pat leahy

After a short back-and-forth on criminal law, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) used his friendly fire time to ask Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor about her “wise Latina” speeches, preceding the question with some attacks on conservatives who used those speeches to call Sotomayor a racist.
“No words I have ever spoken or written have received so [...]

In his opening statement, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Pat Leahy (D-Vt.) noted that Thurgood Marshall, despite the fact that he graduated first in his law school class, was a highly successful U.S. Solicitor General and had a long list of extraordinary achievements, was grilled during his Supreme Court nomination with questions like, “Are you prejudiced [...]

At the Senate Judiciary Committee’s oversight hearing this morning, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano carefully skirted repeated questions about her views of whether longtime undocumented immigrants living in the United States ought to get a chance at legalization.
Although Napolitano did say she supports the DREAM Act — which would provide some children of undocumented immigrants [...]

As Daphne wrote earlier, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) reportedly told Charlotte Dennett, writing for Consortiumnews.com, that even he thinks his proposed truth commission to investigate alleged lawbreaking during the Bush administration is “not going to happen,” due to a lack of any semblance of bipartisan support.
Well, maybe the truth commission idea still has some life [...]

Daphne? Can you help me understand something?
I thought from President Obama’s answer to Sam Stein’s question at his press conference last month that he was lukewarm on Sen. Pat Leahy’s (D-Vt.) efforts to establish a truth commission for Bush-era abuses. But then why release all these Office of Legal Counsel memos that indicate deeper abuses [...]

If you happened to catch The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC last night, you saw TWI Legal Correspondent Daphne Eviatar breaking down the pros and cons of Sen. Patrick Leahy’s (D-Vt.)  proposed “truth commission” to investigate the Bush administration’s alleged crimes. Daphne also talked about the problem that statutes of limitations on torture may pose [...]

Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales appeared at a forum on Republicans and the Hispanic vote at the Capitol Hill Club this morning, getting a standing ovation from the crowd when he was pointed out by the moderator. As Gonzales left, I asked him whether he would participate in a “truth commission,” as proposed by Sen. [...]

Reacting to Eli Lake’s scoop in The Washington Times that Sen. Kit Bond (R-Mo.) boasted that Attorney General-nominee Eric Holder assured him there would be no prosecution of Bush officials for torture under a Holder Justice Department, Sen. Pat Leahy (D-Vt.) reacted with incredulity to TPM’s Elana Schor:
“It would be completely wrong if a senator [...]

While the public battle to stop Eric Holder’s confirmation as attorney general still lacks the heat of those faced by his predecessors, Alberto Gonzales and John Ashcroft — Orrin Hatch supports Holder, and does anyone think one Democrat will pull away? — it’s gotten hot enough for a passel of right-leaning lawyers to come out [...]

Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), suffering from brain cancer, will step down from the powerful Judiciary Committee when Congress returns to Washington in January, the Boston Globe is reporting, citing an unnamed Democratic source:
The decision had nothing to do with the health of the legendary Democratic lawmaker, who is battling an aggressive brain tumor, the source [...]