Source: https://www.law.com/author/profile/Marcia%20Coyle/
Timestamp: 2019-04-25 20:16:03+00:00

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The new House general counsel will get 10 minutes of the 40 minutes accorded to the challengers, who include New York Solicitor General Barbara Underwood and Dale Ho, director of the ACLU's voting rights project.
The restrictions that justices put on their Supreme Court papers after they are no longer on the bench have generated considerable controversy over the years.
Gibson Dunn sought fees for thousands of hours of work in the case "Lucia v. SEC," where the justices invalidated the appointment process for the agency's administrative law judges.
The case was remanded by the U.S. Supreme Court, which found the Ninth Circuit incorrectly counted Judge Stephen Reinhardt's vote.
The U.S. Justice Department solicitor general's office is weighing a challenge to a Federal Circuit ruling that opened a door to Agent Orange-related benefits for Blue Water Navy veterans.
“Last-minute stays should be the extreme exception, not the norm," Gorsuch wrote Monday. Sotomayor was having none of it.
The justices' divided ruling Wednesday in Lorenzo v. SEC comes after two losses last term at the high court.
A Washington trial judge had imposed a $50,000 daily fine against the foreign-owned company resisting a Mueller grand jury subpoena.
"We conclude that the case should be remanded for the courts below to address the plaintiffs’ standing in light of Spokeo," the justices said. Justice Clarence Thomas, in dissent, would have reached the merits and vacated the settlement.
Three new petitions at the U.S. Supreme Court are tied to the justices' ruling last term against mandatory public-sector union fees.
Humor at the U.S. Supreme Court is less an "indication not of lighthearted, good-natured jesting" than a "rhetorical weapon," legal scholars Tonja Jacobi and Matthew Sag contend.
"That practice effectively allowed a deceased judge to exercise the judicial power of the United States after his death," the Supreme Court said in its decision Monday. "But federal judges are appointed for life, not for eternity."
New York lawyer-turned-artist Geoffrey Stein's collage highlights Ginsburg's 1996 opinion in United States v. Virginia, which struck down the male-only admissions policy at the Virginia Military Institute.
"If the Constitution does not require public figures to satisfy an actual-malice standard in state-law defamation suits, then neither should we," Justice Clarence Thomas wrote on Tuesday.
U.S. Solicitor General Noel Francisco had asked the justices to act quickly to hear and decide the citizenship issue because, he said, June 30 is the deadline for finalizing the census questionnaire for printing.
"You should expect to see similar lawsuits in more states in the near future," said Jacob Huebert of the Goldwater Institute in Arizona.
Conservative and liberal critics, forming an unusual alliance, have widely assailed the Supreme Court's order allowing an Alabama inmate's execution to go forward.
The case was being closely watched for an indication of where the Roberts Court, with its newest members, Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch, might be headed on the right to abortion.
O’Melveny & Myers sports industry co-chair Irwin Raij: "There's excitement about potential opportunities. For many years, this was not a discussion point, irrespective of the monetization opportunities."
On Marc Hearron's first day as Sen. Dianne Feinstein's lead counsel for judicial nominations, President Donald Trump nominated Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court. Hearron talks about his role on Feinstein's team and what he learned.
"This is a very interesting situation and one not obviously contemplated by the rules," one federal court scholar says.
Only three justices since 2008 have indicated a desire to hear Second Amendment challenges: Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito Jr. and Neil Gorsuch.
"In this case, important unresolved factual questions would make it very difficult if not impossible at this stage to decide the free speech question," Justice Alito wrote Tuesday.
The justices' order Tuesday marks the first major grant to a firearms case in recent years.
The 5-4 decision Tuesday in Stokeling v. United States reflected an unusual alignment of the justices. In dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor was joined by conservative Chief Justice John Roberts Jr.
Other challenges to the consumer bureau are pending in federal appeals courts, giving the Supreme Court a chance—more likely next term—to weigh the constitutionality of the bureau's single-director scheme.
Practitioners and former clerks of Patricia Wald remember the life and legacy of the retired D.C. Circuit chief judge and longtime advocate for human rights.
“I have been pretty relentless at times. I give my card everywhere and he probably has a lot of them,” Amy Weil of Atlanta's The Weil Firm says.
The legal fight at the U.S. Supreme Court will continue. The unnamed state-owned foreign corporation on Monday filed a petition for certiorari under seal.
The bill is the latest of repeated efforts by Congress to impose an ethics code on the Supreme Court, which is exempt from the code first promulgated in 1973 by the Judicial Conference.
The U.S. Supreme Court will soon weigh injunctions that are blocking the Trump administration's effort to restrict the service of transgender troops serving in the military.
A collection of memorable U.S. Supreme Court stories, including our reports on clerk bonuses, Stephen Colbert's interview of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Justice Neil Gorsuch's clerk-hiring, and what makes Chief Justice Roberts lose his cool.
Every now and then a U.S. Supreme Court justice, or an advocate, says something that brings laughter to the room. Here's a look back at some of the memorable moments of 2018.
"In short, the government dug in its heels all the way to the end, and lost it all," Gibson Dunn said in its fee petition in the D.C. Circuit, where the firm was pro bono in a case challenging the appointment of SEC administrative law judges.
"Particularly for a question of this magnitude, the court may wish to wait for a vehicle in which all nine justices are likely to participate," Jeffrey Wall, the acting U.S. solicitor general, said in a brief in a case where newly confirmed Justice Brett Kavanaugh would recuse.
Justice Clarence Thomas, joined by Justices Samuel Alito Jr. and Neil Gorsuch, dissented from the court's decision Monday not to review two cases that involved Planned Parenthood.
“Your argument seems, frankly, a little bit one-note,” Kagan told counsel to the challenger during one exchange Thursday in the case Gamble v. United States, which confronts double-jeopardy and an exception to the clause.
"You know your case with absolute confidence and when a justice says something that seems incorrect, you say it," says Sidley Austin's Carter Phillips.
The U.S. Supreme Court directed the Eighth Circuit to reconsider its decision in light of the justices' ruling last term in Janus v. AFSCME.
The Supreme Court's rules don't forbid argument on motions, but do say they "will not be permitted unless the court so directs."
In an interview with financier-philanthropist David Rubenstein released Wednesday, the former justice answers a range of questions about the Supreme Court, his early years as a lawyer in California and his future plans.
The U.S. Justice Department backed Apple at the high court, but the justices appeared poised to let consumers pursue claims over app purchases.
"I still have two relatively new colleagues, one very new colleague, Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch. And we've agreed in quite a few cases, we've disagreed in a bunch," Sotomayor said in a recent interview.
"This is the extraordinary case in which the identity of the successor is both contested and has important implications for the administration of justice nationally," Thomas Goldstein wrote in a court filing at the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday.
"Virtually all of my partners at Williams & Connolly LLP, who are a politically and demographically diverse group, have submitted a letter supporting my nomination," Allison Jones Rushing said in written responses to Senate Democrats.
The group, self-styled as Checks and Balances, emerged publicly just two days before the annual meeting in Washington of the conservative Federalist Society where the new group's formation and "mission statement" are likely to be a hot topic of conversation.
"It's going to be hard to know what the new court is like. It's just too soon to tell how we will function without somebody who is naturally in one of those modes," Kagan says about filling the role of a swing vote after the retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy.
The newly elected women attended 28 different law schools, including Ivy League Harvard and Yale as well as Cumberland, Santa Clara, George Washington, Cleveland-Marshall, University of Chicago, University of Virginia, Touro and others.
Ginsburg, 85, returned to her home after the fall but began experiencing discomfort overnight, according to a statement from the court's public information office. The justice then went to the hospital.
Much of Tuesday's testimony focused on providing alternative channels for reporting sexual misconduct within the judiciary instead of only to the chief judges of the district or circuit courts.
Two committees of the Judicial Conference of the United States—Codes of Conduct and Judicial Conduct and Disability—will conduct the hearing on proposed amendments to the code and rules that respond to recommendations made in a June report by the Federal Judiciary Workplace Conduct Working Group.
"I stand in awe of her personal bravery and courage in coming forward because she knew it wasn't her world, and yet in the end she was willing to do what she felt," says Bromwich, who represented Kavanaugh accuser Christine Blasey Ford with Debra Katz and Lisa Banks of Washington's Katz, Marshall & Banks.
"I hope that I have inspired young people about civic engagement and helped pave the pathway for women who may have faced obstacles pursuing their careers," O'Connor wrote in her public letter.
All three cases arise from Kavanaugh's previous service on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
Court balancing. Term limits. And more. What follows is a quick look at four proposals—from progressives—to change the U.S. Supreme Court.
"Executive branch officers do not work for the judiciary. We work for the president of the United States. Respect runs both ways," Jeff Sessions said in remarks at the Heritage Foundation in Washington on Monday night.
Judicial ethics scholars disagree over procedurally how the complaints against the now-Supreme Court justice will be resolved.
Sitting at the far right corner of the bench, Kavanaugh chatted and laughed with his seatmate, Obama appointee Justice Elena Kagan, before arguments began. Inside the courtroom, there were no signs of his bitter confirmation proceeding.
Introducing Brett Kavanaugh, now justice, President Donald Trump slammed the sexual misconduct claims that roiled the nominee's confirmation proceedings. Kavanaugh said Monday at the White House: "That process is over. My focus now is to be the best justice I can be."
"I’ll be the first justice in the history of the Supreme Court to have a group of all women law clerks. That is who I am. That is who I was," Brett Kavanaugh said on Sept. 27, testifying after the emergence of sexual misconduct allegations.
The Maine Republican, a crucial vote on Brett Kavanaugh's path to the Supreme Court, name-dropped the Big Law appellate star, whose support for the nominee has drawn criticism from progressives.
"We're living in a world where you increasingly have to run for the Supreme Court," said Yale Law School's Akhil Amar, who testified in favor of Kavanaugh's confirmation. "I think we should expect to see more of that."
His conspiratorial tirade last week drew rebukes from the left and the right, undermining the effort of the justices to promote themselves as nonpartisan. Kavanaugh took to the WSJ to promise to be fair and independent.
The three cases follow on the heels of last term’s blockbuster Epic Systems v. Lewis, which said employment agreements can lawfully restrict class actions.
Inside the courtroom, there was no sense of the confirmation drama continuing to unfold across the street as the U.S. Senate awaited an FBI report on sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
The curtain opens today on the new term. But the full U.S. Senate has yet to vote on Justice Kennedy's would-be successor, Judge Brett Kavanaugh.
"This is ripping the country apart," Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake, a Republican, said Friday afternoon. "We ought to do what we can to make sure we do all due diligence with a nomination this important."
The Senate Judiciary Committee's still scheduled to vote Friday on Brett Kavanaugh's nomination, and he's already hired four law clerks for the upcoming U.S. Supreme Court term.
"You may defeat me in the final vote but you'll never get to me to quit," Kavanaugh said Thursday.
Christine Blasey Ford testified Thursday she is "100 percent certain" Brett Kavanaugh, the Trump administration's nominee to the Supreme Court, sexually assaulted her at a house during their teenage years.
"My motivation in coming forward was to provide the facts about how Mr. Kavanaugh’s actions have damaged my life," Christine Blasey Ford said in her prepared statement in advance of Thursday's hearing over her sexual assault claims against Brett Kavanaugh.
"I just want an opportunity, a fair process where I can defend my integrity," said Kavanaugh, responding to a question about where he thought the claims from the women were coming from.
Bromwich announced his resignation from Robbins, Russell, Englert, Orseck, Untereiner & Sauber to join Christine Blasey Ford's legal team.
The agreement came after an intense and short period of negotiation between Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley and Christine Blasey Ford’s legal team.
Teams of congressional lawyers are working behind the scenes on the contours of a hearing where California professor Christine Blasey Ford would confront U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
"The brutality of the political arena is merciless," says Georgetown Law's Emma Coleman Jordan, who was on the team advising and guiding Anita Hill in 1991 when she testified against Clarence Thomas at his U.S. Supreme Court confirmation hearing. Jordan and a colleague, Susan Deller Ross, offer insight, as Congress prepares for the possibility of the airing of misconduct claims against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
A spokesman for the Senate Judiciary Committee said in a statement Sunday: "It’s disturbing that these uncorroborated allegations from more than 35 years ago, during high school, would surface on the eve of a committee vote after Democrats sat on them since July."
Brett Kavanaugh responded to more than 1,000 written questions—more than any recent Supreme Court nominee. Here are some highlights from 263 pages of records released late Wednesday.
Two Oregon lawyers, citing the high court's "Janus" decision, are asking a federal judge to prohibit the collection of compulsory fees. SCOTUS itself has a case set for the Sept. 24 conference that tees up a bar-dues challenge.
"There were so many barriers placed in front of Jane; the additional hurdle Judge Kavanaugh placed in front of her was unjustifiable," lawyer Rochelle Garza testified Friday.
Sen. Kamala Harris grilled the nominee over any conversations with lawyers at Kasowitz Benson Torres about the Mueller investigation. Kavanaugh testified Thursday: "I don't recall any conversations of that kind with anyone at that law firm," Kavanaugh told Hatch.
"I was the president's nominee. I know he consulted widely—very widely—to get input at least on the people who were finalists," Kavanaugh said Wednesday during an exchange with Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-Rhode Island.
"It was a gut punch for me. It was a gut punch for the judiciary. I was shocked, and disappointed, angry, swirl of emotions," Kavanaugh testified Wednesday about when he learned of the sexual harassment claims against Alex Kozinski of the Ninth Circuit.
Kavanaugh's hundreds of rulings on the D.C. Circuit will come into sharp focus Wednesday as the Supreme Court nominee returns to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee for Day 2 of his confirmation hearing.
Two state petitions in the U.S. Supreme Court ask the justices to uphold the termination of Planned Parenthood's participation in the state Medicaid program. In the federal appeals courts, several cases are advancing efforts to restrict access to abortions.
Big Law appellate stars, a Yale Law School professor and a federal public defender are among those set to speak in support of Brett Kavanaugh next week. The Democrats have lined up a Parkland shooting survivor, a lawyer for an immigrant teen in an abortion case and John Dean, the former Nixon White House counsel turned whistleblower.
What would you ask Kavanaugh? Supreme Court practitioners, advocates and academics tell us one question they'd ask the nominee.
Under the direction of U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the Justice Department said Thursday that Harvard’s race-conscious admissions process "significantly disadvantages Asian-American applicants." Harvard's lawyers at WilmerHale dispute this, and they argue admissions officers "carefully consider each applicant in his or her entirety."
The justices traditionally are reluctant to approve election changes close to an election.
The special master who investigated media leaks during the Starr investigation concluded they could have come from lawyers for targets or witnesses in the investigation. Kavanaugh was not named in the report unsealed Thursday.

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