ABA Journal

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Roberts’ reference to memos of Blackmun on Roe v. Wade raises questions about SCOTUS justices’ private papers

The collected papers of late U.S. Supreme Court justices are typically of interest primarily to judicial biographers, legal researchers and a few journalists. On Dec. 1, during oral arguments in one of the most consequential cases of the term, a new aficionado of the genre revealed himself: Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.



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Why this personal injury firm set up shop in the metaverse

Dating back to his time watching The Jetsons as a child, New Jersey lawyer Richard Grungo Jr. has been fascinated by depictions of the role that new technologies may play in the way that we live our future lives. In more recent years, his imagination has been captured by the possibilities offered by virtual reality.



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With GRE restrictions lifted for law schools, some urge caution

As of November, ABA-accredited law schools can accept the Graduate Record Examination from applicants in lieu of the Law School Admission Test, and some wonder if those with the financial resources will purchase test prep classes for both and submit their best score.



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August Hieber helps create access to legal services for older LGBT adults

August Hieber created Proud to Thrive, the first program in Chicago specifically designed to provide culturally responsive legal advocacy to LGBT older adults. Hieber recognized this population is less likely to access resources because of past experiences with discrimination and worked with the Center for Disability & Elder Law to host legal clinics and train other legal professionals on how to offer services.



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New database tracks gender-based violence sentencing decisions in the Pacific

“The training not only showed us information about the trends in sentencing decisions, but it definitely got us thinking about a lot of things,” said Loukinikini Vili, a lawyer and the director of human rights at Samoa’s Office of the Ombudsman/National Human Rights Institution.



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A few years after graduating from high school and college concurrently, 19-year-old preps for February bar

Braxton Moral isn’t sure what he wants to do after he passes the bar, and that’s OK. He’s only 19 years old. In addition to being years younger than the vast majority of candidates sitting for the February 2022 bar, Moral is set to graduate from Kansas’ Washburn University School of Law in 2.5 years rather than the traditional three. He claims he didn’t do well during his first semester but started to get the hang of it by the second.



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Legal tech company featured on ‘Shark Tank’ experiences big bump in business

The digital platform HelloPrenup helps couples create prenuptial agreements by filling out in-depth questionnaires and comprehensive financial disclosures instead of having to go to a lawyer.



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Exam question wasn’t only offensive behavior of UIC law professor, according to internal investigation

Over the past year, various academics have expressed support for a University of Illinois Chicago School of Law professor who faced student criticism after he used abbreviated racial and gender slurs as part of a hypothetical fact pattern for a civil procedure final exam.



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Conference addresses racial equity and social justice issues for second year

The ABA Social Justice Policy Summit will be held on Dec. 8 and 9. Hosted by the Section of Civil Rights and Social Justice’s Rights of Immigrants Committee and the Coalition on Racial and Ethnic Justice, the free conference will explore interpersonal, structural and institutionalized discrimination and how to achieve necessary reforms in the new administration.



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SCOTUS considers whether public tuition program for private schools can exclude religious ones

The U.S. Supreme Court’s latest case about the Constitution’s religion clauses hails from Maine, where the state has paid tuition to send some students to private schools for more than a century but for the last 40 years has limited the choices to “nonsectarian” schools.



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