ABA Journal

Montana

114 ABA Journal Montana articles.

Weekly Briefs: New ethics rule considered in Virginia; name partner launches new firm

Virginia proposes ban on agreements limiting ethics complaints

A proposed ethics rule in Virginia would ban lawyers from making agreements with clients or former clients that limit their right to…

Montana judge gets unpaid suspension for courthouse hallway comments

A Montana judge is getting a public reprimand and a 30-day unpaid suspension as a result of remarks that he made about a witness while in a courthouse hallway.

Weekly Briefs: Bias suit against Trump lawyer resolved; Montana no longer defies court order over birth certificates

Trump lawyer resolves rap-music bias suit

Alina Habba, a lawyer for former President Donald Trump, has resolved a race- and gender-bias lawsuit largely based on the rap music that she…

Montana defies judge’s order to allow transgender people to change birth certificates, at least for now

The Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services is refusing, for now, to go along with a judge’s order to allow transgender people to change their birth certificates.

2 top state courts issue conflicting rulings over abortion restrictions

The Montana Supreme Court on Aug. 9 upheld a lower court decision that temporarily blocked three separate laws that restrict abortion. Meanwhile, the Idaho Supreme Court declined to stop a near-total abortion ban Friday.

GOP targets state courts with campaign cash, laws that change judicial elections

Seeking a more favorable climate in fights over election maps, Republicans are planning to spend record amounts on state supreme court races and introducing legislation to make judicial elections more political.

Montana law school dean resigns after complaints about the oversight of Title IX allegations

Paul Kirgis, dean of the University of Montana’s Alexander Blewett III School of Law, has resigned from his post.

University of Montana faces Title IX complaints, including from law students

Following a Title IX lawsuit brought by former administrators and a current professor at the University of Montana, law students at the school claim they were dissuaded from filing administrative complaints alleging repeated use of slurs in the classroom and sexual misconduct.

Kagan cites Ford’s ‘truckload of contacts’ with plaintiffs’ home states in jurisdictional SCOTUS ruling

The Ford Motor Co. can be sued for alleged defects in its vehicles in the states where the plaintiffs lived and the alleged harm happened, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday in an 8-0 opinion.

‘You are not dicking around with a rookie;’ lawyer’s deposition ‘churlishness’ is memorialized

A federal magistrate judge has declined to impose a monetary sanction on a Montana lawyer who told opposing counsels that they are “not dicking around with a rookie” and suggested that he could get on a plane to personally punch one of them in the head.

Oregon voters legalize psychedelic mushrooms, decriminalize drugs; 4 other states OK recreational marijuana

Voters in several states loosened drug laws Tuesday, going so far in Oregon as to legalize psychedelic mushrooms and to decriminalize small amounts of heroin and other drugs.

Potential juror says he was put in COVID-19 ‘petri dish’ at jail for refusing to wear mask in court

A visiting judge in Great Falls, Montana, held a juror in contempt and sent him to jail last week for refusing to wear a face shield or a mask for a trial.

Afternoon Briefs: Prosecutor who filed OSHA complaint dies from COVID-19; Wells Fargo faces new class action

Prosecutor who filed OSHA complaint dies from COVID-19

A prosecutor in Pennsylvania who filed a complaint with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration after becoming ill with COVID-19 has…

Previous bar examinees won’t get benefit of new California cut score, state supreme court says

A lowered cut score on the California bar exam is permanent, but it will not be applied retroactively to earlier exams, the California Supreme Court announced Monday.

Supreme Court rules state can’t ban religious schools from scholarship program

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled 5-4 that Montana’s decision to ban religious schools from a scholarship program violates the free exercise clause. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote the June 30 majority opinion.

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