Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 06.03.26

* In another shadow docket order, Supreme Court allows Alabama to move forward this cycle with new maps that John Roberts thought were too racist until he decided Republicans needed help in the midterms. [CNBC]

* Note that Alabama needed the Supreme Court to bend every rule for them because they missed the deadline because... they were celebrating the birthday of Jefferson Davis, which is a holiday there. [Courthouse News Service]

* Free PACER bill is back! [Law360]

* AI already beginning to unsettle the billable hour. [LA Times]

* Todd Blanche testifies that the "Anti-weaponization fund" is dead. At least the people this decision disappoints have never turned their grievances into violent riots. [PBS]

* Unqualified judicial nominee confirmed. [Reuters]

* Compensation suit against Kasowitz forced into arbitration. [New York Law Journal]

Morning Docket: 06.02.26

* Judges increasingly calling out DOJ abuses. [NY Times]

* Texas Supreme Court bans judge from requiring facemasks in courtroom due to her own autoimmune disorder. Because facemasks (and autoimmune disorders) are woke. [ABA Journal]

* Attorneys deny role in Biglaw insider trading scheme. [Law360]

* January 6 slush fund on hold after court ruling. [Reuters]

* Firms have embraced AI as a strategy tool, but have mostly stopped short of trusting its outcome predictions. [Law.com]

* Supreme Court dissents tell the story. The majority has compromised the rule of law for the expediency of imposing policy. [Daily Report]

* Blake Lively seeking punitive damages now. [Courthouse News Service]

Morning Docket: 06.01.26

* DOJ wants Judge Eleanor Ross removed from legal effort to seize Georgia's voting rolls, claiming reports that she attended her friend's Democratic primary victory party proves she's biased. The defendant in this case is the Republican Georgia state government by the way. [Bloomberg Law News]

* Federal judges asked to adopt new rule to deal with AI research requiring litigants to verify that cited cases are accurate. We used to call that... the existing rule. [Reuters]

* Scheduling order suggests the Eleventh Circuit might be running out of patience with Aileen Cannon suppressing the Jack Smith report. [Civil Discourse]

* Winston Taylor goes live. [Legal Cheek]

* Ohio looks to junk ABA law school accreditation too. [ABA Journal]

* Judge blocks Kennedy Center name change citing... the explicit statute barring the Kennedy Center name change. [Courthouse News Service]

* Former DOJ national security lawyer joins Cravath. [Law360]

* The looming legal fight over data centers. [Law.com]

Morning Docket: 05.29.26

* Amy Coney Barrett targeted with possible swatting call. [NBC News]

* CFPB is already undermining and bad-mouthing its own career attorneys, but its return to office plan might actually make some people quit. [Law360]

* Former Biglaw lawyer breaks down how the system is broken. [NY Times]

* Stephen Colbert tested intellectual property law on his way out. [Bloomberg Law News]

* CNN sues Perplexity for using its content to provide users with material that keeps users from ever clicking on CNN. [New York Law Journal]

* Biglaw itself may pose the biggest threat to Harvey and Legora. [The Information]

Morning Docket: 05.28.26

* Justice Department launching criminal investigation of E. Jean Carroll, in case you were wondering how the whole "weaponization of the DOJ against the president's enemies" is going. [BBC News]

* Kirkland & Ellis plans to spend half a billion to build their own AI technology, which in about 18 months will almost assuredly be worse than Claude. [Financial Times]

* CFTC overturning penalties secured by career attorneys against Trump donors. [CNBC]

* Fenwick paying $54 million to settle case over its FTX representation. [American Lawyer]

* Chancery slams WWE from the top rope. [Delaware Business Court Insider]

* Trump's executive order purporting to ban mail-in ballots stands... for now. [NPR]

* Want to know how to get $9 million as an AI-native law firm? Here's how Moritz did it. [Business Insider]

Morning Docket: 05.27.26

* "A fake Mossad agent. Twin grifters. The nation’s top lawman. A head-spinning legal drama has attorney general Todd Blanche fighting off accusations of forgery, malpractice, and more." There's a tagline for you. [Vanity Fair]

* Wiley Rain sued over cyberattack breach. [Bloomberg Law News]

* Supreme Court refuses to intervene in the discrimination case Brian Flores brought against the NFL. [ESPN]

* Alabama judge suspended for putting off hearings to walk her dogs. [AL.com]

* Wachtell faces lateral market pressure. [American Lawyer]

* Thomas and Alito mad that Court won't allow Florida to sue California over drivers' licenses. [MS Now]

* Supreme Court retirement!!! (In the UK). [Legal Cheek]

Morning Docket: 05.26.26

* Judge tosses Kilmar Abrego Garcia charges as result of vindictive prosecution. [Reuters]

* Hogan Lovells and Cadwalader clearing final hurdles before merger. [American Lawyer]

* Former U.S. Attorney arrested for hit-and-run. [ABA Journal]

* In-house counsel are getting paid more... but actual authority remains a bigger gap. [Corporate Counsel]

* Authorities warning of "anti-tech extremism" because of AI backlash. [WIRED]

* Former prosecutor launches another suit over Trump's January 6 slush fund. [Law360]

* Law schools need to teach AI faster, but it's hard to build a curriculum around something that's changed a thousand times in the last three years. [Bloomberg Law News]

Morning Docket: 05.22.26

* Michael Cohen says he's applying to the DOJ slush fund. Let's see how this plays out. [Daily Beast]

* Gibson Dunn and Davis Polk eye largest IPO in history -- a $2 trillion valuation for a company that brings in about $15 billion a year. Who doesn't love a 130x valuation? [Bloomberg Law News]

* Tom Goldstein hires Elizabeth Prelogar. So he knows he's heading for an appeal. [Law360]

* If it seems like Todd Blanche has reoriented the whole DOJ around delivering illicit gifts to Trump, it's because he has -- and it's why he's going to keep his job. [Politico]

* Company turns over its outside counsel engagement process to an AI bot. What could go wrong? [Roll on Friday]

* New report says the administration will move immigration lawyers into the DOJ to "speed up" the process. [Reuters]

* ChatGPT confesses to crime that it didn't commit. [Lowering the Bar]

Morning Docket: 05.21.26

* Government charges former DOJ lawyer with keeping a copy of Jack Smith's report on Trump criminal conduct. Maybe if she'd kept the report in her resort pool locker she'd be all right. [Reuters]

* Paul Weiss seen as "rebalancing" as litigators depart. [American Lawyer]

* And on that subject, Paul Weiss loses another litigation partner. [Bloomberg Law News]

* Judge orders Trump administration to comply with presidential records law. [Washington Post]

* Lawyer and "influencer" daughter arrested in bizarre murder-for-hire plot to kill boy band member... you have one guess which state. [Fox 35]

* Appellate court doesn't seem to be buying the Jack Daniel's bid to silence a dog toy parody. [Law360]

* Senate confirms U.S. Attorney right after judges had to toss several indictments citing his misconduct, but... YOLO. [ABA Journal]

Morning Docket: 05.20.26

* Former member of Watergate prosecution team explains how Trump's January 6 slush fund exposes DOJ lawyers to fraud charges down the road. Not if they all get pardons first... [Bloomberg Law News]

* James Comey realizes he's probably one of the only people actually due some money from this "anti-weaponization" fund, which is both true and honestly hilarious. [The Hill]

* Reed O'Connor "enjoins" hospital from complying with federal judge ruling from their own state. In a normal world, that would be a swift impeachment and removal from the bench, but it's the full Caligula era now. [Slate]

* Todd Blanche seems to be lying under oath, which honestly tracks. [The New Republic]

* NYC lateral hiring at 3-year high. [New York Law Journal]

* Alex Murdaugh now suing the clerk whose actions led to his murder convictions getting overturned. [ABA Journal]

* Boies Schiller and Dentons defeat RICO suit brought by former client. [Reuters]

* Quinn Emanuel sanctioned... more. [Law360]

Morning Docket: 05.19.26

* Department of Justice announces it has settled Trump's lawsuit against the IRS and the judge acknowledged that she has no grounds to block the settlement. Now $1.8 billion in taxpayer funds will go into a non-reviewable fund to compensate January 6 rioters. [NBC News]

* Top Treasury lawyer abruptly quits after announcement of rioter slush fund. [WSJ]

* Interview with Legal Aid attorney present as baby born during arraignment denies account of woman's lawyer, and says mother was restrained the whole time. [Hell Gate]

* Wrongfully convicted defendants in Pennsylvania have to fight their own lawyers for chance at freedom. [Inquirer]

* Elon loses lawsuit trying to tear down OpenAI. [Corporate Counsel]

* Constipation drug illegally blocked up by antitrust violation. Jury finding sets market on path to regularity. [Reuters]

* Some chemicals may be forever, but EPA regulations against them aren't as Trump administration lifting rules against poisons. [Law360]

* Are Harvey and Legora on borrowed time? [Law.com International]

* Partner advertised mentoring sessions on TikTok. [Legal Cheek]

Morning Docket: 05.18.26

* California moving closer to adopting NextGen UBE, coming full circle back to the same dumb arrangement that ran them into the red the first time. [ABA Journal]

* Former CFTC leaders worry the agency can't handle regulating crypto and prediction markets, but they're missing the trick: taking jurisdiction over those industries and then doing nothing is easy! [Bloomberg Law News]

* Supreme Court rejects Virginia's bid to use a Trump administration argument to overturn their own state supreme court's comically reasoned decision. [NY Times]

* Proposed class action accuses Amazon of foregoing tariff refunds to make Trump happy. [Law360]

* Applicants who don't go to ABA-accredited law schools are less likely to pass bar exam, more likely to be disciplined. Well, it's a good thing a bunch of states are making high-profile breaks from the ABA, huh? [Law.com]

* Harvey Weinstein rape trial ends in mistrial. [Reuters]

* DOJ eyes AI to analyze price-fixing and collusion, hopefully allowing antitrust officials identify companies to settle with in exchange for a Trump Organization kickback. [Corporate Counsel]

Morning Docket: 05.15.26

* Elon Musk leaves country despite judge in OpenAI trial warning him that he wasn't excused. [Independent]

* Clients don't mind lawyers working from home, blowing up a key law firm excuse for aggressive back to office drives. [Roll on Friday]

* Supreme Court allows mifepristone telesales to continue -- suddenly Alito and Thomas are very angry about the shadow docket. [NBC News]

* Ethics lawyer calls out "fundamental threat" to profession in DOJ effort to sue D.C. Bar into refusing to enforce ethical rules against government lawyers [National Law Journal]

* Judge blocks Texas immigration law noting that "it is implausible to imagine" every state having its own immigration law. [Texas Tribune]

* Wilson Sonsini handing out big bucks to encourage pro bono work. [American Lawyer]

* Supreme Court says courts continue to have power over cases they've sent to arbitration. [Law360]

Morning Docket: 05.14.26

* The DOJ takes the fight against law firms that refused to bow to Trump's intimidation campaign to the appellate court. [National Law Journal]

* Federal judge has concerns over SEC's sweetheart Elon Musk settlement. [Reuters]

* DOJ sues D.C. Bar for seeking professional discipline against Trump allied lawyers. There's a reason... they understand bar discipline is coming for them all and they want to get a head start in intimidating licensing authorities to stay out of it. [NY Times]

* Private equity firms are unhappy with lawyer rates. Boo hoo. [Financial Times]

* Anthropic bid to become the legal industry's AI front door and now it's up to the rest of the tech industry to figure out how to react. [Legaltech News]

* Judge McElroy absolutely lets the DOJ have it in attempt to subpoena hospital records of trans patients. [Boston Globe]

Morning Docket: 05.13.26

* Claude launches legal industry blitz, announcing connectors across the legal tech industry. [LawSites]

* Former DLA Piper associate sues firm alleging she was fired after revealing her Palestinian heritage. [American Lawyer]

* SEC junks rule barring defendants from denying settled allegations -- a rule that exists because keeping market fraudsters from lying to their investors is kind of a big deal. [National Law Journal]

* Sam Altman tells jury he believes he's trustworthy. Which is also what ChatGPT says and we know how that turns out. [Law360]

* Interim NDNY US Attorney committed professional misconduct according to disciplinary authorities. [ABA Journal]

* Biden fighting back against DOJ plan to release tapes of meetings with biographer. [Politico]

* Judge Liman getting very tired of this Lively-Baldoni case. [Page Six]