Prostitution

Non-Sequiturs

Non-Sequiturs: 04.12.16

* Gauging the importance of Supreme Court decisions this Term based on media coverage. [Empirical SCOTUS] * Georgia is changing state law because UGA's football coach thinks it might help the team cover up a scandal and somehow the legislature thinks this makes sense. [SB Nation] * Did President Obama outthink himself on the Merrick Garland pick? [Guile Is Good] * Using expert witnesses to defeat class certification... an emerging tradition. [The Expert Institute] * Some graphics cross-referencing the laws around "burners" and global terrorism. [imgur] * Restraining order be damned! Montgomery Blair Sibley is releasing D.C. Madam contacts for our viewing pleasure. [WTOP] * What lawyer Scott Limmer learned from a yoga retreat. [Law Reboot]

By Joe Patrice
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 06.01.15

* A litigant with a Supreme pimp hand? Darius Clark, the man whose child-abuse case -- which is currently before SCOTUS -- will determine whether teachers may testify of behalf children, was indicted for allegedly running a prostitution ring from jail. [Northeast Ohio Media Group] * Judge Mark Fuller of the Middle District of Alabama was arrested last summer on domestic violence charges after his wife confronted him about an alleged affair with a law clerk. What a gent! He'll be resigning from the bench August 1. [USA Today] * You can roll your eyes at Rand Paul all you want, but several key parts of the Patriot Act expired shortly after midnight because the Senate was unable to reach a deal to extend it. (FYI, DOJ may still use grandfathered privacy-poaching techniques.) [New York Times] * "Nothing changes. The system is disgusting. There is no due process." Do you want to read the story that made Cuba's government ban an American legal journalist from any further coverage of the country's court system? Of course you do. [Daily Business Review] * “I can’t preserve caution in my delight with Ruth.” This is what retired Justice David Souter wrote about Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's performance after her first week on the bench. He already knew back then that she was no-no-no-NOTORIOUS. [Boston Globe] * Ex-House Speaker Dennis Hastert, who recently resigned from Dickstein Shapiro following his indictment, was allegedly paying a former student "hundreds of thousands of dollars" to keep quiet about past sexual abuse at the politician's hands. [New York Times] * Beau Biden, former state attorney general of Delaware, major in the Delaware Army National Guard’s JAG Corps, and son of Vice President Joe Biden, RIP. [Washington Post]

By Staci Zaretsky
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 04.17.15

* “The top is eroding and the bottom is growing." Even as class sizes get smaller and tuition gets lower, the law school brain drain continues. America's best and brightest won't be fooled into studying law when the job market is still so unstable, but others have been. [Bloomberg] * Attorneys for California's sex workers have filed suit to overturn the state's ban on prostitution, claiming that "[t]he rights of adults to engage in consensual, private sexual activity (even for compensation) is a fundamental liberty interest." Yeah, okay. [AP] * “The simple story is that $160,000 as a starting salary at large law firms is less prevalent than it was immediately prior to the recession." You can scream "NY TO 190K!" all you want, but starting salaries have remained flat. Sowwy. [DealBook / New York Times] * U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara of the Southern District of New York has involved himself in an "escalating war of words" with members of the federal judiciary that he may come to regret. Will this “petulant rooster" be able to kiss and make up? [New York Times] * Per a recently filed lawsuit, Alex Rodriguez of the Yankees still hasn't paid a single law firm for their representation in the Biogenesis case. He allegedly owes Gordon & Rees $380,059 in unpaid fees. Come on, A-Rod. You've got the cash. [New York Daily News] * Infamous plaintiffs' attorney Steven Donziger of the $9.5 billion Chevron / Ecuador kerfuffle decided that if he can't win his case in a court of law, he might as well try to win it in the court of public opinion. Check out his side of the story. [Law360 (sub. req.)]

By Staci Zaretsky
Non-Sequiturs

Non-Sequiturs: 04.13.15

* Attorney General Holder reminds the DOJ not to hire hookers. [Politico] * A new demographic angry over gay marriage: gay men who want to protect their sham marriages. Didn't expect this to be a fight. [Slate] * Once you've finished binge-watching on Netflix, we ask: is Matt Murdock an ethical lawyer? [Radford & Keebaugh] * Patent attorney David Healey at Fish and Richardson is coming out. Here's the trailer. [YouTube] * Richard Hsu talks about jumping off of perfectly good cliffs with Shane Glynn, Product Counsel at Google. [Hsu Untied] * Garry Trudeau explains that just because we can say something doesn't mean we should. Ken questions this logic. In the end though, he proves too much: there are so many powerful, biting criticisms to make that we shouldn't have to resort to dumb caricatures. [Popehat] * Intelligence Squared is hosting a debate on the death penalty. Watch it online Wednesday at 6:45 p.m. Eastern. [Fora.tv] * Is it just me, or does her account actually sound awfully suspicious? [Gawker] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fB_FZa8SNic

By Joe Patrice