The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times

After Obama NSA Speech, Spotlight on Congress

Lawmakers, civil rights advocates and tech companies shared a basic response to President Barack Obama's surveillance reforms: Good first step, but there's more to be done.

Congress needs to take action to address concerns about the scope of surveillance programs, Obama said. Much of the reaction focused on proposed changes to the most controversial program—the bulk collection of telephone records by the National Security Agency under Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act.

Obama also called for greater transparency when it comes to the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which oversees NSA surveillance efforts.

A group of tech companies that are pushing for reforms—including Apple, Facebook, Microsoft Corp., Twitter, Yahoo! and AOL—issued a joint statement after Obama's speech. Several of the companies last year filed petitions in the surveillance court seeking the ability to provide more information about government demands for consumer data.

Obama Proposes Changes to Surveillance Court

President Barack Obama today announced reforms to the nation's surveillance programs in an effort to give federal judges greater oversight and to give the public more information and participation in the process.

Many of the changes focus on the role of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, the panel of judges in Washington that reviews government applications to secretly review and monitor telephone and Internet communications.

In a 50-minute speech at the U.S. Department of Justice, Obama made his case for the necessity of the surveillance programs, which came under intense scrutiny after leaks from former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden revealed the scope of the agency's snooping.

Senate Judiciary Committee Approves 29 Judicial Nominees

The Senate Judiciary Committee today advanced 29 judicial nominees to the full Senate in a meeting devoid of the partisanship that accompanied the confirmation process in recent months.

The five circuit court and 24 district court nominees included Covington & Burling partner Christopher “Casey” Cooper for a spot on the federal trial court in Washington, and Munger, Tolles & Olson partners John Owens and Michelle Friedland for spots on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Democrats and Republicans agreed to approve all the nominees, most with only a voice vote. There wasn't any back-and-forth commentary about the pace of the confirmation process for President Barack Obama's judicial picks, which had become common during hearings last year.

Budget Plan for Judiciary Could 'Stop the Bleeding'

Congress is planning to give some relief to the federal judiciary after last year's budget cuts.

A bipartisan appropriations bill released Monday night would provide the federal courts an increase of $316 million in discretionary spending—or 5 percent above current funding—for the 2014 fiscal year, according to a summary of the 1,582-page bill from the Senate Appropriations Committee.

That would almost erase the $350 million in budget cuts to the judiciary in March as part of sequestration, which has caused almost a year of layoffs and furloughs in the federal courts and threatened the judiciary's ability to pay court-appointed private counsel in criminal cases.

Robert Wilkins’ D.C. Circuit Confirmation Vote Set for Monday

The Senate is expected to confirm U.S. District Judge Robert Wilkins to a key Washington federal appeals court Monday afternoon.

The Senate voted 55-38 on Thursday to advance the nomination of Wilkins to a final vote. Wilkins was one of three of Obama's simultaneous nominations to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The Senate last year confirmed Patricia Millett and Cornelia Pillard.

Wilkins only needs the support of Senate Democrats to win confirmation. If he's confirmed, Wilkins would be the fourth Obama pick since May to take a seat on the D.C. Circuit.

CIA Sued Over Records About Nelson Mandela

A doctoral student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is suing the Central Intelligence Agency over documents about the late South African president and anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela.

After Mandela’s death on Dec. 5, MIT student and historian Ryan Shapiro sent Freedom of Information Act requests to the CIA, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the National Security Agency and the Defense Intelligence Agency requesting records that mentioned Mandela.

Shapiro, whose research includes exploring how dissent is policed, claims the CIA did not respond to his inquiry, which included a request for expedited processing. A response to that request, he alleged, was due Dec. 29. He filed a lawsuit today in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

D.C. Lawyers Renominated to Superior Court

Three Washington attorneys picked last year for the District of Columbia Superior Court were renominated yesterday by President Barack Obama.

The nominations of William Nooter, Sherry Trafford and Steven Wellner are back on track for consideration by the Senate. Unlike federal court nominees, who go before the Senate Judiciary Committee, nominees to the District's local courts are handled by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.

The Senate returned dozens of judicial nominees and other executive appointees to the White House on Jan. 3. Legal Times' Todd Ruger has more on how President Obama's federal court nominees fared.

Former Croatian Military Official Sues to Remove Sanctions

Ante Gotovina, a retired Croatian military official acquitted of war crimes charges in 2012, is suing the U.S. Department of Treasury to lift economic sanctions against him in place for more than a decade.

The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia convicted Gotovina of war crimes in connection with a military operation in Croatia in 1995. In 2012, the Appeals Chamber of the tribunal reversed his conviction and set him free.

The U.S. government listed Gotovina as a Specially Designated National in 2003, subjecting him to economic sanctions. After his acquittal, Gotovina asked the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control to remove the designation, to no avail, according to the complaint he filed yesterday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

This Week in The National Law Journal

Pro Bono Hot List: Which attorneys stand out for the time they volunteered for nonprofit causes in 2013? The National Law Journal takes a look in its annual pro bono report.

Courts Join NSA Fight: The U.S. Supreme Court may have to rule upon the National Security Agency's data gathering after two federal judges came to such widely different conclusions about the agency's telephone surveillance program in December, Andrew Ramonas, Todd Ruger and Tony Mauro report.

Of Bandmates and Bad Blood: The desire to prevent former bandmates from trading on past rock and roll glory is driving two similar federal trademark cases, Sheri Qualters reports.

John Marshall Law Has Its First Skadden Fellow: Karen Sloan reports on how Sarah Hess beat the odds.

New Lawyer Named to D.C. Judicial Nomination Commission

Ronald Flagg, vice president and general counsel of the Legal Services Corp., is the newest member of the District of Columbia commission that vets lawyers applying to become judges on the city’s local courts.

Flagg replaces Karl Racine, a Venable partner who finished his six-year term on the D.C. Judicial Nomination Commission on Jan. 1.

The seven-person commission includes members appointed by the mayor, D.C. Council, D.C. Bar, White House and chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Flagg was appointed to one of two seats filled by the D.C. Bar.