Latham Cuts: Latham & Watkins has confirmed to The Am Law Daily that it is laying off 190 associates, or about 12 percent of the firm's associate base. The firm also announced cuts of 250 non-legal staff, including paralegals. Offices in New York and Los Angeles will be affected most. Latham's 550-strong partnership will be unaffected by the cuts, says The Am Law Daily.
Spook Secrets: The Senate Intelligence Committee is expected to open a new probe into the Central Intelligence Agency’s interrogation program, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing congressional aides. The investigation could begin as soon as today and would be narrower — and, presumably, more secret because it’s the intelligence committee — than the “truth commission” proposed by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and others.
Charges for al-Marri: The Washington Post reports that the Justice Department is preparing to announce criminal charges against Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, the Qatari citizen and military detainee at the center of a court case that has reached the Supreme Court. His lawyers say they’ll press forward in the Supreme Court to try to repudiate the idea that U.S. authorities can indefinitely hold enemy combatants. (The Post attributes that idea to the Bush administration, though just this week an Obama nominee endorsed holding enemy combatants for the duration of a conflict. The Justice Department is due to file a new brief in al-Marri’s case in March.)
Evidence Fight: Via Law.com, The Recorder looks at the possibility of an interlocutory appeal by the prosecutors in the upcoming trial of Barry Bonds’ trainer. The case has become more complicated since last week, when Judge Susan Illston excluded key government evidence, and since trainer Greg Anderson has hinted he will not testify. If Anderson confirms in court this morning that he will not, prosecutors could head to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.
Get Your Guns: Though the newspaper stops short of calling D.C. a future arms bazaar, The New York Times reports on a possible repeal of most of the District’s gun-control laws. Language to that effect was included in the D.C. voting-rights bill passed by the Senate on Thursday, coming a year after the Supreme Court’s ruling in D.C. v. Heller. CQ has the story, too.
Thanks, Rocky: A planned appearance by former Weather Underground member Bill Ayers has touched off a debate over the First Amendment at the University of Colorado, according to the final edition ever of the Rocky Mountain News. The university had planned to charge the student hosts $3,000, which one lawyer says is an unconstitutional restraint on free speech. Both sides appear to be backing down.
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