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Judge recuses from Arizona case over his email denouncing attacks on Harris

The judge overseeing Arizona’s case against allies of former president Donald Trump over their alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results recused himself late Tuesday, after it emerged he had emailed colleagues urging them to speak out against conservative attacks on Vice President Kamala Harris’s gender and racial identity.



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Trump nominates Rep. Matt Gaetz, outspoken ally, as attorney general

Donald Trump announced Wednesday that he would nominate Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Florida) to serve as the nation’s next attorney general, a pick that would install an outspoken Trump loyalist who has spent years deriding the purported weaponization of the Justice Department at the helm of the agency. Gaetz, a divisive figure within his own party, would be the first U.S. attorney general in four decades who never worked as a government attorney or judge.



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FTC antitrust case against Meta can move to trial, court rules

A federal judge ruled Wednesday that a Federal Trade Commission lawsuit accusing Facebook owner Meta of holding an illegal monopoly over social media can proceed to trial, handing the agency a victory after previous setbacks in making its case in court.



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Biden faces shrinking window for judicial nominations

Senate Democrats are staring down a shrinking timeline to confirm more than two dozen of President Joe Biden’s judicial nominees, with President-elect Donald Trump warning Republicans to do all they can to block the effort.



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Aspiring law students could skip standardized admissions testing under new ABA variance

A work-around to the mandatory use of standardized testing for admissions to law school was approved as the council of the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar voted allow law schools to accept students who do not take the Law School Admission Test or another standardized exam.



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Theodore B. Olson, conservative lawyer who backed marriage equality, dies at 84

Theodore B. Olson, a conservative constitutional lawyer who argued the 2000 Florida vote-recount case that helped George W. Bush secure the presidency and later helped lead the case that overturned California’s 2008 ban on same-sex marriage, has died. He was 84.



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Following pay changes with Idaho public defender’s office, agency saw more than 1,000 withdrawals

Updated: Recent Idaho public defender pay rate changes led to many counsel heading for the exits, and the Idaho State Bar issued a formal ethics opinion due to concerns. It recognizes financial hardships can cause conflicts in legal representation but notes that counsel cannot leave a case without the court’s approval.



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Leonard Leo, Trump aide Mike Davis spar over Supreme Court retirements

An influential conservative lawyer who advised Donald Trump during his first term forcefully pushed back Friday on talk that one or more conservative Supreme Court justices might retire after Trump again takes office in January.



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St. Thomas College of Law and fired professor reach settlement

The St. Thomas University Benjamin L. Crump College of Law and a professor at the school have “agreed to amicably part ways,” according to a statement from the Florida-based law school to the ABA Journal.



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Bar pass rates climb nationwide for July exam

Bar pass rates for the July 2024 bar exam are strong throughout the country. The expectations were high for the class of 2024. In 2021, the year that this class entered law school, applications increased by 13%.



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