When the House Judiciary Committee adjourned without a final vote on the Stop Online Piracy Act, the expectation was that they wouldn’t take up the matter again until next year. HJC Chairman Lamar Smith appeared to agree to allow technical experts give testimony on the implications of the bill to the Internet’s architecture, particularly the Domain Name System. But quietly, Smith announced a resumption of the markup for this Wednesday, at a time when Congress may not even be in session.

The House Judiciary Committee abruptly adjourned today without completing work on the Stop Online Piracy Act, an unexpected twist in the high stakes battle between Hollywood content providers and leading Internet companies.

The markup in the House Judiciary Committee of the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, has begun. Observers expect at least two days of markups, and the bill wouldn’t see the House floor until sometime thereafter, probably next year. There are over 60 amendments on the bill, and opponents on the committee are dragging out the proceedings. Rep. Zoe Lofgren refused to waive the reading of the bill, so Judiciary staffers needed to spend an hour doing that.

Understand that this bill is getting a hearing, and a markup, because very wealthy interests want it to pass. It so happens that very wealthy interests want it to fail, but that puts it on the agenda as well, because both sides can go to their funders and raise money off the threat of the bill passing or failing. This becomes a bonanza for K Street lobbyists. There are over 1,000 of them working on SOPA.

Responding to pressure from Internet giants and a growing coalition of activists, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-TX) amended his legislation on Internet copyrights yesterday, rolling back some of the more dangerous elements. A HJC markup of the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, will take place this Thursday, but SOPA critics are not yet satisfied.

After a weekend of strategizing, organizers working against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) plan a mass campaign of action to stop advancement of the bill, which will get a markup in the House Judiciary Committee this Thursday. They got support today from Laurence Tribe, who says the bill creates an unconstitutional prior restraint on internet speech.

HALT

Republican Lamar Smith of Texas, the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, profoundly wasted the committee’s time today with a junk piece of legislation that would only make matters worse for immigration authorities if passed. The legislation, the “Hinder the Administration’s Legalization Temptation (HALT) Act,” limit the administrative authority the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration Customs & Enforcment (ICE) has to consider waivers and issue cancel deportations, if deemed necessary.

The House Judiciary Committee held a hearing today, the fourth in a few weeks on Capitol Hill, on foreclosure fraud. And because this was a Judiciary Committee hearing, the focus was a little different. We heard more about standing to foreclose and the whole legal mess in this hearing.

The letter the National Archives wrote to the U.S. Dept. of Justice last week inquiring about John Yoo’s missing emails focused on USDOJ’s violation–as a Federal Agency–of the Federal Records Act.

Now, House Judiciary Committee Chair Rep. John Conyers is taking the reverse approach–asking for email exchanges to which the White House was a party–which would be preserved pursuant to the Presidential Records Act.

The House Judiciary today passed Jerry Nadler’s bill reining in state secrets abuse by a vote of 18-12, with Adam Schiff as the sole Democrat voting against the bill. One thing Nadler has added to his bill since it was first introduced are measures to prevent the government from refusing to give plaintiff lawyers clearance [...]

A quick overview of Wednesday’s doings in House Judiciary Committee’s mark-up of the PATRIOT Act renewal. The hearing started with John Conyers introducing a managers amendment to the bill that made tweaks to the overal bill to move them slightly closer to what the Obama Administration wanted. Republicans tried to gut National Security Letters (NSLs). [...]