Same-Sex Marriage

* E pluribus unum, says Penn State Law. [Collegian]

* The Senate has passed a bill protecting same-sex marriage. Up to you, House. [Guardian]

* California’s formerly incarcerated may actually have their debts considered paid soon. [NYT]

* Big Oil is opposed to new environmental laws. No way! [The Reg Review]

* Man, that guy could blow — trees: Famous saxophonist’s son in hot water after naming a weed brand after his father. [WMGK]

* “What’s really in name? Oh, that’s what it means! Yeah, let’s change that before we get sued.” The US Interior after doing quick Google searches of monument names, probably. [The Guardian]

* Another same-sex First Amendment case will be before the Supreme Court soon. You ever feel like you’re caught in a loop? [WSJ]

* South Carolina appeals court upholds lower court ruling that basically says, “You can’t just overrule Roe, dude.” Remember when 50ish years of precedent meant something? [Sun Herald]

* Oklahoma’s AG will be figuring out if time-honored literary classics like Lord of the Flies and Of Mice and Men are obscene. Trust, students see way worse content on Twitter. [Read Frontier]

* In case you missed it, Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh refused to condemn President Donald Trump’s attacks on the judiciary (specifically, his insults of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg), refused to say whether he believed same-sex marriage was a constitutional right, and once again denied discussing the Mueller probe with anyone at Kasowitz Benson. What will happen today? [Washington Post]

* President Donald Trump has reportedly called Attorney General Jeff Sessions “a dumb Southerner” and an “idiot” without an Ivy League law degree who “couldn’t even be a one-person country lawyer down in Alabama.” This Alabama Law professor wonders what’s so bad about a degree from Alabama Law. [New York Times]

* Per a new study from the American Bar Association, the sky is blue and women and minorities continue to face racial and gender bias within the legal profession. But, here are some tools to fight these problems. [DealBook / New York Times]

* Allen & Overy has published its 2018 gender pay gap figures, and it’s the first U.K. firm to include data from its “overwhelmingly male” partners in its disclosures. A&O’s median gender pay gap is 39 percent, a slight improvement. [Financial Times]

* It seems that the Justice Department no longer thinks that employers should be forced to consider job applicants with criminal histories, going against Obama-era guidance that the EEOC has been following since 2012. [National Law Journal]

* In an historic opinion, India’s Supreme Court ruled that gay sex between adults is not a crime, casting aside an “irrational, arbitrary, and incomprehensible” colonial-era law that made the act a punishable offense within the country. [Times of India]

* Fire alarms sounded at Miami Law as smoke poured through vents into a student lounge, and some students evacuated their classrooms, but others ran back in to save their laptops. Well, obviously — they’re law students, after all. [Miami Hurricane]

* Will Chief Justice John Roberts be asked to testify before Congress for his role as the appointer of judges for the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court? According to House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), it could happen, even though they “don’t know the correct way to proceed because of the separation of powers issue.” [National Law Journal]

* Quinn Emanuel’s Bill Burck is representing two Trump administration rejects (Steve Bannon and Reince Priebus) and a current major player in the Trump administration (Don McGahn), all at the same time. The discussion about whether there’s any conflict of interest here between Burck’s triple-play is pretty interesting. [American Lawyer]

* Sigfredo Garcia and Katherine Magbanua, who are both currently waiting to stand trial for the murder of Florida State Law Professor Dan Markel, are now facing some additional charges. The pair now face counts of conspiracy and solicitation to commit murder. We wonder when either of them will take a plea. [Tallahassee Democrat]

* In case you missed it, in a world first, Bermuda will be abolishing same-sex marriage, after legalizing same-sex marriage just one year ago. Same-sex marriages will now be referred to as domestic partnerships, conferring all the same rights that married couples have, but without the legal title. [Washington Post]

* Do you know this man? For years and years, this man’s portrait has been hanging outside the chief justice’s chambers at the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, but no one has any idea who he is. Help name this mystery justice and win a prize! [AP]

* Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell thinks that the people of Alabama should choose Attorney General Jeff Sessions as a write-in candidate to replace alleged pederast Roy Moore on the ballot for his former seat, but the AG has no desire to return to the Senate. [NPR]

* The Ninth Circuit has temporarily allowed part of Travel Ban 3.0 to proceed. While that means issuances of visas to citizens of Chad, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen will be restricted, there’s a catch. Applicants with concrete ties to the country will be exempt. [POLITICO]

* Wisconsin is so desperate to get lawyers to help indigent criminal defendants in rural areas that lawmakers have introduced new legislation that calls for the state to fund law school loan payments of up to $20,000 a year in exchange for the representation of these clients in need. [Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel]

* Newsflash: In-house legal departments are planning to spend more on outside counsel in 2018. This is the first time this will have happened in more than a decade. Hopefully Biglaw’s fee hikes don’t come back to bite them. [Corporate Counsel]

* After a two-month national postal survey, Australians have voted “overwhelmingly” in favor of same-sex marriage. Now it’s up to the country’s government to work out the details of the bill that will bring marriage equality down under. Congrats! [CNN]

* Special Counsel Robert Mueller obtained a warrant for targeted ads that were purchased by Russia-linked Facebook accounts during the 2016 election. The fact that Mueller was able to get a warrant “may be the biggest news in the case since the Manafort raid.” [Business Insider]

* Speaking of the Russia probe, yet another lawyer has joined Robert Mueller’s team. Say hello to Kyle Freeny, a former kindergarten teacher with a law degree from Harvard who transferred from the Justice Department’s money-laundering unit to contribute her talents to the ongoing investigation. [POLITICO]

* Sorry, kids, but lawyers are very, very, very expensive: Since the president has left his one-time associates high and dry, Michael Caputo, a former Trump campaign advisor, has been forced to drain his children’s college fund to pay for legal representation in the Russia probe. Horrible… [Washington Examiner]

* “It’s not about the cake. It is about discrimination.” When the Masterpiece Cakeshop case is argued before SCOTUS, Justice Anthony Kennedy — the man who wrote the opinion that legalized same-sex marriage in America — will likely be the deciding vote. Will be betray his legacy for free speech? [New York Times]

* Columbia Law School is offering students credits to meet their 40-hour pro bono requirement for graduation if they volunteer for the Columbia Human Rights Law Review’s Trump Human Rights Tracker, which keeps tabs on President Trump’s actions and their impacts on human rights. [FOX News]

* True confessions of a Biglaw partner. [Law Practice Today]

* If you could prevent one person on Trump’s shortlist from getting on the Court, who would it be? [Slate]

* Will President Trump, or in the alternative, Congress, do anything about the bane of lawyers’ existence: discovery? [The Hill]

* Tim Kaine had some pretty cool alternate plans on inauguration day. [Huffington Post]

* The Netherlands’s safe abortion fund. [The Slot]

* Forever 21’s fighting infringement. [The Fashion Law]

* If you’ll be in Philly on Monday the 30th, please come to “Fred Korematsu Day: A Conversation,” featuring Kermit Roosevelt, author of Allegiance (affiliate link), and our very own David Lat. [Japan America Society]

* A look at the Supreme Court’s IP docket for next Term. [The Fashion Law]

* The Los Angeles Rams just lost a lawsuit to its personal seat license holders back in St. Louis. [Deadspin]

* Judges in North Carolina can still refuse to perform same-sex weddings. And, it may not change any time soon. [The Atlantic]

* Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow (affiliate link), is taking a break from Ohio State’s Moritz College of Law to serve as a visiting professor at the Union Theological Seminary. [Union Theological Seminary]

* The uneven resources in local criminal prosecutions. [Katz Justice]

* Tiffany & Co. aggressively defends its trademarks. [Androvett Blog]

* The unnamed alleged Bridgegate co-conspirators will stay unnamed a little longer — District Judge Susan Wigenton has postponed the release of the names after Jenny R. Kramer of Chadbourne & Parke filed a motion alleging her client would be caused “immediate and irreparable reputational harm” if his name were released. [Gawker]

* Above the Law all-star Magistrate Judge Paul Grewal is leaving the judiciary for Facebook. [Recode]

* The story of how faulty jury instructions led to a second chance for almost 150 Maryland prisoners sentenced to life in prison. [Highline]

* District Judge Murray Snow found that Maricopa County, Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, along with three aides, violated a federal order designed to stop racial profiling. [Talking Points Memo]

* Manufacturing jobs are important, but the real key is union benefits for American workers. [Lawyers, Guns and Money]

* Catholic church be damned, Italy has legalized same-sex unions. [Slate]

* Thinking about transferring law schools? Get the ugly truth first. [Underdawg Law]

* Is it possible your smart phone shouldn’t be your everything? [What About Paris?]

* Now this is scholarship I can get behind: The Walking Dead Colloquium. [Savannah Law School]

* In trial be ready for anything… including vomit. [Katz Justice]

* NFL players and prospective law students — I totally get the similarities. [TaxProf Blog]

* Sigh… Mississippi. Still defending its ban on adoption by same-sex couples. [Slate]

* Free CLE! Next Thursday on “The U.S. & China: Perspectives on Brand Protection & Intellectual Property.” [AABANY]