By Breaking Legal News, Breaking Legal News.

Negotiations between minority groups and Texas officials in a lengthy clash over new political districts appeared stalled Monday as both sides prepared to argue in Washington over whether the Republican-drawn maps violate the federal Voting Rights Act.

An attorney for the League of United Latin American Citizens, one of nine groups suing to block the maps, said negotiations to create temporary maps so Texas could salvage an April 3 primary date hit an impasse over the weekend. Both sides have another week to work out a deal, but Luis Vera, LULAC's general counsel, said he was not optimistic.

"It just doesn't seem feasible," he said.

A federal court in San Antonio last week gave the sides until Feb. 6 to draw up the temporary maps that would remain in place through November's election. If they don't, Texas' primaries will be pushed back for a second time. They were originally scheduled for March.

Lauren Bean, a spokeswoman for the Texas attorney general's office, said her office was not commenting on the negotiations.

Vera said a major obstacle is that the state isn't involving all parties in the negotiations. Gary Bledsoe, president of the Texas NAACP that is among the nine plaintiffs, said the state was mainly negotiating with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund and the Mexican American Legislative Caucus.

Originally posted at Breaking Legal News. Please visit http://www.breakinglegalnews.com/.

By Breaking Legal News, Breaking Legal News.

Thousands of abortion opponents marched to the Supreme Court on Monday to mark the 39th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion, and supportive lawmakers urged them to further their cause by working to defeat President Barack Obama in the fall.

The "March for Life" has been held every year since 1974, a year after the landmark Supreme Court ruling. It's consistently one of the largest protests of the year in Washington, although soggy, chilly conditions likely kept this year's numbers down a bit.

House Speaker John Boehner addressed the group, reminding those gathered on the muddy National Mall that he's one of 12 children

"I'm sure it wasn't easy for our mother to have 12 of us, but I'm glad we're all here," the Republican lawmaker said. "I've never considered being pro-life a label or a political position. It's just who I am."

Several dozen members of Congress addressed the rally and were cheered by participants, many of whom carried signs reading "I Vote Pro-Life First," ''Defund Planned Parenthood" and "Face It ... Abortion Kills a Person."

Signs endorsing Republican presidential contenders were less ubiquitous, although some in the crowd favored Rick Santorum and Ron Paul, both favorites of conservative Christians.

Originally posted at Breaking Legal News. Please visit http://www.breakinglegalnews.com/.

By Breaking Legal News, Breaking Legal News.

Ireland, currently the senior associate justice on the high court, would replace the retiring Chief Justice Margaret Marshall if he's confirmed by the Governor's Council, a process that could take as little as a month.

"We are making history again today," Patrick said, noting Marshall had been the court's first female chief justice.

Nonetheless, the governor insisted race was a "secondary or tertiary" consideration.

"The most important thing was to get a nominee who was going to be absolutely committed to the fair administration of justice, who could understand the issues that come before the court are issues that involve human beings, trying to sort out their problems and resolve their disputes, and that there are faces behind those concepts," Patrick said during a Statehouse news conference.

Ireland, a native of Springfield's racially mixed Hill neighborhood, said, "My nomination says that anything is possible no matter where you come from or what your background is."

Frederick Hurst, a black attorney and newspaper publisher who has been Ireland's friend since childhood, beamed as he watched, saying afterward he was proud of the high achievement by someone from "the 'hood." He described Ireland as both smart and funny.

Ireland was appointed to the SJC in 1997 by then-Republican Gov. William F. Weld, making him the first black justice in the 318-year history of the oldest appellate court in continuous operation in the Western Hemisphere. He previously served on the Massachusetts Appeals Court for seven years and the Boston Juvenile Court for almost 13 years.

Originally posted at Breaking Legal News. Please visit http://www.breakinglegalnews.com/.

By Breaking Legal News, Breaking Legal News.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner stepped up pressure on China to make more progress in moving toward flexible exchange rates.

Geithner said Wednesday that it is particularly important to see appreciation in countries where the currency is significantly undervalued. Geithner never mentioned China, but the speech was clearly aimed at the world's second-largest economy.

U.S. manufacturers contend that the Chinese yuan is undervalued by as much as 40 percent, giving Chinese companies a significant competitive advantage. Geithner's comments came in advance of upcoming global finance meetings.

Geithner said the problem was that when large economies kept their currency undervalued, it encouraged other nations to do the same.

"The collective impact of this behavior risks either causing inflation and asset bubbles in emerging economies or else depressing consumption growth," Geithner said.

Geithner's remarks came in a speech at the Brookings Institution where he previewed the U.S. goals for upcoming meetings of the 187-nation International Monetary Fund and its sister lending institution, the World Bank.

In addition to those talks, which begin Friday, finance officials of the Group of 20 major economies are scheduled to meet on the sidelines. The G-20 nations includes the world's richest nations plus major emerging countries such as China and Brazil.

U.S. officials said they will push the G-20 nations to honor commitments made a year ago in Pittsburgh to work to rebalance the global economy. Doing so would promote more sustainable growth and avoid a repeat of the severe recession.

Originally posted at Breaking Legal News. Please visit http://breakinglegalnews.com/.

By Breaking Legal News, Breaking Legal News.

President Barack Obama heads to Pennsylvania on Monday to raise money for Democratic Senate candidate Joe Sestak, who is locked in a tight race for a seat considered a must-win for the president's party.

Democrats know that Sestak's chances of winning depend heavily on the party's ability to ramp up voter turnout in cities like Philadelphia. With six weeks until the midterm elections, Obama is trying to fire up the party's base, urging the first-time voters that helped him win the White House in 2008 to head back to the polls in November.

"I need everybody here to go back to your neighborhoods, and your workplaces, to your churches, and barbershops, and beauty shops," Obama told a Congressional Black Caucus dinner Saturday night. "Tell them we have more work to do. Tell them we can't wait to organize. Tell them that the time for action is now."

The relationship between the White House and Sestak has been a rocky one. Obama backed longtime Republican-turned-Democratic Sen. Arlen Specter in the primary contest that Sestak won earlier this year. The White House had tried to get Sestak to drop his challenge to Specter by offering him an unpaid presidential advisory position, an offer Sestak rejected.

Obama carried Pennsylvania during his White House run, but two years later, voters are angry at the sluggish economic recovery and could take their frustrations out on Democrats in November's balloting. Democrats see the Pennsylvania Senate seat as one that could not only determine which party holds the Senate majority, but also which way the key swing state might lean in 2012.

Originally posted at Breaking Legal News. Please visit http://www.breakinglegalnews.com/.

By Breaking Legal News, Breaking Legal News.

Democratic Party Chairman Tim Kaine is defending first lady Michelle Obama's vacation trip to Spain, saying critics of her travels are trying to politicize the issue.

Kaine tells NBC's "Today" show he thinks "it's wrong" to talk critically about her trips. Critics contend they send a poor message at a time when many Americans are out of work.

Kaine said, "She's a mom." He said this was an opportunity for her to take nine-year-old daughter Sasha to a part of the world she hadn't seen before.

Kaine said President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama are "focused on being good parents." Mrs. Obama returned with Sasha to the White House late Sunday. Her trip occurred as Obama was celebrating his 49th birthday and their other daughter, 12-year-old Malia, was away at summer camp.

Originally posted at Breaking Legal News. Please visit http://breakinglegalnews.com/.

By Breaking Legal News, Breaking Legal News.

President Barack Obama will visit a small business and talk about job-creation Friday shortly after the government releases unemployment figures for July.

The president will tour the facilities of Gelberg Signs in the District of Columbia and publicly applaud efforts the company is making to expand and hire more workers.

Later, he'll host a reception at the White House for Elena Kagan, newly confirmed to become the next Supreme Court justice.

Friday's report on the nation's employment situation is expected to show that private companies added only 90,000 jobs in July, not nearly enough for healthy economic growth.

Originally posted at Breaking Legal News. Please visit http://www.breakinglegalnews.com/.

By Breaking Legal News, Breaking Legal News.

Struggling to show leadership in a crisis, President Barack Obama is embarking on a three-state tour of Gulf Coast states tainted by oil before speaking to the nation about the country's worst environmental disaster and what to expect in the weeks ahead.

Before the start Monday of a two-day trip to Mississippi, Alabama and Florida, the White House announced Obama would order BP to establish a major victims' compensation fund. When he returns to Washington on Tuesday evening Obama will use his first Oval Office speech as president to address the catastrophe.

BP said in a statement that its costs for responding to the spill had risen to $1.6 billion, including new $25 million grants to Florida, Alabama and Mississippi. It also includes the first $60 million for a project to build barrier islands off the Louisiana coast. The estimate does not include future costs for scores of damage lawsuits already filed.

Obama's first three trips to the Gulf took him to the hardest-hit state, Louisiana. On Monday, Day 56 since BP's leased Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded and unleashed a fury of oil into the Gulf, he's flying to Gulfport, Miss. From there he'll travel along the coast to Alabama, where oil was washing up in heavy amounts along the shores Sunday in the eastern part of the state.

Originally posted at Breaking Legal News. Please visit http://www.breakinglegalnews.com/.

By Breaking Legal News, Breaking Legal News.

Senators are mining Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan's work as an aide to former President Bill Clinton for clues about her opinions and legal approach. The William J. Clinton Presidential Library is set Friday to release more than 40,000 pages of notes, memos and other files, mostly from Kagan's stint as a White House counsel during the mid-1990s. It's the second installment in a 160,000-page cache of Clinton-era documents from Kagan's past.

The Senate Judiciary Committee, which is to begin Kagan's confirmation hearings June 28, has requested all documents from her tenure in the Clinton White House. The panel also requested papers related to Kagan's failed nomination to a federal appeals court, which are expected to be included in Friday's release.

A first, 46,500-page batch of files from Kagan's stint as a domestic policy adviser to Clinton, released last week, yielded some clues about her pragmatic style and views. She helped Clinton craft a middle-ground position on late-term abortions that angered groups on both sides of the highly charged issue, praised a legal brief designed to protect affirmative action and helped craft an aggressive strategy to enact gun control measures. She also was instrumental in intense but ultimately unsuccessful bipartisan negotiations on a major anti-smoking initiative.

Originally posted at Breaking Legal News. Please visit http://www.breakinglegalnews.com/.

By Breaking Legal News, Breaking Legal News.

From her office just behind the Supreme Court, Carrie Severino of the conservative Judicial Crisis Network watched the money come in waves. It spiked when Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens announced he would retire, when President Barack Obama nominated Elena Kagan to succeed him and when Kagan started making news on Capitol Hill.

Across the ideological spectrum, Kagan's confirmation is a ripe opportunity for groups to push their agendas, mobilize their supporters and raise money. The organizations are pumping up the volume in the debate, knowing that their influence is measured largely by the intensity of their support or opposition.

"Ensure Elena Kagan gets a fair hearing," blares a headline on the website of NARAL Pro-Choice America. "The future of women's access to abortion hangs in the balance," the group tells visitors to the site, asking them to urge senators to inquire about Kagan's stance on the Roe v. Wade decision that established abortion rights.

While they're at it, visitors are asked to give their names, mailing and e-mail addresses — and their cell phone numbers, which NARAL says it will use to send "urgent" text messages.

Originally posted at Breaking Legal News. Please visit http://www.breakinglegalnews.com/.