Almost one in eight U.S. judgeships is vacant, and political partisanship over confirmations is threatening the delivery of impartial justice. See details in Gavel Grab.
The PATRIOT Act and other post-September 11 policies dramatically weakened the historic power of the courts to protect our rights and check possible government abuses.
Federal News and Releases
Days before the 2008 election, then-candidate Barack Obama said California's Proposition 8 was unnecessary and not what America's about. Now, some same-sex marriage advocates are hoping Obama's Justice Department will make a similar argument in court. The federal government is not a party to the Proposition 8 litigation, which pits...
In the latest effort to salvage authority for federal judges to control the legal fate of Guantanamo Bay detainees, lawyers for 31 of those prisoners have told the D.C. Circuit Court that they will seek to return to the Supreme Court if lower courts move to scuttle that new effort....
WASHINGTON A judge has ordered the release of a Guantanamo Bay detainee imprisoned at the island facility for more than 8 1/2 years. U.S. District Judge Henry Kennedy says the Obama administration has failed to show that the Yemeni detainee was part of al Qaeda or an associated force. The...
In the movement to legalize same-sex marriages in the United States, the religious right has proven a formidable and unwavering foe, and their victory in delaying the repeal of California's Proposition 8 is persuasive evidence. Since the same-sex marriage movement began in earnest some 40 years ago, religious leaders have...
WASHINGTON In June, the Supreme Court refused to hear the case of a Canadian man who contends that U.S. authorities mistook him for an al Qaida operative in 2002 and shipped him to a secret prison in Syria, where he was beaten with electrical cables and held in a grave-like...
Victoria Nourse, a nominee for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit, would likely leap into the ranks of the wealthiest federal judges if she is confirmed. Nourse reported a household net worth of $19.8 million in a financial disclosure required as part of the Senate confirmation process....
In the months since the landmark decision Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, authorizing corporations to make unlimited independent political expenditures in candidate elections, groups including the Republican-leaning Club for Growth and the Democratic-leaning Commonsense Ten have asked the FEC to go well beyond the Court's decision. They have asked...
Article II, Section 2 of the United States Constitution authorizes the president to appoint, with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, all federal judges. It has never been clear precisely what the phrase advice and consent means. In practice, though, at least when it comes to the lower federal...
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- A federal judge Monday ruled that Missouri laws restricting protests near funerals are unconstitutional. Missouri legislators passed two laws in 2006 in response to protests at servicemembers' funerals by members of Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan. The church contends the deaths are God's punishment for...
President Obama's promise to shut the Guantnamo Bay detention facility has come back to haunt him. Not only is the facility still open long past the January 2010 deadline that Obama set for closing it, but this week saw the first steps in the trial of its youngest and most...
GUANTNAMO BAY, Cuba (Reuters) A detainee at the United States military prison here told interrogators that he was a terrorist for Al Qaeda and described pulling the pin of a grenade that killed an American soldier in Afghanistan, a prosecutor told a war crimes tribunal on Thursday. But the lawyer...
Elena Kagan's confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court was not without its share of detractors, and certainly the high court's newest justice will be the subject of considerable scrutiny as she assumes her post. No matter how her voting record pans out, however, Kagan's confirmation is indicative of a court...
Washington, DC: The Senate confirmed Elena Kagan for the Supreme Court 63-37 Aug. 5 after massive official scrutiny that, to my mind at least, minimized some essential factors. So, the Justice Integrity Project that I lead here opposed her confirmation, drawing in part on my formative experiences covering Connecticut's federal...
Late last week, the Senate returned several of President Obama's judicial nominations to the White House -- after failing to move on them for months. About 100 judge slots -- representing 10 percent of the judicial branch -- are still waiting to be filled. Among them is Goodwin Liu, who...
