Marco Rubio

* If you thought leading a horse to water was hard enough, Trump allegedly tried to pay attorney fees with one. This is why you collect upfront, ladies and gents. [Huff Po]

* Longtime readers will recognize a familiar face on Mediaite! [Mediaite]

* Marco Rubio thinks that Trump’s alleged “document grab” that allegedly poses “an international security risk” is really just a security issue. [Huff Po]

* California knows how to raise minimum wage up to $22. Will they though? [WMUR]

* Texan Methodist Church thinks that Dobbs violates freedom of religion. Can’t wait to follow this suit with popcorn in hand. [WFAA]

Spoiler Alert: The bitch did not, in fact, set him up.

Facts, they're important.

Marco Rubio's not having a great time on Twitter.

* Even Jonathan Adler, no fan of Obamacare, can’t support the Justice Department’s shift of position in the ongoing Affordable Care Act litigation out of Texas. [Volokh Conspiracy / Reason]

* John Lauro continues to protect the reputation of his client Wendi Adelson, ex-wife of murdered law professor Dan Markel. [2paragraphs]

* Meanwhile, another player in the Dan Markel case — David Oscar Markus, counsel to Charlie Adelson — argues that Attorney General William Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein made the right call on obstruction of justice. [The Hill]

* Speaking of the Mueller investigation, Brianne Gorod points out that Congress has the power to ask the district court to release grand jury transcripts and related information from the case. [Take Care]

* Whether or not you agree with Senator Marco Rubio’s proposed constitutional amendment to fix the size of the U.S. Supreme Court at nine justices, it’s not a bad idea to think about possible ways to restructure SCOTUS — as Gordon Renneisen does here. [Law360]

* Meanwhile, as the Court grapples with the cross-shaped war memorial case this Term, Rick Garnett wonders: can a liberal state favor one religion over others? [First Things via PrawfsBlawg]

* Legal tech M&A activity continues apace, with vLex’s acquisition of Justis. [Artificial Lawyer]

* “We take the allegations against Justin very seriously.” Justin Fairfax, the lieutenant governor of Virginia who’s embroiled in a sexual assault scandal, has taken a leave of absence from Morrison & Foerster, where he’s a partner, as the firm itself conducts its own investigation into the allegations. [National Law Journal]

* High revenue and even higher demand resulted in law firms posting their best results since just before the recession, with Am Law 50 and niche/boutique firms outperforming the rest of their industry counterparts. Unfortunately, all of this good news could come to an end in 2020… [American Lawyer]

* Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), a former partner partner at Dorsey & Whitney and Gray Plant Mooty, has officially announced her candidacy for president, making her the fifth major player who’s a lawyer to join the Democratic race for 2020. [POLITICO]

* Thanks to the PBS show “Finding Your Roots,” Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) recently learned that he’s not the only lawyer in his family. The show helped him discover that his third great grandfather — a 1786 law graduate of the University of Granada — graduated 210 years before he graduated from Miami Law. [Tampa Bay Times]

* “This should be up to the highest court in the land. And she should stay out of jail until this case runs it course.” A lawyer for Michelle Carter, the Massachusetts woman who was convicted for involuntary manslaughter in her friend’s suicide-by-text, has vowed to take her case to the Supreme Court. [Boston Herald]

Repeat after me: Ryan Bounds is not a racist.

The nominee was a victim of unfairly late objections by Senate Republicans, strategic missteps by Republican leadership, or both.

* “If the law’s not going to be improved by Congress, we have to help these young people who are drowning in student loan debt.” In the past, judges would rarely consider helping people who were bankrupted by student debt payments, but now offering their support through the court system. [Wall Street Journal]

* Guess which Biglaw firm helped the United States Soccer Federation secure the 2026 World Cup? If you guessed it was the firm that celebrated its bid by not raising its associates’ salaries yet, you were right. Thanks, Latham! [American Lawyer]

* A judge approved AT&T’s acquisition of Time Warner on Tuesday, and two days later, it’s now complete. Although the Justice Department isn’t filing for a stay, that’s not going to stop lawyers in the Antitrust Division from appealing the judge’s decision in the case, though. [CNN]

* As our personal-finance columnist Jordan Rothman complained of earlier this week, it’s messed up that you can lose your law license after defaulting on your student loans. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Marco Rubio thought it was messed up too, so they introduced a bill to stop it from happening. [Law.com]

* RBG, the documentary about the life and times of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, is quite literally stealing the show. The film has made $9.2 million since its release, making it the highest-grossing movie of the Sundance Film Festival. I highly recommend seeing this movie. [Hollywood Reporter]

Marco Rubio predicts the success of a potential lawsuit.

The University of Miami newspaper finally admits that Marco Rubio went to UM Law after compiling some shockingly tepid quotes from people who knew him in school.

JEB!’s dead , baby… JEB!s dead.

Marco Rubio would like to dispel with this fiction that the Federal Reserve is run by Jedis.

What does the patron saint of conservatism think about a SCOTUS vacancy?

* Remember Kent and Jill Easter, the married lawyers who planted bags of weed and pills in the car of Kelli Peters, a PTA volunteer at their son’s school? Kent’s law license was suspended, Jill was disbarred, they’re now divorced, and to top it all off, a jury recently awarded Peters $5.7M in her case against them. [Orange County Register]

* The horror! The horror! Not only did Marco Rubio get his ass handed to him during this weekend’s Republican debate, but it turns out he’s accused of having been a law firm lobbyist for Florida firms Becker & Poliakoff and Broad and Cassel. [BuzzFeed News]

* A proposed ABA resolution that local bar groups think has to do with non-lawyer ownership of law firms — they’re not entirely sure, of course — is making the hair stand up on the back of attorneys’ necks. What could possibly go wrong? [WSJ Law Blog]

* Career alternatives for attorneys law school deans: David Yellen, dean of Loyola Law – Chicago for more than a decade (and former ATL columnist), will be leaving the law school game to assume the presidency at Marist College. [Poughkeepsie Journal]

* Applications may be down at Yale Law School when compared to prior years, but administrators aren’t exactly concerned about it. Come on, get real: It’s Yale, and the law school “still [has] more qualified applicants than [it] can accept.” [Yale Daily News]

* According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the legal profession celebrated the New Year by shedding 1,400 jobs. Don’t worry, 2016 graduates, there’s still a chance the job market could improve, but we’ll have to wait it out. [Big Law Business / Bloomberg BNA]

* Miriam Cedarbaum, longtime federal judge of the S.D.N.Y., RIP. [New York Times]

What would the top presidential candidates do -- if elected -- with white-collar criminal prosecutions?

Goldman has slapped a big old "SELL" on poor old JEB!

Whatever you might think of Trump’s plan as a policy matter, it is in full accordance with the Constitution, as columnist Kayleigh McEnany explains.

* Donald Trump has opinions on Supreme Court justices. He thinks that Roberts is “disgraceful,” that Scalia was “very tough” on black students, and that he loves Thomas. Perhaps he should take a cue from his favorite justice and shut up. [CNN; Associated Press]

* An easy peasy solution? Rather than amend the Constitution, Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio says that he’ll just appoint Supreme Court justices who will overturn the decision in the Obergefell case because he thinks that gay marriage is “bad law.” [ThinkProgress]

* Gibson Dunn has billed about $8 million to defend New Jersey Governor Chris Christie in the Bridgegate scandal thus far, so here’s a thought: perhaps you should show your hard-working associates some appreciation and announce bonuses already. [Fox News]

* Taylor Swift filed trademark applications for five signature phrases (Swiftmas, Blank Space, And I’ll Write Your Name, A Girl Named Girl, and 1989). If you infringe upon any of them, you can expect that she’ll be writing your name — on a lawsuit. [USA Today]

* Braeden Anderson, the Seton Hall law student and ball player who divides his time between the courtroom and the basketball court, has had one hell of a 1L year. When he graduates, this extremely lucky guy may have a job — with the NBA. [New York Times]

A GOP Debate "Fallacy Index" that “highlights each candidate’s average use of fallacious statements.”