Paula Corbin Jones is an American civil servant. A former Arkansas state employee, Jones sued United States President Bill Clinton for sexual harassment in 1994. In the initial lawsuit, Jones cited Clinton for sexual harassment at the Excelsior Hotel in Little Rock, Arkansas on May 8, 1991. Following a series of civil suits and appeals through the U.S. District Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals from May 1994 to January 1996, Clinton v. Jones eventually reached the United States Supreme Court on May 27, 1997. The case was later settled by a federal appeals court on November 13, 1998.
United States attorneys are officials of the U.S. Department of Justice who serve as the chief federal law enforcement officers in each of the 94 U.S. federal judicial districts. Each U.S. attorney serves as the United States' chief federal criminal prosecutor in their judicial district and represents the U.S. federal government in civil litigation in federal and state court within their geographic jurisdiction. U.S. attorneys must be nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate, after which they serve four-year terms.
Harriet Ellan Miers is an American lawyer who served as White House Counsel to President George W. Bush from 2005 to 2007. A member of the Republican Party since 1988, she previously served as White House Staff Secretary from 2001 to 2003 and White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy from 2003 until 2005. In 2005, Miers was nominated by Bush to be an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, but—in the face of bipartisan opposition—asked Bush to withdraw her nomination. Following her withdrawal in 2007, Miers returned to private practice, becoming a partner in the litigation and public policy group at Locke Lord.
The following are controversial invocations of the USA PATRIOT Act. The stated purpose of the Act is to "deter and punish terrorist acts in the United States and around the world, to enhance law enforcement investigatory tools, and for other purposes." One criticism of the Act is that "other purposes" often includes the detection and prosecution of non-terrorist alleged future crimes.
Carol Chien-Hua Lam is a former United States Attorney for the Southern District of California. Lam was sworn into office on an interim basis on September 4, 2002. On November 12, 2002, Lam was further sworn in as a Senate confirmed Presidential appointee. She oversaw the Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham military contracting corruption case. Lam was one of eight attorneys fired in the Dismissal of U.S. attorneys controversy.
On December 7, 2006, the George W. Bush Administration's Department of Justice ordered the unprecedented midterm dismissal of seven United States attorneys. Congressional investigations focused on whether the Department of Justice and the White House were using the U.S. Attorney positions for political advantage. Allegations were that some of the attorneys were targeted for dismissal to impede investigations of Republican politicians or that some were targeted for their failure to initiate investigations that would damage Democratic politicians or hamper Democratic-leaning voters. The U.S. attorneys were replaced with interim appointees, under provisions in the 2005 USA PATRIOT Act reauthorization.
Leigh Ingalls Saufley is the dean of the University of Maine School of Law and former Chief Justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. Saufley grew up in South Portland, Maine and attended the University of Maine and the University of Maine School of Law. She was first appointed to the Maine District Court in 1990, and to the Supreme Judicial Court in 1997. She was sworn in as Chief Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court in 2001, becoming both Maine's first woman and the youngest person ever to serve in the position. She served as chief justice until 2020 when she was hired as the eighth Dean of the University of Maine School of Law.
A detailed chronology of events in the dismissal of U.S. attorneys controversy.
The United States House Committee on the Judiciary and the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, have oversight authority over Department of Justice (DOJ). In 2007 it conducted public and closed-door oversight and investigative hearings on the DOJ's interactions with the White House and staff members of the Executive Office of the President. A routine oversight hearing on January 18, 2007 by the Senate committee was the first public congressional occasion that Attorney General Gonzales responded to questions about dismissed United States Attorneys (USAs). Both committees invited or subpoenaed past and present Department of Justice officers and staff to appear and testify during 2007, and both committees requested or subpoenaed documents, and made the documents that were produced publicly available.
Lillie Louise Lucas is an American politician serving as a Virginia state senator, representing the 18th District in the southeast of the state since 1992. Democrats won a majority of seats in the 2019 Virginia Senate election, so Lucas succeeded Republican Stephen Newman as the Virginia Senate's President pro tempore. She is the first woman and first African American to hold that office.
Diane Joyce Humetewa is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Arizona and was the United States Attorney for the District of Arizona, serving in that position from December 2007 to August 2009. Confirmed in 2014 as the first Native American woman and enrolled tribal member to serve as a federal judge, Humetewa, a Hopi, is one of six Native Americans in history to serve in this position. Humetewa is also a Professor of Practice at Arizona State University's Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law. Humetewa has served as counsel to the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs and to the Deputy Attorney General for the United States Department of Justice, as a member of the United States Sentencing Guideline Commission, Native American Advisory Committee, and as an Appellate Court Judge for the Hopi Tribe, of which she is an enrolled member.
Karin Johanna Immergut is an American lawyer and jurist serving as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Oregon.
Amy Joan St. Eve is a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. She previously served as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
Jacqueline Hong-Ngoc Nguyen is an American lawyer who serves as a United States circuit judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. She previously served as a U.S. district judge of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California from 2009 to 2012 and as a California superior court judge from 2002 to 2009.
Paula T. Dow served as the 58th Attorney General of New Jersey, appointed by incoming Governor Chris Christie. Her nomination to a full term was confirmed by the New Jersey Senate in February 2010. She is the first African-American woman to be attorney general in state history.
Lucy Haeran Koh is an American lawyer and jurist serving as a U.S. circuit judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. She is the first Korean American woman to serve on a federal appellate court in the United States. Koh previously served as a U.S. district judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California from 2010 to 2021. She also served as a California state court judge of the Santa Clara County Superior Court from 2008 to 2010.
Holly Aiyisha Thomas is an American attorney serving as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. She previously served as a judge of the Los Angeles County Superior Court from 2018 to 2022.
Jinsook Ohta is an American attorney and United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of California. She previously served as a judge on the San Diego County Superior Court.
