Department of Justice

Obama Administration Expands Definition Of Rape

Pema Levy | January 6, 2012, 5:33PM

Image From VIPDesignUSA / Shutterstock

On Friday, the Justice Department did something it hasn't done since 1929: it changed the definition of rape.

For over 80 years, for the purposes of crime collection data, rape was defined as forcible male penile penetration of a female. This excluded a vast number of sexual crimes including oral and anal penetration, or instances when a victim was unable to give consent. The new definition makes up for these oversights. It also expands the definition to reflect that anyone -- male, female, or transgender -- can be a victim of rape.

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Occupy Wall Street

Dems Press Eric Holder To Investigate Banks For Colluding Over ATM Fees

Brian Beutler | October 14, 2011, 5:50AM

Rep. Peter Welch (D-VT)

If you're a member of Congress trying to rein in Wall Street, now's your moment, and Rep. Peter Welch (D-VT) is seizing it.

Welch helped lead the effort in 2010 to limit the "swipe fees" banks can charge retailers for each debit card transaction -- fees retailers passed on to consumers. Those rules went into effect earlier this year and, as if to serve as recruiters for the anti-Wall Street protests spreading across the country, Bank of America and other financial firms decided to recoup the lost profits by imposing an ATM fee on their customers -- a penalty of sorts for having automated access to your own money.

In a functioning market this practice might have ended before it began, as disgruntled customers took their business to firms that didn't attempt to bilk their customers.

That's not happening. So Welch wants Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate these banks for collusive behavior.

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Health Care

Obama Administration Moves Aggressively To Put Health Care Law Before Supreme Court

Brian Beutler | September 28, 2011, 4:13PM

The Obama administration has taken its aggressive legal defense of the new health care law to a new level.

In an unexpected twist, the Justice Department is asking the Supreme Court to swiftly overturn an 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that the law's mandate requiring people to buy insurance is unconstitutional -- the only Circuit Court to rule this way so far.

"[T]oday, the Obama Administration will ask the Supreme Court to hear this case, so that we can put these challenges to rest and continue moving forward implementing the law," wrote Stephanie Cutter, a senior Obama adviser, on the White House blog. "We know the Affordable Care Act is constitutional. We are confident the Supreme Court will agree."

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Rick Santorum

Report: Rick Santorum On Board Of Hospitals Sued By DOJ

Jillian Rayfield | June 8, 2011, 9:46AM

Rick Santorum at the Iowa Faith & Freedom Coalition's Spring Kickoff Event

Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum has for four years served on the board for a group of hospitals facing a number of legal problems, including a lawsuit by the Department of Justice for Medicaid fraud, The Huffington Post reports.

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John Ensign

'Jack Him Up To High Heaven' Ensign Said After Constituent Refused To Hire His Mistress' Husband

Susan Crabtree | May 12, 2011, 4:48PM

Sen. John Ensign (R-NV)

Former Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) was so aggressive in helping Doug Hampton, the husband of his ex-mistress and a former top Senate aide, violate the one-year lobbying ban after Hampton resigned that he threatened to cut off constituents who refused to hire Hampton.

After Hampton learned about the affair between his wife, Cynthia, and Ensign, the senator told Hampton he could not longer work for him and started negotiating a severance payment. Ensign also set out to find him work, meeting with constituents and recommending they hire Hampton.

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'Obama's Wars'

McCain, Graham Lead Effort to Strip Holder of Detainee Authority

Susan Crabtree | March 10, 2011, 3:47PM

Attorney General Eric Holder

Six senators, led by Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC), are pushing for sweeping changes to the nation's laws governing detainees and the war on terror, including one that would strip Attorney General Eric Holder and the Justice Department as a whole of the power to make decisions about where to try suspected terrorists.

The group of senators, which includes Sens. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), Scott Brown (R-MA), Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), Joe Lieberman (I-CT), are working with Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee on a bill that would usher in comprehensive detainee policy changes and would, among other things, affirm the military's right to detain, hold and interrogate detains at its discretion without the involvement of the Department of Justice or Holder.

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Health Care

DOJ Appeals Florida Court Decision Voiding Health Care Law

Brian Beutler | March 8, 2011, 5:48PM

President Barack Obama

Coming in under the seven day deadline set by Judge Roger Vinson, the DOJ has appealed his ruling voiding the entire health care law to the 11th circuit court of appeals. You can read the filing here.

Health Care

Florida Judge Stays Decision Voiding Health Care Law

Brian Beutler | March 3, 2011, 1:18PM

President Barack Obama

Roger Vinson, the Florida district court judge who voided the entire health care law has issued a stay of his own ruling, giving the Obama administration a week to file an appeal.

His decisions sowed confusion -- sometimes opportunistic confusion -- about whether states were required to implement the law during the appeal process. The Department of Justice sought clarification from Vinson last month to ease that confusion. In his clarification, Vinson also stayed his own decision, on the condition that the DOJ file its appeal with a higher court within seven days.

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112th Congress

Boehner: I'll Decide Whether To Defend DOMA In Court By End Of This Week

Benjy Sarlin | February 28, 2011, 10:15AM

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH)

Speaker John Boehner is ready to take on the White House over the Defense of Marriage Act, pledging to force the issue in the House after the Justice Department announced last week it was abandoning support for portions of the law.

"I'm really disappointed in the President and the Department of Justice in the fact that they're not going to defend a law that Congress passed overwhelmingly. It's their responsibility to do that," he told CBN's David Brody on Sunday.

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Defense of Marriage Act

Huckabee Slams Obama On DOMA, Implies Link Between Gay Marriage And Broken Homes

Brian Beutler | February 23, 2011, 4:47PM

Fmr. Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee (R)

Likely Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee mauled President Obama's decision to halt the Justice Department's legal defenses of DOMA at a roundtable lunch with reporters on Wednesday. In defense of his position, he claimed a public mandate for the controversial Clinton-era law, and linked same sex marriage to the failure of heterosexual marriages.

"I'm deeply disappointed," Huckabee said. "They are clearly out of sync with the public."

Huckabee noted that 33 states have affirmed, via ballot initiatives, that marriage should be between a man and a woman.

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Department of Justice

DOJ Seeks Clarification From Florida Court On Health Law Ruling

Brian Beutler | February 17, 2011, 6:24PM

Attorney General Eric Holder

The Department of Justice has asked the Florida district court that voided the health care law for some clarification.

DOJ spokeperson Tracy Schmaler says the administration wants to confirm "that the court did not intend to disrupt the many programs currently in effect, including small business tax credits, the millions of dollars in federal grants awarded to states to help with health care costs, and other ongoing consumer protections while this case is on appeal."

Depending on the court's response, the administration could still seek a stay from this court or the court of appeals.

You can read their entire motion below.

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Health Care

Obama Administration Opposes Expedited SCOTUS Ruling On Health Law

Brian Beutler | February 3, 2011, 11:22AM

The Obama Administration wants to bide its time on its legal defense of health care reform. In a statement to reporters Thursday morning, spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler says the Department of Justice is opposed to calls -- by Republicans and some Democrats -- for an expedited Supreme Court ruling on the constitutionality of the health care law's individual mandate.

"The Department continues to believe this case should follow the ordinary course of allowing the court of appeals to hear it first so the issues and arguments concerning the Affordable Care Act can be fully developed before the Supreme Court decides whether to consider it," she says.

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Stem cell research

Stem Cell Ruling Limits Administration's, Scientists' Options

Christina Bellantoni | August 24, 2010, 10:10AM

A U.S. District Court judge's ruling yesterday halting the federal funding of embryonic stem cell research with a preliminary injunction pending a trial has left the scientific community stunned, and Congress wondering if any next steps are possible in an election year. The administration's silence isn't unexpected, but it's more surprising that senators or members of Congress known to be supportive of stem cell research haven't commented.

While U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth explicitly stated the government is barred from taking "any action whatsoever" in his ruling, several experts TPM contacted said it's not clear if scientists will need to stop work already in progress or if they will just be restricted from obtaining any new funding. Even the lawyers for the plaintiffs told the Washington Post they need Lamberth to clarify the existing versus new funding question. But people in both the legal and scientific fields believe the temporary injunction makes research funding even more restrictive than it was under former President George W. Bush's administration. Though not spelled out explicitly in the ruling, the most common interpretation is that research conducted under the Bush-era policy of allowing research into existing stem cells lines would be halted under the ruling.

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Guantanamo Bay

Gitmo Detainees To Move North

Christina Bellantoni | December 15, 2009, 8:24AM

Late last night news broke that the Obama administration plans to transfer detainees from the Guantanamo Bay prison to a correctional center in Illinois.

An administration official told TPMDC last night:

On Tuesday, the administration will announce that the president has directed that the federal government proceed with the acquisition of the Thomson Correctional Center in Thomson, Illinois to house federal inmates and a limited number of detainees from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Closing the detention center at Guantanamo is essential to protecting our national security and helping our troops by removing a deadly recruiting tool from the hands of al Qaeda. Tuesday's announcement is an important step forward as we work to achieve our national security objectives.

Gov. Pat Quinn and Sen. Dick Durbin will get a White House briefing Tuesday afternoon on the decision. They are among the supporters who say using Thomson would create new jobs.

Like everything, there are political consequences here as Senate candidate Rep. Mark Kirk (R-IL) has been the most vocal opponent to the idea. Other Republicans are balking as well.

But as we reported a few weeks ago, an unlikely coalition of conservatives are backing the plan.

Eric Holder

GOP Senators To Holder: Your Plans To Investigate Torture Will Endanger The Country

Brian Beutler | August 20, 2009, 1:05PM

Attorney General Eric Holder

Where have we heard this before...

Republican members of the Senate Judiciary and Senate Intelligence Committee are warning Attorney General Eric Holder that by appointing a special prosecutor to investigate allegations of torture by the CIA during the Bush era, he'll be endangering national security.

Such an investigation could have a number of serious consequences, not just for the honorable members of the intelligence community, but also for the security of all Americans," reads a letter the senators sent yesterday.

It goes on, obliquely recalling the September 11 attacks.

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