Brennan Center for Justice

1.            On February 29, at 6:00pm EST the Brennan Center for Justice is sponsoring a Roundtable Discussion on the State of the Foreclosure Crisis in New York.  At the event, Scott R. Wilson, Senior Advisor and Special Counsel to the New York State Attorney General, will discuss the recent foreclosure settlement agreement and its impact on NY.  Panelists will also examine whether homeowners and communities are receiving the assistance they need and explore how the impact of the foreclosure crisis on a fair and effective judiciary and how state and federal investigators can demand accountability for risky lending practices.

For more information and to RSVP, click here.

2.            This Friday, February 24, at 12:30pm EST, the Common Purpose Project is sponsoring a telephone briefing on the topic of federal judicial nominations with White House Counsel Kathy Ruemmler and staff from the White House Office of Public Engagement.  According to an American Constitution Society announcement of the event, “With almost 10 percent of the federal judiciary vacant and over 30 judicial emergency seats desperate for a judge, senators are causing harm to our justice system by holding the third branch of our government hostage.”

For more information and to RSVP for the call, click here.

Federal Judicial Selection

3.            In The Atlantic, Andrew Cohen describes the Senate’s confirmation of Judge Adalberto Jose Jordan to a federal judgeship—which was slowed by a Republican filibuster even though Judge Jordan received bipartisan support from his homestate senators—as “governmental gridlock at its most fundamental and destructive level; a legislature held hostage by pique. By my reckoning, and yours I'll bet, the Senate doesn't have two days to waste on stunts like this.” Other media outlets covered the back-and-forth closely, including the New York Times, Miami Herald, and Thompson Reuters.

Erika Bolstad, Miami Federal Judge Likely to be Confirmed, but in Messy Process, Miami Herald, February 13, 2012; Humberto Sanchez, Rand Paul Holds up Senate Action Over Detainees in Egypt, Roll Call Staff, February 13, 2012; Josiah Ryan, Leahy: GOP Would Filibuster Biblical Character Moses, The Hill, February 13, 2012; Andrew Cohen, Held Hostage: Judicial Nominee Adalberto Jose Jordan, The Atlantic, February 14, 2012; Nicole Flatow, As one Filibustered Judicial Nominee is Confirmed, Reid Moves to Force Vote on Another, ACS blog, February 15, 2012; Joseph Ax, Furman Confirmed as Manhattan Federal Judge, Reuters, February 17, 2012; Jessica Karmasek, Outlook Improving for Some Judicial Nominees, Legalnewsline.Com, February 15, 2012; Gail Collins, Congress has no Date for the Prom, New York Times, February 15, 2012.

Court Resources

4.            As the National Center for Access to Justice noted last week, “the American Bar Association [has] adopted a pathbreaking set of Standards for Language Access in Courts.  The Standards respond to a serious problem:  many court systems have little or no way to communicate with the growing number of Americans who have only limited proficiency in English.  As a result of communication gone awry, innocent people have been sent to prison, children have been sent to foster care unnecessarily, and women have found it impossible to get court orders to protect them from domestic violence.” In other promising access to justice news, President Obama’s proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year would increase funding for the Legal Services Corporation, which provides civil legal aid to low-income people, from $348 million to $402 million.

Laura Abel, ABA puts the ALL in Equal Justice for All, National Center for Access to Justice blog, February 13, 2012; Andrew Ramonas, Obama Proposes Budget Increase for Legal Services, the Blog of Legal Times February 13, 2012.

State Judicial Selection

5.            A Tampa Tribune opinion piece asks readers “what would happen if a football coach were allowed to hand-pick the referees for all of his games. What if he had the power to fire any referee who dared to call a penalty against his team? Even the home crowd would be outraged by such a suggestion. It violates the whole premise of fair play.” According to the op-ed, attempts to politicize Florida’s Supreme Court, including a recent proposal to give the governor more control over appointments to judicial screening commissions, would threaten the independence of the judiciary.

Stuart Z. Grossman, Beware the Judicial 'fix', The Tampa Tribune, February 14, 2012; Bill Would Give Gov. More Influence Over Judiciary, Associated Press, February 16, 2012.

6.            A Wisconsin State Journal editorial cited recent comments by Supreme Court Justices Patrick Crooks and Ann Walsh Bradley as evidence that merit selection of state Supreme Court Justices “deserves attention.”  The editorial goes on to argue that “Well-meaning attempts to control the money poured into statewide judicial elections have failed. And justices continue to face embarrassing demands to recuse themselves from cases involving major players in their campaigns. Wisconsin's high court has sunk to new lows. Merit reform is the answer.”

More Momentum for Merit Reform, Wisconsin State Journal, February 17, 2012.

The Supreme Court

7.            A New York Times editorial this weekend claimed that public trust in the U.S. Supreme Court “has been undermined by controversies surrounding the court’s lack of openness in how justices deal with ethics questions and in the court’s continuing refusal to let oral arguments be televised.” Last week, members of the Senate Judiciary a requested that the Supreme Court adopt a resolution “stating that Members of the Court abide by the Code of [Judicial] Conduct.” Just this afternoon Chief Justice John Roberts informed the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee that while the Court will make a previous resolution available to the public, it “does not plan to adopt the Code of Conduct for United States Judges through a formal resolution.”

Trust and the Supreme Court, New York Times, February 19, 2012; Roberts Says No to Formal Ethics Rules, Associated Press, February 21, 2012.