THE VANISHING ACT OF POLLING PLACES | The Balance of Lawyering | Meet the Stickiest Man in the World
September 16, 2016
BATTLEGROUNDS AREN'T THE STATES
|They’re the polling places. A Reuters survey found local governments in nearly a dozen, mostly Republican-dominated counties in Georgia have adopted plans to reduce the number of voting stations, citing cost savings and efficiency. Reuters reports on the rise of polling place cutbacks across the country and what it means for November.
FROM THE RUMOR MILL
|A spokesman for PETER THIEL came forward yesterday to note the week’s stories are untrue — DONALD TRUMP and PT have never had any conversations about a Supreme Court nomination and the PayPal co-founder has no interest in the job.
ED BOARD OVERTURE
|The Editorial Board over at The New York Times takes on the Alabama law that allows judges to override a jury’s decision in a trial. With the highest per-capita death-sentence rate in the country, nearly one in four of the state’s death penalty cases had the jury voting for life in prison, only to be overruled by the judge. What’s worse, new evidence published in The Yale Law Journal has found that these override cases involve a disproportionate number of wrongful convictions.
STICKIEST MAN IN THE WORLD
|Say what you want, DONALD TRUMP has a message that you can’t forget. It’s unexpected, memorable, and oh so sticky. Yet somehow for The Donald, actions don’t speak louder than words. Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick explains why Trump’s countless legal scandals continue to fall victim to short term memory loss.
WHAT HANGS IN THE BALANCE
|“Firms don’t seem to be moving that fast to be flexible,” said JUSTICE RUTH BADER GINSBURG on Wednesday at an appearance with THEODORE OLSON. Tony Mauro for The National Law Journal reports on their joint appearance where the Notorious RBG urges firms to make “balanced life” easier for their lawyers.
LOOKING TO THE STATES
|In Minnesota, the state’s first American Indian Supreme Court justice ANNE MCKEIG was sworn in to her new post. This is also the first time the court will have a female majority since the early 1990’s.
THE FIGHT GOES ON
|In Virginia, the state Supreme Court denied a motion to hold GOVERNOR TERRY MCAULIFFE in contempt for violating a court order with his new process for restoring felons’ voting rights. The court gave no explanation for their decision.
CONNECT THE DOTS
|Yesterday Connecticut said it plans to appeal the state Supreme Court ruling that ordered a re-examination of virtually the entire state’s education system. Attorney General George C. Jepsen: “There are strong arguments that the trial court exceeded its authority and the standards articulated by the Connecticut Supreme Court, and so today we are asking that court to review this ruling.”
SPEAKING OF
|Another case coming out of Connecticut is likely to ruffle some judicial feathers this year. Martinez v. Malloy is hoping to shake loose forty years of Supreme Court precedent to help Connecticut’s most underserved children receive the quality education they deserve. ICYMI Ian Millhiser in Think Progress wrote this week, “Martinez and its backers, in other words, hope to achieve one of the great unrealized liberal priorities from the last time America had a left-leaning Supreme Court — a fundamental right to education.”
TROLL ON YOU BEARS
|Ben Hancock for Law.com covers a story coming out of Berkeley, California in which the university’s former Dean sued the UC school for its response to sexual harassment allegations.
OTHER NEWS
Senate committee approves nomination of California judge to 9th Circuit Court of Appeals
Los Angeles Times“The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 13-7 Thursday to send to the Senate the nomination of U.S. District Judge Lucy Haeran Koh for the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.”
U.S. Appeals Court Rules Mental-Health Ban on Gun Ownership May Violate Rights
The Wall Street JournalThe Sixth U.S. Court of Appeals on Thursday ruled that a decades-old federal law indefinitely banning people committed to mental health treatment from owning a gun could violate the Second Amendment.
Arizona To Curtail Controversial "Paper, Please" Immigration Checks
Buzzfeed“Arizona on Thursday announced plans to curtail the controversial practice of requiring officers to take a ‘show me your papers’ approach to people suspected of being in the country illegally, effectively neutering what critics have called one of the most anti-immigrant laws in the US.”