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Ivy League Justice
Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s ill-informed comments and questions at the recent oral argument in the challenge to the Biden Administration’s COVID vaccination mandate case (National Federation of Independent Business v. Department of Labor) provide a timely reminder that the hyper-elite legal talent on the nation’s High Court is not always what it is cracked up to be. -
An Elegy for the Boy Scouts
The news over the past few years has offered little to cheer about, but a recent story reporting an unprecedented 43 percent decline in membership in the Boy Scouts of America from 2019 to 2020—from 1.97 million Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts to 1.12 million—was especially dispiriting. -
The Viral Court Backlog
Just over a year ago, if you would have asked an experienced judge or lawyer to imagine the litigation and jury trial backlog if a global pandemic were to sweep through the nation, they first would have probably told you that your morbid scenario wasn’t funny and that the courts would never be able to dig out. -
After death under guardianship, Tuskegee Airman’s uniforms found on a San Antonio street
SAN ANTONIO - When Thomas Kelly, 59, drove by his parent’s home on Enid Street near Kelly Air Force Base in San Antonio, he didn’t expect to see two of his father’s military uniforms flapping in the wind on the front lawn. -
Federal judge to rule on daughter's racketeering, trafficking suit against Houston judge
HOUSTON - A federal judge is set to rule on whether to dismiss a physician’s lawsuit against a Harris County probate judge who allegedly turned a blind eye to the estate trafficking and elder abuse of her 91-year-old mother who was under a court-appointed guardianship when she died. -
Slouching Toward Totalitarianism
Amidst all the other tribulations visited upon these United States in 2020, we find ourselves—like a frog in the proverbial pot of boiling water—immersed in the suddenly-ubiquitous delusion of wokeness. With startling abruptness, concepts and terminology previously at the periphery of popular culture—“white privilege,” “systemic racism,” “unconscious bias,” and the like—have become household terms. Once seemingly limited to the fever swamp of academia, and even then mainly confined to a few humanities disciplines, the death of George Floyd catapulted the long-simmering (and frequently-ridiculed) rhetoric of wokeness into the headlines. Without warning, fringe organizations like Black Lives Matter unexpectedly became mainstream—complete with corporate sponsorships and celebrity spokesmen. -
Who pays someone $950 an hour to read?
Attorney Mikal Watts charges $950 an hour for his time. Cha-ching! Cha-ching! Cha-ching! If you’re a client of his, you want to cut to the chase, and fast. -
Mikal Watt’s work on opioid litigation totals $1.38M, attorney bills for reading news articles
SAN ANTONIO – Most people can only fantasize about getting paid tens of thousands of dollars to kick back and read the newspaper. For the controversial Mikal Watts, however, it seems to be a reality. -
Paxton: Traffickers are Taking Advantage of the Pandemic to Prey on the Vulnerable
As many of our daily activities have moved online due to the novel coronavirus, so have criminals. And one of their targets is our children. -
Co-founder of KIPP files defamation suit - says KIPP published false statements to ruin reputation, stop him from competing
HOUSTON – Last February, KIPP, one the largest charter school chains in the country, terminated its co-founder Michael Feinberg over allegations of sexual abuse of a student more than two decades ago. -
BARACK FERRAZZANO: Barack Ferrazzano Recognized in 2020 Vault Rankings
Barack Ferrazzano is proud to announce Vault — an industry leader in providing law-firm research to potential job candidates — has once again recognized the Firm. -
RBG’s Hubris Is a Gift for Donald Trump
The 85-year old Ruth Bader Ginsburg, appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court by President Bill Clinton in 1993, is approaching her 25th anniversary as a justice. She is historic in many respects: the second female to serve on the high court, the first Jewish female justice, and the longest-serving Jewish justice ever. Her record as a reliable liberal vote on the court, along with her well-publicized background as a trail-blazer for women’s rights, has made her an icon on the Left—celebrated as the “Notorious RBG” and featured in the recent film “On the Basis of Sex.” -
Fifth Circuit to determine if Texas anti-SLAPP applies in federal court, dozens of media orgs file brief in support
NEW ORLEANS – Dozens of media organizations, including the American Society of News Editors, have filed a friend of the court brief in a case before the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals that could determine whether state anti-SLAPP statutes apply in federal court. -
The Delusion of Good Faith Judging
The concept of written legal rules—of the law itself—assumes that their content is fixed and ascertainable. The rule of law likewise depends on citizens having advance notice of what they can and cannot do, pursuant to clear, knowable directives. Legal scholars expend enormous energy pontificating about the appropriate techniques judges should apply in the course of constitutional interpretation: textualism, originalism, and so forth. Libertarian theorists argue strenuously that judges must be given greater authority—through “judicial engagement”—over the political branches. Each day, lawyers across the country trot off to court, briefs in hand, hoping to convince a black-robed judge–enthroned behind a raised, magisterial bench—that the relevant legal rules, properly construed, compel a ruling in favor of their client. -
Has Gorsuch ‘Gone Wobbly’ Already?
A Supreme Court decision on immigration that was not expected to be controversial instead attracted wide attention upon its release last week. The reason: Justice Neil Gorsuch, the much-heralded successor to the legendary Antonin Scalia, joined with the High Court’s four liberals to overturn an immigration statute on the grounds that it was “void for vagueness,” over the strenuous dissent of the court’s conservative bloc: Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Anthony Kennedy, and Chief Justice John Roberts. -
Prosecutorial Collusion in the Fourth Estate: Anatomy of a Witch Hunt, Part 4
Mark Pulliam analyzes the baseless and politically-motivated prosecution of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, exploring the disturbing collusion between the news media and the special prosecutors. -
Selective Outrage
Is Sen. Kamala Harris the victim of partisan politics, or its savvy practitioner and beneficiary? -
Robert Scott named Technology Lawyer of the Year
SOUTHLAKE – Lawyer Monthly has named the managing partner of law firm Scott & Scott LLP the Technology Lawyer of the Year. -
Prospects for Constitutionalism
What are the prospects for constitutionalism and the rule of law under President Donald Trump? In my estimation, quite good. Unlike some of my libertarian (or classical liberal) friends, I didn’t quake at the possibility of Trump’s election (as I explained here). His shortlist of potential Supreme Court candidates was outstanding, and his cabinet picks to date have been first rate. Of course, assessing the success or failure of Trump’s presidency will rest on the actions he takes and the pol -
Don't Thread on Me
The Texas Supreme Court’s 2015 decision in Patel v. Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, striking down a state law requiring at least 750 hours of training in order to perform commercial “eyebrow threading”—a form of hair removal mainly performed in South Asian and Middle Eastern communities—has generated substantial notoriety for the court and for the Institute for Justice, which brought the lawsuit challenging the law.