Majority Shuns Scalia's Approach

That's Dean Chemerinsky's title for his piece today in the DJ, about how this past term "[t]he court decisively rejected Justice Antonin Scalia's restrictive approach to interpreting the Constitution and federal statutes. Although Scalia has championed his interpretive philosophy for years, in judicial opinions and off-the-bench writings and speeches, it is clear a majority of the court takes a more flexible approach to constitutional and statutory interpretation."

Today's Recorder presents Court Puts Kibosh on Judicial Double-Dipping about 4/2's decision "that California judges are not entitled to both disability and regular retirement benefits."

And in the "for-this-you-need-a-survey?" department, Law360 offers: How Much Money Does it Take to Make a Lawyer Happy?, which carefully explains:

It turns out that attorneys who earn more than $500,000 a year are happier with their jobs than those who make under half a million dollars and are much less likely to consider jumping ship for another law firm *** and nonequity partners voiced more dissatisfaction than any other group.

Of more appellate interest, How Appealing is following this story (that started last Thursday): "Ninth Circuit to consider imposing sanctions against U.S. Department of Justice attorney for "improper oral argument" based on a Los Angeles Times article published just days before oral argument: You can access at this link a rather interesting order that a unanimous three-judge panel ... issued." No doubt more to come on this....

In the awards department, congrats to GDC's Theane Evangelis for being named Lawyer of the Year 2016 for Appellate practice in Los Angeles by Best Lawyers®.