Mukasey likely to be confirmed as AG: Leahy News
Mukasey likely to be confirmed as AG: Leahy

[JURIST] US Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) [official website] said Tuesday after a meeting with Attorney General nominee Michael B. Mukasey [WH fact sheet; PBWT profile] that the Senate will likely approve Mukasey without undue delay. Mukasey's confirmation hearings before the Judiciary Committee are scheduled to begin Wednesday [JURIST report; hearing notice]. Mukasey is expected to face questions on controversial issues including the US Attorney firings scandal [JURIST news archive], the investigation of alleged election crimes, the executive use of secrecy and expansion of power, and his willingness to share materials related to Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) [text; JURIST news archive] investigations.

President George W. Bush formally nominated [JURIST report] Mukasey on September 17 to replace former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales [JURIST news archive], who submitted his resignation [JURIST report] in August. AP has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Guiteau tried for assassinating US President Garfield

On November 14, 1881, Charles Guiteau went on trial for the assassination of US President James A. Garfield. The trial of Guiteau pointed to problems with nineteenth-century law's treatment of insanity; Guiteau's trial is also problematic in retrospect as Garfield's death was immediately attributable not to Guiteau, but to Garfield's doctors who—before sterilization was well understood—repeated probed his wound with unwashed hands while searching for an embedded bullet.