Law Firm Bends in Face of Trump Demands; The New York Times, March 20, 2025

Michael S. Schmidt, The New York Times ; Law Firm Bends in Face of Trump Demands

[Kip Currier: This law firm's capitulation and transactionalism epitomizes the definition of craven: 

contemptibly lacking in courage; cowardly

It's also a terrible precedent to set for the rule of law, the legal profession, and democracy.]

[Excerpt]

"President Trump and the head of the law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP have reached a deal under which Mr. Trump will drop the executive order he leveled against the firm, Mr. Trump said on Thursday.

In the deal, Mr. Trump said, the firm agreed to a series of commitments, including to represent clients no matter their political affiliation and contribute $40 million in legal services to causes Mr. Trump has championed, including “the President’s Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, and other mutually agreed projects.

It’s unclear how the money will be used to help the task force. The firm, Mr. Trump said, also agreed to conduct an audit to ensure its hiring practices are merit based “and will not adopt, use, or pursue any DEI policies.”"

ABA’s Diversity Requirement Suspension Not Enough For Pam Bondi; Above The Law, March 6, 2025

 Chris Williams, Above The Law; ABA’s Diversity Requirement Suspension Not Enough For Pam Bondi

"My money is on this being enough for the ABA to give up the pretense of still thinking about diversity and dropping the requirement. That said, it would be nice to see who the Trump administration would vest with accreditation authority should the ABA hold to its diversity guns. They’ve already tapped the WWE for their education expertise, maybe they’ll move on to some other conservative platform — Joe Rogan, perhaps? You might not even have to bother with law school with him in charge; just go on the podcast and hobnob about how great of a writer Scalia was and you’ll be greenlit to practice if the episode ratings are high enough! If Big Balls can get a coveted position in government with little to no real work experience, why can’t you go transactional after sharing some SCOTUS trivia on radio?

Playing the long game, the consequences of getting DEI out of law school will ruffle a few feathers. As much as the media likes to spin Dontravious and Jamal as proof that law schools are full of DEI, the actual culprits are Donna and Jessica. Just look at the numbers; it’s hard to talk about law school diversity without mentioning that women made up ~56% of the entering student body in 2024, which trends with them being the majority for the last few years now. The initial lawsuit phases will target law schools for having too many Black students, but the suits alleging sex discrimination for admitting too many women will be soon to follow.

See you in a couple of days when the ABA finally caves in."

The weekend the "Free World" died; The Ink, March 2, 2025

ANAND GIRIDHARADAS, The Ink; ESSAY: The weekend the "Free World" died

In the Oval Office fiasco, a country revealed

"Early in the afternoon on Friday, the president and the vice president of the United States delivered a contemptuous scolding to the wartime leader of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky. The country of “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall” and “We choose to go to the moon” and “rendezvous with destiny” had become the country of “You’re not in a good position. You don’t have the cards right now. With us, you start having cards.” It was a shocking, abusive scene, unlike any foreign policy chroniclers could recall. By Sunday, the British prime minister had declared that “we are at a crossroads in history,” and European countries were talking about a coalition of the willing to defend Ukraine. It was the weekend the notion of the “free world” died...

Toward the end of the meeting, Trump commented that the awful scene he had participated in would make great television. Here was the triumph of the spirit of attention-seeking at any cost, the spirit in which there are no values worth defending if they do not carry the possibility of making people watch you. Everyone is an influencer now; everyone covets followers more than friends. Trump trash-talked an erstwhile American ally because he knew it would do numbers with his followers.

In recent weeks, I have wondered why the leaders of other countries have not been brave in calling out the situation in the United States, in naming this fascist threat from within. The obvious answer is American power and leverage. It can be expensive to speak truth to superpower, as Zelensky will surely be learning in coming days.

But after the meltdown in the Oval Office on Friday, I began to wonder if another reason is involved. Maybe those leaders, like much of the world, do not look at America right now and see a country being hijacked by this dangerous leader. Maybe much of the world looks at a country that, in its bones, has fundamentally changed. Has lost that other spirit. Lost the sunniness, the hopefulness, the decency, the will to sacrifice, the idealism, the confidence, the hope.

What will stop Trump? everyone is asking all day long. Maybe an actual and effective form of resistance will involve more than the thwarting of a leader. It will be a cultural project up and down American life. To resist the meanness and smallness and cruelty and cynicism and solipsism. To insist, by showing, that what he is is not who we are."

Worse Than We Feared: Five weeks in and the Trump administration has been more corrupt, dangerous, and evil than we expected.; The Bulwark, February 28, 2025

JONATHAN V. LAST AND 

WILL SALETAN

, The Bulwark; Worse Than We Feared: Five weeks in and the Trump administration has been more corrupt, dangerous, and evil than we expected.

"Will Saletan was in for Sarah today and we did a giant, super-sized show. It’s a great conservation, the through-line of which is basically: We are living in something close to the worst-case scenario."