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). [...]