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May 2007 - Posts
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You would think that if any group would support the Senate "grand bargain" bill, it would be the immigration lawyers. But we're not celebrating. The bargain bill is replete with trade-offs reprehensible to individuals, businesses and, ultimately, the nation.
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Lawmakers in South Carolina initially introduced legislation that would allow prisoners to donate organs or bone marrow in exchange for a sentence reduction of up to 180 days. Subsequently, they amended the proposed legislation, which now simply encourages prisoners to donate organs, without the quid pro quo. Even as amended, this is dangerous ground legally, ethically and morally.
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Legal education is in need of reform. Law schools can learn a good deal from their academic cousins, business schools.
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The John R. Justice Prosecutors and Defenders Act of 2007 is an investment in the integrity of our criminal justice system, and the American Bar Association as the voice of the legal profession applauds its passage.
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The success of new Homeland Security regulations of chemical facilities will be in the details. And one of the most important details remains contested: pre-emption.
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Let us not overlook the fact that several of the nation's premier banking institutions Credit Suisse, Barclays and Merrill Lynch helped concoct the bogus deals allowing Enron to falsify its finances. They then sold Enron's securities, pushed its stock and wildly profited.
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Think you've seen some funny business in the office? This year's survey of the top 10 bizarre employment law situations presents another potpourri of workplace wackiness.
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The Paulson Committee prescribes numerous reforms, many worthy and possibly useful. But aspects of the report associated with rules and principles enter a muddle of rhetoric that is both widespread and underanalyzed.
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With Congress recently taking up patent reform, several bad ideas seem to be taking hold, while some good ones may be overlooked. The costs to the United States of going the wrong way are significant: less innovation, slower growth and fewer jobs.
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The evidence from our Senate investigation of the unprecedented firing of eight U.S. attorneys shows an attorney general whose misjudgments are profound, and who is complicit in the greatest politicization of the U.S.
Department of Justice since the Nixon administration. By U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse.
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Claiming "intractable problems and threats to security," the DOJ has filed a motion with the DC Circuit seeking a protective order that would limit the access that lawyers could have to their detainee clients at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and to evidence in their cases.
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Globalization has not had fair opportunities to contribute to economic development because its rules are distorted in a way that serves only "big" economic players.
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Three recent initiative proposals aimed at making judges more accountable may have had their genesis in good intentions, but were carried to worrisome extremes.
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The decline in securities fraud litigation reflects a reduction in the incidence of securities fraud since the "Enron era" and the successful impact of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
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What does cigarette maker Philip Morris have in common with a 19th century customs officer who is sued by New England ship owners to prevent him from enforcing an embargo on trade with England during the War of 1812? Hint: Dust off the law books and look up the "federal officer removal statute."
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No sooner had Democrats taken charge of the tax-writing committee in the House of Representatives than they proved once again that their idea of who is "wealthy" in America is much broader than many people might expect.
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It might be time to think about making the appointment of U.S. attorneys and maybe all prosecutors, state or federal far less political and politically accountable, either by statute or by constitutional amendment.
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Lawyers at all levels must continually make the case to state and federal lawmakers for proper judicial pay. There is, after all, only one way to protect the proper functioning of our courts, and that is to properly invest in the men and women who run them.
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There is widespread agreement, both publicly and privately, that Gonzales must go. But about the only two people in Washington who strongly disagree are the two who would normally make this happen: Gonzales and Bush. It's time to think outside the box, to look for creative options.
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