The PM Roundup: Specter Looks to Undo Scotus Rulings, More

[WSJ_law_blog]

We spent all the live-long day on Thursday really on just one story — the Rabbi/Kidney/New Jersey Mayorgate story. As a result, we got some catching up to do. For that reason, we’re going to bestow upon you one of our quick-hittin’ roundups, so you don’t go home in a big bag of vaporous cluelessness about all things legal.

Iqbal Forcing Congress’s Hand? We and others have written about the Supreme Court’s Iqbal decision from earlier this year, which helped raise the standard that plaintiffs must meet to avoid having their cases quickly dismissed.

Turns out, Congress might not like what the case portends; defendants have already cited the case over 500 times in court papers, according to Adam Liptak’s NYT story. The BLT Blog reports today that Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA) filed legislation Wednesday designed to return the standard to what it was prior to 2007, when the court handed down its Bell Atlantic v. Twombly decision, a sort of precursor to Iqbal. (BLT)

Souter to Speak at ABA: Also from the BLT blog, we learned that outgoing Supreme Court justice David Souter, not exactly a publicity hound, has agreed to address the American Bar Association at its annual meeting in Chicago on Aug 1. According to the BLT blog, Souter will speak at a program following up on the project sponsored by fellow retired justice Sandra Day O’Connor at Georgetown University Law Center, aimed at increasing public awareness of the federal judiciary.

DePaul Profs File Protest With ABA Over Dean Move: Sixteen tenured professors at DePaul University College of Law have filed a complaint about last month’s replacement of Dean Glen Weissenberger with the American Bar Association. Click here for the Chicago Tribune story; here for an earlier LB post on the DePaul kerfuffle.