Judicial

Today, there are more than 700,000 unexamined patent applications log-jammed at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Many of them represent inventions that will come to market and launch new businesses and create new, high-paying jobs.

But without a patent, securing the funds needed to get a business or innovation off the ground is nearly impossible, for both small and large inventors alike.

Patent reform legislation the Senate is considering this week can change that.

And it can build on the progress USPTO Director David Kappos has already made in reducing the time it takes to process the average patent – currently nearly 3 years.

New programs have been introduced to fast-track promising technologies, reforms have been made to help examiners more quickly process applications, and the Patent Office recently announced a plan to give inventors more control over when their patent is examined. 

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Recent reports about Supreme Court justices participating in partisan events have raised concerns that this behavior may undermine public perception of the Court’s impartiality and the legitimacy of its decisions. In fact, the situation is so acute that 107 judicial ethicists from 76 law schools around the country signed a letter to Congress calling for reform of the Court’s ethics rules.

Perhaps the most notorious example of justices willfully entering into politicized activity was the reported attendance by Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas at an electoral strategy conference for big donors and politicians hosted by the billionaire Koch Brothers. This wasn’t just an opportunity to speak or socialize at a gathering on conservative philosophies. A central purpose of the conference was the solicitation of millions of dollars from wealthy donors in order to influence elections and advance a political agenda. 

It began with one patient exhibiting unusual symptoms in 2006. Doctors were puzzled. When dozens of similar cases began to appear, they got worried. But it wasn't until they found the common factor that the mystery was resolved — counterfeit cough syrup containing diethylene glycol, a poisonous chemical used in antifreeze.   

This fake cough syrup was manufactured in China and sold – through international brokers – to the Government of Panama to be distributed to the poor. By the time it was discovered, more than 100 people had died. What stands between that public health horror in Panama and the safety of Americans? We — and thousands of law enforcement officials across the country — do.  Read more...

As speculation continues over what to expect from a polarized 112th Congress, legislative attacks on Internet pirates offering fake Louis Vuitton bags and illegal movie downloads online could be an issue that gains traction in 2011. Both Republicans and Democrats view counterfeiting as a global problem that threatens this nation’s economic might and creative talent.

Previous litigation and earlier legislative fixes have failed to alleviate the problem, and now Hollywood and other affected industries last year urged Congress to take a different approach by passing the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act.  COICA aimed at halting the selling, marketing and downloading of illegal materials on Internet sites by cracking down on the domain names of websites that are “dedicated to infringing activities.” Introduced in the Senate last year, COICA garnered bipartisan support and passed the Senate Judiciary Committee by a unanimous vote last November, but controversy over some of the more punitive enforcement measures stalled further action. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) is expected to re-introduce legislation in 2011.

Americans expect our public officials, and particularly our judges, to set an example for the rest of us in their adherence to the law. And if there’s one law you’d figure they’d take extra care to obey – in letter and spirit – it’s the Ethics in Government Act. A judge’s reputation for probity, after all, is arguably his or her greatest asset.

So it’s hard to comprehend, and unsettling to consider, how a justice on our highest court could misread the ethics act and fail to make the annual disclosures it requires of income earned by his spouse. And not just once, but for 20 years in a row.

How appropriate that retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor sat next to Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords’s intern-turned-hero, Daniel Hernandez, at the memorial service for those injured and killed in the Tucson shooting. The legendary first woman justice, appointed by President Reagan in 1981, epitomizes the public service and civic engagement that Hernandez embodies for a new generation. Indeed, it is civic education, more than sanitized public discourse, that will save the Union from another Reagan legacy: a belief that “government is not the answer to our problem; government is the problem,” as he famously declared in his first inaugural. 

It seems that many Comprehensive Immigration Reform “pundits” have looked at the first decade of this century as a lost opportunity, or more accurately as a decade of failure to enact CIR. They would be correct. However, while it would be productive to examine exactly how and where CIR advocates fell short in our quest for a reform of our immigration system, it will be much more productive to plan ahead. Therefore, we must now look to see what will be achievable going forward into the new Congress, and how we can achieve it.

Most, if not almost all of these same pundits are predicting that CIR will be impossible to achieve in the next Congress. They point to the Republican takeover in the House, and their gains in the Senate, and lament that “it can’t be done.” They would be incorrect. It can be done. However, we must first look to our definition of what constitutes a win in terms of CIR. In other words, can we pass the same old CIR that’s been tried and has failed again and again? I don’t think so. Can we pass a CIR that at least effectively solves the most pressing problems comprehensively? I am certain that we are about to enter a period of time in which we can accomplish exactly that.

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America’s Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske is once again sounding the alarm. According to statements made by Kerlikowske earlier this week, the percentage of young people who report using marijuana is on the rise and medical marijuana is to blame. Seriously.

Since 1975 the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor has been tracking students self-reported use of cannabis and other intoxicants, and every year their use of these substances trends either up or down from the prior survey. Predictably, when self-reported use goes down, drug war lackeys like Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske claim that drug prohibition is working. Conversely, when use trends upward — as it did this past year — drug warriors respond by pointing the blame at everyone else.

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The former chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee was found guilty on 11 of 13 charges by the House Ethics Committee. Justice will not be served by the censure of Rep. Rangel.  There can be no justice without a serious punishment for his unapologetic violations of law and ethics rules.  Rangel is no schoolboy coming late to class. He deserves more than a mark on his permanent record; he should be expelled from Congress.  Since the Ethics Committee failed to recommend expulsion for the shameless Rangel, the full House should act on its own to expel him.  Rangel's presence in the House only brings further disrepute to the institution. Read more...

There is crisis in the federal courts today -- an unprecedented absence of judicial confirmations leading to severely overburdened courts that will have a direct impact on thousands of ordinary Americans who could see justice significantly delayed or denied in cases ranging from claims of employment discrimination to corporate malfeasance. There are 108 vacant seats on the federal bench, and a Senate that appears unwilling or unable to address this potential emergency.

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