Obama Justice Department

Feds Could Move Against California's Marijuana Laws

2011-03-16-Screenshot20110316at9.39.25AM.jpeg | Michael Montgomery | Posted 08.21.2011

Story courtesy of California Watch By Michael Montgomery As soon as today, Attorney General Eric Holder is expected to release a letter clarifyi...

Sam Stein

House Dems To Push Legislative End To DOMA

HuffingtonPost.com | Sam Stein | Posted 05.25.2011

WASHINGTON -- In light of the Obama administration's decision to drop its legal support for the Defense of Marriage Act on the grounds that the presid...

Marcus Baram

James Cole, Obama's Justice Nominee, Derailed By Senate GOP Amid Questions Over AIG Role

HuffingtonPost.com | Marcus Baram | Posted 05.25.2011

Over the last 30 years, no one has waited longer to take the number two position at the Justice Department. For over five months, James Cole, a lawye...

Obama's War on WikiLeaks -- and Us

Michael Brenner | Posted 05.25.2011

Michael Brenner

The casual way that Americans are shredding their liberties is breathtaking. Rights that have been revered as the nation's spiritual heirloom for 225 years are cast aside like so many disposable keepsakes.

DOJ: Bush U.S. Attorney Firing Was Inappropriately Political But Not Criminal

AP | MATT APUZZO and PETE YOST | Posted 05.25.2011

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration's Justice Department's actions were inappropriately political, but not criminal, when it fired a U.S. attor...

Sam Stein

Cornyn: Obama Got 'Lucky' That Times Square Bomber Is Talking

HuffingtonPost.com | Sam Stein | Posted 05.25.2011

Even though the suspected plotter in the Times Square car-bombing attempt is talking to authorities after being read his Miranda rights, Republicans i...

What Will The KSM Trial Really Mean?

Slate | Dahlia Lithwick | Posted 05.25.2011

For close to a year now, the Obama administration has been playing judicial Whac-a-Mole over accountability for Bush administration torture policies. ...

Obama State Secrets Privilege Affidavit Sounds Just Like Bush

Newsweek | Michael Isikoff | Posted 05.25.2011

When Attorney General Eric Holder invoked the "state secrets" privilege to quash a lawsuit alleging illegal National Security Agency spying last Frida...

New Justice Department Policy Signals Hope for Justice in Vieques

Brendan DeMelle | Posted 05.25.2011

Brendan DeMelle

Dropping the sovereign immunity defense in the Vieques environmental case would demonstrate the Obama administration's commitment to ending the overzealous use of national defense claims.

Sam Stein

Cheney Accuses Obama Of Politicizing Justice Department

HuffingtonPost.com | Sam Stein | Posted 05.25.2011

In a statement Monday evening, former Vice President Dick Cheney accused the Obama White House of politicizing the Justice Department and insisted tha...

Obama Approves New Team to Question Key Terror Suspects

AP | DEVLIN BARRETT and PAMELA HESS | Posted 05.25.2011

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration launched a criminal investigation Monday into harsh questioning of detainees during President George W. Bu...

Consumers & Authors Uniting Against Google Book Deal

Jamie Court | Posted 05.25.2011

Jamie Court

Google's overreaching in trying to tightly control scanned digital copies of world literature has stuck an alarm bell with more than just consumers and the Justice Department.

Sam Stein

Biden Won't Comment On State Secrets Law He Once Co-Sponsored

HuffingtonPost.com | Sam Stein | Posted 05.25.2011

The Vice President's office is declining to weigh in on a bill that would restrict use of the "state secrets privilege" by the Department of Justice, ...

US Immigration Law Used To Censor Foreign Scholars: ACLU

Inter Press Service | William Fisher | Posted 05.25.2011

A leading legal rights group charged Tuesday that the Barack Obama Justice Department is using immigration law to censor debate by selectively barri...

Justice Department Ends "Enemy Combatant" Definition For Gitmo Detainees

AP | NEDRA PICKLER | Posted 05.25.2011

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration said Friday that it is abandoning one of President George W. Bush's key phrases in the war on terrorism: e...

Secret Bush Memo Authorizing Warrantless Seizure Of 'Terror Suspects' Released

AP | DEVLIN BARRETT and MATT APUZZO | Posted 05.25.2011

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration threw open the curtain on years of Bush-era secrets Monday, revealing anti-terror memos that claimed excep...

DOJ: Remaining Bush U.S. Attorneys Can Stay

Tribune | Posted 05.25.2011

With all the controversy surrounding the Bush administration's firings of several U.S. attorneys, the question for the Obama administration became: Wh...

Dem Senators Pressure Obama's DOJ To Release Torture Report

The Plum Line | Posted 05.25.2011

Yesterday I pointed you to this big scoop in Newsweek reporting that an internal Justice Department review conducted under the Bush administration had...

DOJ Defends Bush Law Permitting Concealed Weapons In Parks

Washington Post | Posted 05.25.2011

The Obama administration is legally defending a last-minute rule enacted by President George W. Bush that allows concealed firearms in national parks,...

Obama Officials Defend Controversial State Secret Decision

The Atlantic | Posted 05.25.2011

The State Secret Privilege is perhaps the most powerful executive tool available for any president to use, and thus the Obama administration's decisio...

Obama May Release Torture Documents Exposing Bush Administration Lawbreaking

Washington Independent | Posted 05.25.2011

This week, the Obama administration will face its second significant courtroom test of the president's pledges to end unwarranted secrecy about the wo...

Obama Justice Dept. Pick Was Lobbyist For Conservative Business Group

Los Angeles Times | Posted 05.25.2011

The leading candidate to head the Justice Department office that oversees legal policy and judicial nominations recently has been a lobbyist for sever...

DOJ Rehires Attorney Fired Over Gay Rumor

NPR | Posted 05.25.2011

On Monday, the Justice Department undid a small part of the damage that top officials caused in a scandal of politicized hiring and firing during the ...

CIA Secret Rendition Policy Backed by Human Rights Groups?

Tom Hayden | Posted 05.25.2011

Tom Hayden

If the Justice Department wants to defend renditions as constitutional on "national security" grounds, human rights groups should meet them in court and seek a better outcome.

DOJ Sent Hoax Email To Test Employee Loyalty

AP | ELLIOT SPAGAT | Posted 05.25.2011

SAN DIEGO — The Justice Department doesn't have to look far to find a scam that preys on people whose retirement plans have been crippled by the...