The * means he was the lead on this brief.
Heres the, whatever he is, himself....
He's the Chairman of the Congressional Urban Caucus, is has a page on his Congressional site about the brief, paid for by our taxes, but probably the taxes of few if any of his constituents, who mostly don't pay any. His district is in Western Philidelphia.
After I posted that, I found out just what he is.
He's a supporter of cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal Isn't that special. He supports convicted killers, but doesn't want the ordinary citizen to be armed.
Story here also indicates that he opposed the Iraq war, thought the useless UN inspectors should have been given "more time". Backed Murtha's calls for "pullout".
His parents are David Fattah (born Russell Davenport) and Sister Falaka Fattah (born Frances Brown, also known as Queen Mother Falaka Fattah) are "community activists", which I guess means they suck at the government teat. (Well David is apparently held various positions in the so successful Philidelphia school system, although apparently not in the classroom anytime recently.) They apparently changed their names from Davenport because they didn't want to bear "slave names. They seem to be into their Africanness, some of it not quite authentic.
What a piece of socialist work.