Police

From the no-problem,-the-taxpayers-are-good-for-it dept.

FAFO.

Judge: First Amendment? Hold my beer.

* Another day, another several hundred grand worth of unethical and undisclosed gifts for Clarence Thomas. [ProPublica]

* ABA encouraging law firms to redouble efforts to expand diversity… before the Supreme Court makes it illegal. [Bloomberg Law News]

* Lawsuit alleges private attorney took on upwards of 600 indigent client criminal cases, collecting huge sums from the city, and then not doing any work. That’s not totally true… the lawsuit alleges that the lawyer was quite diligent about filing motions for fees. [ABA Journal]

* Treasury announcing regulations to curb money laundering through real estate. Maybe Manhattan will be affordable again in 15 years! [Reuters]

* A Wisconsin police department refuses to divulge the name of officers who shoot people citing victim’s rights laws and arguing that if they shot someone they must have felt threatened and therefore are the real victims. [Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel]

* Don’t use AI to write your firm’s web content reports the department of obvious things. [Search Engine Journal]

* Ninth Circuit says text spam is not covered by the TCPA. Great! Just in time for generative AI to remove almost every entry barrier to mass text spamming. [Law360]

What's in a name...

* Trump indicates that he would consider a plea deal if the DOJ would “pay me some damages.” It’s possible he’s not receiving top notch legal guidance right now. [Newsweek]

* JPMorgan Chase has settled with Jeffrey Epstein’s victims. [MarketWatch]

* Civil rights lawyer arrested for filming a traffic stop as creeping fascism breaks into a sprint. [ABC News]

* 3M tried to wiggle out of earplug liability through bankruptcy. The courts seem to have grown wise to this strategy. [Financial Times]

* Government digging into allegations of COVID test fraud, where people ordered free tests on behalf of dead people. Look, I don’t know if anyone in DC is tracking the level of COVID denialism out here but maybe we don’t need to complain about anyone wanting tests. [Bloomberg Law News]

* Title IX changes expected to trigger wave of litigation. [Law.com]

* Marvel settles with classic creators who possessed the most important superpower of all: a colorable copyright interest. [Law360]

Duh, you smelled something legal.

This took prosecutorial discretion way too far.

But did then they get high? That's a better explanation than the arguments in the complaint.

He was headed to a client meeting and wearing business attire when he was stopped and searched.

This change that will eliminate a potential barrier to the legal profession for law students of color.

* Industry report suggests firms should stop the layoffs and hold off on billing rate increases. Nice try, clients! Thought you could slip one by us. [American Lawyer]

* JP Morgan blames former executive for not keeping them in the loop on the Jeffrey Epstein thing sooner. Presumably they mean because they would’ve stopped doing business with him and not because they wanted in. [Law360]

* Bankman-Fried lawyers suggest possible delay. Hold that pre-trial release to the moon! [Reuters]

* Senator wants access to exactly WHICH classified documents Trump, Biden, and Pence had, and is threatening to kill 702 until he gets it. Watch as the intelligence community struggle with what they love more: overclassification or warrantless wiretapping. It’s like asking a robot to define love. [NY Times]

* Feds probing Memphis police and specialized police forces across the country generally. Could it be that giving a small unit of cops military grade equipment and functional immunity for whatever they want has led to abuse? [Courthouse News Service]

* Corporations run from their own diversity pledges at the first sign of white blacklash. The times they are a-staying the same. [Bloomberg Law News]

Broken clocks and what have you.

Nothing like an admirer with a badge and a gun.

This is not the way things are supposed to work here in the United States.

Courts are cool with pretextual stops. As long as a cop can make up a reasonably good excuse for pulling someone over, they can start casting their lines in hopes of bigger fish. Given enough time and bullshit, cops can often talk people into warrantless roadside searches. But the pretext needs to be reasonable. And, […]

Maybe taxation actually is theft.

No way this is going to definitely put innocent people in prison if it is widely adopted!

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

* Wanna get really mad this morning? Read this decision on unjust seizures. [Tech Dirt]

* DeSantis is facing legal troubles over his special way of bypassing prosecutorial discretion. [Guardian]

* Planning on getting a JD and going straight to the CIA? Give this podcast a listen first, Georgetown students. [Variety]

* Army reservist sentenced to 4 years for being part of insurrection light [The Hill]

* Precinct Chief arrested on prostitution charges. We really have to do better background checks on the people who are supposed to be upholding the law. [Click2Houston]