Climate Change

* With a potential indictment on January 6th related charges looming, Donald Trump takes to social media boasting abut how good he thinks he’ll do at trial. We’ll see. [Huffington Post]

* Hunter Biden’s plea deal has hit a snag. Yesterday, he pleaded not guilty to charges against him as the judge questioned the terms of the agreement. [NBC News]

* Six of Joe Biden’s judicial nominees got grilled by Republicans yesterday. [Law360]

* Biglaw steps up at HBCU: Perkins Coie announced a Technology Law Scholarship at North Carolina Central University School of Law. [Law.com]

* Behind the litigation strategy to fight climate change. [Vox]

* First they came for “CRT” and no one cared. Next, they came for the scientists. [WRAL]

* Climate laws are benefiting Korean firms. [Bloomberg]

* Who needs climate change laws when you have trees? No seriously, that’s a Senate candidate’s platform. [Wa Po]

* How bad was Trump’s FBI and CIA document pirating anyway? Oh…like 300 documents big? [NYT]

* Surprising no one, Bremerton was just the start. [Baptist News]

Ed. note: Early wishes for a happy July 4th weekend! We’ll be back on Wednesday, July 5 (barring unforeseen news).

* I don’t know that free speech is under cultural attack, as this post argues. But I do think people are using lawsuits to bash speech they don’t like. Instead of lecturing people about the sacred right of Nazis to intimidate people on Twitter, I’d rather the First Amendment crowd came up with a real regime of sanctions for people who bring lawsuits against clearly protected speech. I just don’t know that the Deplorable fanboys would recognize that as a sufficient way to fight for their freedom to talk out of their asses. [Popehat]

* The Fifth Circuit has now conferred qualified immunity on expert witnesses, deployed to spout whatever nonsense the government thinks will help them gain a conviction. The Democrat who runs on a criminal justice reform platform that included changing the rules around qualified immunity would probably get my vote. Instead they’ll probably run a Goldman executive with an innovative plan to retrain bigoted hill people for the hi-tech jobs of the future. [Simple Justice]

* What Trump is actually trying to do with his voter fraud investigation is horrifying. But Professor Rick Hasen says it won’t work, and I’m going to trust him because I do not want to get pissed off about a whole new thing this close to a long weekend. [Slate]

* Texas isn’t sure that same-sex marriage means that same-sex couples get marriage benefits. Sigh. Look, Texas is going to lose its fight against gay people, eventually. YOU HEAR THAT YOU HAT WEARIN’ COWBOYS? Gay people are going to kick your ass and have sex in your Alamo. [Texas Tribune]

* Based on the settlement data, The Root came up with a methodology to calculate the worth of a black life. Ballpark, the state pays about $3,364,875 per family for the right to kill us without criminal accountability. If you’ve got thoughts about how the state spends too much money in settlements, keep them to yourself. [The Root]

* Stay safe out there this long weekend. The Texas Law Hawk has some fireworks safety tips. [Texas Law Hawk]

* Checking in with the Alt-Right, I could go with all the stories about how people have called Kellyanne Conway “ugly,” which is apparently the Alt-Right defense for the president mocking Mika Brzezinski? But this headline is just too good: “Germany Surrenders to Trump, Waters Down G20 Climate Plan #Winning” They’re making water puns, y’all. They are defiant. You can’t even blame the Earth for trying to kill all of us. [Breitbart]

* The Jeff Sessions Justice Department will decline to bring charges against Baton Rogue police officers involved in the death of Alton Sterling. The shooting of Sterling was caught on videotape and led to protests last summer. [Washington Post]

* A new lawsuit alleges a funeral home in Mississippi refused to cremate a man’s husband because he was gay. [CNN]

* Is Apple prepping for a massive acquisition? Let the guessing game begin. [LA Times]

* A judge has ruled that a defamation suit against CNN will go forward. The allegations surround a story about infant mortality at a Florida hospital. [Law.com]

* The machinations behind the latest push to repeal and replace Obamacare have hit a snag over preexisting conditions. [New York Times]

* The United States may pull out of the climate change Paris Agreement as early as next week. [Huffington Post]

* When a case about giant inflatable cats and rats comes before Judge Easterbrook, he rises to the occasion. [FindLaw]

* Lesson from the Lochte incident. [Huffington Post]

* Analyzing the cert petitions filed with the Court this summer. [Empirical SCOTUS]

* Expanding corporate speech to deny climate change. [Law360 (sub. req.)]

* The role of expert testimony in the talcum powder case. [The Expert Institute]

* Get your tickets for this Friday’s reading of two legally themed TV pilots. [The Tank]

* “Next thing I know he knocks me over backwards, puts the pillow over me and he cuts my throat and stabs me.” Law firm partner Leo Fisher testified yesterday in the trial against Andrew Schmuhl, the lawyer accused of abducting and maliciously wounding him. We’ll have more on this horrifying testimony later. [Washington Post]

* In a move that’s sure to attract attention (and ire) from the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division, Bayer has offered to buy Monsanto for $62 billion. This may be the largest all-cash takeover in history, so we wonder which law firms will have the pleasure of reaping all the rewards that come with so huge of a deal representation. [Reuters]

* “Can citizens sue the government over climate change?” Great legal minds are divided over the answer to this question. Constitutional law scholar Erwin Chemerinsky says yes, but international law savant Eric Posner says no. Whatever you think is the right answer, it’s time we get more aggressive on this issue. [Room for Debate / New York Times]

* With Ted Olson quarterbacking Tom Brady’s request for an en banc hearing of his four-game Deflategate suspension before the Second Circuit, perhaps this case has a fighting chance. Patriots fans should be praying, because an en banc hearing could result in their QB’s suspension being stayed for the start of the season. [WSJ Law Blog]

* Victims of the Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood attack have filed suit against the clinic, claiming the shooting was both “predictable and preventable.” They say that given the past history of threats of violence against places where abortions are performed, patrons should’ve been alerted that they were at risk of injury or death. [Denver Post]