The Barnes & Thornburg partner who signed the ludicrous Mike Lindell complaint is reportedly no longer with the firm—they say he "didn’t receive 'firm authorization' for the suit and the firm is immediately withdrawing as local counsel."
Thirteen federal judges say that absent major changes at Columbia, they won't hire anyone who chooses to go there (undergrad or law school) following this year.
I didn't think that Shake Shack incident could be worse, but it turns out no one even got sick—cops threw the shakes away and got vouchers b/c they tasted funny, but brass decided to turn it into an intentional poisoning scandal
Pence looked for legal advice on whether he could upset the election, and John Yoo, Mike Luttig, and Pence's counsel Greg Jacob agreed he had no such power. Only John Eastman disagreed (although was he acting as Trump's lawyer when he made that arg?)
After Barstool Sports' president, Dave Portnoy, threatened to fire employees for talking to a journalist about unionization, there is now an open NLRB investigation into Barstool Sports—thereby surprising no one except Dave Portnoy
If DoJ has the goods on Trump, then charge him. But raiding his home for a violation of the presidential records act on the anniversary of Nixon’s resignation smells like partisan bullshit and an abuse of power.
Truth Social is owned by Digital World Acquisition Corp., which is publicly traded, so not hard to find out that Trump's representation is off by, ohhh, 567% give or take
The judge seems to have confirmed that the ex parte meeting occurred. He is now refusing to release a transcript of it, saying that disclosure would be an improper remedy. Steel is asking about certain statements and the court is saying it may be attorney-client privileged (???)
BREAKING NEWS: Erie, Pa.
#USPS
whistleblower completely RECANTED his allegations of a supervisor tampering with mail-in ballots after being questioned by investigators, according to IG.
THREAD:
BREAKING: A Tacoma police officer drove through a group of pedestrians Saturday night, and a video being shared on social media shows people falling to the ground as the police SUV speeds up through the crowd.
@AndrewMCrespo
@bradheath
@Justin_Riemer
@oneunderscore__
Right, and then he says "and as of two days ago, it fell free and clear into my possession"—he's referring to the Texas snap-back rule, where privilege claims are deemed waived if the party does not make any claim within 10 days of being notified of the production
SCOTUS on the Second Amendment: We reject the idea that there are second class rights
SCOTUS on the Fifth Amendment: Sure there are Miranda rights, but they're not, like, rights-rights
Here is Simon & Schuster's statement
Josh, buddy, when a private company is distancing itself from you for your public association with a violent insurrection, that's the First Amendment in action
Non-lawyers may not understand how weird this is. Partners at big law firms do not take significant cases like this without approval—it can harm the business, tarnish the firm, and drag the other partners' reputations down with it (as you can see w/ the reaction already)
@gwenmoritz
@jeremypeppas
Strategy is to use anything the victim did wrong to muddy the water & dissuade civil suit. In some cases, victim is entirely precluded...
I get the concern with Chevron-style deference to agencies, but it is laughable to think that this is going to cause Congress to embark on enacting some kind of hyper-specific statutory regimes for technical areas. Loper Bright means these decisions will be made by judges.
What's striking to me about this
@SenMikeLee
text isn't just that he was willing to overturn the election, it was how little basis he needed to do it
First it's competing slate of electors, then it's convene the legislatures to vote, then it's...how about they sign a statement?
NARA is publicly refuting Trump's claims about Obama taking 30 million pages of documents—NARA moved them, they maintain them, and Obama has no control over them
This is perverse. If a state supreme court rules district maps are unconstitutional, the party in power just has to refuse to comply long enough for a federal court to jump in and say they don't have to
Amazing that people like Ben will defend Trump like this--literally incapable of forming a plan, no better than a wild beast--but also urge people to make him President of the US again
Ben Shapiro claims it would be difficult to prosecute Trump because he’s not capable of intent: “I’m not sure that Donald Trump has intent to eat a ham sandwich. I just – he’s not a person who has a plan.”
Really got to hand it to the defense team. They found one loose thread live on camera and pulled and pulled until they literally got the prosecutor on the stand to admit that the State withheld evidence.
The fact that he said "our investigations will move forward without delay or interruption" until a new USA is confirmed indicates he has an idea why this is happening.
Lin's luck may be starting to run out—a Delaware court has issued an order to show cause as to why his pro hac status shouldn't be revoked due to his wacky filings in other states, which would violate Delaware's Rules of Professional Conduct
Attorney L. Lin Wood was ordered by a judge to explain why he should be allowed to continue representing political operative Carter Page in defamation litigation related to the Mueller probe.
Smith: We ask the court to review these soon because there's not a lot of time before trial
Court: Too early
Smith: Seriously, now there's only a couple months
Court: Still too early
Smith: Only two weeks now!
Court: Whoops, too late! Indefinitely stayed
Our government abducted people and took them to a secret off-shore military prison to be tortured before a drumhead trial, and they're *still waiting for a trial* two decades later, but people like Rich think ending the war is the worst capitulation of our values
What makes this cheap quip so ugly is what comes after the quoted response:
"My family suffered under the Communist regime. I grew up without knowing half of my family. My grandmother escaped death twice under the Stalinist regime. This is what's seared in my mind."
Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA): “I don’t know whether to call you professor or comrade.”
Someone off-camera: “Oh my goodness.”
Dr. Saule Omarova, Biden’s comptroller currency pick: “I’m not a communist. I do not subscribe to that ideology. I could not choose where I was born.”
This privilege claim by the judge is so crazy I went back and typed out the discussion. The [ . . . ] is a couple seconds where Steel and the judge talk about him being in contempt. Steel seems absolutely right that there is no privilege.
The judge seems to have confirmed that the ex parte meeting occurred. He is now refusing to release a transcript of it, saying that disclosure would be an improper remedy. Steel is asking about certain statements and the court is saying it may be attorney-client privileged (???)
My prediction is there will be a short burst in corporations bloviating about demanding jury trials and then they're going to remember that juries actually hate corporate fraudsters more than ALJs and tend to award more in damages
Incredible how AP will go all CSI on a family photo and kill it due to some blurred lines, but they uncritically accept that the Princess of Wales does her own photoshopping of PR pics based on nothing more than a tweet signed "C"
As a lawyer who used to defend utilities and gas explosion cases, this does not make sense. Multiple explosions on a street or a service line, okay. But across dozens of blocks near-simultaneously? What on earth
@gwenmoritz
@jeremypeppas
from winning if he is also negligent ("contributory neg"), or reduces $ recovery by % ("comparative neg"). Most decide it's not worth it
I'm not sure what purpose this board served, but it's super weird to me for the government to refer to people seeking testing for a pandemic as "consumers"
Sean is great, but it's attitudes like this that explain why BigLaw firms billing $1000/hour often get wrecked by hometown lawyers with holes in their shoes
There are arguments on both sides for ghost-written briefs in opposition, but, like, does anyone think the Justices are fooled into thinking that a New York consumer fraud attorney in a two-person law firm wrote this?
This is hilarious because it's the opposite of what a person who knows lawyers would do.
If OC was misspelling things like "Thersday" and "fiften," the reaction isn't 'This is a genius who doesn't have time to spell,' it's 'what else has this dollar store idiot messed up?'
Spoke to an attorney that purposefully makes typos throughout contracts so opposing redline efforts are spent on correcting spelling and not big issues
Quite frankly, it’s brillant
I think we now have a federal court in DC saying Biden can't continue to use Title 42 to expel migrants, and a federal court in Texas saying Biden can't stop using Title 42 to expel migrants
BREAKING — U.S. Judge Emmet Sullivan voids the Title 42 order that has allowed U.S. border officials to quickly expel migrants, finding it "arbitrary and capricious in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act"
Steel's lawyers are exactly right on the difference between civil and criminal contempt. You can only hold someone to purge contempt under civil, for criminal there is a max sentence.
And Judge Glanville has said about eight times that he found found Steel in criminal contempt.
If you give money to Trump's recount/postelection litigation efforts, half of that money will go towards retiring his campaign debt instead, per the fine print.
In all honesty, wtaf is this—the President is ordering the Secretary of the Navy to rescind awards to servicemembers b/c they were involved in a prosecution of one of his political supporters
One of the more revealing exchanges yesterday was when the judge said he won't release the transcript because if he did something wrong they'll be able to argue about it on appeal. A defense lawyer responded, We don't want to win on appeal, we want to win this trial.
Alito literally used the same reasoning in the draft Dobbs decision that he did in his Obergefell dissent. It's not distinguishable--if there is no deeply rooted history for Roe, that's true for Obergefell, Lawrence, and probably Griswold
At 8:25, about 5 minutes after Chauvin knelt on Floyd's neck, the officer said it again. Another officer checked Floyd's wrist for a pulse and said "I couldn't find one."
Chauvin kept his knee on Floyd's neck for two minutes after that.
Keep in mind, this witness is on the stand, so what may have happened that affects his testimony is important for the defense. Steel suggested that something was said along the lines of 'whether you go back to jail will depend on your testimony tomorrow'
Brian Steel argues that he (and Thug) has a right to be present for the in-camera hearing.
Glanville responds that he believes there are still elements of privilege that make defendants not entitled to be present, but sounds like he will discuss the objection further later?
Sen. Rand Paul calls for arresting citizens first, investigating afterward: "The FBI needs to investigate but the only way you can do it is you have to arrest people."
@LWHensler3
May I ask, do you think it would be protected speech if what she said was something like, "If they ever give me a rifle, the first man I want to get in my sights is Trump"?
Dearie is serious about moving this thing—docs are to be reviewed, objected to, and decisions made on a rolling basis
Trump team gets the remaining docs on Sept 26 and must submit designations to the gov in three batches, each about a week apart, any disputes sent to Dearie
After the Rahimi opinion the oral argument makes a lot more sense
Court: "Why are you arguing this?"
Rahimi: "It's what you said in Bruen"
C: "That can't be what we meant"
R: "I'm literally quoting the opinion"
C: "But that would lead to really weird results!"
R: "Yuh huh"
Employees couldn't have known they were cops b/c the shakes were ordered online. Cops never showed symptoms. Video showed they were made normally.
There ought to be consequences for NYPD brass who made up facts to all but accuse employees of attempted murder
If equal protection means the right to serve on a jury while holding a pre-existing belief that god wants the defendant to be punished, we need a different phrase than "equal protection"
Alito suggests that a trial court violates the free exercise and equal protection clauses when it allows an attorney who represents a gay client to strike potential jurors because they express overt bigotry against gay people.
I think Barrett makes one of the most persuasive points against the common view of Bruen—why should we believe that founding legislatures maximally exercised their authority, such that we can safely assume if they didn't do something it's because it wasn't constitutional?
Alito described consquences for Trump of going to trial:
"That may involve great expense, and it may take up a lot of time. And during the trial, the former president may be unable to engage in other activities that the former president would want to engage in and then the
News - Mazars has effectively fired the Trump Organization, citing a non-waivable conflict, and determined that Trump's financial statements from 2011-20 should not be relied on, per a letter to Alan Garten filed in court today.
Federal judge in Idaho holds that BLM rule changes opening lands within federally-recognized sage-grouse habitat to oil & gas leases were procedurally invalid under the APA, voids changes and vacates leases
In non-SCOTUS news, this is wild. Despite Judge Glanville's protests and disclaimers, the transcript supports almost everything the defendants were saying.
SCOTUS just vacated the administrative stay of the DC Cir's decision affirming the district court's order allowing Congress to obtain Trump's tax returns
The Trump Org ruling is so monumental from a corporate perspective it's hard to get my head around the downstream effects. Appointment of a receiver is nearly always an event of default under commercial loans. Is every loan guaranteed by Trump or his entities going to be called?
New: Twitter’s board plans to comply with
@elonmusk
's demands for internal data by offering access to its full “firehose,” the massive stream of data comprising more than 500 million tweets posted each day, an inside source tells
@lizzadwoskin
.