Supreme Court justices reported receiving gifts, including a stay in a Bali hotel and tickets to a Beyoncé concert, as well as nearly $1.6 million in book advances and royalties. They released their annual financial disclosure forms for 2023 on Friday. Conservative Justice Clarence Thomas, facing criticism for not disclosing gifts from businessman and Republican…
A government watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), on Wednesday urged the judiciary to rein in the recurring practice of conservative judges boycotting the hiring of law clerks from specific schools over protests and disruptions on their campuses. CREW, in a letter, urged the U.S. Judicial Conference to address the matter…
A former partner at U.S. law firm Locke Lord, Mark Scott, argued that prosecutors failed to prove he knowingly participated in a $400 million fraudulent cryptocurrency scheme. On Wednesday, Scott urged the 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to reverse or vacate his November 2019 conviction, asserting that the government’s case relied heavily on a…
On Friday, a federal judge criticized conservative U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito for allowing provocative flags, including an upside-down American flag, to fly outside his homes. Senior U.S. District Judge Michael Ponsor of Massachusetts, in a rare move by a sitting lower-court judge, publicly condemned the Supreme Court justice’s approach to ethics in an…
President Joe Biden announced four new judicial nominees on Thursday. One nominee, Julia Lipez, currently a Maine state court judge, is the daughter of Senior U.S. Circuit Judge Kermit Lipez. She has been nominated to the Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, where her father serves. Kermit Lipez plans to retire if the Senate…
Law schools may soon have more information about the educational and economic challenges applicants face on their path to a law degree. The Law School Admission Council (LSAC) is developing a new “environmental context” metric for colleges and universities. This metric considers factors such as institutional student spending, graduation rates, and the percentage of undergraduates…