OWS

Barack Obama

Morning Docket: 07.03.12

* Obama’s win for health care reform didn’t result in a polling bump for him, but it did result in an even higher disapproval rating for SCOTUS, at least as far as Republicans are concerned… [POLITCO; CBS News] * … which may be why Chief Justice John Roberts escaped to “an impregnable island fortress” to avoid the Right’s fury, criticism, and scorn as soon as he could after the ACA opinion dropped. [New York Times] * “[W]e have learned from the mistakes that were made.” That lesson only cost a few billion dollars. GlaxoSmithKline will pay $3B in the largest health-care fraud settlement in U.S. history. [Wall Street Journal] * After losing a bid to quash a subpoena, Twitter has to turn over info about an #OWS protester’s tweets. OMG, please respond to that thing in 140 characters or less. [Bloomberg] * Unlike most recent law school grads, Yale Law’s Vanessa Selbst hasn’t been hedging her bets in bar prep classes. Instead, she went all in, played her cards right, and won $244K at the World Series of Poker. [ESPN] * Divorce really does bring out the best in people. Alec Baldwin says that if given the chance, he would murder his ex-wife Kim Basinger’s lawyer “with a baseball bat.” Gee, tell us how you really feel. [New York Post]

Biglaw

Non-Sequiturs: 05.01.12

* Now wait a minute, I think being a Biglaw lawyer can be pretty disappointing, but nothing compares to Jar-Jar. [Constitutional Daily] * How much child support does an aging supermodel need? Sorry, lemme rephrase lest you think I’m calling supermodels child-like. How much does an aging supermodel need for child support? [Fashionista] * It is kind of funny that we still “swear people in” before they testify. [Simple Justice] * You really have to go out of your way to find voter fraud. [Election Law Blog] * Is it time to make horse racing illegal? I mean, people only watch it once a year anyway. [Legal Blitz] * I’m not sure what the point would be of dropping the LSAT requirement. So schools who can’t attract students who do well on the LSAT don’t get embarrassed by U.S. News every year? Oh wait, yeah that’s it. [LSAT Blog] * Yeah, I’m pretty sure everybody who was ever let go by either Dewey or LeBoeuf is feeling pretty good right now. [Huffington Post] * Honestly cannot deal with Occupy anymore. It’s an election year. How are these people not in a phone bank? [Dealbreaker]

4th Circuit

Morning Docket: 01.24.12

* First the Jones verdict, then the Fourth Circuit affirmed the dismissal of Jose Padilla’s torture lawsuit. It’s enough to make ACLUers develop bipolar disorder. [Washington Post] * Release the Kagan! The Supreme Court rejected Freedom Watch’s motion for time to argue that Justice Elena Kagan should recuse herself from the Obamacare case. [CNN] * […]

Free Speech

On The Train With Occupy Protesters As They Roll Toward Trinity Church

Elie bumped into some would-be Occupy Wall Street protesters looking to join the movement after the main group was evicted from Zuccotti Park under the cover of darkness early yesterday morning. The people on the train asked for my legal advice. He laughed -- then told them he could do them one better. Let's see if we can't crowdsource a legal recourse for the Occupy protesters now that big bad Bloomberg has put his jackboot on the movement....

Boalt Hall

The Berkeley Beatings

Many of you have heard about the beatings that took place at UC Berkeley's Occupy Berkeley protests. Here's a memo for police: next time you simply must beat unarmed protesters who are not threatening you, maybe you shouldn't do it in front of a law school....

Defamation

Morning Docket: 11.10.11

* Herman Cain’s got Wood over all of these sexual harassment accusers. No, seriously. He hired Bryan Cave defector L. Lin Wood to handle his possible defamation claims. [WSJ Law Blog] * Sad and depressing old man news: Joe Paterno’s legal innocence was irrelevant. Instead of letting him retire at the end of the year, […]

California

Oakland Goes on Strike, Except for the Lawyers

There was more excitement in Oakland Wednesday, as several thousand people enacted a citywide "general strike" and marched across town and "took over" the Port of Oakland. At least one Oakland law firm tried to keep its motor running through the ruckus, although building management locked the building down like a private tiger collection. Let's take a look at the official memo, courtesy of an anonymous tipster....

Election 2012

Then, I Had To Defend Occupy Wall Street

When producers for the Mike Huckabee show on Fox called, Elie thought they were interested in his thoughts about what the Occupy Wall Street crowd was doing wrong. But no, they had a real live Tea Party organizer to handle that side of the argument. Instead, the producers wanted him to defend the OWS protesters. How did he do?

Election 2012

ATL Field Trip: A Visit to Occupy Wall Street

Over the weekend, Lat realized that he needed some new white dress shirts. So he headed downtown to the Brooks Brothers at One Liberty Plaza in Manhattan. One Liberty Plaza happens to be located across the street from Zuccotti Park, site of the Occupy Wall Street protests. Since he was going to be in the neighborhood, he decided to pay a visit to OWS. What did he observe?