Res Ipsa Blog

The University of North Texas and the City of Dallas have selected a location for the proposed University of North Texas College of Law. On Wednesday, the Dallas City Council agreed to spend over $16 million renovating the old Dallas City Hall to make it the home of the "first pubic law school in North Texas." Built in 1914, the building served as the Dallas City Hall until 1978. It is in the parking lot of this building that Jack Ruby ... Read More

Today in a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court struck down the ban on handguns in the District of Columbia. At issue in District of Columbia v. Heller was whether the Second Amendment protected the right of individuals to bear arms, or whether it applied only to the collective rights of states to maintain militias. In the majority opinion written by Justice Scalia, the Court held that the individual right to possess a firearm is unrelated to service in a militia, and instead, was ... Read More

Today, the Supreme Court decided Boumediene v. Bush, affirming that terrorist suspects held in Guantanamo Bay have the right to file habeas petitions in federal courts. The case arose from a habeas petition made on behalf of Lakhdar Boumedine who was being held as an enemy combatant at Guantanamo Bay. Majority: Kennedy, Stevens, Breyer, Ginsburg, and Souter Dissent: Roberts, Scalia, Thomas, Alito Full-length opinion. Sources: Reuters, SCOTUSblog More information: Oyez, SCOTUSwiki: amicus briefs Boumediene: a lesson in drafting dissents. Oral Arguments Read More

The ABA Journal has published a must-read excerpt from Justice Scalia's new book. The Brief: Use paragraphs intelligently; signpost your arguments. Use words that guide the reader Make it interesting The Argument Appreciate the importance of oral argument, and know your objectives. Have your opener down Be cautious about jokes Never tell prepared jokes. They almost invariably bomb. In Roe v. Wade, an assistant attorney general for the state of Texas, who was arguing against two women lawyers, led with what he probably considered courtly Southern humor: “Mr. Chief Justice, and may ... Read More

After promising to never release her tax records even if she became first lady, Cindy McCain released the first two pages of her tax returns today. Her gross income came in at over $6 million in 2006 and she paid over $1.7 million in taxes. While John McCain made less than 5% of that amount, Cindy McCain's fortune comes largely from her inheritance in the nation's third-largest beer distributor, Anheuser-Busch. She also controls the McCain family portfolio, which is estimated to be ... Read More

Yesterday, in In re Sara Steed, et al., the Texas Court of Appeals at Austin ruled that, in the case of the children of the thirty-eight mothers represented in the case, the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services failed to show that there was an "immediate danger to the physical health or safety of the children." Prior to removing children from their homes, section 262.201 of the Texas Family Code requires a showing that (1) that there was a danger to the ... Read More

A little bit of shameless self-promotion: Res Ipsa got picked up on The Wall Street Journal today! Read More

Law.alltop.com is a one stop shop for legal news. It features a wide array of legal blogs; everything from the serious to the famous and even the funny. There are a couple of things I really like about law.alltop.com. First, it allows you to preview the stories by hovering over the headlines. Second, it allows you to remove feeds that you are not interested in. Both of those features make for more efficient browsing and the site provides a great way to stay ... Read More

Rank Firm Partner Profits 1. Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz $4.95 million 2. Cravath Swaine & Moore $3.30 million 3. Sullivan & Cromwell $3.06 million 4. Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges $3.01 million 5. Simpson Thacher & Bartlett $2.88 million 6. Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft $2.73 million 7. = Cahill Gordon & Reindel $2.60 million 7. = Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison $2.60 million 9. Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy $2.53 million 10. Kirkland & Ellis $2.48 million Rank Firm Revenue 1. Skadden $2.17 billion 2. Latham & Watkins $2.01 billion 3. Baker & McKenzie $1.83 billion 4. Jones Day $1.44 billion 5. Sidley Austin $1.39 billion 6. White & Case $1.37 billion 7. Kirkland & Ellis $1.31 billion 8. Greenberg Traurig $1.20 billion 9. Mayer Brown $1.18 billion 10. Weil Gotshal & Manges $1.17 billion Source: The American Lawyer :: :: :: :: ... Read More

Update: July 2008 Texas Bar Results Available Here. February 2008 Texas Bar Results Announced Bar Passage Rates for First Time Examinees: Baylor Law School 95.83% Texas Tech University School of Law 92.86% Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law 92.31% South Texas College of Law 88.24% St. Mary's School of Law 86.96% University Of Texas School of Law 80.00% Texas Wesleyan School of Law 79.59% University Of Houston Law Center 78.95% Texas Southern University Thurgood Marshall School of Law 59.26% Congrats to everyone who passed! (Looks like we were the first blog to ... Read More