Since I live in a land where everyone, or almost everyone, gets an award for something, no matter how trivial, I am creating an award for the stupid, thoughtless things that lawyers and judges do. With an acknowledgement to the season, I am calling my award the “Headless Turkey” or should it be the “Heedless Turkey”? Whatever. I bestow this award (and no one is going to get a pardon like the White House turkey) on just a few of many deserving peeps. Selecting awardees is like shopping at Costco; the choices are many.

Do you think that lawyers and judges in hindsight ask themselves why they did the stupid, license-lifting, judge-admonishing, reputation-trashing things? What were they thinking?  They weren’t. They acted just like chickens — or in this case, turkeys — with their heads cut off.

Might as well start with a former Ninth Circuit judge who had the

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In anticipation of the a scheduling conference tomorrow in the E. Jean Carroll suits against Donald Trump, the parties submitted a proposed discovery plan last night. The plaintiff would like to schedule this trial for April, while the defendant would like to calendar it for never.

This is an unsurprising position from Trump, who spent years trying to avoid this lawsuit by evading process, claiming presidential immunity from civil suits, removing to federal court, and even substituting the government as defendant on the theory that defaming a woman as too ugly to rape was part of his job as president. Thanks to the Second Circuit, the issue of whether Trump was acting within the scope of his official duties is now in the hands of the DC Court of Appeals. But in the meantime, Carroll filed a second complaint, adding a claim for battery under the recently passed Adult

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On December 15, 2022, U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., along with Senator Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Congresswoman Susan Wild, D-Pa., introduced the Right to Build Families Act of 2022. The bill, if enacted, would prohibit state and local governments from imposing limitations to access to assisted reproductive technology, as well as all medically necessary care surrounding such technology.

Access To Assisted Reproductive Technology Is Currently Vulnerable

If the bill were to pass, it would be reason to celebrate for parents-to-be in the United States … and around the world. Partly, that’s because assisted reproductive technology is about to become an even bigger issue when it comes to family formation. Recent scientific data shows a precipitous drop in men’s sperm count across the world. I know there are a lot of alarming things in the world, and my brain can barely take one more alarming thing; but here it is. First,

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In light of Donald Trump’s announcement Tuesday that he intends to mount a third presidential campaign to make America great yet again, Attorney General Merrick Garland has named former Justice Department lawyer Jack Smith as special counsel to investigate the former president and his many, many crimes.

Smith, a former prosecutor at the special court in The Hague for war crimes in Kosovo who once headed the DOJ’s Public Integrity Section, has conducted multiple high-profile public corruption cases, including Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell and Arizona Rep. Rick Renzi for bribery and extortion.

In a hastily convened press conference, the AG vested Smith with authority over the two ongoing investigations of Donald Trump. Henceforward the sprawling queries into Trump’s involvement in the plot to use fake electors to obstruct certification of President Biden’s victory, as well as the more targeted inquiry into the theft of government documents, will be under the

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Maybe We Will Have A 2024 Election: Sam Alito fears some supreme court somewhere might become too political. Meanwhile, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson distilled today’s independent state legislature case down to various versions of this question and Alito’s crew seemed to have no answer.

Paragraph One Of The Complaint: When Elon Musk lets it publicly leak through his press agent — currently played by Matt Taibbi — that Twitter fired an in-house lawyer for trying to prevent the company from stepping face first into potential legal trouble… that’s going to complicate his defenses.

Taking It Up A Notch: After some questionable legal moves at trial, Amber Heard is bringing in Biglaw for her appeal.

Bonus Watch: Kramer Levin. Weil Gotshal.

The post Conservatives On Supreme Court Very Worried That OTHER Courts Might Be Too Political — See Also appeared first on Above the Law.…

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