What Will a Second Obama Term Mean for the Supreme Court?
‘I’m coming for you, SCOTUS.’ Legal elites fared well on election night. For example, Harvard law professor Elizabeth Warren is now Senatrix-elect Elizabeth Warren, after expertly landing Langdell Hall...
View ArticleMorning Docket: 11.12.12
* With Eric Holder questioning his job, and Deval Patrick dining at the White House, perhaps we’ll see our second black attorney general. Or not, because one of the Governor’s aides says he’ll continue...
View ArticleFirst Amendment Fun at the Ninth Circuit
Left to right: Alex Kozinski and Diarmuid O’Scannlain. This week is an exciting one for conservative and libertarian legal nerds: the National Lawyers Convention of the Federalist Society starts...
View ArticleMorning Docket: 11.15.12
* In a move to “end the vacancy crisis,” one week after being reelected, and one day after the Senate returned to session, Barack Obama nominated seven people for open seats on federal district courts,...
View ArticleBenchslap of the Day: A Public Shaming Is Great Motivation to Brush Up Your...
Federal judges don’t always tell lawyers that their writing is crap, but when they do, they’ll do it in a publicly filed court order. Because while judges have got many a tool in their benchslapping...
View ArticleMorning Docket: 11.19.12
* Billable hours in Biglaw are down 1.5 percent, and 15 percent of U.S. firms are planning to reduce their partnership ranks in early 2013. Thanks to Wells Fargo for bringing us the news of all this...
View ArticleWhat Does Chief Justice John Roberts Have in Common With Lena Dunham?
We know what you must be thinking: how could the Chief Justice of the United States have anything in common with the woman who wrote and starred in Girls, the overtly sexualized hit series on HBO?...
View ArticleCongratulations to the 2013 Bristow Fellows
This Thanksgiving, five brilliant young lawyers will have something special to give thanks for. Earlier this month, they learned of their selection as the 2013 Bristow Fellows. Bristow Fellowships,...
View ArticleMorning Docket: 11.22.12
* We’ve discussed this trend before, and it continues: administrations of the LSAT plunge further, reaching their lowest level since 1999. [Economix / New York Times] * We’ve discussed this trend...
View ArticleShould Natural Law Inform Constitutional Law?
If you’re trapped in the office on this Friday after Thanksgiving — or, just as bad, stuck at a distant relative’s house with nothing to do — Professor Hadley Arkes of Amherst College and Chief Judge...
View ArticleMorning Docket: 11.26.12
* Will it be DOMA or Prop 8? The countdown until Friday starts now, because everyone’s waiting to see whether the Supreme Court will grant cert on one of the five same-sex marriage cases that has come...
View ArticleQuote of the Day: Partisan Hearts Beating Underneath Their Robes?
Wise Latina? [F]ederal judges are not just politicians in robes, though that is part of what they are. – Professor Lee Epstein, Professor William M. Landes, and Judge Richard Posner, writing about...
View ArticleMorning Docket: 11.28.12
* Chief Justice John Roberts gave a Solicitor General’s Office attorney a vicious tongue-lashing for failure to be upfront about policy changes between presidents. Now that’s what we’d call a verbal...
View ArticleKozinski, Gangnam Style
Res ipsa loquitur. Continue reading »Follow Above the Law on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook.Tags: 9th Circuit, dancing, Federal Judges, Gangnam Style, Josh Blackman, Kyle Graham, Music, Ninth...
View ArticleTweet of the Day: Ask Your Co-Author, Justice Scalia; He’s an Expert on...
Bryan Garner How old is “bench slap”? Should I put it in Black’s Law Dictionary? How would you define it? – Legal writing guru Bryan Garner, editor of Black’s Law Dictionary and co-author (with Justice...
View ArticleBenchslap of the Day: Keep It Short, Sweet, and Humiliating
Quit crying, you baby. If there were such a thing as the perfect benchslap, this would probably be it. It comes from the great state of Texas, where federal judges are prone to calling attorneys stupid...
View ArticleNon-Sequiturs: 12.07.12
* “Biglaw Bonuses for Dummies: A Reference for the Rest of Us!” By Elie Mystal. [Businessweek] * Just how quickly will state-by-state legal education be able to respond to changing market conditions?...
View ArticleMorning Docket: 12.13.12
* “This is a total victory not just for the C.F.T.C., but also for financial reform.” Regulators, mount up, because you basically just got a free pass to do your jobs and keep a more watchful and...
View ArticleNon-Sequiturs: 12.13.12
* How much could going over the fiscal cliff cost midlevel to senior associates whose bonuses get paid in January? Here’s an estimate. [Thomson Reuters News & Insight] * Congratulations to the...
View ArticleQuote of the Day: Keep Waiting(And: Justice Kagan disses a top law school.)
There are four of us from New York City. We have every borough covered except for Staten Island; we’re waiting for that Staten Island judge. – Justice Elena Kagan, speaking last night with Leon...
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