Sanctuary Cities

Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 03.07.18

* Stormy Daniels, the porn actress who was paid six figures in exchange for not spilling the beans about her affair with Donald Trump, is now suing him, claiming that the "hush agreement" she entered into prior to the election is invalid because he never signed it. [Washington Post] * File this under Not Top Ten: Former ESPN legal analyst and sports anchor Adrienne Lawrence, a onetime associate of Greenberg Traurig, Arent Fox, and McGuireWoods, has filed a sexual harassment suit against the sports network, claiming that SportsCenter anchor John Buccigross constantly harassed her. [American Lawyer] * Not only will the government be able to seize more than $7.3 million of disgraced pharma bro Martin Shkreli's assets -- including his one-of-a-kind Wu-Tang Clan album -- but prosecutors want to throw him behind bars for no less than 15 years. [New York Law Journal] * Attorney General Jeff Sessions will announce today that the Justice Department will be filing suit against California over its "sanctuary state" laws. As alleged in the complaint, the Golden State's laws -- AB 450, SB 54, and AB 103 -- were all created to impede immigration laws. [USA Today] * "When I heard the gun went off accidentally, that just didn’t ring true. Someone has to pull the trigger. They just don’t accidentally discharge." Prospective jurors in former Biglaw partner Claud "Tex" McIver's murder trial weren't exactly buying his defense. [Atlanta Journal-Constitution] * Forget about the egregious law school tuition you'll have to pay in the future, because it can cost quite the pretty penny to apply to law school in the first place. You may want to look into fee waivers so you can save yourself some cash. [U.S. News] * Billy McFarland, the millennial entrepreneur who organized the disastrous Fyre Festival, has taken a plea deal after defrauding the investors who bought into the failed event. He's looking at sentence of eight to 10 years in prison. [Big Law Business]

By Staci Zaretsky
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 08.31.17

* Maybe it's just me, but your lawyer shouldn't be giving interviews about he "relishes a challenge," when your entire defense -- to date -- is that the case against you is a "nothing burger." Right? [Atlanta Journal-Constitution] * Remember Kim Davis? Her lawyer Mat Staver wants us to know that people who hate gays are persecuted like Jews in Nazi Germany. Yes... it's exactly like that. [Huffington Post] * Have equity partners become employees? [American Lawyer] * Special prosecutor appointed to look into Richard Luthmann's alleged use of spoof Facebook accounts to masquerade as various elected officials. Perhaps he should seek to vindicate himself through trial by combat. [NY Post] * We already knew that trial by combat is allowed in New York, but what about "blood oaths"? According to the SDNY, those are enforceable too. America's conversion into Westeros is almost complete. [Law.com] * Philadelphia is suing Jeff Sessions over the administration's efforts to frustrate the town's "sanctuary city" status. [Philly.com] * Speaking of sanctuary, Chief Judge Orlando Garcia blocked the controversial Texas sanctuary cities law. [Washington Post] * NLJ hands out three lifetime achievement awards. [National Law Journal]

By Joe Patrice
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 04.28.17

* Third-year students who are still enrolled at the Charlotte School of Law will be graduating in about two weeks, and despite the fact that administrators assured them their funding would be released, they still haven't received any federal loan disbursements. We'll have more on this later today. [ABA Journal] * Yesterday, we gave our readers the big-picture rundown on the 2017 Am Law 100 rankings. This morning, we'll offer our readers a little fun fact. Three firms were newcomers to the Am Law 100 ranking this year thanks to their outstanding revenue growth: Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough, Husch Blackwell, and Shook Hardy & Bacon. Congratulations to all three! [Big Law Business] * As it turns out, President Trump's losing streak in court when it comes to his would-be travel ban and sanctuary city punishments can be blamed on tactics conservative judges used during the Obama administration to thwart efforts to expand health care, shield immigrants from deportation, and protect transgender students. [New York Times] * "A president does not have the authority to rescind a National Monument." Upscale outdoor apparel company Patagonia has vowed to file suit against the Trump administration if any attempt is made to reverse the Obama-era designation of Bears Ears -- a 1.35-million-acre tract of land in Utah -- as a National Monument. [HuffPost] * How much is a personal injury claim worth once it's gone viral globally? After taking "full responsibility for what happened ... without attempting to blame others," United Airlines has reached a settlement for an undisclosed sum with David Dao, the man who was forcibly dragged from an overbooked flight earlier this month. [Reuters]

By Staci Zaretsky
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 03.30.17

* North Carolina lawmakers say they've reached a deal to repeal the state's controversial bathroom bill. I wonder how those negotiations went: "Hey, this law is awful and is costing our state billions. Let's get rid of it." "Okay." I mean that's probably not how it went, but it's how it should have gone. [Reuters] * Five University of California law schools are sharing the wealth after an improper foreclosure verdict results in a big punitive damages award. The judge directed a portion of that money to go to the law schools -- $4 million each -- earmarked for consumer law education and direct legal services. [Law.com] * Hawaii successfully converted the TRO on the Trump administration's Muslim Ban 2.0 into a preliminary injunction. [Hogan Lovells] * Seattle is the first city to sue over the Trump administration's threats against sanctuary cities. [LA Times] * Bridgegate results in prison sentences. Bridget Kelly was sentenced to 18 months, and Bill Baroni got 2 years. [New York Times] * Doublespeak -- the environment edition. [Politico] * Is Sean Spicer is lying about whether the White House really wants former acting Attorney General Sally Yates to testify to Congress? [The Hill] * Judge Andrew Napolitano is back at Fox News, and back to conspiracy theories. [CNN]

By Kathryn Rubino
Non-Sequiturs

Non-Sequiturs: 03.29.17

* A retired Wisconsin law professor's mission to save democracy. [Salon] * The Supreme Court case that could save funding for sanctuary cities. [Talking Points Memo] * I bet you were wondering where the (allegedly) embezzled money all went. [The Black Sheep] * An interview with the legendary former Manhattan District Attorney, Robert Morgenthau. [Coverage Opinions] * The truth behind practicing law with your spouse. [Reboot Your Law Practice] * How toner cartridges could change the law. [Consumer Reports]

By Kathryn Rubino