Federal Government

DOJ Says Federal Law Bans Top Calif. Court from Admitting ‘Unlawfully Present Alien’ to State Bar

A bar examiners committee and the state attorney general have recommended that Sergio C. Garcia be admitted to the California bar, even though he is an undocumented immigrant. But in a Wednesday filing responding to the state supreme court’s request for an opinion, the Department of Justice disagreed. In its…

Aug 3, 2012 11:01 AM CDT

Letters: Lawyergate Lessons

LAWYERGATE LESSONS Regarding “The Lawyers of Watergate,” June: If you asked 1,000 people in the street who John Dean was, I bet you more would say a maker of breakfast sausages than would tie the name to Watergate, and less than half of those would know he was ever a…

Aug 1, 2012 9:10 AM CDT

Youth Will Out: No Matter Who Wins, SCOTUS Nominees Will Get Younger

Voters won’t be punching chads or hitting touch screens with the names of U.S. Supreme Court nominees on Nov. 6. But with three justices in their late 70s and a fourth in his mid-70s, chances are strong that a second-term Barack Obama or a first-term Mitt Romney will have the…

Aug 1, 2012 7:50 AM CDT

It Isn’t Necessarily Big Brother, But Somebody Is Potentially Watching, Virtually All the Time

Think your posts on Facebook are private? Think again. It’s only a computer scanning them, under ordinary circumstances, but certain content could flag a post for human review if criminal conduct is suspected, according to Reuters and Slate. Tempted to say you’re hard at work when you’re not or for…

Jul 17, 2012 9:59 PM CDT

Judiciary Committee Seeks FDA Gen’l Counsel Memo, Says It OK’d ‘Spying’ on Email to Lawyers, Others

What began as an effort to determine whether five scientists at the Food and Drug Administration were leaking confidential information ended up as a wide-ranging secret surveillance operation, utilizing “an enemies list of sorts,” the New York Times reports. In a lengthy weekend story, the newspaper said that the FDA…

Jul 16, 2012 10:26 PM CDT

Federal Cameras Are Snapping Time-Stamped Pix of License Plates in 4 Border States

Special surveillance cameras have been installed in four border states that routinely snap time-stamped photos of license plates. Backed by the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, the cameras take photos that also establish a vehicle’s geographic location. The information collected by the devices will be kept for up to two years…

Jul 11, 2012 6:54 PM CDT

Obama Campaign Wins Round in Fight to Stop Website’s Sales of ‘O’ Logo Items

A federal judge has handed the Obama campaign a partial victory in its effort to stop a website’s sales of merchandise with a rising sun “O” logo. U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan granted a preliminary injunction barring Demstore.com from selling items with an “O” logo trademarked in 2008, report the…

Jul 11, 2012 3:42 PM CDT

Like Most of His Joint MBA-JD Peers, Romney Pursued Business Rather Than Legal Career

GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney has something in common with the late investment banker Bruce Wasserstein, Boston Beer Co. founder C. James Koch, and litigator Theodore Wells Jr. The men were among about 500 graduates of Harvard’s joint JD and MBA program, the New York Times reports. Romney wanted to…

Jul 10, 2012 1:57 PM CDT

Glaxo Agrees to Misdemeanor Plea, Will Pay $3B in Record Health Care Fraud Settlement with Feds

A British drug manufacturer has agreed to pay $1 billion in criminal fines and $2 billion in civil fines and revamp its compliance procedures to settle wide-ranging allegations by U.S. officials of wrongdoing in the company’s marketing and promotion of its products over a period of nearly a decade. The…

Jul 2, 2012 6:10 PM CDT

July 2, 1881: Charles Guiteau Shoots President James Garfield

One day after James Garfield’s presidential inauguration, Charles Guiteau traveled to Washington, D.C. Guiteau had haltingly given a half-baked campaign speech in support of Garfield, and somehow fancied it crucial to his election. He expected to be rewarded with a consulship, though the self-described “lawyer, theologian and politician” had no…

Jul 1, 2012 5:10 AM CDT

DOJ Won’t Prosecute AG Holder re US House Contempt Citation

Saying that it wasn’t a crime for U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to withhold information sought by a congressional committee concerning the feds’ botched Fast and Furious gun-trafficking investigation, the Department of Justice has announced that it won’t prosecute the nation’s top law enforcement officer for contempt. In a letter…

Jun 29, 2012 8:26 PM CDT

House Cites Attorney General Eric Holder for Contempt of Congress; AG Calls Vote ‘Grave Disservice’

Updated: The U.S. House of Representatives has voted to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt concerning documents sought by a committee reviewing the botched Fast and Furious federal gun-trafficking probe overseen by the Department of Justice. This is a historic first—Congress has never imposed that sanction on a sitting…

Jun 28, 2012 8:34 PM CDT

Holder Contempt Vote Scheduled for Today; DOJ Could Cite Ted Olson Opinion

The U.S. House is scheduled to vote today on whether to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt for refusing to turn over documents in the flawed gun-walking probe known as Operation Fast and Furious. The vote is expected to be held this afternoon, unless a last-minute deal is reached,…

Jun 28, 2012 12:57 PM CDT

Obama Will Learn Fate of Health Care Law Through SCOTUSblog, Media

President Obama won’t get any advance notice before the U.S. Supreme Court rules today on his administration’s health care law. White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters on Wednesday that Obama will be in Carney’s office when the decision is released, and the president will learn of the opinion from…

Jun 28, 2012 11:18 AM CDT

Critics Say Administration Failed to Press Originalist Arguments in Health Law Case

Critics say the Obama administration failed to appeal to conservative justices when it portrayed health care as a unique marketplace that could be regulated under the commerce clause. Instead, some observers say, the administration should have referred to early legislation in an effort to show the framers accepted regulation similar…

Jun 25, 2012 11:44 AM CDT