On Monday, in Crawford v. Marion County Election Board, the Supreme Court upheld the Indiana law requiring voters to have a government issued photo identification card in order to vote. Suit was brought by opponents of the law who claimed that the requirement to have a photo identification card created a substantial barrier for voters have government issued photo identification.
In the 6-3 decision, the Court held the burdens associated with the voter identification requirement did not amount 
to a constitutional violation. Justice Stevens writing for the majority noted, “[o]n the basis of the record that has been made in this litigation, we cannot conclude that the statute imposes excessively burdensome requirements on any class of voters.”
Writing for the dissent, Justice Souter compared the requirement to the poll tax overturned in 1966. “If this court’s decision in Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections stands for anything, it is that being poor has nothing to do with being qualified to vote. . . The calculation revealed in the Indiana statute crosses the line when it targets the poor and the weak.”
The majority led by Stevens rejected this argument, commenting, “[t]he inconvenience of making a trip to the Bureau of Motor Vehicles, gathering the required documents, and posing for a photograph surely does not qualify as a substantial burden on the right to vote, or even represent a significant increase over the usual burdens of voting.”
Held: The voter photo identification requirement did not violate the Constitution.
Plurality Opinion: Stevens, Roberts, Kennedy. Concurring: Scalia, Thomas, and Alito.
Dissent: Breyer, Souter, Ginsburg
Charming and surprisingly funny, at 72, Scalia seemed to be twenty years younger and in the best of health during his interview that aired today on 60 Minutes. “Nino,” as he is affectionately known, is only child and was born to his Italian immigrant parents. Scalia grew up in Queens, New York and eventually earned his own way into Harvard through persistence and hard work.
In his first-ever major television interview, Scalia provided insight into his position as an originalist, someone who believes that the Constitution means what the drafters originally intended for it to mean. He does not believe in a “living Constitution” that evolves with the times and needs of the citizens. Instead, he believes in an “enduring Constitution” and that change should take place through the legislature, not
“activist judges” who try to find rights in the Constitution that simply can’t be found in the Constitution. The only other originalist on the Court is Clarence Thomas.
His ideological position has forced him to make decisions that contradict his own socially-conservative beliefs. For example, in Texas v. Johnson, Scalia joined the majority ruling that flag-burning was protected by the First Amendment. Scalia commented, “If it were up to me, I would throw that bearded, sandal-wearing, flag-burner in jail.”
Commenting on torture, another hot-button issue, Scalia commented that defining torture would be a challenge. He said that he, like most everyone else, was against torture, but not “everything that is hateful and odious is covered by some provision of the Constitution.”
On being a close friend of his liberal benchmate Ginsburg despite their opposing views, Scalia commented, “I attack ideas, I don’t attack people, and some very good people have some very bad ideas. And if you can’t separate the two, you got to get another day job. You don’t want to be a judge, at least not a judge on a multi-member panel.”
Scalia’s new book, Making Your Case, the Art of Persuading Judges, will address how lawyers should address the Court. His co-author is Bryan A. Garner, the editor of Black’s Law Dictionary and author of The Redbook: A Manual on Legal Style.
Update: Bryan A. Garner speaks out about the book on the West Blog. Tune in. (mp3 podcast)
As previously reported, Scalia will be on 60 Minutes tomorrow at 6 Central. Here is a preview:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjaB3cxH-XE&rel=0]
Highest Grossing Law Firms Based in Texas in 2007
- Akin Gump $752 million
- Fulbright $649 million
- Vinson & Elkins $596 million
- Baker Botts $577.7 million
- Bracewell & Giuliani $293 million
- Haynes and Boone $264.3 million
- Andrews Kurth $251 million
- Locke Liddell $244.5 million
- Thompson & Knight $214.5 million
- Susman Godfrey $171 million
- Gardere $169.2 million
- Jackson Walker $163.5 million
Highest Profits Per Partner
Partners at Susman Godfrey made over $3 million each. Partners at Baker Botts, Akin Gump, and V&E made more than $1 million.
For more information see: Texas Lawyer (registration required).
Update: for the top out-of-state firms in Texas, see here.
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The ribbon cutting ceremony for the Mark and Becky Lanier Professional Development, the newest addition to the Texas Tech School of Law, took place this morning. Prior to the ribbon-
cutting ceremony, the Texas Supreme Court heard two cases in the new building. The new building adds over 34,000 square feet of space to the law school, including a 150 seat courtroom which is one of the most technologically advanced courtrooms in the nation.
The building was made possible by a $6 million gift from Mark and Becky Lanier which was matched by the state. Mark Lanier is the school’s best known alumnus who gained national acclaim following the nation’s first VIOXX trial. As anyone who knows Mark and Becky Lanier will tell you, their generosity is matched only by their humility and care for those around them.
In a touching opening ceremony, Mark Lanier said “I have offices in New York, Houston, Palo Alto, and Los Angeles, so I meet attorneys everywhere, from the east coast to the west coast, down to the gulf coast. I am proud to say that graduates of the Texas Tech School of Law are as good litigators as any that graduate from the most prestigious schools in our nation. I often tell people, ‘I am not making Texas Tech a great school; Texas Tech is already a great school, I am just helping get the word out.’”
A video of the Texas Supreme Court hearings held in the new courtroom are available here.
Today, in a 7-2 decision, the Supreme Court held that lethal injections do not violate the Constitution
. Writing for the plurality in Baze v. Rees, Chief Justice Roberts stated merely “showing a slightly or marginally safe alternative” was not enough to successfully challenge the method of execution. Instead, there must be proof that the alternate method prevents a “substantial risk of serious harm”
As Justice Stevens pointed out, the issue before the Court was not whether the death penalty itself was unconstitutional, rather only whether the sodium thiopental injection used by Kentucky was unconstitutional or not.
Held: The lethal injection method used by Kentucky did not violate the Constitution.
Plurality Opinion: Roberts, joined by Alito, and Kennedy. Joining in the result: Stevens, Scalia, Thomas, and Breyer
Dissent: Ginsberg and Souter.
More information about the case can be found here.
(click image for full size)
Big Law: The University of Texas topped the list for graduates practicing at “Big Law” firms upon graduation at 28%. The next closest school was Southern Methodist University’s Dedman School of Law.
Private Practice: Texas Tech University School of Law had the highest percentage of students entering private practice. (81%).
Judicial Clerkships: University of Texas students have the largest percentage (10%) of students entering judicial clerkships upon graduation.
Government Jobs: Texas Wesleyan had the most students entering government practice on graduation
In-State Positions: Texas Tech has the most students who remain in Texas to practice upon graduation. (96%).
Data Source: National Law Journal. Information regarding the other regions can be found here.
“Big Law” refers to those with jobs at the 250 largest firms in the nation as determined by the National Law Journal
Catharina Haynes, a partner at Baker Botts, and a longtime insurance defense lawyer, was confirmed by the Senate for a lifetime appointment to the influential United States 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Haynes served as a state court judge, winning the 1998 and 2002 elections for the 191st District Court in Dallas. As a trial judge she presided over nearly 200 jury trials and 100 bench trials.
Haynes, a graduate of Emory, also served on the Emory Law Journal. She is also know for her commitment to pro bono work, and has volunteered as a judge at a pro bono clinic and was involved in the preparation of a brochure for pro se litigants in state civil courts.
Bob Morse, the creator of the U.S. News & World Report’s Annual Law School Rankings, spoke out in defense of the rankings today during a one-hour live chat session at ABAJournal.com.
In response to Brian Leiter’s open letter to Morse calling for radical changes to the ranking system, Morse commented that the publication was going to “meet or respond to” the suggestions made by Leiter. While he noted that Leiter called for significant changes in the ranking system and data collection methods, Morse did not say if, and to what extent, changes would be made.
Defending the current ranking model, Morse noted that members of academia were best suited to judge the academic quality of the law schools and explained that was why the rankings by deans and faculty members were weighted at 25% of the total score, while the opinions of lawyers and judges made up only 15% of the final score.
Morse also commented that the best way for students and alumni to improve the rankings was to “understand how the rankings are done,” and then decide if the school should target the U.S. News variables for improvement.
Other highlights:
- “Gaming the rankings” by spending money, in Morse’s opinion, is not necessarily a bad thing, especially if the schools are getting better quality professors and improving career opportunities for students by spending the extra money.
- There are no immediate plans for evaluating part-time programs.
- The salary figures reported in U.S. News are two years behind the current market. However salaries are not included in rankings.
- Duke’s drop in the rankings was not a “big fall” according to Morse, even though it took the school out of the Top 10.
- U. C. Berkley’s jump in the rankings was due to small improvements across the board that, in turn, boosted the school’s peer evaluations
- Pepperdine’s meteoric rise from a Tier 3 school to a school in the 50s in less than 5 years was due to improvements in employment.
- Noting the emergence of new programs like the Law and Science Program at Texas Tech, which was identified as one of the top programs of its kind in the nation, Morse said U.S. News was open to the idea of adding more specialty areas to the rankings to reflect these types of programs.
- U.S. News would consider a regional approach to the rankings. Currently, respondents get lists of all 190 plus schools and are asked to rate each one of a 5 point scale. However, a regional approach would only be considered if the law schools made a collective request for that type of a ranking system.
- Finally, law school deans have an open invitation to meet with Morse and U.S. News to discuss their rankings and the ranking system.
[digg=http://digg.com/business_finance/Law_School_Rankings_Czar_Defends_Rankings]
When it comes to losing important data, it has been said that there are only two kinds of people: those who have lost important data, and those who will. Files are lost due to accidental deletion, theft, natural disaster, and hard drive crashes. For those in the practice of law, losing a document could mean missing a deadline, failing to file a timely response, or worse.
Fortunately there are easy ways to back up documents.
1. Email yourself the document.
With many of the popular free email services offering ever expanding, or even unlimited storage space, one of the easiest and most cost effective ways to back up documents is to email documents to yourself. For law students and lawyers alike, it is also an easy way to back up daily updates on major projects. An added advantage to this is, if you are emailing yourself you work as it progresses, you can go back and look at prior versions of a document at any time.
2. Use Mozy to back up your personal documents.
This tip is especially useful for law students because non-commercial use of Mozy, an excellent back up program I have been using for over two years, is free for up to 2 GB. Mozy is a small program that sits in your system tray, and on a daily basis encrypts and backs up your documents to a remote server. While Mozy can be used to back up a wide array of file-types, you can choose to limit the files backed up to documents, while will maximize the utility of the free 2GB account. Mozy Free is also the perfect solution for attorneys who want to back up their personal documents.
For commercial use, Mozy has options starting at $3.95 + $0.50/GB per month. Another option for commercial users or users with a lot of data they want to back up is Carbonite, a service I have not used myself, but has received rave reviews from many professional users. Carbonite has the advantage of having a flat-rate of $49.95 for unlimited data storage.
3. Use SyncBack Free to back up your data to an external hard drive.
If you already have an external hard drive, using SyncBack is the easiest way to back up a folder or group of folders to be synced to your external hard drive on a regular basis. Once you set up a back up profile, each time you run the program it will scan your folders for any changes and then update the folders on the external hard drive with the latest versions of the documents and add any new documents to the remote location. Because external hard drives can be stolen, I suggest using TrueCrypt, one of the most respected pieces of open source software, that encrypts your data to encrypt your external hard drive. It can also be used to encrypt USB keys.
Even if you are backing up to an external hard drive, remember to back up your data remotely either through email, or one of the services listed above to ensure your data is recoverable in the event of a natural disaster, theft, or other local phenomena.
Good luck, and stay safe!
[digg=http://digg.com/software/Back_Up_Your_Files_For_Free]
