1/ I realize folks aren't coming to me for theater recs, but I saw Paula Vogel's "Mother Play" at @2STNYC last night, and I was blown away. Bring tissues if you tend to cry during powerful works of theater.
2/ My husband Zach and I agree that the performances in Mother Play—by Jessica Lange, Celia Keenan-Bolger, and Jim Parsons—are superb. #MotherPlayBway
Apr 11 • 21 tweets • 4 min read
1/ Here's my (very detailed) post about Tuesday night's protest at the home of Berkeley Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky.
It includes new reporting, detailed legal analysis, and links to many other sources (including videos).
Link: bit.ly/3Ue6uh12/ I asked @BerkeleyLaw Dean Erwin Chemerinsky whether he and Professor Catherine Fisk would be seeking discipline against Malak Afaneh and the protesters.
Dean Chemerinsky said they're not sure—but if they do, it will be confidential, per law (e.g., FERPA).
Apr 4 • 17 tweets • 4 min read
1/ Read Judge Aileen Cannon's order, linked in @emptywheel's post below (👇).
2/ On the one hand, Judge Cannon kinda walks back some of her prior crazytown order:
The Espionage Act counts "make no reference to the Presidential Records Act, nor do they rely on that statute for purposes of stating an offense."
Ding ding ding!
Mar 21 • 10 tweets • 3 min read
1/ I'm interrupting my Twitter hiatus to share an important story I just published on Original Jurisdiction:
"Cannon Fodder: Law Clerks Quit On Judge Aileen Cannon"
Here's the link to the full story:
bit.ly/3TqQVRE2/ Why is this significant? For a few reasons.
First, law clerks are critically important to judges, who couldn't do their work without them.
They are not "clerical." Instead, as I've written before, they're the wind beneath the wings of federal judges.
Mar 24, 2023 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
To anyone who has been following the #gwynethpaltrowskicrashcase more closely than I have, can you explain to me:
Why the heck didn't this settle?
The plaintiff seeks $300K. Gwyneth can sell enough "Smells Like My Orgasm Candles" ($75) to cover that.
2/ More than 95% of civil cases settle.
@GwynethPaltrow is presumably (a) rich & (b) averse to bad publicity.
When a case does go to trial, there's usually a reason (e.g., grudge match, no middle ground, etc.).
Why this can't be solved for $300K (or less)?
Mar 23, 2023 • 4 tweets • 3 min read
1/ 🧵Judge Allison Burroughs (D. Mass.) said it was "greedy" of @JeannieSGersen to push for greater disclosure of sealed portions of the trial-court record in the @Harvard affirmative-action case.
2/ But as @JeannieSGersen writes in her @NewYorker piece, "it is not greedy for the public to expect the transparency on which the courts’ legitimacy depends."
2/ One issue is @FedSoc has much more money than @acslaw or @NLGnews, so it can invite more speakers.
I wonder why some left-of-center billionaire doesn’t come forward to fund an organization focused on promoting progressive ideas in the legal world.
Mar 22, 2023 • 14 tweets • 7 min read
1/ As I mentioned earlier (via various retweets), here's the 10-page memo from Stanford Law Dean Jenny Martinez about the recent protest of Judge Kyle Duncan at @StanfordLaw and its aftermath.
stanford.io/3LI4I3O2/ Today I have a podcast episode to post at Original Jurisdiction (with the wonderful @SonyaOldsSom), but I plan to write about Dean Martinez's memo for tomorrow or Friday.
I welcome your thoughts (anonymous if you like): davidlat at substack dot com. Thx!
Mar 11, 2023 • 5 tweets • 4 min read
1/ 🧵If you are willing to get down into the weeds, here is my deep dive into the disruptive protest of Fifth Circuit Judge Kyle Duncan at Stanford Law School (originally reported on by @EdWhelanEPPC).
I just updated the post to (a) add links to stories from @aaronsibarium and @nateraymond, and (b) add reactions to Dean Martinez's statement from my SLS sources.
Mar 10, 2023 • 9 tweets • 5 min read
1/ 🧵I’m interrupting my vacation to investigate the free-speech debacle at @StanfordLaw involving Judge Kyle Duncan (5th Cir.). This thread from @EdWhelanEPPC is accurate (but I have additional info).👇
2/ Defenders of the Stanford Law protesters might quibble over whether the event was completely shut down (a la @ishapiro at Hastings), since Judge Duncan managed to get out a few words. But the event ended 40 minutes early after proceeding became impossible.
Jan 30, 2023 • 21 tweets • 7 min read
1/ 🧵I have an op-ed in today's Boston Globe discussing the value of ideological diversity in Biglaw. But my points are not limited to the world of large law firms; they apply across employers.
bit.ly/3Y5X3PS@GlobeOpinion2/ In this thread, I'm going to offer some preemptive responses to common reactions to my piece (as reflected in, for example, the Globe comments section).
Nov 30, 2022 • 9 tweets • 5 min read
1/ Robin Keller, until recently a retired equity partner at @HoganLovells who was still serving clients, writes for @WSJopinion about how the firm fired her for defending the #SCOTUS decision in Dobbs (which overruled Roe and Casey).
bit.ly/3gIQT8v2/ For background, here's a July 2022 story by @Kathryn1 for @ATLblog about the controversial call where Robin Keller shared her views on Dobbs and abortion. Keller was suspended soon after.
1/ I adapted my Original Jurisdiction story about Yale Law, Harvard Law, and other top law schools defecting from the U.S. News rankings for @Slate (with thanks to @rebeccaonion for the excellent editing).
bit.ly/3tHvKyj2/ Given Slate's audience, which is broader and more diverse than Original Jurisdiction's audience of legal-industry insiders, this piece has less Yale Law School "inside baseball" (as fun as it might be), and more in the way of broader reflections.
Nov 16, 2022 • 15 tweets • 4 min read
The addition to the team of an experienced #SCOTUS advocate like Sopan Joshi is another sign of how seriously the DOJ is taking the Mar-a-Lago matter.👇
1/ Katherine Magbanua was just convicted on all three counts in her retrial for the murder of Professor Dan Markel.
2/ Specifically, Magbanua was convicted of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and solicitation of murder,
May 26, 2022 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
1/ Katherine Magbanua’s testimony this afternoon in her retrial for the murder of Dan Markel did not go well for her (especially compared to the first trial).
2/ At the first trial, I think the prosecution might have been surprised by Katie Magbanua’s decision to testify—understandably so, given all the evidence against her—and so the prosecution was caught a little flat-footed.
May 25, 2022 • 28 tweets • 6 min read
1/ Do you support repealing the Second Amendment?
2/ I support repealing the Second Amendment.
Why not send gun regulation back to the states—an approach that conservatives and federalists support for so many other issues (e.g., abortion)?
May 3, 2022 • 6 tweets • 5 min read
1/ THREAD. Here's my "explainer" about the leaked draft #SCOTUS opinion in Dobbs, the major abortion case, which @Politico published last night.
bit.ly/3s90aZU#appellatetwitter2/ Yes, it's a huge breach of #SCOTUS confidentiality, unlike anything I've seen in my 25 years of following and writing about the Court. (And it's a huge scoop for @alexbward and @joshgerstein of @Politico; whoever leaked to them put a lot on the line.)
May 3, 2022 • 4 tweets • 3 min read
1/ I realize @ProfDBernstein is speaking tongue in cheek, but I do like how district judges sometimes share draft dispositions with the parties and let them point out factual errors, analytical issues, and the like. #SCOTUS#appellatetwitter
1/ A thoughtful thread by @LeanLawStrategy about the recent free-speech controversy at Yale Law School that raises an important, largely overlooked consideration: what does this say about legal education?👇👇👇
2/ Let's remember that @YaleLawSch is a LAW SCHOOL (at least in theory; I sometimes joke about my alma mater, which has a reputation for being theory-focused, that it's "a Ph.D. program where you can take the bar exam at the end").
Mar 18, 2022 • 23 tweets • 12 min read
1/ THREAD. I have appended an update/correction to my Original Jurisdiction post from yesterday about the March 10 protest at Yale Law School.
The disruption was much worse than I originally reported. Here's the text of my update on @YaleLawSch. 2/ It wasn't just the event that was disrupted.
Classes were disrupted too, including Federal Courts (Judith Resnik) and Advanced Legal Writing (Rob Harrison).
The latter was in Room 121—the room farthest away from Room 127, where the event took place.
