Tuesday News and Notes

1. If a criminal defense lawyer did this, we'd be locked up. For Justice Thomas, it's just a mistake.

2. President Barack Obama has selected White House Deputy Counsel Donald Verrilli Jr. to serve as Solicitor General. From BLT:

If confirmed by the Senate, Verrilli would fill the position now held by acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal, who stepped into the job when Solicitor General Elena Kagan was nominated to the Supreme Court.

Verrilli was the former co-chair of the Supreme Court and Appellate practice group in the Washington office of Jenner & Block from 2000 until he joined the Obama Department of Justice in 2009 as an associate deputy attorney general. While at the Justice Department, Verrilli focused on domestic and national security policy issues.

Verrilli is a veteran Supreme Court advocate. He has argued 12 cases before the justices and participated in more than 100. His cases have ranged from the intricacies of intellectual property, such as his defense of music industry copyrights in 2005, to the complexities of the death penalty, such as his pro bono work in Wiggins v. Smith.

Besides his work in the Supreme Court, Verrilli also has participated in about 90 cases in federal and state appellate courts, arguing more than 30 appeals. While at Jenner, he was a member of the firm’s governing policy committee and chair of its diversity committee.

A former clerk to Justice William Brennan Jr., Verrilli is a graduate of Columbia Law School.

The solicitor general is the only position in government which, by law, must be filled by someone “learned in the law.”

3. Which Supreme Court Justices will attend the State of the Union tonight? Remember the controversy last year with Obama and Alito getting into it... ATL has the odds of who will show up here.

4. SFL has some (good) advice for Yoss. And Rumpole is right on with his rant about the closing of I95 yesterday. Perhaps all the traffic delayed him in getting me my check... I'm still waiting for the $50 he owes me from last year's bet.