The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times

Obama Commutes Prison Terms For Eight Drug Offenders

The prison terms of eight drug offenders who were sentenced "under an unfair system" were commuted today, President Barack Obama said.

"If they had been sentenced under the current law, many of them would have already served their time and paid their debt to society," Obama said in a written statement Thursday afternoon, citing the Fair Sentencing Act he signed in 2011. "Instead, because of a disparity in the law that is now recognized as unjust, they remain in prison, separated from their families and their communities, at a cost of millions of taxpayer dollars each year."

The president commuted the life sentence of Clarence Aaron of Mobile, Ala., whose term is now set to expire in April 2014. Aaron was sentenced in 1993 in the Southern District of Alabama on conspiracy and possession charges. Propublica and The Washington Post spotlighted Aaron's case in May 2012.

"Each of them has served more than 15 years in prison," Obama said today. "In several cases, the sentencing judges expressed frustration that the law at the time did not allow them to issue punishments that more appropriately fit the crime."

This Week in The National Law Journal

Court Revives Claim to Art: Amanda Bronstad looks at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruling that breathed new life into a dispute over claims of art taken by the Nazis. "A panel concluded the claims, brought under a California law, did not infringe the federal government's exclusive power to conduct foreign affairs — the so-called foreign affairs doctrine," according to the report.

Second Thoughts on False Claims: Advocates for amending the False Claims Act -- a powerful tool for the U.S. Justice Department -- are pitching reforms on Capitol Hill, Andrew Ramonas reports. Among those lawyers who are pushing for change was a familiar face at the Justice Department: David Ogden, a former deputy attorney general under Eric Holder Jr. "I hope you look at [the FCA amendments] hard, think about them and do the right thing," Ogden said at a recent discussion on the Hill.

Banks Draw Out Their Knives: Legal challenges to the new Volcker Rule appear certain, Jenna Greene reports this week. "When federal financial regulators last week adopted the massive Volcker Rule, it didn't mean their work was finished. If anything, lawyers say the work is just beginning," Greene writes. One lawyer remarks: "The implications [for] banks are so widespread that it is highly likely there will be challenges to the final rule on a number of grounds."

Does the False Claims Act Need Updating?

Former Deputy Attorney General David Ogden took his case for False Claims Act (FCA) reform to Capitol Hill Friday, telling congressional aides that the statute isn't effective at preventing fraud.

Speaking at a panel discussion hosted by the Law and Economics Center at the George Mason University School of Law, the U.S. Justice Department's No. 2 official from 2009 to 2010 said the FCA is an important tool for the U.S. government in its efforts to recover money it has lost to fraud. Since January 2009, the government has reclaimed more than $16.7 billion through FCA cases, according to DOJ.

But the law needs "modest adjustments" to put the emphasis on lowering fraud, not increasing recoveries, he said.

The Morning Wrap

Iran Deal: Secretary of State John Kerry in media interviews Sunday defended a deal that the United States and other world powers reached with Iran over its nuclear program, The Washington Post reports. The agreement, which stops pivotal parts of Iran's nuclear program in exchange for temporary relief on some economic sanctions, doesn't recognize an Iranian "right to enrich" uranium, Kerry said on ABC's "This Week."

NSA Case: Lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union Friday urged a federal judge in New York to stop the National Security Agency's phone call monitoring, the New York Law Journal reports.

Bird Settlement: Duke Energy Corp. has agreed to pay $1 million to resolve allegations that its wind energy facilities broke environmental laws protecting birds, The Associated Press reports. Duke Energy is the first wind energy company to face charges for the death of an eagle or other protected birds.

The Morning Wrap

Nuked: The Senate's rule change restricting filibusters smooths the path to the powerful U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit for President Obama's picks to fill three vacancies. Democrats resorted to the "nuclear option" to curb the minority's power to filibuster. "It's time to change the U.S. Senate before this body becomes obsolete," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said. The Washington Post reports: "Senate’s filibuster rule change should help Obama achieve key second-term priorities."

Awarded: A jury in San Jose, Calif., has awarded Apple $290 million in damages against rival Samsung over iPad and iPhone patent infringement claims, The Recorder reports. The award at the closely watched retrial brings the total owed to $930 million. Coverage here in Bloomberg and here in Reuters.

Seized: The District of Columbia now owns a strip club, The Washington Post reports. "The District's Office of Tax and Revenue has seized the Stadium Club, a steakhouse and gentleman's club popular with professional athletes and hip-hop artists and the home for a reality show called "Strip Club Queens," in order to pay off the debts of owner James Redding," according to the report.

Resigned: "Utah’s embattled attorney general, John Swallow, resigned Thursday amid persistent questions about whether he had committed widespread ethics violations, saying the legal fight had become too costly," The New York Times reports.

Shunning Politics, John Edwards Returns to the Law

By Jenna Greene

Renouncing any further political ambitions, former U.S. senator and two-time Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards has returned to the practice of law, confident that potential clients and juries will look past the personal transgressions that pushed him from public life.

Edwards is joining forces with his daughter Cate and former law partner David Kirby to launch EdwardsKirby, a plaintiffs firm with a public interest focus. One of the most successful trial lawyers in North Carolina history, Edwards, 60, said Monday in an interview with The National Law Journal that practicing law is "what I was born to do."

His image was tarnished by a very public sex scandal, when in 2008 he fathered a child by his then-mistress Rielle Hunter while his wife Elizabeth was battling breast cancer. Edwards, whose wife died two years later, initially denied paternity, going along with a claim that an aide fathered the child—details that were re-aired in a federal campaign finance prosecution against him and a pair of tell-all books.

The question is, will juries hold his misdeeds against him? Edwards said he didn't think so.

Government Contractors Prepare For Rough Regulatory Roads

By Alex Zank

Douglas Manya, vice president at Booz Allen Hamilton Inc., today predicted a less rosy landscape for government contractors.

"The last 10 years were rather flush for contractors, [but] those times aren’t going to come back very soon," he said in a panel discussion during The National Law Journal Regulatory Summit. Contractors, he said, "are going to have to be more thoughtful of what they sell. Manya added: "There will be a winnowing.”

Manya’s statements were very much in line with the rest of the panel discussing the future of U.S. government contracting. The panelists agreed that political uncertainty, along with fiscal restraint and regulatory pains, require contractors to innovate.

Contractors face a “trifecta of fiscal woes,” said Elizabeth Ferrell, partner at McKenna Long & Aldridge. Contractors are dealing with the sequestration, the recent debt ceiling debate and potential fiscal issues looming for 2014—potentially including another budget showdown.

The Morning Wrap

Leading: "Harvard Law School sends more graduates per capita into corporate boardrooms and executive suites than any other law school," The National Law Journal reports today. Robert Anderson, an associate professor at Pepperdine University School of Law, reported the findings based on his assessment of U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings.

Recommended: Federal prosecutors in Boston are seeking a life sentence for James "Whitey" Bulger, convicted at trial on charges that included racketeering and money laundering, The Boston Globe reports. “There are no mitigating factors, and defendant Bulger has no redeeming qualities," prosecutors said. Read the government's sentencing memo here.

Swamped: The Washington Post has this story today, assessing the fallout from the government shutdown: "Merit Systems Protection Board swamped by volume of furlough appeals."

Argued: The Concord Monitor reports on a man's challenge over a controversial vanity license plate. "If the man formerly known as David Montenegro were to boil every complaint he has ever harbored for the New Hampshire state government into a cogent, seven-character sound bite, and then imprint that on the front and back of his car, it would be “COPSLIE,” the report says. The state Supreme Court is weighing the dispute.

Supreme Court Panel Talks Conflicts and Cameras

When it comes to justices stepping aside from hearing cases because of financial conflicts of interests, there's a single goal, Ken Starr said today: That should never happen in the first place.

"The goal should be no justice should step aside because of financial interest," said Starr, president of Baylor University and a former judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. "He or she should divest themselves as promptly as possible from whatever that interest might be that would prevent him or her from doing their job."

Starr was among the panelists today who came together for a discussion in Washington titled "Today's Supreme Court: Tradition v. Technology and Transparency." The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press hosted the event, at which The National Law Journal's Tony Mauro moderated.

DOJ, ACLU Quarrel in Suit Over Drone Records

Back in March, a federal appeals court in Washington revived a fight over the government's intent to keep secret any document about drone strikes. Ruling for the challengers, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit asked a trial judge in Washington to take a second look.

Now, with the case is back in Washington's federal trial court, the challengers contend the U.S. Department of Justice hasn't budged from its earlier position in the Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.

"Quite remarkably…the CIA’s position on remand is not much different than it was when plaintiffs first filed this suit," American Civil Liberties Union attorneys said in court papers filed September 13. The attorneys, including Hina Shamsi and Jameel Jaffer, added: "Although the agency now acknowledges the bare, obvious fact that it possesses records about the drone program, it refuses to describe these records, or even enumerate them."