The American Bar Association has an excellent Web page that lists amici curiae briefs in U.S. Supreme Court cases that the Court has accepted. Here is the link to the ABA page for the case called Doe v Reed, 09-559, the case the Court will hear on April 28. Scroll down to the bottom to the April 28 entry. Amici briefs in support of petition privacy have been filed by 47 organizations. There are 13 such briefs, because sometimes many organizations have joined together to file a single brief.

Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Craig Fugate yesterday addressed the American Bar Association Homeland Security Law Institute. Fugate discussed the role of the private sector and non-profit entities in engaging the public as part of the nation’s emergency management team.

The Maine Supreme Judicial Court on Thursday rejected Husson University’s request to allow the graduates of its proposed law school to take the Maine bar exam, the school’s second rejection in two years. In outlining the court’s reasons for its decision, Chief Justice Leigh I. Saufley wrote the school has not opened its doors and does not intend to seek accreditation from the American Bar Association, which were the same reasons cited by the court when it previously rejected Husson’s request, according to the Bangor Daily News. But Saufley also wrote the court’s decision creates ‘no legal barrier that prevents Husson from opening its doors to students.’

The theme for this year’s Law Day, set for April 29, is “Free Speech: Tradition and Technology,” which students appear to be quite interested in. To get area teens motivated to enter the Law Day poster and essay contests, local attorneys have been going to schools since last August and talking about the theme and its meaning. Highlands County Circuit Judge Peter Estrada said they talk about how quickly things people say can suddenly be spread amongst the masses, thanks to the Internet and social networking sites. ‘What can you say on Facebook, and what you can’t say,” said Estrada, who is on the Law Day committee. ‘What can cause you problems?’ The theme is chosen each year by the American Bar Association. Last year, to commemorate his 200th birthday, it focused on the legal career of President Abraham Lincoln.

A local lawyer with a nearly 40-year-old practice will soon be the new face and voice of the nation’s 400,000 lawyers. Frost, Brown and Todd attorney Bill Robinson will be the president of the American Bar Association starting in August of 2011. He’ll be ABA’s chief executive officer. Robinson says he’ll work to help courts withstand the pressures of the bad economy. ‘For the public peace, for the public order. The order is needed for business to succeed, to enforce contracts and have disciplined business relationships and so on,’ said Robinson. ‘Just the economy overall is jeopardized to that extent, so we are working very hard to keep the focus on our courts – their importance and why adequate funding is absolutely essential.’

On Aug. 9, 2004, the American Bar Association House of Delegates adopted a resolution condemning ‘any use of torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment upon persons within the custody or under the physical control of the United States government (including its contractors) and any endorsement or authorization of such measures by government lawyers, officials and agents.’ That remains the firm position of the association. Your editorial ‘The Torture Lawyers’ urges the American Bar Association to determine whether its rules are adequate for deterring and punishing ethical failures by government lawyers. The ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct and Model Rules for Lawyer Disciplinary Enforcement already provide for review of ethical failures. These rules are adopted by our state supreme courts and provide a solid basis upon which to investigate and, where appropriate, initiate disciplinary action for professional misconduct committed by any member of that bar, including those who are government lawyers.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit will likely be getting its first district court judge – but it won’t be San Jose, Calif.’s Jeremy Fogel. The Obama administration is zeroing in on Kathleen O’Malley, a judge from the Northern District of Ohio, for a spot on the court that hears all appeals in patent cases, according to three people familiar with the situation. The American Bar Association has been vetting O’Malley, these people said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the process isn’t public. The ABA only vets judges that the White House wants to nominate, said a lawyer familiar with the vetting process.

With one scandal having forced a top House Democrat to give up an important chairmanship and questions about another New York congressman plaguing his decision to retire, Speaker Nancy Pelosi had to defend her party’s ethics at her news conference. …Questions of propriety also touched the ongoing search for votes to pass the healthcare plan in the House, where Democrats are split over abortion, the costs of the bill and even questions about whether it goes far enough for liberals. One possible vote is Democratic Rep. Jim Matheson of Utah, whose brother Scott was nominated by President Obama to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals. Republicans immediately questioned whether there was a quid pro quo, the appointment for Matheson’s needed vote. Even though there is no evidence of any such deal, the appearance was enough for the question to be raised at White House spokesman Robert Gibbs’ daily briefing, where he promptly shot it down. ‘I think based on Mr. Matheson’s ABA [American Bar Assn.] rating, based on Mr. Matheson’s long legal resume, and based on the support he has from somebody important like [Sen.] Orrin Hatch, who has agreed to help shepherd his nomination through the Senate, I think it’s a pretty silly argument,’ Gibbs said.

If you cut it, will they come? That’s what the American Bar Association is asking when it comes to adding solo attorneys to its membership ranks. Last month, the ABA agreed on a radical shake-up of its membership dues in an effort to get more representation from the segment of the bar that is most acutely feeling the effects of a bad economy. Under a structure that will take effect this summer with membership renewals, solo attorneys will receive discounts of up to 50 percent, depending on the amount of time they have been members of the bar.

In response to the Liz Cheney Web ad that questions the loyalty of lawyers who have represented Guantanamo detainees, the president of the American Bar Association said it is ‘a divisive and diversionary tactic’ to impugn ‘the character of lawyers who have sought to protect the fundamental rights of unpopular clients.’ In a statement to TPMmuckraker, ABA President Carolyn Lamm said that lawyers have an ethical obligation to ‘provide representation to people who otherwise would stand alone against the power and resources of the government – even to those accused of heinous crimes against this nation in the name of causes that evoke our contempt.’ Lamm added: ‘The American people understand this obligation, and the corollary principle that representing a client is a commitment to a legal system that requires justice, not to any one client’s political, economic, social or moral views or activities.’

As far as the president of the American Bar Association is concerned, the answer should be ‘not’ where judges are concerned. In an essay posted this week on the ABA‘s Web site, President Carolyn Lamm wrote that ‘no other nation in the world elects judges, yet 39 states elect at least some of their judges. The financial and political pressures of running for office undermine the public perception of a prospective judge’s integrity and ultimately create distrust of the fairness of our judicial system.’ She said an ABA committee is developing guidelines for when and how judges should recuse themselves.

Homeland Security and the National Security Agency may be taking a closer look at Internet communications in the future. The Department of Homeland Security’s top cybersecurity official told CNET on Wednesday that the department may eventually extend its Einstein technology, which is designed to detect and prevent electronic attacks, to networks operated by the private sector. The technology was created for federal networks. …[P]rivacy concerns about Einstein have popped up before. An American Bar Association panel said this about Einstein 3 in a September 2009 report: ‘Because government communications are commingled with the private communications of non-governmental actors who use the same system, great caution will be necessary to insure that privacy and civil liberties concerns are adequately considered.’