Federal Government

FDIC Details Rescue Plan for Homeowners With IndyMac Mortgages

In a move that could serve as a model for other troubled banks and homeowners struggling to make their mortgage payments, the FDIC announced a plan today to allow delinquent IndyMac Federal Bank borrowers to switch to fixed-rate loans. Seriously delinquent homeowners who can document financial hardship and, apparently, the…

Aug 20, 2008 7:23 PM CDT

A Look at the Legal Résumés of Potential VPs

One potential vice presidential candidate failed the bar exam twice. Two others—one a Republican and the other a Democrat—are Harvard law grads like Barack Obama. The American Lawyer takes a look at the legal résumés of some potential vice presidential candidates that are often mentioned as leading contenders for the…

Aug 20, 2008 11:52 AM CDT

Judge Gives CIA 10 Days to Persuade Him Not to Issue Contempt Citation

A federal judge says he will give government lawyers 10 days to explain why he should not hold the CIA in contempt of court for destroying interrogation videotapes of al-Qaida detainees. U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein of New York is considering whether the destruction of the tapes violated a court…

Aug 19, 2008 5:59 PM CDT

Kennedy, Alito Fail to Make Candidates’ Lists of Least-Favorite Justices

Asked to name their least favorite U.S. Supreme Court justices, Barack Obama first picked Justice Clarence Thomas while John McCain picked the court’s four liberals. The candidates gave their answers in response to a question Saturday by evangelical Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church. Obama gave this reason for his…

Aug 18, 2008 4:42 PM CDT

Pakistan’s Musharraf Says He Will Resign Today

Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has announced he will step down today, following more than a year of lawyer-led protests. Musharraf said he is putting national interest above “personal bravado,” the New York Times reports. “I am leaving with the satisfaction that whatever I could do for this country I did…

Aug 18, 2008 10:33 AM CDT

Rielle Hunter’s Father Was a Lawyer Implicated in Horse-Killing Scam

The father of Rielle Hunter, John Edwards’ mistress, was an Ocala, Fla., lawyer implicated in a scam to kill horses for insurance money. The first horse killed belonged to Hunter, who was then a teenager known as Lisa Jo Druck, the Ocala Star Banner reports. Her father, James Druck, represented…

Aug 15, 2008 11:06 AM CDT

Lawyers for Edwards’ Mistress and Campaign Aide Tied to Fred Baron

Lawyers for John Edwards’ mistress and the man who says he is the father of her child both have ties to the Dallas trial lawyer who was chairman of the presidential candidate’s campaign finance committee. The committee chairman, Dallas trial lawyer Fred Baron, has said he paid to relocate Rielle…

Aug 15, 2008 10:48 AM CDT

Overseer Moves to Seize $8B in California Funds for Prison Health Care

A court-appointed overseer for health care in California prisons has asked a federal judge to turn over $8 billion in state funds. J. Clark Kelso said the money is needed to meet minimum constitutional standards for prison health care, the Los Angeles Times reports. He said U.S. District Judge Thelton…

Aug 14, 2008 2:02 PM CDT

Gang-Related Issues Widespread in US, Aided by Internet

Even as the federal government focuses on gang-related criminal activity as an enforcement priority, helping to organize major raids and providing money to local authorities to enhance their efforts, widespread gang-related concerns aren’t likely to be easily resolved. In Hartford, Conn., a plan to impose a 9 p.m. curfew, starting…

Aug 13, 2008 4:57 PM CDT

W. Va. Governor Reportedly Got DuPont’s Help Before Filing Amicus Brief

DuPont lawyers accommodated a request by West Virginia’s governor by supplying two draft briefs that he could use for the state’s amicus brief urging the state supreme court to hear a case involving the company, the New York Times reports. The brief urges the supreme court to hear an appeal…

Aug 13, 2008 3:15 PM CDT

New Regulations Threaten Parts of Endangered Species Act

For years, Congress has resisted efforts to curtail the scope of the Endangered Species Act. But now, in an end run around the legislative process, the Bush administration has introduced planned new regulations that would have much the same effect. The regs, which are now subject to a 30-day comment…

Aug 12, 2008 6:04 PM CDT

Plame Can’t Sue Gov’t. Officials Who Allegedly Outed Her as US Spy

Because high-level government figures were acting within their official capacity when they allegedly revealed to reporters that Valerie Plame had spied for the U.S., she and her husband can’t sue them for damages, a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C. has ruled. “The conduct … was in the defendants’ scope…

Aug 12, 2008 4:29 PM CDT

ABA Proposes Bipartisan Judicial Selection Process

Updated: Senators from each state should jointly appoint bipartisan commissions of lawyers and others to recommend the names of attorneys to fill federal trial court vacancies that the senators might recommend to the president, the ABA’s 555-member policy-making House of Delegates recommended today. Bipartisan commissions should also be used by…

Aug 11, 2008 8:46 PM CDT

ABA Supports International Criminal Court

The United States should be more involved with the International Criminal Court, even though the United States doesn’t recognize the ICC’s authority over members of the U.S. government, according to a resolution passed this afternoon by the ABA’s 555-member policy-making House of Delegates. The House urged the government to cooperate…

Aug 11, 2008 6:45 PM CDT

What the President Should Look for in a Judicial Nominee

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama says he wants judicial nominees to have empathy. Presumptive Repubican presidential Nominee John McCain says he does not want activist judges. But what that all means and what the presidential candidates should really be saying about judicial selection was the subject of a lively…

Aug 8, 2008 10:08 PM CDT