Legislation & Lobbying

House Fails to Override Bush Veto of War Bill

An attempt today by the U.S. House of Representatives to override President George W. Bush’s veto yesterday of a controversial Iraq war funding bill failed by a significant margin. A two-thirds majority was required to override the veto, but the vote was 222-203. The White House and Congress are now…

May 2, 2007 9:17 PM CDT

Incentives Offered for Mental Health Reporting

A proposed bill offers financial incentives to states that speed transmission of mental health data to a federal database. Many states would have to amend privacy laws to comply, the New York Times reports. Now only 22 states submit mental health records to the system used for gun background checks.…

May 2, 2007 1:07 PM CDT

75 Gitmo Lawyers Lobby U.S. for Court Access

Some 75 attorneys representing so-called enemy combatants being held in the Guantanamo Bay prison without trials fanned out over Capital Hill today, lobbying legislators in private meetings in an effort to get their clients into U.S. court. Denouncing the current approach as “executive branch extremism” during a news conference, the…

May 2, 2007 1:08 AM CDT

Congressional Clash: Bush Vetoes Iraq War Bill

Setting up a showdown with the Democrat-controlled Congress, President George W. Bush today vetoed – as he had said he would – a bill tying more than $100 billion in continued funding for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to a schedule for pulling out American troops, starting this year. It…

May 2, 2007 12:29 AM CDT

The Reach of the Writ

Habeas corpus rights of Guantanamo detainees are still up in the air

May 1, 2007 11:18 AM CDT

Illinois First State to Pursue ‘Super Bug’ Bill

Responding to a drug-resistant bacteria that kills thousands of Americans annually, Illinois is likely to be the first state to mandate an aggressive hospital testing and treatment program to try contain the so-called super bug. A bill moving through the state legislature would make Illinois the first state to require…

Apr 30, 2007 5:54 PM CDT

Flurry of Legislation After U.S. Abortion Decision

A flurry of legislation has followed the U.S. Supreme Court’s controversial 5-4 ruling last week to ban so-called partial-birth abortion. Some states and federal lawmakers are seeking to clarify abortion rights. Others have been inspired to dust off old laws and create new ones incorporating increased abortion restrictions. During the…

Apr 27, 2007 6:09 PM CDT

Court Gets Picture: Lawyer’s Words = Child Porn

New York’s highest court has ruled that sexually charged language in a lawyer’s e-mail to an undercover agent is enough to sustain a conviction for attempted dissemination of indecent material to minors. The defendant, Jeffrey Kozlow, had argued the statute, which bars material that depicts sexual conduct, required explicit photographs,…

Apr 27, 2007 5:33 PM CDT

Bill Would Ban Gun Buys by Terror Suspects

The U.S. Justice Department is seeking to close a loophole in federal law with a bill that would bar terrorism suspects on watch lists from buying guns, the New York Times reports. Some on the watch lists don’t have any felony convictions or other disqualifiers that would bar their purchase…

Apr 27, 2007 1:28 PM CDT

Tort Refomers, Trial Lawyers Rank States

Trial lawyers and tort reformers issued competing state rankings Wednesday. A survey of general counsel released by a tort reform group found that general counsel perceive West Virginia as the state with the most unfair legal environment. Also in the bottom five were Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama and Illinois, according to…

Apr 27, 2007 1:08 PM CDT

Today in Legal History: Parliament Passes Tea Act, Ehrlichman Released

On this day in 1773, the British Parliament passed the Tea Act. Enormously unpopular in America, where colonials considered its grant of a virtual tea monopoly to the East India Company a form of taxation tyranny, the legislation sparked the so-called Boston Tea Party led by radical Patriot Samuel Adams…

Apr 27, 2007 11:00 AM CDT

Congress Votes to End War, Bush to Veto Bill

In an unprecedented challenge to the Bush administration’s policy concerning the so-called war on terror, Congress today enacted legislation that ties a deadline for withdrawing American combat troops to continued funding of the effort. The president has said he will veto the bill. In a 51-46 vote, the Senate agreed…

Apr 26, 2007 8:42 PM CDT

NH Civil Unions OK’d; ‘Proud Tradition’

The New Hampshire legislature approved civil unions for same-sex couples today, the anniversary of when the first such bill in the country was signed into law seven years ago by the governor of Vermont. Unlike Vermont, however, New Hampshire was not prompted to do so by a court ruling. The…

Apr 26, 2007 7:32 PM CDT

NY Governor to Bring Abortion-Rights Bill

New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer says he’ll introduce a bill to preserve abortion rights in the state, the New York Times reports. The current law, for example, does not allow for late-term abortions to protect the health of the mother. Another old statute bars the sale of nonprescription contraceptives to…

Apr 26, 2007 1:27 PM CDT

Va. Governor Mulls Order on Gun-Check Reports

Virginia Gov. Timothy Kaine is considering an executive order to make sure mental health information is in a database used in background checks of gun buyers, according to the Washington Post. That kind of information would have barred gun sales to Seung Hui Cho, the Virginia Tech student who went…

Apr 25, 2007 3:53 PM CDT