Judicial

Lawsuits over patents have become big business. How big? Google this year bid $900 million for 6,000 technology patents and patent applications held by bankrupt Canadian phone-equipment maker Nortel just to minimize the likelihood of being sued by so-called “patent trolls” -- companies or individuals who buy up patents, not to incorporate them into products and services, but to file nettlesome infringement litigation.

Over the past several years, patent trolls have become the biggest players in patent litigation, which annually yields billions of dollars in settlements and verdicts. But a balanced provision in the patent reform bill working its way through Congress will help protect many of our productive companies from these trolls. Section 18 of the legislation would establish an extra layer of review of patents on financial products and services by experts at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Doing so would boost the economy by reducing the abuse of the civil justice system.

Washington will almost certainly have to deal with a host of proposed mergers in the next few years as markets respond to accelerating forces of technological change and global competition. At the top of the list right now is the ATT/T-Mobile deal, which generated a lot of heat at a House Judiciary Committee meeting just last week.

Herewith, a few observations gleaned from watching the merger scene over the last two decades...

Last week, the Global Commission on Drug Policy issued a report calling for the decriminalization of illicit drugs based on the notion that global efforts to reduce drug use have been a failure. Certainly, given the stature of the Commission and the long-term challenge of drug policies both nationally and internationally, the Commission’s message may appear compelling at first. But there are serious flaws with both the report’s conclusion and its proposed remedy. 

Sen. McConnell made the following remarks on the Senate floor Thursday regarding the nomination of Goodwin Liu to the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals:

Over the past two years, our nation has been engaged in a great debate about the kind of country we want America to be — a place of maximum liberty and limited government, or a place where no problem is too big or too small for the government to get involved.

This debate arose because of a president who made no apologies about wanting to move America to the left; and it continues today, despite widespread opposition to the president’s policies, because of the president’s clear determination to forge ahead.

May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, a time to celebrate the contributions of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders to the United States. From laborers who were vital to the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad in the 1860s to leaders such as Michelle Kwan (world champion figure skater) and retired U.S. Army Four Star Gen. Eric Shinseki (current secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs), Asian Pacific Americans have contributed to almost all aspects of American life.

But despite their achievements in the social, legal and economic sphere of American life, Asian Pacific Americans are rarely chosen for the federal judiciary. Among the approximately 875 federal judges with lifetime tenure in the U.S., only 14 are Asian Pacific American. The percentage is even lower among active federal appellate court judges, where only one out of 175 is Asian Pacific American. In U.S. history, there have been only five Asian Pacific American federal appellate court judges.
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Lamar, where did you go wrong? You were such a sensitive fellow when we worked together 30 years ago.

You’ve always been an anti-immigration advocate but as you gain power in congress, you seem to be getting crankier and more self-righteous, not (as you say) more American. Now, you add insult to injury by opposing the Dream Act.

Whatever your motivation, your position strikes me, and many other loyal Latino Republicans like me, as needlessly harsh and insensitive. It doesn’t help the image of the Republican Party in the eyes of the growing Latino electorate who will either make us or break in the upcoming elections.

What you’re doing is defending a bad law that punishes good people.

Nine hundred days: that’s enough time for a newborn to grow ready for nursery school, and significantly longer than a term of Congress. It’s also the length of time that a number of seats on the federal judiciary have been vacant, due to the gridlock in Washington.
 
It’s getting to the point where there are so many judicial emergencies, it’s hard to know where the crisis is even focused. Alarm bells are going off everywhere: New York to Arizona, Illinois to California, Florida to Wisconsin. Many states are affected.
 
What’s the big deal? The remaining judges can work a little harder, cases can move a little slower, right? But, at this point, the problem grows ever-larger and has crippling effects on the justice system. With vacancies routinely hovering in the low to high 90s, civil dockets in many districts are grinding to a halt.

This Op Ed is a crime.

Over a 30-year career, I've worn the hat of journalist, press secretary to a U.S. Congressman and cabinet member, and public affairs professional. I recently acquired a new title, courtesy of Chevron: a co-conspirator in a massive global scheme to extort money from the oil giant.
 
What exactly did I do? Pretty much what PR types and lobbyists do daily in Washington, D.C.: tell my client's story.
 
The clients are residents of the Ecuadorian rainforest who are in an 18-year legal battle with Chevron over the intentional dumping of toxic oil into the pristine waterways and nutrient soil of the planet’s largest oxygen bank, known as the “Lungs of the World.”
 
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Attorney General Eric Holder proposes to seriously weaken standards intended to hold prison officials accountable for eliminating rape in their prisons. 

It isn’t often that we hear much about prison rape - except in jokes on late night TV. However, it is not a laughing matter. It is the horrid reality faced by hundreds of prisoners each day in American jails and prisons. That’s right – hundreds of victims every day of the year. The Bureau of Justice Statistics reports that in a year’s time there were 216,000 sexual assaults on inmates. 

This high incidence of rape in our prisons is a blot on the character of the nation. Yet, for years many prison officials have scoffed at the notion that rapes were taking place in our prisons. Others shrugged it off as an expected part of prison life. When asked about prison rape, one spokesperson for the Massachusetts Department of Correction said, "Well, that's prison...I don't know what to tell you." In that offhand remark, he was expressing what many feel in their hearts but are loath to admit: "They deserve it."

The words “equal justice under law” are so fundamental to our culture they’re carved in stone above the entrance to the United States Supreme Court. But today, the opportunity to access justice in our courts is becoming as much a luxury as a Louis Vuitton bag.

Funding of the justice system is an uneven patchwork that leads to unequal delivery of justice and is highly vulnerable during hard economic times. Legal aid to the poor, already anemic, is threatened with huge new federal cuts. And the justice gap is trickling up to the middle class and small business.