Reed O’Connor

* Michael Cohen: The Movie? Cooley Law’s most infamous graduate could soon be on the big screen, because Trump’s former lawyer/fixer and soon-to-be federal inmate was seen meeting “Pulp Fiction” and “Inglourious Basterds” producer Lawrence Bender. [Page Six]

* Judge Reed O’Connor has stayed his ill-conceived ruling that the Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional since many people have already purchased their health insurance plans. Gee thanks, Your Honor. How considerate! [National Law Journal]

* SCOTUS has kept a pretty low profile in the wake of Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation, but that may soon change thanks to the high-profile appeals the justices will be considering. Get ready for some dramatic 5-4 decisions. [Associated Press]

* Speaking of SCOTUS drama, perhaps you’ve been wondering why Chief Justice Roberts intervened in the Mueller investigation. Mueller’s team submitted its briefs on the matter on Friday night, so we’ll soon find out what’s going on. [POLITICO]

* There were a ton of pay equity disputes litigated in 2018, and you can probably expect to see even more in the year to come. In fact, the Supreme Court take a case on the gender-based salary differences soon. Stay tuned. [National Law Journal]

* “Big Law killed my husband.” For far too long, lawyers’ mental health was ignored, but the subject came to a head in 2018. Going forward, more attention will be paid to depression, substance abuse, and other problems lawyers face. [American Lawyer]

* Kevin Spacey was seen delivering pizza to paparazzi in Baltimore, Maryland, ahead of his arraignment for felony sexual assault next week. This is the first time he’s been seen in public since allegations of this kind were first revealed. [TMZ]

* Nancy Gertner and Laurence Tribe take Alan Dershowitz to task for his unorthodox analysis of the sentencing proceedings of General Michael Flynn. [Boston Globe]

* In this elegant essay, Jane Chong uses two notable new books — To End a Presidency: The Power of Impeachment, by Laurence Tribe and Joshua Matz, and the updated edition of Charles Black’s classic, Impeachment: A Handbook, with a new preface and additional chapters by by Philip Bobbitt (affiliate links) — as the jumping-off point for reflections on impeachment, law, and politics. [Los Angeles Review of Books]

* Judges often struggle when it comes to sentencing — and that’s as it should be, according to veteran defense lawyer and former prosecutor Joel Cohen. [New York Law Journal]

* Yes, more of President Donald Trump’s judicial nominees have been rated “not qualified” by the American Bar Association compared to the nominees of his four most-recent predecessors — but as Patrick Gregory explains, there are some reasons for this (most notably, the Trump Administration’s decision to stop giving the ABA a sneak peek at nominees, which allowed past administrations to simply pull nominees the ABA deemed unqualified). [Big Law Business]

* Jonathan Adler has many problems with the recent ruling by Judge Reed O’Connor (N.D. Tex.) on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act — including the fact that Judge O’Connor ruled in the first place. [Volokh Conspiracy / Reason]

* Former public defender Stephen Cooper flags an issue that many reporters probably haven’t thought much about: “When Will Journalism Grapple With the Ethics of Interviewing Mentally Ill Arrestees?” [CounterPunch]

* As 2018 draws to a close, the U.S. Chamber offers up its annual list of the year’s Top 10 Most Ridiculous Lawsuits.
[Faces of Lawsuit Abuse]

* Looking ahead to 2019, the new year could ring in new legislation that could help lower drug prices by facilitating the timely entry of generics into the market, as Alaric DeArment reports. [MedCity News]

* In case you missed it (the news broke on Friday night), Judge Reed O’Connor (N.D. Tex.) held that the Affordable Care Act aka Obamacare is unconstitutional, in the wake of last year’s tax reform that reduced the ACA’s “shared responsibility payment” for lacking health-care coverage to zero. [MedCity News]

* Josh Blackman agrees with Judge O’Connor the constitutionality of the individual mandate, but disagreed with his severability analysis. [Reason / Volokh Conspiracy]

* Meanwhile, fellow Volokh Conspirator Samuel Bray is glad that the court didn’t issue a national injunction. [Reason / Volokh Conspiracy]

* Adam Feldman takes a closer look at the Federal Circuit’s relationship to the Supreme Court — including which members of the Federal Circuit are most frequently vindicated by SCOTUS. [Empirical SCOTUS]

* Carrie Severino shares the disappointment of her former boss, Justice Thomas, in Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Kavanaugh voting against certiorari in Gee v. Planned Parenthood of Gulf Coast. [Bench Memos / National Review]

* Eric Turkewitz calls out members of the media for misreporting on a routine trip-and-fall case because they don’t like the plaintiff’s famous father. [New York Personal Injury Law Blog]

* Oakland is going on the offensive against the NFL, firing off a 49-page complaint signed by James Quinn of Berg & Androphy, among others. [The MMQB / Sports Illustrated]

* Speaking of Berg & Androphy, name partner David Berg offers expert insights on what it takes to win as a trial lawyer. [YouTube]

* Kellyanne Conway, President-elect Trump’s campaign manager, has accepted a position as his counselor once his administration takes over at the White House, and now her husband, George Conway of Wachtell Lipton, has found himself on the shortlist to become the U.S. solicitor general. He’s argued only one Supreme Court case, which is unusual for those being considered for the position. [Bloomberg Politics]

* In his year-end report on the federal judiciary, Chief Justice John Roberts managed to steer clear of controversial topics — such as the high court being short handed since Justice Scalia’s death or the Senate’s failure to confirm Judge Merrill Garland — instead choosing to focus on the “underappreciated” role of district court judges, writing that “[t]his is no job for impulsive, timid, or inattentive souls.” [Washington Post]

* “There’s no legitimacy to a Supreme Court justice in a seat that’s been stolen from one administration and handed to another. We need to do everything we possibly can to block it.” When it comes to the confirmation process for President-elect Trump’s SCOTUS nominee, we can expect to see a battle thanks to Senate Democrats in the wake of Senate Republicans’ obstruction of Judge Garland’s nomination. [The Guardian]

* One day before they were set to go into effect, Judge Reed O’Connor of the Northern District of Texas issued a nationwide injunction on the enforcement of the Affordable Care Act’s protections for transgender and abortion-related healthcare services. O’Connor is the same judge who issued a nationwide injunction on the enforcement of the Obama administration’s transgender protections in schools. [BuzzFeed]

* Convicted Charleston church shooter Dylann Roof, who is representing himself for the penalty phase of his trial, has rejected a defense based on mental illness because he is “morally opposed to psychology.” He’ll make an opening statement, but won’t call any witnesses or present any evidence. If Roof is sentenced to death, it will be the first time a jury has done so in a case involving a federal hate crimes law. [New York Times]