Joyful Monday!
I stayed up approach too late this weekend making historical past with 112,000+ different folks on the largest ticketed live performance ever held within the U.S. – Zach Bryan on the Large Home. I used to be visiting my son who’s a junior on the College of Michigan, and I’ve to say it was fairly particular to be belting out lyrics with my husband and kids on the prime of our lungs amidst 1000’s of followers below the pink skies of a Michigan sundown, which I’ve hopefully taught ‘em to get pleasure from.
This week you possibly can be a part of me LIVE at an occasion that includes my e book Shortlisted: Girls within the Shadows of the Supreme Courtroom hosted by the Dallas Allied Bars Equality Committee and the Dallas Girls Legal professionals Affiliation on Tuesday from noon-1PM central. Be taught extra and register right here. Different audio system embody Decide Rebecca Rutherford, U.S. District Courtroom for the Northern District of Texas and Professor Cheryl Wattley (UNT Dallas).
I’m additionally completely happy to share a current evaluate of Shortlisted. Despite the fact that the e book was first printed in 2020 with a paperback replace in 2022, the themes appear to resonate now greater than ever. Right here’s an excerpt from the evaluate:
One of many e book’s standout options is its meticulous analysis that helps the authors’ arguments. The writing fashion strikes a exceptional steadiness between educational rigor and accessibility. At the same time as somebody not deeply entrenched within the intricacies of the American judicial system, I discovered the reasons clear sufficient to interact me deeply. The primary half unveils a story steeped in historical past, inspecting how feminine presence was considered each revolutionary and contentious—particularly in a time when presidents would endorse girls’s suffrage but stay hesitant to genuinely help girls in positions of energy.
Notably, the authors don’t draw back from the complexities that come up after girls are appointed. The challenges they current—similar to balancing familial expectations {and professional} duties—are all too relatable. I discovered myself reflecting on the broader implications not solely within the court docket however in workplaces all over the place, as girls juggle identities that society typically complicates for them.
Learn the complete evaluate right here. And my co-author Dean Hannah Brenner Johnson (Southern Illinois) and I are all the time completely happy to discuss the e book. We’ve given talks to a wide selection of audiences. Please attain out to both (or each!) of us if in case you have an engagement in thoughts.
Now on your headlines. I can’t blame the sluggish begin to my Monday solely on my late night time live performance over the weekend. I’m positively nonetheless recovering from the onslaught of authorized ethics information from the previous week. We in fact have greater than ten headlines…so let’s flip now to the highest fifteen. You would possibly wish to seize a cup of espresso for this learn. ☕️
Highlights from Final Week – High Ten Fifteen Headlines
#1 “If the Trump administration can do that, then no American is protected from political prosecution.” A letter to Congress from Norman Eisen, Richard Painter, and Virginia Canter: “We write as former ethics counsels for Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Invoice Clinton. We urgently request an investigation into doable prosecutorial abuses and ethics violations by Lindsey Halligan, the newly-appointed interim U.S. Legal professional for the Jap District of Virginia, in connection along with her having improperly introduced prices in opposition to former Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey. … In the USA, a president ought to by no means order prosecutions of his enemies.” Learn the full letter right here and an op-ed from the authors printed on MSNBC right here.
#2 “‘At Skilled Threat’: Charging Comey Might Land Lindsey Halligan in Sizzling Water.” From Vainness Truthful: “An ethics professor from Halligan’s legislation college warns that if she pursues prices in opposition to the previous FBI director with out possible trigger, she might be disciplined by the Florida bar.” Learn extra right here.
#3 “Newman Makes Full-Courtroom Press in Appeals Problem of Suspension.” From Bloomberg Legislation: “Decide Pauline Newman, the nation’s oldest lively federal decide, requested the complete D.C. Circuit to rethink her constitutional problem to the legislation her colleagues used to droop her from listening to new circumstances. The complete appellate court docket ought to heed a three-judge panel’s implicit invitation’ to take the case en banc and revisit a precedent stopping the court docket from contemplating Newman’s arguments on the deserves, she argued in a petition filed Sept. 19 on the US Courtroom of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The panel in August upheld a D.C.-based district court docket’s dismissal of Newman’s lawsuit in search of reinstatement.” Learn extra right here.
#4 “Amy Coney Barrett Explains Why She Received’t Clarify Her Recusals.” From Politico: “Justice Amy Coney Barrett indicated Thursday that one motive she chooses to not clarify why she recuses herself from circumstances for ethics causes is as a result of her mates or household might face undesirable public consideration, threats or worse. The feedback from Barrett are a uncommon signal {that a} current surge in threats in opposition to judges and their households are affecting how members of the Supreme Courtroom perform their official duties. Throughout a cease in Washington to advertise her new e book, Barrett was requested why some justices clarify their selections to recuse from circumstances, whereas others don’t.” Learn extra right here.
#5 “I Sought to Shield an Immigrant Authorized Shopper. As a substitute, I’m Dealing with Trump’s New Sanctions.” From The Guardian: “Dealing with the specter of circumstances in El Salvador’s Cecot facility and the plight of different immigrants having been eliminated with out discover, I had beforehand secured a class motion in opposition to removals for my very own district round Los Angeles, and I needed to increase such safety to this consumer. I knew President Trump had issued a proclamation trying to justify removals after the very fact, however I used my greatest judgment and expertise to ask the court docket to implement the precise legislation as written. The federal government however proceeded to take my consumer out of the USA. So I used to be bowled over when the federal government requested the decide to punish me for my efforts through a movement for sanctions – which is a novel technique by the administration to go after immigration attorneys personally by trying to wreck their file or superb them. I used to be now a goal.” Learn extra right here.
#6 “Non-public Fairness Circles Legislation Companies, However Will They Promote?” From the Wall Road Journal: “U.S. legislation corporations need money, and personal fairness desires to purchase U.S. legislation corporations. However bringing the 2 industries collectively is more durable than it appears to be like, dealmakers say.” Learn extra right here.
#7 “Fla. Bar Should Conduct Bondi Ethics Probe, State Justices Informed.” From Law360: “An legal professional has doubled down on his try to drive the Florida Bar into investigating U.S. Legal professional Normal Pam Bondi for alleged unethical conduct, arguing to the state Supreme Courtroom that the bar has a transparent authorized responsibility to take action. In a prolonged Thursday submitting, John Might responded to the bar in addition to the federal authorities and the state of Florida, each of which supported the choice to not examine Bondi. Might and different petitioners argued that the bar supplied no legitimate argument as to why it’s not required to conduct an investigation right into a sworn grievance in opposition to an legal professional.” Learn extra right here.
#8 “AI Drives Arizona’s First-in-Nation Judicial Tech Competence Rule.” From JD Supra: “The Arizona Supreme Courtroom has added the moral obligation of expertise competence to the state’s judicial ethics code. The court docket’s choice to explicitly insert a expertise competence requirement into its guidelines for judges is a primary within the nation. Efficient Jan. 1, 2026, Rule 2.5 of the Arizona Code of Judicial Conduct may have a new Remark 1, which reads: “Competence within the efficiency of judicial duties requires the authorized information, talent, thoroughness, and preparation fairly essential to carry out a decide’s duties of judicial workplace, together with using, and information of the advantages and dangers related to, expertise related to service as a judicial officer.” The Arizona excessive court docket’s motion seems to be the primary state to explicitly write an obligation of expertise competence into its judicial ethics code. Judicial ethics opinions in Michigan (Ethics Op. JL-155, Oct. 27, 2023) and West Virginia (Ethics Op. 2023-22, Oct. 13, 2023) have beforehand discovered an obligation of expertise competence implied in a judicial officer’s common responsibility of competency, nevertheless.” Learn extra right here.
#9 “Trial Separation: Courtroom Legal professionals Are Breaking Up With Large Legislation.” From the Wall Road Journal: “Legislation corporations are more and more divided into two factions: legal professionals who go to court docket and people who don’t. Rainmaking company legal professionals who paper up boardroom offers have amassed vital energy at international legislation corporations. In the meantime, litigators, whose contribution to the corporations’ backside line is modest by comparability, have been sidelined and pissed off of their efforts to tackle controversial shoppers, particularly within the Trump period. Large-name trial legal professionals are voting with their ft by leaving main legislation corporations and going to boutique outfits devoted to litigation.” Learn extra right here (reward hyperlink).
#10 “Legislation Companies With Trump Offers Probed by Democrats on Commerce Work.” From Bloomberg Legislation: “Democrats in Congress need extra info on three main legislation corporations’ doable work for the Commerce Division after making offers with the White Home to evade govt orders. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) and Sens. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) on Wednesday despatched letters to Paul Weiss, Kirkland & Ellis, and Skadden, requesting details about their legal professionals’ work for the division. The corporations are amongst a bunch of 9 that pledged almost $1 billion in free authorized providers on causes shared with President Donald Trump’s administration in a sequence of agreements starting in March.” Learn extra right here.
#11 “Legal professionals Accused of AI Misuse in FIFA Case Fined $24,400.” From Reuters: “A federal decide in Puerto Rico has sanctioned two plaintiffs’ legal professionals over error-filled court docket filings in a lawsuit involving skilled soccer, awarding greater than $24,400 in authorized charges to Paul Weiss, Sidley Austin and different legislation corporations that accused the legal professionals of misusing synthetic intelligence within the case. Chief U.S. District Decide Raúl Arias-Marxuach mentioned in a Tuesday order, that the charges have been justified based mostly on court docket filings that included a minimum of 55 faulty citations to circumstances.” Learn extra right here.
#12 “Supreme Courtroom of Texas More likely to Take away ABA as ‘Remaining Say’ on Accreditation.” From Josh Blackman (South Texas) in The Volokh Conspiracy: “On September 26, 2025, the Supreme Courtroom of Texas issued a momentous order. The Justices doubtless signaled that the ABA will now not have the ‘closing say’ on accreditation.” Learn extra right here.
#13 “On LawNext: Justice Staff — Reimagining Entry to Justice as Democracy Work, with Rebecca Sandefur and Matthew Burnett.” From LawSites : “With as many as 120 million authorized issues going unresolved in America every year, conventional lawyer-centered approaches to entry to justice have persistently failed to fulfill the dimensions of want. However what if the answer isn’t just about offering extra authorized providers — what if it lies in basically rethinking who can present authorized assist? In right this moment’s episode, host Bob Ambrogi is joined by two of the nation’s main researchers on entry to justice: Rebecca Sandefur, professor and director of the Sanford College of Social and Household Dynamics at Arizona State College and a school fellow on the American Bar Basis, and Matthew Burnett, director of analysis and applications for the Entry to Justice Analysis Initiative on the American Bar Basis and an adjunct professor of legislation at Georgetown College Legislation Middle. They argue that the entry to justice disaster is definitely a disaster of democracy. As cofounders of Frontline Justice, they’ve been pioneering analysis on ‘justice staff’ — neighborhood members educated to assist their neighbors navigate authorized points.” Learn extra and pay attention right here.
#14 “How Ought to a DOJ Political Appointee Assume A couple of Trump-Weaponized DOJ?” From Jack Goldsmith (Harvard) in Government Features: “The Justice Division is stuffed with dozens of Trump political appointees—Senate-confirmed senior officers, non-confirmed deputies and particular assistants, and others. I’m attempting to think about how these officers are processing current occasions on the Division—and the way they justify to themselves continued service there.” Learn extra right here.
#15 “‘I’m a Robust Cookie.’ Alina Habba, Trump’s Favourite Lawyer, Explains Herself.’” From Vainness Truthful: “And there’s no higher advocate for Habba than Habba herself. She is humorous, profane, nimble, and fierce. She responds to assaults about her being unqualified for the job by detailing her years of operating profitable legislation corporations and of representing Trump as ample preparation for the function of US legal professional.” Learn extra right here. (You would possibly recall from LER No. 40 that Habba was among the many legal professionals indicted for his or her work involving Trump in 2024.)
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Renee Knake Jefferson holds the endowed Doherty Chair in Authorized Ethics and is a Professor of Legislation on the College of Houston. Take a look at extra of her writing on the Authorized Ethics Roundup. Discover her on X (previously Twitter) at @reneeknake or Bluesky at legalethics.bsky.social.
