Legal News

AM Roundup: Scotus and Biden, a Big Dig Plea, and Party Law Schools

By Ashby Jones

Monday morning. People to see, places to go, coffee to drink. Let’s get to it:

For Scotus Advice, Prez turns to Veep: For advice on filling Justice David Souter’s recently opened Supreme Court seat, President Obama finds himself turning with some regularity to Vice President Joe Biden. “The president is basically taking advantage of my experiences by asking me nuanced questions about both individuals and timing,” Biden said in an interview Friday. “We’ve gone through specific nominees, which we’re burrowing in on.”

A former head of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Biden chaired half a dozen Supreme Court confirmation hearings and voted on every sitting justice with the exception of John Paul Stevens. Click here for the WaPo story.

A Big Plea over the Big Dig: Modern Continental Corp., the largest Big Dig contractor, pleaded guilty on Friday to 39 federal charges stemming from overbilling and construction defects on the project.

However, prosecutors dropped 10 other charges that had alleged the company was to blame for the disastrous 2006 collapse of the ceiling of the Interstate 90 tunnel. Lawyers for Modern Continental said the collapse occurred because a New York company supplied the wrong epoxy for ceiling panels, not because of poor workmanship by Modern Continental. Click here for the Boston Globe story.

Kent to be Sentenced: Samuel Kent, who served as a federal judge for 18 years, is very likely to be sentenced to prison today for obstructing justice. Kent, 59, pleaded guilty in February to obstruction of justice for lying to a judicial committee investigating an allegation he sexually harassed an employee. The judge also acknowledged that he'd had nonconsensual sexual contact with two female employees between 2003 and 2007. Click here for the Houston Chron story; here and here for earlier LB posts on Kent.

A Different Kind of Law-School Ranking: Ranking law schools by how much their students party strikes us as a bit of an odd endeavor, like ranking Olympic gymnasts by how fast they can fill out their 1040s. Still, a Web site called SubtleDig has given it a go . Snagging the top spot: Arizona State, followed by Tulane and Seattle University. Florida State and the University of Arizona tied for fourth. Congrats (??) to all the high-finishers, whose students now possibly have something else to explain away to potential employers. (Hat tip: Tax Prof Blog).

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on May 11, 2009 (boomark / email).