David Ziff

@djsziff.bsky.social

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Associate Teaching Professor, Univ. of Washington School of Law. #LegalWriting #LawSky

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David Ziff

I will never forget the interview, shortly after Ozy Media Inc. was formed, where Carlos Watson said he named it after the poem, because "the lesson you take from [Ozymandias] is that you have to dream big." So that's why liberal arts education is important.

Interesting thread (in the other place) on Judge Cannon's recent opinion and her reliance on codification/placement: x.com/aaron_bruhl/... How should judges use structure/organization of statutes when Congress tells us not to rely on those factors?

A tip for folks over here who like to stay organized: deck.blue lets you create a "tweetdeck"-like experience, with columns for different tags, searches, feeds, etc. It's great! I've just added a column for #LWIBiennial2024!

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David Ziff

If you're a lawyer and feel like doing a bit of math this morning, here's my just-published article about counting to five in Washington. wabarnews.org/2024/07/10/m... #LegalWriting #LawSky ⚖️ #AppellateSky

Math for Lawyers: The Importance of Counting to Five - Washington State Bar Newswabarnews.org With this column, David J.S. Ziff hopes you’ll be better prepared when your research calls for a bit of jurisprudential arithmetic.

Gold bars are speech.

Senator Menendez is guilty on all counts. At least, he is until the SCOTUS majority gets to weigh in.

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Lawprofblawg

JD Vance implies the existence of an LLM Vance

Okay, I'm heading to #LWIBiennial2024 tomorrow. I'll be posting about it here, instead of the other place. Join me!

Is there ambiguity in this phrase: "The publisher may acquire or prepare XYZ . . ."? I could read that as: (A) "P may, but isn't required to, acquire or prepare XYZ." or (B) "P may acquire XYZ or prepare XYZ, but must somehow obtain XYZ." Thoughts? #LegalWriting

I finally read the FASORP complaint. What a disgusting document. Others have called out the complaint's treatment of professors. I agree with those critiques. But I didn't realize these people sued STUDENTS. You're a group of law professors and you're suing your own students? Shameful.

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David Ziff

At the risk of posting something stupefyingly obvious: If you're among those canceling a New York Times or Washington Post subscription, I guarantee you have a great nonprofit media outlet or local paper in your area that could use some revenue. And that coverage is absolutely vital right now.

PSA: This is how you spell it, apparently. www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/z...

Definition of ZHUZHwww.merriam-webster.com a small improvement, adjustment, or addition that completes the overall look, taste, etc. of something… See the full definition

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David Ziff

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Renee Nicole

It is, unfortunately, part of the everyday reality of being Black in the legal academy. Draft here: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Legal Academia's White Gazepapers.ssrn.com For Black law faculty, Blackness, the Black experience, and Black legal and social identity are not trends. Yet, there are inflection points where legal scholar

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David Ziff

The Northwestern lawsuit is an example of the White gaze in action: “White gaze is the operational norm of White space wherein Black people are scrutinized through the lens of Whiteness, resulting in their exclusion, subordination, and objectification.” www.reuters.com/legal/legali...

Northwestern law school sued for discrimination against white men in faculty hiringwww.reuters.com A conservative group on Tuesday sued Northwestern University, claiming its law school discriminates against white men in faculty hiring and in the selection of articles that appear in its flagship law review.

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David Ziff

I keep thinking about this lawsuit and getting mad all over again. The cowardice of these “anonymous” mediocre white men directly attacking some of the most accomplished, brilliant law profs in the academy to score political points is just despicable.

I'm going to admit that I never really understood Chevron, or how it was a precedential rule of interpretive process, or how judges can/will interpret statutes by (sometimes?) giving (some?) weight to on-the-ground administrative understanding, which seems like it should matter in interpretation.

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David Ziff

My colleague just pointed this out in the CA7 style guide: What is going on with the "Helvetica" "sans-serif font" example? It's not Helvetica? And it has serifs? ca7.uscourts.gov/rules-proced... cc: @rarobbins.bsky.social @elliemargolis.bsky.social #LegalWriting #AppellateTwitter #fonts

My undestanding, based on recent U.S. Supreme Court precedent, is that litigants are allowed to give jurors gratiuties of tens of thousands of dollars as a "thank you" for their service.

Is anyone following the Feeding Our Futures case in Minnesota? New jury tampering indictments just dropped. It is WILD m.startribune.com/new-charges-...

New charges: Feeding Our Future juror was followed for days, given list of instructions with $120k in cash to acquitm.startribune.com Five people, including three who were on trial, are now being charged in what's believed to be the first attempt to bribe a federal juror in Minnesota.

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David Ziff

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David Ziff

Mmmbop is a freakin' masterpiece.

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David Ziff

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David Ziff

I don't believe I'm wrong, but I'm guessing others will. "Hey Jude" is a bad song that drones on forever.

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David Ziff

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David Ziff

That is horribly, indefensibly incorrect. You win.

Let's play a game. What's your wrongest music opinion? I'll go first: REM's Night swimming is not good. #BadMusicTake

Why is this the image for my Spotify Discover playlist? @spotify.com

MY SPOUSE: *Stephen A voice* Dear, I KNOW this is your day. [I nod] You KNOW I am appreciative of Father's Day ME: Absolutely MY SPOUSE: BUT!

In honor of Assoc. Dean Endter starting a great new gig with King County, here's the time someone impersonated her via email, asking for gift cards. I was on paternity leave with a napping baby and the city was shut down b/c of a blizzard. So I had time. docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Gift Cards for Annadocs.google.com From: Anna To: David Are you available now? ANNA ENDTER Associate Dean for Students University of Washington School of Law From: David To: Anna What's cracking? From: Anna To: David Ok I’m so ...

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David Ziff

We have the technology to find precisely what existing thing you’re looking for on the Internet but instead here’s technology that finds nothing at all and makes up nonsense instead. That will be $100 billion and all the electricity please.

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David Ziff

Bluebook Burnjng covered by the Blog Emperor himself taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog...

TaxProf Blog: An Old-Fashioned Bluebook Burningtaxprof.typepad.com Paul A. Gowder (Northwestern; Google Scholar), An Old-Fashioned Bluebook Burning, 1 Nw. L.J. des Refusés __ (2024): As the faculty advisor for the newly-minted Journal des Refusés, the duty has fallen...

PSA for people of a certain age who have young children: Parts of The Sneeches can almost seamlessly be sung to the tune of Regulate.

Some advice from the great Roger Federer that applies to a lot of lawyering, being a law student, #LegalWriting, etc. He's perhaps the greatest ever. Won 80% of his matches. But only won 54% of his points. Each point is crucial in the moment. But then move on. www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqWU...

1. Wrong book title. (It's Four Past Midnight.) 2. For collections by one author, the author's name should be L/S caps. R 15.5.1(b). 3. The "in" should be in italics. Id. Other than that, nice Bluebooking! h/t @jedgeco.bsky.social

Finally, Judge Kyle Duncan quoted @stephenking.bsky.social to close his dissent, and Judge Jacques Wiener was *pissed* on King's behalf. First image is from Duncan and second is Wiener's response, from the majority opinion.