Press Release: AFJ Calls on Chief Justice Roberts to Address Ethics Issues in His Annual State of the Judiciary Report

AFJ Calls on Chief Justice Roberts to Address Ethics Issues in His Annual State of the Judiciary ReportWashington, D.C., December 22, 2011—Alliance for Justice President Nan Aron today issued the following open letter to Chief Justice John Roberts in advance of the release of his annual Year-End Report on the Federal Judiciary:Dear Mr. Chief Justice:With the time fast approaching for your annual Year-End Report on the Federal Judiciary, I am writing on behalf of Alliance for Justice to respectfully urge you to take advantage of this important opportunity to address questions that have arisen...

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We need your support in the fight for a fair America

As the year comes to an end and Congress leaves Washington, we find ourselves dealing with the mess left behind by the three-year campaign to delay final confirmation votes on President Barack Obama’s nominees to the federal courts.The Senate session ended with 21 nominees waiting for final action on the Senate floor, in spite of the fact that virtually all of them faced no significant opposition. Those nominees spent an average of almost 200 days working their way through the glacially slow Senate confirmation process. We all recognize the challenges we face in filling the federal judiciary's...

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Outrageous: Senate leaves all 21 nominees high and dry

var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-2327420-4']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })(); ** UPDATE: THIS ALERT IS NO LONGER ACTIVE ** Thanks to AFJ members, more than 33,000...

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Press Release: U.S. Senate Takes Holiday Break, Leaving a Lump of Coal in the Stocking of America's Federal Courts

U.S. Senate Takes Holiday Break, Leaving a Lump of Coal in the Stocking of America's Federal CourtsWashington, D.C., December 20, 2011—Once again, the United States Senate has left town for a holiday without fulfilling its obligation to fully staff the federal courts and ensure that justice is available to all Americans. With 100 judicial vacancies in the federal court system, Senate Republicans continued their widely condemned tactics of obstruction and endless delay, and prevented final consideration of 21 nominees who have been cleared by the Senate Judiciary Committee, in most cases with...

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New Report Again Undercuts Arguments for "Tort Reform"

Yesterday, Americans for Insurance Reform released an important report on the insurance industry entitled “Repeat Offenders: How the Insurance Industry Manufactures Crises and Harms America.”  The lengthy report, based on a study of permissive regulatory environments, decades of industry financial data, and candid quotations from industry and public officials, offers another strong refutation of "tort reform" talking points by shedding much-needed light on the true reasons for the rise and fall of insurance rates.Industry lobbyists rarely fail to blame liability insurance “crises” for periodic...

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Senate Confirms Christen to the Ninth Circuit

var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-2327420-4']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })(); Yesterday afternoon the Senate confirmed Morgan Christen to the United States Ninth Circuit...

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Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing for Ninth Circuit Nominee

The Senate Judiciary Committee held a confirmation hearing for Paul Watford to the United States Circuit Court for the Ninth Circuit.  Senator Whitehouse (D-RI) chaired the hearing, opening the proceedings by noting the numerous judicial vacancies in the Ninth Circuit and quoting a recent letter from the circuit’s Chief Judge Alex Kozinski who said, “[W]e fear that the public will suffer unless our vacancies are filled very promptly.”  Also attending the hearing were Senator Feinstein (D-CA), who introduced the nominee, and Senator Grassley (R-IA), the ranking Republican member. ...

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Supreme Court Grants Cert in Case Challenging Arizona Immigration Law

Yesterday the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case of Arizona v. United States, in which the validity of Arizona’s draconian immigration law is at issue. Last year, Arizona passed S.B. 1070, a law designed to make it all but impossible for illegal immigrants to live or work in the state. A number of states have since passed copycat laws, in response to what they view as the federal government’s inadequate efforts to control illegal immigration. Most notoriously, Alabama has passed a law with such far-reaching consequences that even the state attorney general has called for revisions. In this...

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Corporate Court Grants Cert in Overtime Pay Case

var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-2327420-4']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })(); On November 28, the Corporate Court granted cert in the case of Christopher v. SmithKline...

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Press Release: AFJ Condemns Senate Failure to Confirm Caitlin Halligan

Washington, D.C., December 6, 2011—Alliance for Justice President Nan Aron issued the following statement on the failure to end the Republican filibuster of the nomination of Caitlin Halligan to a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit:Today’s vote by Republicans to filibuster the nomination of Caitlin Halligan has shattered any pretense that the judicial confirmation process is being conducted in a rational or honest manner. Ms. Halligan’s record of achievement in public service and private practice is impeccable and there is no conceivable justification for denying her a final...

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Senate Confirms Four Nominees to District Court Seats

var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-2327420-4']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })(); Last night, the Senate confirmed the following to be United States District Court judges:...

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Is This the Last Senate Action on Judges for 2011?

Tonight, the Senate will finally hold votes on four long-pending judicial nominees: Edgardo Ramos, James Gilstrap, Andrew Carter, and Dana Christensen, all of whom have been waiting more than 200 days for their votes. And tomorrow at noon, there will be a vote to break a Republican filibuster on the nomination of Caitlin Halligan, who has been waiting over 430 days for her vote.The filibuster of Halligan's nomination has drawn intense criticism from legal scholars who point to her distinguished record and "unanimously well-qualified" rating from the American Bar Association. But instead of voting...

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