LGBT Discrimination

* Federal investigators are delving into multimillion-dollar deals involving former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and his son-in-law, Jeffrey Yohai. [New York Times]

* The Fifth Circuit lifts the injunction against H.B. 1523, Mississippi’s notorious “religious freedom” law that many regard as antigay (but the court ruled on jurisdictional rather than gay-hating grounds). [Texas Lawyer]

* In the wake of a mistrial in the criminal case against him, Bill Cosby plans to educate young men on how to avoid accusations of sexual assault. (My advice: don’t commit sexual assault.) [New York Times]

* The Fourth Circuit affirms almost all the convictions of ex-CIA officer in a leak case — a potentially significant ruling if the Trump administration follows through on its threats to prosecute leakers. [How Appealing]

* The Seventh Circuit declines to reinstate the conviction of Brendan Dassey, the defendant made famous by Making A Murderer. [ABA Journal]

* Martin Shkreli, aka “Pharma Bro,” is gearing up for trial — and, for the record, he is “so innocent.” [New York Times]

* More disturbing news from my ancestral homeland of the Philippines, involving accusations that the police are shaking down families in distress as part of President Rodrigo Duterte’s “war on drugs.” [Washington Post]

* Handicapping the race for the Supreme Court vacancy. [Bloomberg BNA]

* Can redecorating courthouses make a difference to justice? [Katz Justice]

* An illuminating interview with the lawyer behind Loving v. Virginia. [Coverage Opinions]

* States’ rights are all well and good when talking about the emission of pollutants, but not when it comes to marijuana. Wait — what? [Slate]

* Was the end of Gawker inevitable? [Law and More]

* Will gun owners in Ohio have more rights than LGBT people? [The Trace]

* A primer: everything you need to know about Jeff Sessions. [The Marshall Project]

* A Texas lawmaker wants to force schools to out LGBT students to their parents. [The New Civil Rights Movement]

* Loretta Lynch still wants you to report hate crimes. [Huffington Post]

* A threesome leads to a suspension for an attorney. [Legal Profession Blog]

* A $25 million settlement is expected for the Trump University fraud case. [New York Daily News]

* A new spin on CLEs. [ABA Journal]

* Low divorce rates are bad for lawyers. [Law and More]

* The lawsuit filed by Harris Faulkner over the Hasbro toy named Harris Faulkner has been settled. [Jezebel]

* A look at LGBT claims in state courts. [Lambda Legal]

* The NCAA and UCLA are being sued over concussions in college football. [Los Angeles Times]

* This is a complete waste of judicial resources. [Slate]

* A look at the VP debate live tweets. [Law and More]

* Mike Pence’s terrible legacy on reproductive freedom. [Salon]

* 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]

* Behold! The power of a single judge. A Brazilian state judge shuts down Brazil’s most popular chat app, WhatsApp, for 72 hours. [The Intercept]

* The 16 most… unique legal defenses in history. [Reeves Law Group]

* Do ponytails count as a professional hairstyle? [Corporette]

* Former clerks of the late justice speak about Scalia’s legacy. [C-SPAN]

* Can the Urban Confessional Project actually help stressed-out lawyers? [Law and More]

* Germany is annulling the convictions of 50,000 men for homosexuality, saying the victims of this now obsolete law shouldn’t have to live with the stigma of conviction. [Wonkette]

* Michael Ratner, noted civil rights attorney who challenged the government’s detention of prisoners without judicial review at Guantánamo Bay, RIP. [New York Times]

* Remember how Villanova won the NCAA men’s basketball championship on a crazy buzzer beater? It didn’t hurt to have support from the man upstairs or at least from the priest on their bench. Father Rob Hagan is a criminal lawyer turned chaplain for the Villanova men’s basketball team. [Coverage Opinions]

* The Department of Justice has come to the completely obvious conclusion that North Carolina’s potty police bill violates the Civil Right Act, and now millions in federal school funding are in jeopardy. Just what the world needs, a decline in the education of the people that passed HB2. [Charlotte Observer]

* An interesting proposal says law schools and engineering programs should share curriculum. But I was assured there’d be no math… [Chronicle of Higher Education]

* The West Point debate team may have lost to a team from the Bard Prison Initiative, but they gained a lot in the process. [Washington Post]

* Yeah, bar exam results from everywhere have been bad, but these Kansas results are really bad. [Bar Exam Stats]

* An illuminating interview with author Anthony Papa, who was granted clemency after serving 12 years for a non-violent drug offense. [Keri Blakinger]

* How well do states do when they are in front of the Supreme Court, and which are the most successful? [Empirical SCOTUS]

* Watch out, law students! Democratic politician Darren Soto is in hot water for what he wrote as part of Law Revue. [Gawker]

* Bernie may be complaining about Hillary’s fundraising, but according to election law expert Rick Hasen, “legally this seems weak.” Well, when you are alleging someone is breaking the law, “legally weak” is good enough. [The Atlantic]

* Fourth Circuit to the rescue! Today, the court held that federal law prevents public schools from banning students from using bathrooms that align with their gender identity. [Slate]

* Predictions on how the justices will wind up voting in U.S. v. Texas. [Empirical SCOTUS]

* A new day, a new lawsuit against Trump. Filed yesterday, Cheryl Jacobus is suing for defamation, and Michelle Fields seems like she might not be far behind. [The Slot]

* ICYMI, here’s our own Elie Mystal talking elections on Morning Joe. [MSNBC]

* Need more time to focus on business development? Delegate your work. [Reboot Your Law Practice]

* If Justice Scalia had lived to July, he may have undone all of the advances of the Obama administration, which probably explains why the Republicans are so hard up about Merrick Garland’s nomination. [Slate]

* Feeling inspired by HBO’s Confirmation? Get the skinny on what it’s like to try a discrimination case. [Forensis Group]

* The Office of the Solicitor General has had quite the heavy workload this term. [Empirical SCOTUS]

* The Supreme Court won’t hear the Authors Guild appeal to the Second Circuit ruling in favor of Google for its book scanning project. [Techdirt]

* Gay republican confronts Ted Cruz over religious-freedom inspired laws. Let’s just say Cruz didn’t come off as a defender of LGBTQ rights. [Huffington Post]

* An illuminating interview with Wendy Davis, on what’s next following her defeat in the Texas Gubernatorial race. [Jezebel]

* St. Mary’s law professor David Grenardo on why the NCAA system is unfair, and as a former college football player, he knows what he is talking about. [San Antonio Express-News]

* Feel utterly powerless at your law firm? You aren’t alone, and here are some tips for reclaiming your power. [Law and More]

* When you are engaging with a threatening opponent, make sure you never let your guard down. [Katz Justice]

* One of the lasting legacies of the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearing, about to get the dramatic treatment by HBO, is the creation of the Independent Women’s Forum, a conservative, anti-feminist powerhouse. [Slate]

* Barbara MF Streisand is weighing in on the state of the Supreme Court, because why wouldn’t you care about what Funny Girl has to say about the Court. [Huffington Post]

* U.S. District Judge Jeremy D. Fogel is preaching the benefits of mindfulness. [WSJ Law Blog]

* Looking back on the history of legal blogging. [Big Law Business]

* Yeah, cops have no idea how they are supposed to enforce the North Carolina anti-LGBTQ bill. [Gawker]

* Don’t forget! We are taking submission for ATL’s annual Law Revue Contest. Deadline is April 18th. [Above the Law]

* The deal to combine drug giants Allergan and Pfizer in an inversion was called off after the US Treasury announced new rules to limit the tax benefits of moving the corporate headquarters overseas. [Quartz]

* Should the IRS be going after the Pittsburgh Penguins for letting Sidney Crosby live in the owner’s house? [Bloomberg / BNA]

* Pretty sure Vivia Chen has covered all the options in her latest article exploring the benefits of having women leaders at law firms. [Careerist]

* Corporations may be taking an active role in opposing the recent spate of anti-LGBTQ legislation, but that still doesn’t make them people. [Reuters]

* “Jackie” from the Rolling Stone UVA rape article, which is now the subject of litigation, will have to testify in the pending action, despite her lawyer’s claim that revisiting the incident would be traumatizing. [Gawker]

* Is the Bible about to become the official state symbol of Tennessee? [NPR]

* Claiming to be a sovereign citizen is silly, and it certainly won’t insulate you from charges of chid sex abuse and kidnapping. [Jezebel]

* Perversely, Antonin Scalia’s death may have saved public unions. [Slate]

* Will online law schools radically alter the landscape of legal education? [Law Reboot]

* Justice Scalia’s death has changed how frequently the remaining justices speak. [Empirical SCOTUS]

* A criminal-defense attorney hasn’t sat on the Supreme Court’s bench in 25 years, but is that really a problem? [Vox]

* Follow-up on the racist meme that circulated at Cornell Law. [College Fix]

* Laurence Tribe discusses the Merrick Garland nomination. [NBC]

* The North Carolina anti-LGBTQ law is now the subject of a lawsuit, because obviously. [Fusion]

* Legal showdown averted (for now): the feds were able to access the data on the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone without any help from Apple. [Washington Post]

* A Harvard Law School grad stands accused of a $95 million fraud scheme — yikes. We’ll have more on this later. [ABA Journal]

* Does a sentencing delay violate the Sixth Amendment right to a speedy trial? Some on SCOTUS seem skeptical. [How Appealing]

* Georgia Governor Nathan Deal announces his intention to veto the Free Exercise Protection Act, which critics claimed would have protected discrimination as a form of religious liberty. [New York Times]

* Hillary Clinton takes Republicans to task for their handling of the current Supreme Court vacancy. [Wisconsin State Journal via How Appealing]

* Some thoughts from Professor Noah Feldman on the recent Seventh Circuit ruling about the use of form contracts on the internet (which nobody reads). [Bloomberg View]

* Save money (on taxes), live better: a federal judge strikes down a tax levied by Puerto Rico on mega-retailer Wal-Mart. [Reuters]

* The Bracewell law firm, now sans Giuliani, elects Gregory Bopp as its new managing partner. [Texas Lawyer]

* In the case of Merrick Garland, maybe a nice guy could actually finish first. [Washington Post]

* The cases and issues that may result in a 4-4 tie on the Supreme Court. [Jost on Justice]

* Was Sandra Day O’Connor’s vote in Casey v. Planned Parenthood the actual death knell for reproductive freedom? [Slate]

* Chief Justice John Robert plays Carnac the Magnificent, and actually predicted the mess the Supreme Court nomination process has turned into. [Huffington Post]

* I doubt capitalism can really solve for the prejudice behind the anti-LGBTQ legislation that Georgia’s legislature passed, but it can provide enough pressure for the governor to veto it. [Lawyers, Guns and Money]

* Lessons for lawyers whose careers go off the track from former Lehman CFO Erin Callan. [Law and More]

* You may have heard about North Carolina’s new anti-LGBTQ law (and the inauspicious circumstances surrounding its passage), but it seems unlikely to withstand constitutional muster. [Slate]

* In the latest case before the Supreme Court over the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive provision, the conservative justices — all male, natch — fail to grasp the basics of contraceptives, insurance. [Talking Points Memo]

* Previewing the issues in United States Army Corps of Engineers v. Hawkes surrounding finality under the Clean Water Act. [SCOTUSblog]

* Republicans are in favor of open-carry laws, but what about at their own convention? [Gawker]

* Vice President Joe Biden has some biting words over Congress’s obstructionist plan over Merrick Garland’s nomination. [Huffington Post]

* Is there really strong opposition to free trade? Has the U.S. plunged into a policy without caring about the repercussions of said policy? [Lawyers, Guns and Money]

* Jian Ghomeshi was acquitted on sexual abuse charges, and now the complaining witnesses are talking about their experiences with the justice system. [Jezebel]