Simone O’Broin

Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 04.05.19

* Ted Cruz is threatening Yale Law School because that's the sort of shallow posturing Ted Cruz has made a career out of. [Washington Examiner] * Clarence Thomas says he's not going to retire just so Trump can replace him proving that narcissistic hubris is truly bipartisan. [National Law Journal] * Being a jerk on an airplane is now worth 6 months in jail. Make a note of it. [Legal Cheek] * The SEC thinks it's time for some real fines on Elon Musk. [Law360] * Trump just installed another zygote to the federal bench, even though he was born in one of the Mexican countries. [Miami Herald] * Just a reminder that legislators are mostly stuffed shirts pocketing lobbyist cash. [USA Today]

By Joe Patrice
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 03.08.19

* Paul Manafort got 4 years out of a possible 24. A lot of breathless ranting will come out of this but the reality is 4 years is a significant amount of time to be incarcerated and the guidelines are crazy. Don't be mad that Manafort got too little, be mad that the system generally (and Judge Ellis in particular) unquestioningly applies the guidelines to give far too much to poor and minority defendants. [CNN] * Frankly, the charges that should earn Manafort heavy jail time are the charges of lying to the Mueller probe because that's where there's a significant interest in setting punitive disincentives. And Judge Jackson may have a very different view on how "otherwise blameless" Manafort's been. [Daily Beast] * While we're on these never-ending Trump orbit stories, Michael Cohen is suing Trump for legal fees since, he points out, all his problems stem from work he did in the official course of his duties. [New York Law Journal] * Wearing a disguise to court is totally normal lawyer behavior. [New York Times] * Orrick joins the $1B revenue club. [The Recorder] * Remember the drunken airline rant lady? She's facing jail time. [Legal Cheek] * George Mason receives largest gift in school history, but it'll never match the gift they gave prospective students the ATL community when they descriptively renamed their law school ASS Law. [Inside Higher Ed]

By Joe Patrice