Recent Headlines from Above the Law
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Government
Burning Down The House: Teachers Willing To Hurt Kids Over Enforcing 'Anti-CRT' Laws
It is almost like this anti-CRT stuff was never about children's well-being and was just a proxy for censorship this whole time. -
Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 08.03.22
* Affirmative action as a 1st Amendment issue? Let’s see how this goes over. [Wa Po]
* Yale Law decides to be #1 when it comes to helping students that could use some financial aid. [ABC News]
* Wait, are they actually considering fetuses people for tax purposes? Gotta give it to Georgia! [Huff Po]
* Georgia’s heartbeat law also has some new implications for wrongful death suits. [11 Alive]
* An Oklahoma school gets docked after a teacher reported it for having their colleagues sit through staff training on implicit bias. I expected the childishness to come from the kids. [Ed Week]
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Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 06.27.22
* Stand firm: The People want to know where Biglaw firms stand on the overturning of ,em>Roe. [Reuters]
* Agency as tragedy: Governor defends Oklahoma’s lack of a rape or incest exception to abortion bans. [CBS News]
* Florida law lets cops harass you for playing music too loud. Talk about the right to remain silent. [Palm Beach Post]
* Biden signed off on a bill that makes it harder for convicted domestic abusers to buy guns. [Reuters]
* Oklahoma’s gun deaths jumped soon after constitutional carry became a thing. With Bruen now law, you may want to work from home. [Oklahoman]
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Government
Could Overturning Roe Change This State's Motto?
Corporations are willing to relocate based on medical service access? Maybe they actually are people. -
Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 05.26.22
* Back the children: The number of children that have been shot to death at school is higher than the amount of officers that have been killed in the line of duty. [AS]
* Oklahoma just banned abortion at fertilization. We’re like two steps off criminalizing miscarriages at this point, aren’t we? [CNN]
* NY judge maintains law that allows gun manufacturers to be sued if and when they endanger public safety. [CNN]
* Advertisers REALLY don’t like Texas’s social media law. [Adweek]
* If Roe is overturned, the right to choose will be set back 173 years in Wisconsin. [Madison]
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Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 05.20.22
* Justice Thomas’s views on which companies are common carriers could be key to compelling hate speech. [Ars Technica]
* Mississippi just strengthened its animal rights laws. Gotta look out for our buddies. [Action News]
* NY’s Supreme Court rules cops can’t use chokeholds again. Not sure why it was brought back in vogue but alright. [CNN]
* Kamala Harris gives Oklahoma’s abortion law anything but the OK. [NY Post]
* Judge continues ban on a Kentucky law that would prohibit abortion. [NBC News]
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Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 05.04.22
* Oklahoma signed SB8-like bill into law quickly after the Alito leak. [NPR]
* What’s the limit? Are IUDs next on the chopping block? [The Guardian]
* Get it off your chest: Georgia removes “free speech zone” restrictions on college campuses. [Inside Higher Ed]
* UVA Law’s Innocence Project has gotten over $6M in compensation for wrongly incarcerated folks. Talk about a valuable education! [Law.Virginia]
* Spirit declines to take JetBlue’s takeover offer. I can already hear the DOJ’s antitrust division stirring. [CH-Aviation]
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Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 04.29.22
* Laws matter: life lost after school neglects to follow anti-bullying protocol. [WBEZ]
* The EU’s laws will be impacting American free speech, eh? Talk about long-arm statutes. [The Hill]
* Oklahoma just passed their version of Texas’s Roe sidestep. Over/under for them banning condoms too in two weeks? [CNN]
* Marjorie Taylor Greene is maintaining the Shaggy defense for her Section 3 trial. [NBC News]
* People are upset that the Texas bill disincentivizing the use of clean energy isn’t enough to keep them using fossil fuels. Sorry, not sorry. [NPR]
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Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 04.27.22
* Musk thinks censorship shouldn’t go “beyond the law.” Big talk for a guy facing a securities fraud case. [The Hill]
* Just because: Man who passes bar after 20th attempt still can’t practice law in Massachusetts. [ABA Journal]
* Adam and Eve, not Adam and Xe: Florida is like two steps away from legally mandating heterosexuality. [Tampa Bay Times]
* You are a boy, Damon! Oklahoma’s Gov. makes it illegal to put that your child is non-binary on their birth certificate. [CNN]
* Law students spent part of their 3L year protecting their clients civil rights! Power to them — I just played OSRS. [UARK]
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Crime
State Seeks Death Penalty For Lawyer Who Dated Client, Allegedly Helped Him Plan Murder
The allegations are disturbing. -
Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 03.10.22
* In Buffalo, wild winging it lands man in legal trouble. [WGRZ]
* Something about you is different: an Oxford and Cincinnati firm merge under a new name. [Journal News]
* Can’t stand the heat? These UCLA law students are legislating the kitchen. [Newsroom]
* New Jersey will stop doing business with Russia in light of their invading Ukraine. In other news, I just found out New Jersey did business with Russia. [New Jersey Monitor]
* Oklahoma living: Wondered the legal way to get rid of raccoons by chance? Read this over your morning coffee. [WKDQ]
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Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 02.23.22
* Man, that guy could blow — trees: Famous saxophonist’s son in hot water after naming a weed brand after his father. [WMGK]
* “What’s really in name? Oh, that’s what it means! Yeah, let’s change that before we get sued.” The US Interior after doing quick Google searches of monument names, probably. [The Guardian]
* Another same-sex First Amendment case will be before the Supreme Court soon. You ever feel like you’re caught in a loop? [WSJ]
* South Carolina appeals court upholds lower court ruling that basically says, “You can’t just overrule Roe, dude.” Remember when 50ish years of precedent meant something? [Sun Herald]
* Oklahoma’s AG will be figuring out if time-honored literary classics like Lord of the Flies and Of Mice and Men are obscene. Trust, students see way worse content on Twitter. [Read Frontier]
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Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 02.04.22
* Not on my watch! Montana judge rules that last minute changes to a law were unconstitutional. [Billings Gazette]
* Deal with it: Despite Republican frustrations, New Jersey’s Supreme Court finds no issue with their congressional map. [Politico]
* Broken clocks need an attorney at least twice a day: Guy committing identify fraud is arrested because the dude he’s frauding also had a warrant. [Richmond Register]
* Utah bill is set to give parents full reign over what teachers are able to teach children. Helicopter mommy and daddy better be chipping in on school supplies too! [Salt Lake Tribune]
* A bill just got introduced in Oklahoma that would let you sue teachers for $10k if they teach something against your religion. The biggest display of faith here is the thought that teachers could make good on that judgment. [Independent]
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Government
Oklahoma Shows Some Legislatures Still Care About Their Constituents
Hey, 1L thinking about Health Law reform, this is for you! -
Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 11.02.21
* The Second Amendment’s meaning might be changing come SCOTUS’s ruling. [New York Times]
* The President’s legal team thinks no constitutional right is safe if SB8’s enforcement mechanism remains in play. And they might be right. [Washington Post]
* Did NY just prioritize fighting climate change over money?! Even though it might be too late, I gotta admit that’s a good start. [Grist]
* Hey, you! OL reading ATL for some reason! Get a job! Trust me. [U.S. News]
* Oklahoma puts a cap on insulin co-pays. This really should be a nationwide thing — maybe them OK’ing this will lead to spillover. [KFOR]
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Oklahoma's Anti-CRT Law Is Having A Chilling Effect On Speech
Sounds like some people are getting triggered by the truth. -
Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 10.21.21
* The struggling democracy with nukes still can’t pull it together enough to even talk about a new voting rights bill. [ABC News]
* Montana’s AG wants abortion law in place that may violate the state’s constitution. See what you’ve started, Texas? [U.S. News]
* NYPD police union threatens to sue if officers are required to get vaccinated. Can Pfizer just come up with a donut version of the vaccine? I feel like that could do the trick. [Fox News]
* Lawsuit claims that Oklahoma’s anti-CRT laws violate the 1st and 14th amendments. Interesting argument, I wonder if anyone has made it before. [NBC News]
* Change in Arizona law aims to reduce the frequency of street racing. Bold move — it will likely rule the state out as a place to record Fast & Furious 37: Road Runner’s Requiem. [ABC 15]
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Government, State Judges
‘A Judge’s Mind And A Hero’s Heart’
Over the weekend, this judge saved a man’s life. -
Law Schools
Bar Exams Asking Cute COVID Hypos Because They Hate You
Who thought this was appropriate?