Patent Reform

Non-Sequiturs

Non-Sequiturs: 06.11.15

* More whining about President Obama opining on Supreme Court cases while the justices "deliberate" -- as though anyone's opinion is up in the air. Apparently presidents have rarely done this. Fun fact: cynical lawyers have rarely gotten to the Supreme Court to attack a president's landmark legislation on a tortured textual reading, but here we are. [The Volokh Conspiracy / Washington Post] * It's like the Hangover. Except in prison. With more drugs. [Legal Juice] * Hey, remember when Jeb Bush got behind a law that required rape victims to publish their sexual histories in the newspaper until the law was shot down by the courts two years later? Good times. [Salon] * The Right proclaims Jeb Bush really doesn't believe in publicly shaming women for having sex. Hm. See item 3 supra. [Legal Insurrection] * Wow. The Senate actually passed something. It's a resolution hailing the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments. Is it a sign of my cynicism that I'm shocked even that got approved? [Constitutional Accountability Center] * Why the rationale of Roe doesn't really matter. [Lawyers, Guns & Money] * Fourth Circuit panel snipes at each other over whether to call out overzealous prosecutors. It got so bad they actually sealed the opinion. [Maryland Appellate Blog] * Derek Khanna has a new report on patent reform written with Lincoln Labs. The fundamental premise: patents are not encouraging innovation any more. [Lincoln Labs] * Watchdog is reporting that Kroll Associates conveniently overlooked dozens of terrible LSAT scores in its report on University of Texas admission standards. It bears repeating: just how dumb must Abigail Fisher be to not get into this school? [Watchdog] * A short memoir about suing The Grateful Dead. [The Faculty Lounge]

By Joe Patrice
Crime

Non-Sequiturs: 02.20.14

* Congrats to Weil Gotshal and Fenwick & West for getting in on Facebook’s $19 billion acquisition of WhatsApp, the biggest Internet deal in a decade. [The Recorder] * In South Carolina, you can get arrested for crimes that aren’t even things any more. Like “failure to return a VHS tape.” [Lowering the Bar] * Drunk lawyer at heart of alleged insider trading scheme. [Dealbreaker] * Did LBJ colossally screw up the Supreme Court? [Concurring Opinions] * Were you curious about who would be on the Mount Rushmore of Tax Law professors? No? Well, here they are anyway. [TaxProf Blog] * The so-called “trial penalty” is really a myth and empirical data confirms that defendants who reject plea deals and go to trial actually garner a “trial discount.” Yep, prosecutors aren’t overreaching at all. [PrawfsBlawg] * President Obama called for patent law reform in the State of the Union address. Now we have some insight into what he’s thinking about. [Patently-O] * Congratulations to Matthew Skinner, the next executive director of the LGBT Bar Association of Greater New York! [LeGal]

By Joe Patrice