Notices by JB Emmons (intllawgnome@law.builders)

This story has become an actual scandal for Biden, and legitimately so.

One can obviously draw contrasts to the Trump situation. The former doesn't raise all of the concerns triggered by the latter, such as affirmative efforts to knowingly prevent the US government's recovery of classified docs.

But both stories touch on concerns about improper handling of classified docs, whether or not intentional. And that can't be hand-waved away.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/14/us/biden-classified-documents-delaware.html

Bad actors will both-sides this story in an effort to downplay the qualitatively worse actions taken by Trump.

But the antidote to that is not to countervailingly insist that the Biden classified-docs scandal is a nothingburger.

The better approach is to acknowledge that this was indeed a serious problem--probably not as bad as the Trump situation, but serious nonetheless. Keeping in mind that an average-joe gov't worker would face severe scrutiny if classified docs were found in his garage.

From a criminal-law perspective, of course, I can't and won't counter anything Kel @NatlSecCnslrs says here. He knows this area far better than I do, and his take seems reasonable on its face. I recommend reading it.

https://mstdn.social/@NatlSecCnslrs/109688878625174036

I'm also finding @emptywheel 's analysis persuasive as usual, which leads to this conclusion: "Taking classified documents unknowingly is probably not a crime, especially for a President or Vice President. Refusing to give them back may well be. That’s the question before Jack Smith, as well as the obstruction question. That’s probably the question before Robert Hur."

Marcy's thinking as to why this is so is worth your time:
https://www.emptywheel.net/2023/01/15/why-trumps-lawyer-evan-corcoran-thinks-joe-biden-didnt-violate-18-usc-1924/

Quick #Mastodon #instance question I was asked & don't know the answer to -- any help is appreciated!

On instances.social, instances are ranked on a seeming A-to-F scale under categories "HTTPS" and "Obs." What are these categories supposed to mean? Are they intended as indicators of instance health in some ways?

@andrew
Yeah, poking around, it looks like Obs is the "Mozilla Observatory score" while the other stands for "HTTPS score." See https://law.builders/@IntlLawGnome/109696210795004914

I broadly understand the difference between HTTP and HTTPS, but I'm struggling to see how instances are "scored" based on HTTPS. Maybe a connectivity thing?

@andrew
It makes more sense than anything I can come up with!

@evan
I'd say "it depends," but then again I'm a lawyer so that's how I answer every year/no question

@evan This is a really good idea. I wonder if I can find the motivation to adopt this practice.

@Bam
@YoWatShiinaEsq @QasimRashid

And realistically, Thomas isn't getting any younger, and I doubt his diet is getting any healthier. So you never know.

@YoWatShiinaEsq Thank you! Yes, it's a bit disorienting at times. And I'm switching up practice areas as well, so it's doubly challenging. But it shouldn't be boring!

Relieved to have gotten an articling job offer after yesterday's interview. This puts me more firmly on the path to getting licensed (or I should say "called to the bar") in BC.

I was dreading this job search, especially as an internationally trained lawyer. But thankfully I got a few bites from my first batch of applications, and I hit it off very well with the lawyer from yesterday's interview, so we're moving forward.

Now to start on the cumbersome BC Law Society application materials....

To my mind, the bigger takeaway isn't that Elon #Musk is backing away from his revocation of work from home at #Twitter, but that employees who STILL WORK THERE are ringing the alarms about breakages with increasing intensity.

“Breakages are already happening slowly and accumulating. If you want to export your tweets, do it now."

Plus critical systems are "down to two, one or even zero engineers," according to a former employee.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/11/17/twitter-musk-easing-rto-order/

Most of the employees at Twitter are probably already exempt from FLSA overtime requirements. That's not what this is about (at least not directly). It's about changing the broader workplace culture in the US as a whole, resetting it back to the 1890s.

There are already myriad ways for employers to get around the 40-hour workweek standard.

What's more annoying is that all of the legal escape clauses in the #FLSA aren't enough for #Musk and his ilk. They also demand that the hard-fought wins of the 20th century #labor movement be seen as *morally wrong,* and contrary to what's needed for employees to receive a "passing grade."

Elon Musk gives ultimatum to #Twitter employees: Do ‘extremely hardcore’ work or get out

https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/16/tech/elon-musk-email-ultimatum-twitter/index.html

h/t to @stevevladeck via @RMFifthcircuit , this is a remarkable paragraph from #SCOTUS Justice Thomas calling on the #6thCircuit to exercise en banc review more frequently in #AEDPA cases.

In his opinion dissenting from a denial of certiorari, Thomas calls out what he sees as "certain circuit judges’ 'taste for disregarding AEDPA'” and "other judges’ distaste for correcting ... blatant, repetitive, or corrosive of circuit law" en banc.

https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/22pdf/21-1587_5468.pdf

Also, this is an anti-AEDPA / repeal-AEDPA account, and your account should be one too.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/03/03/its-time-repeal-worst-criminal-justice-law-past-30-years/

Some #litigation I'm watching this week:

*The #8thCircuit *still* has not decided the pending motion for injunction pending appeal in Nebraska v. Biden, the #studentloans case that has put the loan #cancellation program on pause. It's been fully briefed (on an expedited schedule) for two weeks.

* The #Trump response in the expedited #11thCircuit appeal of the #SpecialMaster proceeding is due tomorrow. #DOJ reply due middle of next week.

#law #legal #LawFedi #AppellateMastodon