The Washington Independent

Posts Tagged federal courts

So Where’s That OPR Report?

By | 12.01.09 | 9:13 am

Less than two weeks ago, Attorney General Eric Holder testified that the long-awaited report on the ethics of Bush-era Justice Department lawyers who sanctioned torture and other abuses would be released by the end of November.

So where is it?

Holder: ‘Failure is Not An Option’ in 9/11 Trials

By | 11.19.09 | 8:52 am

Testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, Attorney General Eric Holder said that one reason he decided to try the five suspected 9/11 co-conspirators in federal court is because that was where he would most likely be able to win a conviction. As he said later in the hearing: “Failure More…

The ‘Deboogeymanification’ of Terror Suspects

By | 11.17.09 | 12:22 pm

On his MSNBC morning show today, Dylan Ratigan asked me if I thought the decision to bring the suspected 9/11 co-conspirators to trial in a New York federal court was an attempt to “deboogeymanificate” those notorious terrorists we’ve heard so much about. After all, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed More…

Criticism All Around for Paucity of Confirmed Federal Judges

By | 11.17.09 | 10:54 am

There’s growing attention today to the hypocrisy of Senate Republicans planning to filibuster the nomination of Judge David Hamilton to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, and to the Obama administration’s failure to make judicial nominations a higher priority.

NPR’s Nina Totenberg this morning had an excellent roundup More…

RedState and Jeff Sessions Team Up for a Filibuster

By | 11.13.09 | 10:11 am

Eight months ago, President Obama nominated Indiana judge David Hamilton for a seat on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. As Jeffrey Toobin reported, it was an uncontroversial, Republican-backed choice intended to “begin a profound and rapid change in the confirmation process and in the federal judiciary itself.”

Eight More…

Military to Seek Death Penalty for Fort Hood Massacre

By | 11.13.09 | 8:59 am

Even though the military justice system hasn’t actually executed anyone in over 50 years, military prosecutors have decided to seek the death penalty in the case of alleged Fort Hood shooter Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, The Wall Street Journal reports this morning. Hasan was charged with 13 counts More…

Federalist Society Convention Kicks Off With Call to Oppose Obama Judge Picks

By | 11.12.09 | 6:27 pm

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) kicked off the annual Federalist Society convention today with a call to oppose President Obama’s liberal nominees for the federal judiciary, Legal Times reports.

“We are in a long and difficult fight,” Sessions told the gathering of leading conservative lawyers, judges and law professors More…

NYT Slams Federal Appeals Court for Rendition Decision

By | 11.11.09 | 11:52 am

Praising an Italian court’s recent ruling that CIA agents broke the law in an extraordinary rendition case, The New York Times today highlights a growing phenomenon that hasn’t received sufficient attention: European courts appear more willing than their American counterparts to enforce the laws protecting basic human and More…

A ‘New Republican Obstructionism’ in the Senate

By | 10.26.09 | 12:59 pm

A “new form of obstructionism” by Republicans in the Senate is delaying confirmation of Obama’s nominees for federal judgeships, writes Doug Kendall, president of the Constitutional Accountability Center, in Slate today.

With only three of 22 judicial nominees confirmed so far, it “seems clear that Senate Republicans are More…

9/11 Masterminds Could Face Trial in Federal Court

By | 10.21.09 | 6:00 am

As the Obama administration nears its deadline for deciding where to try the men suspected of masterminding the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorists attacks, there are strong indications that those trials could take place in federal courts in the United States. That’s prompting fervent opposition from Republicans, who say the 9/11 More…