The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times

DOJ Watching for Boston Bombing Retaliation

The U.S. Department of Justice is focusing not only on the prosecution of the surviving Boston Marathon bombing suspect, but also protecting Muslims and other cultural groups from retaliation in the wake of such attacks, Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. said Monday.

In a speech to the Anti-Defamation League in Washington, Holder stopped short of saying he would pursue the death penalty for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, saying only that he would hold the 19-year-old defendant, charged in Boston federal district court, accountable "to the fullest extent of the law."

"But I also want to make clear that—just as we will pursue relentlessly anyone who would target our people or attempt to terrorize our cities—the Justice Department is firmly committed to protecting innocent people against misguided acts of retaliation," Holder said.

The Morning Wrap

Ricin Arrest: A Mississippi martial arts instructor is in police custody as part of a probe into ricin-laced letters sent to President Barack Obama and two other public officials, Reuters reports. Everett Dutschke, 41, faces maximum possible penalties of life imprisonment and a $250,000 fine if convicted.

'Goodbye': Retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor said she isn't sure the court should have taken Bush v. Gore, which ended the Florida recount and decided the 2000 presidential election, the Chicago Tribune reports. "It took the case and decided it at a time when it was still a big election issue," O'Connor said during a talk Friday with the Tribune editorial board. "Maybe the court should have said, 'We're not going to take it, goodbye.'"

Transportation Nomination: President Barack Obama intends to nominate Charlotte, N.C., mayor Anthony Foxx to serve as the next transportation secretary, The New York Times reports.

D.C. Circuit Won't Hear Challenge to SEC Resource Rule - Yet

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit put off - at least for now - reviewing a controversial rule by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that would require oil and gas companies to disclose government payments.

The appeals court concluded that the petitioners, led by the American Petroleum Institute, first had to litigate their case in district court.

"To be sure, this may not be the most efficient way to resolve such cases, and we certainly understand petitioners' desire to have these important issues addressed expeditiously," wrote Judge David Tatel for the panel, which also included Judge Janice Rogers Brown and Senior Judge David Sentelle. "But it is Congress’s job, not ours, to determine ‘the court in which judicial review of agency decisions may occur.’”

Lawyers, Judge Share Close Ties in Jesse Jackson Jr. Case

Former Illinois congressman Jesse Jackson Jr.'s embezzlement case is proving just how small Washington's legal world can be.

The first judge randomly assigned to the case in Washington's federal trial court has now recused himself. Today in court, the second judge—also randomly assigned—took extra measures to air her connections to the lawyers.

U.S. District Judge Amy Jackson Berman, a former white-collar criminal defense attorney at Trout Cacheris, listed her connections during the first status conference on the case since it was assigned to her April 16. President Barack Obama appointed Jackson to the bench in March 2011.

At FEC, Socialist Workers Party Donors are Anonymous

If you give money to the Socialist Workers Party, your name won't show up in Federal Election Commission records.

The FEC on April 25 agreed to continue a long-standing reporting exemption for the party's supporters - all 118 of them - who gave money in 2012. The party received $16,087 in total contributions last year.

The socialist party argued that public disclosure of its donors’ names, addresses and occupations would deprive them of their First Amendment rights because it would open them up to harassment.

Cohen Milstein Partner Confirmed as EEOC Commissioner

Updated at 3:50 pm

The U.S. Senate has confirmed Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll partner Jenny Yang to serve as a commissioner of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Yang, whose term will expire July 1, 2017, fills the spot left vacant when Democrat Stuart Ishimaru resigned last year to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Office of Minority and Women Inclusion.

At Cohen Milstein, Yang was among the lawyers who represented 1.5 million women in the Wal-Mart Stores Inc. v. Dukes sex-discrimination class action. The U.S. Supreme Court in 2011 tossed the case, the biggest discrimination class action in history.

Congress Urged to End Legal ‘Chaos’ Around GPS Warrants

Privacy experts and attorneys urged Congress to update laws governing protections for wireless customers' location data in criminal investigations Thursday, testifying on Capitol Hill that there is confusion among federal courts and other practical difficulties.

The House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security is looking to update the Electronic Communications Privacy Act in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court decision last year in United States v. Jones. The court, upholding the reversal of a man's life sentence, held that a government's placement of a GPS device on a car is a Fourth Amendment search.

But the ubiquitous nature of mobile phones that also include ways to track people brings up a wide range of issues, said subcommittee Chairman Representative Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.). "Unfortunately, Jones was limited to the installation of a GPS tracker on a suspect’s vehicle and gives us limited guidance," Sensenbrenner said.

Bryan Cave Ends Keystone XL Lobbying

Updated 4/26

Bryan Cave has ended its lobbying for the Canadian company behind the $5.3 billion Keystone XL pipeline, the law firm revealed this week.

The law firm filed a lobbying termination report with Congress on Monday, saying it finished its advocacy for TransCanada Corp. on March 31. Bryan Cave most recently monitored matters that included pipeline safety, natural gas transmission and climate change. Senior policy adviser David Russell and policy adviser Brandon Pollak were the last Bryan Cave lobbyists to advocate for TransCanada.

Shawn Howard, a TransCanada spokesman, wrote in an email that his company's resources and needs vary over time.

"Professionals from Bryan Cave were engaged for a period of time, but we recently determined that we did not need the same level of support from them," Howard wrote. "As a result, they updated their disclosure of clients and activities, in keeping with U.S. rules and regulations."

Circuit Judge Gets Quick Confirmation

The Senate confirmed Jane Kelly to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit on Wednesday, faster than any other circuit court nominee during the Obama administration. How in less than three months did she navigate a process that has come to represent partisan bickering and Senate gridlock?

Part of the unusual answer starts at an Iowa hospital way back in the mid-1970s, when Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) was ill during his first campaign for U.S. Congress.

Today, Grassley is the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, giving him influence on the confirmation process and making him the chief spokesman for Republican concerns about President Barack Obama's judicial nominees. Back then, however, Grassley was an Iowa House of Representatives member trying to make it to Washington.

SEC Names Ex-Wilmer Partner as New General Counsel

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced that White House attorney Anne Small has been named the agency's next general counsel, the first woman to serve in that role.

Since October 2011, Small has served as both special assistant and associate counsel to President Barack Obama. She also previously worked as the deputy general counsel for litigation and adjudication at the SEC. Geoffrey Aronow, who became SEC general counsel in January, will now serve as senior counsel to Chairman Mary Jo White.

In private practice, Small was a litigation partner in Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr's New York office. She is the latest in a long string of Wilmer alums to land a high-profile job at the SEC. Mark Cahn, who was general counsel from 2011 until the end of 2012, had been a partner at Wilmer.