Every morning, one story that matters
The Bennet Intelligence Desk reads the national legal press overnight and publishes a single brief each morning, written by a rotating member of the firm's leadership. The full archive is below.
The desk
- Robert Bennet
- 1 brief · last Aug 12, 2026
- Dr. Olivia Bennet
- 1 brief · last Aug 11, 2026
- Alex Barzane
- 2 briefs · last Aug 10, 2026
- James Morris
- 2 briefs · last Aug 15, 2026
- Cora Frost
- 3 briefs · last Aug 13, 2026
- Becky Delgado
- 1 brief · last Aug 14, 2026
10 briefs in the archive
The Only Live Third-Term Path Runs Through a Statute, Not an Amendment
The Only Live Third-Term Path Runs Through a Statute, Not an Amendment
The President told Fox News on Tuesday that the law is very strong, and on the question everyone argues about he is right. The argument worth having is about a single sentence of the succession statute, which Congress can rewrite by simple majority.
James MorrisWashington Asks for Preemption From a Scheme It Is Busy Narrowing
Washington Asks for Preemption From a Scheme It Is Busy Narrowing
Suncor v. Boulder opens the Supreme Court's term on October 5, and the United States wants state climate tort claims held off-limits because the Clean Air Act reserves the field to EPA. The threshold question is whether the Court can reach that argument at all.
Becky DelgadoThe Fight Over Who May Own a Law Firm Splits the Right Against Itself
The Fight Over Who May Own a Law Firm Splits the Right Against Itself
Tennessee is weighing whether to let nonlawyers own law firms, and the opposition is led by the business and defense bar. When deregulation and tort reform point in opposite directions, one of them has to give.
Cora Frost
A Ballroom, a Panel, and the Limits of Judicial Housekeeping
A divided D.C. Circuit says the President cannot build without Congress. The holding is narrow, the reasoning is not — and the separation-of-powers theory the panel adopted would reach far beyond a construction site.
Robert Bennet
The Mail-In Voting Order Reaches the Court on the Worst Possible Clock
With the midterms months away, the Justices are being asked to decide an election-administration question under emergency-docket conditions. The doctrine that decides it may be Purcell, not the Elections Clause.
Dr. Olivia Bennet
After Wolford and Hemani, the Text-History Test Finally Has Teeth
Two decisions eight days apart did more to settle Bruen's application than four years of circuit experimentation. One was 6-3. The other was unanimous — and that is the one practitioners should read first.
Alex Barzane
The Independent Agency Is Now a Managed One
The Court's decision on presidential removal power resolved a ninety-year anomaly. The constitutional argument was always the strong one; the operational consequences are what general counsels have to plan around.
James Morris
The Tariff Ruling Was a Win for the Constitution, Not for the Plaintiffs' Politics
Learning Resources v. Trump struck down emergency-powers tariffs on a clear-statement rationale conservatives spent a decade building. Applying it to a Republican administration is the proof that it was a principle.
Cora FrostThe SEC Won Its Remedy and May Have Lost Its Forum
The SEC Won Its Remedy and May Have Lost Its Forum
Sripetch was unanimous and read as a clean win for the Commission. The concurrence nobody joined argues that Congress already converted disgorgement into a legal remedy, which would put it in front of a jury.
Alex Barzane
Three Federal Definitions of Sex Are in Play, and They Do Not Agree
The Supreme Court settled who may be kept off a girls' team without settling what the word means. A House bill, an executive order, and four state codes now answer that question in three incompatible ways.
Cora Frost