Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana, Maine, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. [Reuters] * Sumner Redstone turns 93 years old tomorrow, and he's been in and out of court for the past few months in a battle to prove he's mentally competent. The salacious case filed by his former female companion may have been dismissed, but now he's attempting to fend off claims from Viacom directors who were ousted from a trust that will control his media holdings if he dies or is found incompetent. [DealBook / New York Times] * Now that the world knows that PayPal's co-founder provided funding for Hulk Hogan's invasion of privacy suit against Gawker, it's time to take a look at the lawyer who's been representing the wrestler. Charles Harder is no stranger to Hollywood cases, and may be a longtime fan of litigation finance since he "[tries] to win and do so in a way that's cost effective for a client, so they don't lose when they're winning." [WSJ Law Blog] * Since revenge litigation finance's recent invention, what's there to keep billionaires from destroying you with lawsuits? Unfortunately, the answer to this question is not much, especially when "there is no obligation to disclose the litigation financing arrangements" that have been made. Ethical issues aside, we really hope the super-rich wield their new power to ruin lives through rented lawsuits carefully. [Fortune]

By Staci Zaretsky
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 05.10.16

* "None of us can stand by when a state enters the business of legislating identity and insists that a person pretend to be something or someone they are not." The Justice Department and North Carolina have traded dueling pleadings over HB2, the so-called "bathroom bill." AG Loretta Lynch's press conference announcing the DOJ countersuit was nothing short of awe-inspiring. [New York Times] * Just one week after threatening to strip Arizona Law from access to its law school applications and admissions clearinghouse, the Law School Admission Council is backing down, saying it will "maintain the status quo" until the ABA makes a decision on the validity of the GRE over the LSAT as a law school entrance exam. [WSJ Law Blog] * "On behalf of the Section of Family Law, we pose the following question: WHAT PART OF 'NO!' DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND?" Lawyers are still deeply opposed to non-lawyer ownership of and investment in law firms, and they're apparently not afraid to stand up and let the ABA know how they really feel about it. [On the Case / Reuters] * After only two days of trial, a judge has dismissed the ultra-salacious case filed by Manuela Herzer challenging 92-year-old Sumner Redstone's mental competence. The media mogul's lawyers now intend to sue Herzer and another of his former flames to recover $150 million in cash and gifts he gave to them. [Los Angeles Times; Variety] * "Thank you, Mr. Boies, that was an unadulterated pleasure." You might have missed the finale of The Good Wife this weekend, but this Biglaw celebrity made time to appear on the show for a cameo role as himself. David Boies of Boies Schiller appeared as an expert witness for about 30 seconds in the first half of the episode. [Big Law Business]

By Staci Zaretsky
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 04.15.16

* Ted Cruz may not like dildos, but he doesn't seem to mind legal weed. Earlier this week, the Republican presidential candidate said that while he opposes federal legalization of cannabis, states should be free to experiment because the Constitution allows for it. Colorado's legalization of recreational marijuana is safe and sound, for now. [Denver Post] * "It was a very pleasant meeting, but it has changed nothing." Senate Republicans may want nothing to do with confirming D.C. Circuit Chief Judge Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court, but they've sure been taking their sweet time telling him "no" during their courtesy meetings with him. Some of these seemingly pointless meetings have gone on for more than an hour. [New York Times] * Chief Judge Garland may be wasting his time with these lengthy meetings, though, because if the jurist isn't confirmed before the upcoming presidential election, Senator Bernie Sanders said during last night's Democratic debate that if he wins, he'd ask President Obama to withdraw his nomination, as he doesn't think that Garland would pass his progressive litmus test on Citizens United. Are you still feeling the Bern? [TIME] * Lawmakers in several states have passed bathroom bills that enable bigotry in the name of protecting religious rights, but what you may not have known is that there is one lawyer behind them all. Mathew Staver of Liberty Counsel -- who was recently in the news for representing Kentucky clerk Kim Davis -- says he's doing it to push back against the Supreme Court's Obergefell ruling legalizing same-sex marriage. [CBS News] * Professor Richard Sander of UCLA School of Law, whose claim to academic fame is his "mismatch" theory of affirmative action, has been trying to get more than 30 years' worth of data from the State Bar of California for quite some time in an effort to continue his research into the "large and persistent gap in bar passage rates among racial and ethnic groups," and now he's finally going to get his day in court. [WSJ Law Blog] * David Gherity, a former Minnesota lawyer who was falsely accused of setting his girlfriend on fire using accelerants like alcohol, lotion, hair spray, and fingernail polish remover, has filed a civil rights suit against the police and prosecutors who kept him in jail for about two months. Gherity, who was suspended from practice in 2004, alleges a violation of the "protected interest in his good name." [Twin Cities Pioneer Press]

Staci Zaretsky is an editor at Above the Law. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments. Follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

By Staci Zaretsky