Torture can't be wished away. You can't pretend it never happened. As General Patreaeus put it recently, the effects of torture are "nonbiodegradeable."

Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) railed against the Supreme Court in a speech to progressive legal scholars Thursday night, declaring that "the Roberts Court...

Late on April 9, amid a flurry of news over the retirements of Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens and Congressman Bart Stupak, the White House qu...

Surprise! Last Friday, the White House announced that Dawn Johnsen had withdrawn her nomination. The announcement was pretty anodyne, but I'm guessing that maybe Johnsen withdrew in abject disgust.

In her first public statement since she withdrew her nomination to head the Office of Legal Counsel, Dawn Johnsen briefly discusses the reason her nom...

While the news of Justice Stevens' retirement took most of the media attention on Friday, it's not really a distraction from Dawn Johnsen's fate. Both standoffs reveal the profound ambivalence in Obama's pledges to restore the rule of law.

Who is Dawn Johnsen, and why did Senate Republicans force her to withdraw her bid to be confirmed as Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel?

President Obama's nominee to head the Office of Legal Counsel, Dawn Johnsen, withdrew her name after sustained opposition from Republicans and a coupl...

Dawn Johnsen, the president's appointment to the Office of Legal Counsel whose nomination has lingered in Congressional limbo for more than a year, ha...

President Obama on Saturday made 15 recess appointments, using his power to unilaterally install top officials in his government when the Senate isn't...

Republican Senators holding important national security and justice positions vacant while extorting provincial pork must be exposed and shamed.

The Obama administration acknowledged on Thursday that its political "calculus" will change later that day with the seating of Senator Scott Brown (R-...

Dawn Johnsen's appointment is a litmus test for the Senate confirmation process and for the recharged Obama political operation.

In addition to hurting the prospects for health care reform, there may be another casualty of the Democratic party's loss of Ted Kennedy's old Senate ...

The White House did not consider using a recess appointment to circumvent the Senate and get its nominee for the Office of Legal Counsel into the post...

A White House official confirms what the Huffington Post reported on Wednesday -- that the administration is set to re-nominate Dawn Johnsen, the cont...

With additional reporting from Michael Falcone Senator Arlen Specter (D-Penn) announced on Tuesday that he will support the nomination of Dawn Johnse...

IT HAS BEEN almost six months since President Obama nominated Indiana law professor Dawn E. Johnsen to head the Justice Department's influential Offic...

Holds are inherently undemocratic. The filibuster was never meant to be used for such purposes. And it is time for the United States Senate to mend its ways.

As Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) moves to ease a backlog of executive branch nominations, he suggested on Tuesday that he does not have t...

Here's another reason for the filibuster threat against Dawn Johnsen: it seems that some Republican senators have an allergic reaction to women in positions of responsibility.

NARAL Pro-Choice America will mark this milestone with another reminder of how electing leaders who support the values of freedom and privacy does make a difference in the lives of women and their families.

Dawn Johnsen is an outstanding choice to lead the Office of Legal Counsel. It is not surprising that her critics have resorted to basing their arguments on fiction.

The right wing has made these nominees their test case on how to derail President Obama's efforts to put qualified persons in key posts. Our goal is to make sure they fail this test.