Judicial Filibusters and New Federal Litigation

Late last week at our offices in Washington, DC, we had a series of meetings concerning the issue of judicial filibusters.  We have circulated a memorandum to all leadership in the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding the concerns over the current filibusters in place on federal judges.  The President is renominating the judges whom he previously submitted to Congress who are being filibustered.  It is likely that in the next two weeks, one of the judges will come up for a vote and will be filibustered by the Senate minority.  At that point, I think it is realistic that the rule change will be put forward.  Our Office of Governmental Affairs and our legal team in Washington have done extensive work on this issue, and we continue to review strategy.  There is a great article published in the most recent issue of U.S. News & World Report that can be found on our website. 

Over the weekend, I reviewed litigation that has been instituted against an evangelical church in Georgia.  It seems that over the last several years, a donor of the church has had significant legal trouble.  Now the bankruptcy trustee has filed federal litigation against the church, asking that all donations from these individuals be returned.  These donations came in over a period of years and were used by the church to build its new worship facility.  We think this is an improper move by the U.S. bankruptcy trustee, and I have assembled a senior team of lawyers to litigate this issue.  I will keep everyone posted as this case proceeds through U.S. district court.