Judicial Notice (07.12.26): ‘Always A Bad Idea’
A U.S. attorney gets benchslapped, a Trump appointee votes against the Stop WOKE Act, an NFL sale sets a record, and Latham takes talent from Davis Polk.
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What can I say? I’m a swamp creature. Whenever I visit Washington, D.C., I almost always have a great time—and my latest trip was no exception.
Last week, Zach and I traveled down to the nation’s capital for SCOTUSblog’s Supreme Court Term in Review, which took place on Wednesday. The proceedings kicked off with Zach’s interview of Cecillia Wang, national legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). They discussed Trump v. Barbara, the history-making case about birthright citizenship that Wang argued successfully before the Supreme Court, and tackled other topics as well—including the ACLU’s other big win from last Term, the Second Amendment case of United States v. Hemani.
I then took the stage for a live recording of Advisory Opinions, joining Professor Akhil Amar, Sarah Isgur, and David French for a lively discussion of October Term 2025. I tend to agree a lot with my co-panelists when it comes to the Court—but this time around, I decided to pick some fights, in an effort to keep things entertaining. Did I succeed? I invite you to listen or watch the debate, then render your verdict.
Then on Thursday night, Zach and I attended a cocktail reception hosted at the National Archives by the Pacific Legal Foundation, to celebrate America’s 250th anniversary. It featured remarks by Professor Arthur C. Brooks, author of multiple bestselling books, and Anastasia Boden, host of PLF’s new podcast In Dissent. (I was “spotted” at the event by Politico Playbook—because D.C. really is that nerdy.)
Now, on to the news.
Lawyer of the Week: Andrew Boutros.
On July 1, U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros (N.D. Ill.) traveled from Chicago to Washington, D.C., to appear alongside Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche at a press conference. Along with other top officials of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), they would announce criminal charges against alleged members of the notorious Tren de Aragua gang of Venezuela, including some from the Chicago area.
Alas, there was a minor problem, at least as to three defendants being investigated by Boutros’s office: the criminal case against them was still under seal, i.e., not supposed to be disclosed publicly. Belatedly realizing the problem, with less than 30 minutes before the DOJ news conference was scheduled to begin, prosecutors from Boutros’s office contacted Magistrate Judge Laura McNally’s (N.D. Ill.) chambers to orally request that the case be unsealed—and asked for a response in 15 minutes.
That was… less than ideal. As Ken White told Josh Barro on Serious Trouble, “There’s no circumstance in which you can tell a federal judge ‘you have to do this within 15 minutes,’ unless it’s regarding a bomb that is in the judge’s chambers.”
Not surprisingly, Judge McNally was tied up with other matters that morning, with hours of back-to-back hearings in unrelated cases. So she was unable to unseal the case that quickly—and even though the charges were still under seal, the news conference went forward. Oops.
This sequence of events left Judge McNally “unamused,” per The New York Times. Last Thursday, she required Boutros to appear before her personally—and benchslapped him in open court, as reported by Bloomberg Law and Law360. Castigating him for “a clear violation of the sealing order,” she reminded him that her orders, “in this independent branch of government, are effective until they terminate on their terms or are rescinded—and neither of those things happened here.” In response, Boutros acknowledged that the situation involving the sealing order was “all very regrettable and very unfortunate,” adding that his office would “go back and look at this from a root-cause perspective to see how we can do better.”
Fortunately for Boutros, Judge McNally didn’t sanction him or his office. But she did use the hearing as an occasion “to emphasize the critical nature of sealing orders,” which are issued to protect the integrity of investigations (among other reasons).
According to The Times, this isn’t the first time that Boutros and his office have been in hot water over the past few months:
The dispute over the sealing order was the latest in a series of incidents that have raised questions about Mr. Boutros’s stewardship of the U.S. attorney’s office in Chicago, especially on cases that have attracted attention from top Trump administration officials.
Last fall, prosecutors dropped charges against a woman who had been shot by a Border Patrol agent during an immigration crackdown amid concerns about preservation of evidence. In another high-profile case, conspiracy charges against local Democratic politicians and operatives unraveled this year after a judge called out errors in the grand jury process.
“Your sole goal is to do justice,” Judge April M. Perry (N.D. Ill.) told Mr. Boutros in a hearing over that matter. She added later, “That trust has been broken.”
Can Boutros and his colleagues regain that trust? Time will tell.
Other lawyers in the news:
Yale University is in talks with the Trump administration, in an effort to reach a settlement that would resolve Justice Department investigations into Yale’s admissions practices for its undergraduate programs, medical school, and law school. But behind the scenes, Yale Law School Dean Cristina Rodríguez and other YLS faculty members are urging the university’s leadership not to cut a deal, according to The New York Times (gift link).
Who’s in charge of the legal team representing Donald Trump in his personal litigation? Despite an attempt by White House Counsel David Warrington to banish Boris Epshteyn from Trumpworld—after Warrington investigated Epshteyn and concluded that he was “using his proximity to President Trump for personal financial gain”—Epshteyn today functions as Trump’s de facto general counsel, according to The Washington Post (gift link).
Richard Rollo’s bio on the website of Richards Layton & Finger describes him as “a seasoned and tech-savvy litigator,” and RLF is one of Delaware’s top corporate law firms. So it’s surprising to see Rollo and Richard Layton on the receiving end of an order to show cause from Vice Chancellor Lori Will of Delaware Chancery Court, requiring them to explain why they shouldn’t be sanctioned for submitting a brief that included AI hallucinations.
Congratulations to Paul Grewal, who is stepping down on July 31 after six successful years as chief legal officer of Coinbase. He helped lead the cryptocurrency exchange through the pandemic, steered its IPO in 2021, prevailed over the SEC in a fight over crypto regulation—and was paid handsomely for his work.1 Congrats also to Coinbase’s new legal leaders: Molly Abraham, who will become general counsel and secretary, and Ryan VanGrack, who will assume a newly created role as vice chairman (in which he’ll oversee compliance and corporate affairs).
And kudos to the 25 honorees of Bloomberg Law’s Unrivaled, the outlet’s second annual list of litigators who secured major wins at trial or favorable settlements.
In memoriam:
Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.)—a graduate of the University of South Carolina School of Law, former Air Force JAG Corps lawyer, and former chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee—passed away at 71, apparently from an aortic dissection (per the D.C. medical examiner’s office).
William D. Zabel—a founding partner of Schulte Roth & Zabel, now part of McDermott Will & Schulte, and a civil-rights litigator who wrote a critical amicus brief in Loving v. Virginia—passed away at 89.2
George Hutchinson—the last crier of the U.S. Supreme Court, who opened its proceedings by shouting “oyez, oyez, oyez” (before this duty was transferred to the court marshal)—passed away at 102.
May they rest in peace.
Judge of the Week: Judge Britt Grant.
Last week, Judge Britt Grant (11th Cir.) wrote a powerful majority opinion in Pernell v. Florida Board of Governors (discussed in more detail below, under Ruling of the Week). For present purposes, what you need to know is that Judge Grant, a Trump appointee, and Judge Charles Wilson, a Clinton appointee, ruled against the Stop WOKE Act—a law pushed for and signed by Governor Ron DeSantis (R-Fl.), in an effort to stop the promotion of “woke” ideas in Florida’s public colleges and universities—on First Amendment grounds. Judge Barbara Lagoa, Judge Grant’s fellow Trump appointee, dissented.
Legal commentators like Chris Geidner and Michelle Olsen took note of Pernell—and the fact that the opinion was penned by Judge Grant. As Olsen tweeted, “Like Sutton on healthcare, Grant has to know that this will take her out of SCOTUS consideration (at least [under the] current administration). It’s the job, yes, but bravo to her for upholding the Constitution.” (Olsen’s reference to “Sutton on healthcare” is a shoutout to how Judge Jeffrey Sutton, a star of the conservative legal movement, doomed his once-bright Supreme Court prospects by voting to uphold the Affordable Care Act aka Obamacare in 2011.)
A former law clerk to then-Judge Brett Kavanaugh on the D.C. Circuit, former Georgia solicitor general, former justice of the Georgia Supreme Court, and Eleventh Circuit judge since 2018, Judge Grant, 48, is also a star in the conservative legal firmament. She’s a highly respected jurist—reflected in her status as a feeder judge to the Supreme Court—and she previously appeared on one of Trump’s SCOTUS shortlists (along with Judge Lagoa). Even if Judge Grant isn’t in the top tier of Trump picks today—perhaps because, back in 2022, she sat on a panel that overturned a pro-Trump ruling by Judge Aileen Cannon (S.D. Fla.)—she could be a SCOTUS possibility under a Republican president not named “Trump.”
Or perhaps I should revise that to “could have been”: I agree with Olsen that ruling against the Stop WOKE Act has probably removed Grant as a SCOTUS prospect under a non-Trump president (especially if he’s named “DeSantis”). The Republican Party of 2026 has allowed its opposition to wokeness to override its commitment to the First Amendment, and I don’t see that changing anytime soon. But I agree with Olsen on this as well: bravo to Judge Grant for upholding the Constitution.
Judge Grant also appeared in the news for another ruling: her opinion for a unanimous panel in Akerlund v. Atlas Air, Inc., in which she benchslapped a plaintiffs’ lawyer for filing “multiple briefs replete with fake and hallucinated citations. Even after being warned. ‘Always a bad idea.’ Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., 2023 Year-End Report on the Federal Judiciary, at 6 (2023).” And props to her for this quip, which I predict will be widely quoted in AI-related benchslaps going forward: “Whatever the merits of artificial intelligence, it is no substitute for actual intelligence.”
In other news about judges and the judiciary:
Speaking of Trump appointees making MAGA mad, Judge Timothy Kelly (D.D.C.) dismissed a January 6-related criminal case against four Proud Boys, in response to a DOJ motion—but before doing so, he called the attack on the Capitol “a perilous event,” writing that “no one should mistake the Court’s granting of the Government’s motion for its agreement” with the decision to dismiss.
Former Milwaukee County judge Hannah Dugan—whom a jury found guilty of obstruction, after she was accused of helping an undocumented immigrant evade ICE agents—was sentenced by Judge Lynn Adelman (E.D. Wis.). She was fined $5,000, but given no prison time.
Speaking of judges in trouble, after a parking-lot altercation in April led Judge Ryan Nelson (9th Cir.) to be charged with two misdemeanors, a pair of judicial misconduct complaints were initiated against him—one by Chief Judge Mary Murguia, and the other by the watchdog group Fix the Court. Both complaints have now been transferred to the Fourth Circuit.
As he approaches his one-year anniversary on the bench (in September), Judge Emil Bove (3d Cir.) was profiled by Mattathias Schwartz for The New York Times (gift link). Per Schwartz, Judge Bove’s “acerbic solo dissents have irritated some judges and lawyers”—but “he has also shown a knack for persuading others,” and “some who have worked closely with Judge Bove praised his work ethic and polite manner with other judges.”3
Speaking of judicial profiles, James Romoser wrote a piece about Justice Samuel Alito for The Wall Street Journal (gift link), arguing that Alito “is fusing establishment conservatism and the Trump movement into a new legal doctrine”—and “[h]is approach to the law may outlast them both.”
Speaking of SCOTUS justices, I have a minor correction to last week’s Judicial Notice. I erroneously reported that the justices most often in the majority in October Term 2025 were Chief Justice John Roberts at 95%, Justice Brett Kavanaugh at 92%, and Justice Amy Coney Barrett at 89%—but those were the stats from OT 2024. For OT 2025, according to SCOTUSblog’s handy Stat Pack, the Chief and Justice Kavanaugh were actually tied for #1, at 95%, and Justice Barrett was #3, at 92%.
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