American Bar Association

Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor has received the stamp of approval from the American Bar Assn. less than a week before her confirmation hearing begins on Capitol Hill. Sotomayor, a sitting federal appeals judge in New York, was deemed "well qualified" to serve as an associate justice on the high court by an ABA panel -- the highest rating the national attorney organization bestows. The White House was notified by a letter Tuesday to counsel Gregory Craig.

Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor has received the stamp of approval from the American Bar Assn. less than a week before her confirmation hearing begins on Capitol Hill. Sotomayor, a sitting federal appeals judge in New York, was deemed "well qualified" to serve as an associate justice on the high court by an ABA panel -- the highest rating the national attorney organization bestows. The White House was notified by a letter Tuesday to counsel Gregory Craig.

A closely divided American Bar Assn. membership on Monday urged its governing body to repeal a six-month old policy that endorses a woman's right to choose to have an abortion. On a vote of 885 to 837, the lawyers recommended that the nation's largest legal group drop its support for abortion rights and adopt instead a neutral position that is "neither pro-life nor pro-choice." On Wednesday, the 461-member House of Delegates will meet to vote on the ABA's abortion policy.

The American Bar Assn., concluding a three-year study of capital punishment systems, found so many inequities and shortfalls that it is calling for a national freeze on executions. In a report to be released today, the organization, which has more than 400,000 members, said that death penalty systems in Indiana, Georgia, Ohio, Alabama and Tennessee had so many problems that those states should immediately halt executions for further study.

In a thinly masked attack on the Bush Administration, Hillary Clinton on Sunday praised working mothers who have excelled while juggling maternal demands and said American women need "a helping hand" rather than a "lecture from Washington on family values." Addressing an awards luncheon sponsored by the American Bar Assn.

Eighty-two Republican members of the House of Representatives are calling for the immediate resignation of the American Bar Assn.'s president for referring to some members of Congress as "reptilian bastards." In a letter to ABA President George Bushnell, a Detroit lawyer, the GOP members called his phrase "a reprehensible and unforgivable insult" to House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) and other Republicans.

The American criminal justice system relies too heavily on imprisoning people and needs to consider more effective alternatives, according to a study released Wednesday by the American Bar Assn., the nation's largest lawyers' organization. "For more than 20 years, we've gotten tougher on crime," said Dennis W. Archer, a former Detroit mayor and the group's current president. But it is unclear, he said, whether the U.S. is any safer for having 2.

Lawyers trail only the government in their consumption of paper. According to the American Bar Assn., the average attorney uses an estimated one ton of paper a year, at a cost of 17 trees. Armed with an array of statistics such as these, environmental lawyers are trying to cut the use of paper in this state with a plan to require attorneys to use recycled paper in most court documents and use both sides of a page.

The American Bar Assn. on Tuesday gave Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas a passing grade of "qualified," but the endorsement fell short of the "well-qualified" ratings received by other recent high court nominees. The evaluation by the nation's premier legal organization, whose judgment is considered an important indicator of a nominee's credentials, is the same ABA rating that Thomas received when he was appointed as a federal appeals court judge in 1989. In a letter to Sen. Joseph R.

More than 3,000 lawyers have resigned in protest from the American Bar Assn. after the controversial endorsement of the right to abortion by its governing body here in August, ABA officials said. Critics claim the abortion rights resolution and other positions have undermined the association's traditional role as the nonpartisan voice of the profession, reducing the credibility of its evaluations of law schools and federal judicial candidates.

SAN FRANCISCO -- The American Bar Assn. voted Monday to urge Congress to override a Bush administration order authorizing the CIA to use interrogation techniques such as waterboarding, and sensory and sleep deprivation. The nation's largest lawyers' organization also called on Congress to give federal judges more oversight of government efforts to use the "state secrets" doctrine to throw out legal challenges to anti-terrorism programs.

The American Bar Assn. approved a resolution condemning President Bush's practice of writing exceptions to legislation he signs into law. Delegates at the ABA's annual meeting in Honolulu approved the resolution that objects to any president using bill-signing statements to dilute or change laws rather than using an outright veto. Bush has written exceptions to about 800 legislative provisions, more than all previous presidents combined.

The American Bar Assn. rated Michael Wallace, President Bush's nominee for the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, as "not qualified," prompting a call from the liberal group People For the American Way for Bush to withdraw the nomination. The bar gave its lowest rating to Wallace, 54, who was special counsel to then-Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott of Mississippi during the impeachment trial of President Clinton in 1999. Wallace has never been a judge.

The American Bar Assn., meeting in Chicago, denounced President Bush's warrantless domestic surveillance program, accusing him of exceeding his powers under the Constitution. Since it was disclosed in December, the program has prompted a heated debate about presidential powers in the war on terrorism.

Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts Jr. earned a "well qualified" rating from the American Bar Assn. on Wednesday, clearing one hurdle in his path to joining the high court. The rating by unanimous vote of a bar association committee was disclosed as the Senate Judiciary Committee announced plans for the start of confirmation hearings Sept. 6. Roberts will face about an hour of questioning from each of the 18 senators on the committee.

Western State University College of Law, whose graduates include a quarter of Orange County's judges and court commissioners, received provisional accreditation this week, ending a dispute that had threatened to damage the school. "We're sort of on top of the world," said Maryann Jones, Western State's dean. The American Bar Assn.'s decision marks a reversal of fortune for the Fullerton school, which, at one point, had been at risk of losing its accreditation altogether.

Judges should not accept any gifts, including travel expenses, from "any person or entity whose interests are likely to come before the judge in the foreseeable future," the American Bar Assn. says in a draft of its new ethics rules for judges. Moreover, judges should not accept travel, food or lodging if doing so would "cast reasonable doubt on [their] capacity to act with impartiality, integrity or independence," the proposed rules say.

The American Bar Assn. gave full accreditation Monday to Chapman University's School of Law after seven years of struggle, a lost lawsuit and the resignation of its founding dean. Although Chapman received provisional accreditation in 1998, the new designation is expected to help the law school recruit students and faculty. Accreditation means the university in Orange is one of 182 U.S. law schools to pass the ABA's academic standards.

Judges should not accept any gifts, including travel expenses, from "any person or entity whose interests are likely to come before the judge in the foreseeable future," the American Bar Assn. says in a draft of its new ethics rules for judges. Moreover, judges should not accept travel, food or lodging if doing so would "cast reasonable doubt on [their] capacity to act with impartiality, integrity or independence," the proposed rules say.

The American criminal justice system relies too heavily on imprisoning people and needs to consider more effective alternatives, according to a study released Wednesday by the American Bar Assn., the nation's largest lawyers' organization. "For more than 20 years, we've gotten tougher on crime," said Dennis W. Archer, a former Detroit mayor and the group's current president. But it is unclear, he said, whether the U.S. is any safer for having 2.