President Barack Obama has nominated Duke professor Christopher H. Schroeder to become an assistant attorney general in the U.S. Department of Justice.

According to his Duke biography Schroeder has served as acting assistant attorney general in the department’s Office of Legal Counsel, Barb Barrett reports.

There, he was responsible for legal advice to the attorney general, the executive office of the president and other executive branch agencies.

At Duke Law School is he is director of the Program in Public Law.

He would replace Elisebeth Collins Cook. Her job is to manage the development of civil and criminal policy intiatives, according to her biography on the Department of Justice website.

* Duke law professor Christopher Schroeder is the leading candidate to head a U.S. Justice Department office on legal policy.

* WUNC's Laura Leslie highlights an interesting floor speech during the sex ed debate from Rep. Arthur Williams, whose wife is a nurse.

* Asheville Citizen-Times' Jordan Schrader highlights a few other moments from the "For Mature Audiences" discussion on the House floor.

* A spokesman for U.S. Sen. Richard Burr re-opens a fight with liberal talk show host Rachel Maddow over the banking and veterans stories.

As the federal government moves ahead with its prosecution of Blackwater employees involved in civilian deaths in Iraq, U.S. Rep. David Price says the courts — not the Department of Defense — will decide whether the guards can be prosecuted under the law.

Blackwater guards killed 17 civilians on Sept. 16, 2007, in Baghdad during a convoy detailed to the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Barb Barrett reports.

The U.S. Department of Defense told Price in December 2007 that because Blackwater was working for the Department of State during the incident, the guards could not be subject to prosecution in the United States. The letter came from Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England.

The U.S. Department of Justice now disputes that. It filed a legal brief last week arguing that Defense and State were working together, and therefore the guards could be prosecuted.

A Memorandum of Understanding signed Dec. 5, 2007, — after the incident — says the State and Defense departments will "jointly develop, implement and follow core standards" of private security contractors such as Blackwater.

The memo says the standards would include a "clear legal basis for holding (U.S. Government) private security contractors accountable under U.S. law."

Price spokesman Paul Cox said this morning that, "regardless of the views expressed in the Deputy Secretary's letter, it's up to the courts alone to determine whether these security contractors fall under federal criminal jurisdiction."

The unofficial campaigns for U.S. attorney are almost over.

Although U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan and Attorney General nominee Eric Holder have not taken any official steps towards appointing the state's three federal prosecutors, the long list of candidates appears to have been culled a bit. 

Western District: Former Congressional candidate and assistant Wake County prosecutor Daniel Johnson of Hickory is reportedly the leading candidate in the district that is centered on Charlotte. The post is currently held by Gretchen C.F. Shappert. 

Middle District: Former lieutenant governor candidate Hampton Dellinger is reportedly the leading candidate for a gig as a federal prosecutor in the district that includes Greensboro, Winston-Salem and Durham. The post is currently held by Anna Mills Wagoner.

Eastern District: Superior Court Judge Ripley Rand (son of the state Senate majority leader) is reportedly competing with Onslow County District Attorney Dewey Hudson for the district that is centered on Raleigh. The post is currently held by George E.B. Holding.

As noted previously, the Eastern District position is important in state investigations in corruption, Hagan says she'll consider resumes and references, and past U.S. attorneys have had a strong political patron.

U.S. Rep. Brad Miller wants the U.S. Department of Justice to come out of the dark and embrace the sunlight.

Miller, a Raleigh Democrat, introduced legislation today that would force the Justice agency to give more information to Congress about what he calls "secret law," Barb Barrett reports.

Such secrecy has been used in the past, as in a memo by legal counsel John Woo in 2003 that allowed for extreme interrogation techniques, according to Miller.

The bill would require the U.S. Attorney General to tell Congress whenever the executive branch decides it is not bound by federal law.

The White House has in the past relied on secret legal opinions to avoid following the law, charges Miller and Sen. Russ Feingold, a Wisconsin Democrat, who introduced a companion bill in the Senate.

Feingold held a hearing on the issue last spring that found a loophole in the current law that allows some legal decisions to remain secret.

The bill includes special procedures for national security matters.

U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge still isn't happy with how the U.S. Department of Justice is handling his "Hometown Heroes" bill.

Etheridge, a Lillington Democrat, authored the bill so the survivors of first responders and law enforcement officers who die from heart attacks or strokes in the line of duty can receive survivor benefits. President Bush signed it into law in 2003, but the program has had anything but an easy start.

First, the Justice Department took more than two years to develop final rules for the program, forcing families to wait for benefits. Etheridge agitated for the agency to speed its process, Barb Barrett reports.

Now, Etheridge says he isn't happy with a re-write of the rules.

This afternoon, Etheridge will send U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey a letter saying the new proposed regulations could reduce the number of public safety officers who are eligible for the program.
Etheridge said he fears the changes could make survivors of officers who die during voluntary training programs — as opposed to mandatory programs — ineligible for benefits.

He also worries about new paperwork requirements for survivors.

"It was not the intent of Congress to have bereaved families jump through hoops to get a benefit they deserve," Etheridge wrote.

Etheridge said he was surprised to see the rule changes proposed this summer after thinking they already had been finalized for good.

Kay Hagan is borrowing Barack Obama's line on trade.

On Friday, the Democratic Senate candidate attacked U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole for backing free trade agreements that she said hurt North Carolina workers.

But she stopped short of calling for the North American Free Trade Agreement or the Central American Free Trade Agreement to be thrown out. Instead, she proposed a "mend it, don't end it" approach reminiscent of remarks by Obama during the state primary here.

Her trade policy calls for adding enforceable labor and environmental standards to prevent companies from moving overseas and giving the U.S. Department of Justice enforcement powers over trade agreements.

Dole spokesman Don McLagan told the Associated Press that CAFTA removed tariffs in other countries that were keeping North Carolina-made pharmaceutical and agricultural products out of those marketplaces.

"I believe the only jobs Hagan has created are those for tax collectors," he said.

The State Board of Elections says to register as a Libertarian now.

Deputy elections director Johnnie Mclean says that registered voters can change their party affiliation to the Libertarian Party even though the widely available state forms do not include it as an option, simply by writing its name in.

"Anybody can do that now," she said.

State Libertarians have complained that the form does not include them, since it was created before the party was re-recognized, arguing it is slowing down re-affiliations. But Mclean said it could be months before new forms are available.

She told Dome that the state software's form-creating software has to be reset and new forms printed and sent to the U.S. Department of Justice, which preclears any North Carolina forms for potential civil rights violations.

The state board plans to print the new forms in the next two to three weeks, and it can take another 60 days after that for the federal government to OK them.

Currently, only 29 Libertarians are registered in North Carolina.

Michael Mukasey said he will look into the James Johnson case.

The U.S. attorney general said he would respond to U.S. Rep. G.K. Butterfield's letter that asked for a federal investigation of whether Johnson's constitutional rights have been violated, Titan Barksdale reports.

Mukasey made the comment Thursday during a House Judiciary Committee hearing, a spokesman for Butterfield said.

In December, Butterfield sent the letter to Mukasey saying Johnson's right to a speedy trial has been denied, and he needs to intervene to "restore public confidence in the criminal justice system."

Johnson was jailed for three years for the murder of Brittany Willis. Johnson, 21, was freed in December pending a review of his case, and the murder, rape and kidnapping charges against him were dropped because of a lack of evidence. Johnson is now charged with accessory after the fact to murder.

The accessory charge against Johnson is based on his statement that he cleaned his own fingerprints from Willis' SUV. After killing Willis, his friend Kenneth Meeks drove her SUV to Johnson's house to pick him up.

An international human rights organization said today that a lack of political will – not a fuzzy legal framework – should be primarily blamed for the dearth of prosecutions against private security contractors accused of abuses in Iraq.

Human Rights First said the U.S. Department of Justice has failed to hold such contractors, including Blackwater USA of Moyock, accountable for accused abuses, amounting to what the organization calls a “culture of impunity,” reports Barb Barrett.

“The biggest obstacle is not the law, but political will,” said Maureen Byrnes, executive director of the group.

Still, the group said that clarifying the law – along the lines of a bill authored by U.S. Rep. David Price of Chapel Hill – would ensure that prosecutors have a path for investigating alleged criminal activities by guards.

Read more after the jump.

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