Free Republic

MCLEAN, Virginia, Nov. 16 /Standard Newswire/ -- The Fred Thompson campaign announced today its Lawyers for Fred Coalition. This distinguished group of attorneys is led by a National Steering Committee, a Congressional Leadership Committee, and a Law Professors Committee. The National Steering Committee is headed by Co-Chairs Victoria Toensing, Boris Feldman, and Charles Trost, and is composed of 18 members including a former U.S. Attorney General, former U.S. Senator, and a number of experienced litigators. "I am honored to have the support of so many distinguished and talented members of the legal profession," said Fred Thompson. "I've had great personal...

(CNSNews.com) -- Demanding that "the leaders of this country abide by the laws of this country," former U.S. Rep. Bob Barr lashed out Thursday at the Bush administration over the National Security Agency's domestic surveillance program. Barr debated the legality of the surveillance with former U.S. Assistant Attorney General Viet Dinh, who served in the administration of President George H. W. Bush. In December, the country discovered that President Bush authorized the National Security Agency (NSA) to tap international telephone calls that included one party suspected of terrorist activity. Since that time the program has been heavily criticized and its...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court let stand on Monday a ruling that three unsuccessful white applicants cannot collect any damages from their lawsuit challenging the University of Washington Law School's use of race as a factor in admissions. Without comment or recorded dissent, the justices declined to review a U.S. appeals court ruling that upheld as legal the policy in effect in the mid-1990s when Katuria Smith, Angela Rock and Michael Pyle applied and were rejected. "The law school's narrowly tailored use of race and ethnicity in admissions decisions during 1994-96 furthered its compelling interest in obtaining the...

The Supreme Court buzz earlier today was all about Alberto Gonzales (a trial balloon that I think failed badly once again), then Miguel Estrada, then Karen Williams. Now there's an AP story out that adds pretty much every attorney in the United States. Estrada was burned during the hearings and has little stomach for the process -- he was twice nominated and twice filibustered. He's a stealth candidate who is rumored to be pro-life. Estrada allegedly told associates of the National Organization of Women (NOW) at a luncheon in 1994 that he believes abortion to be murder -- but are we really...

Friday, September 9, 2005 4:45 p.m. Justice Dinh Now that President Bush has announced that Judge John Roberts will replace Chief Justice William Rehnquist, he must appoint a replacement for Roberts as a replacement for Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. As Manuel Miranda noted yesterday, the common assumption has been that he will choose either a woman or a member of an ethnic minority, especially a Hispanic. We'd like to suggest a candidate who fits the "minority" requirement, although he isn't a Hispanic: Viet Dinh. Dinh is a professor at Georgetown Law School and served for two years as an assistant...

...President Bush has repeatedly drawn from the Federalist Society for cabinet members, senior aides and judges. And perhaps to deflect what many conservatives call unfair attacks by liberals, the nominees have repeatedly claimed to know little about the group's beliefs.... Then an old directory surfaced last week, listing Judge Roberts as part of one of the group's steering committees. The White House spokesmen clung to their line; since Judge Roberts had not, apparently, written a $25 membership check, he was not a formal member. Who cares? Lots of people, it seems, because a fight over the influence of the Federalist...

One thing that I have learned, as a child of the Vietnam War and a refugee from totalitarian communism, is not to question blithely a person's love of country or fealty to its principles. It was therefore with some dismay that I read UTA professor Jim Cornehls' thinly veiled accusation that I and others who are engaged in combating terrorists are unpatriotic liars because I characterized his rants against the USA Patriot Act as "absolutely false." (See "This is patriotic?," Arlington Star-Telegram, Feb. 2.) For the record, I do not think Cornehls unpatriotic -- just wrong and misguided. I respond...

A chief architect of the USA Patriot Act and a former top assistant to Attorney General John Ashcroft are voicing concern about aspects of the Bush administration's anti-terrorism policy, the LOS ANGELES TIMES reported on Sunday. At issue is the government's power to designate and detain "enemy combatants," in particular in the case of "dirty bomb" plot suspect Jose Padilla, the New York-born former gang member who was picked up at a Chicago airport 18 months ago by the FBI and locked in a military brig without access to a lawyer. Civil liberties groups and others contend that Padilla --...

To civil-liberties alarmists, Viet Dinh is a traitor. To me, he is an American hero. Dinh, 35, is widely known -- and reviled -- as the primary architect of the Patriot Act. Until May, he was an assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Policy in John Ashcroft's Justice Department. (He stepped down to return to his law school post at Georgetown University.) Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Dinh told The Christian Science Monitor, "our nation's ability to defend itself against terror has been not only my vocation but my obsession." This Fourth of July holiday, I will...