Resuming Point of Law blogging after a hiatus*, we return to reporting on the most under-covered lobbying outfit in D.C. and the nation, the American Association for Justice, i.e., the trial lawyers.

The AAJ concludes its winter convention in Phoenix at the Biltmore Report and Spa today, a four-day event held under the Orwellian-sounding theme, "Strength in Knowledge, Power from Networking, United for Justice." The choice of Arizona - with its retrograde immigration policies - obviously gave some members heartburn, but it's OK, they were assured:

The state law has been eviscerated in court decisions. Rather than continue to punish Arizona citizens, including the many Latino low-wage workers who depend upon tourist business for their livelihoods, Latino leaders in Arizona are uniformly asking for meetings to resume and people to visit Arizona. We at AAJ are locked into a hotel contract that requires a major penalty for canceling the convention. While we considered doing so, the penalty we face and subsequent actions by Latino leaders asking that we not boycott Arizona resulted in AAJ's decision to go forward with the convention in Arizona and to have a major focus on immigration as a part of the convention.

(Speaking of boycotts and "eviscerated laws": In 2009, the AAJ relocated its summer convention from the Manchester Grand Hyatt in San Diego because the owner, Doug Manchester, had donated $125,000 to Proposition 8, the constitutional amendment to prohibit same-sex marriage, prompting a boycott of the hotel.) 

Erwin Chemerinsky, founding dean of the University of California, Irvine School of Law, did give a talk on how to overturn state immigration laws like Arizona's SB 1070, and there was a "Hot Topics" set of presentations on "Fighting for Justice in the Courts and in the Courtroom,  with class action lawsuits and immigration among the issues. (Full conference agenda, .pdf'ed.)

JoAnne Kloppenburg will not challenge the results of Wisconsin Supreme Court election in court, she announced today in a news conference. Following a lengthy county-by-county recount, the Government Accountability Board last week certified incumbent Justice David T. Prosser Jr. as the winning candidate in the April 5 election. Prosser received 752,694 votes and Kloppenburg received 745,690 votes, a difference of 7,004 votes or 0.46 percent.

The announcement by Kloppenburg, a deputy attorney general, means that the Wisconsin Supreme Court retains its 4-to-3 conservative majority and is less likely to be sympathetic toward a legal challenge against the state's news collective bargaining law for public employees. Last Thursday, May 26, Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi threw out the law, ruling that the Republican Senators had violated open-meetings laws when they passed the legislation with insufficient notice. The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel has Sumi's expected ruling here, and more coverage here.

The things you learn reading through the schedule for the American Association for Justice's annual convention, Part III ... (Earlier posts here and here.)

The use of social media to maximize one's prospects for suing people and businesses is a recurring theme at the AAJ's convention scheduled for July 9-13 in Manhattan.

Part II of the Litigation at Sunrise sessions -- a series of 10 minute presentations -- features these topics:

• Discoverability of Facebook Postings, Prof. Jeanne Kosieradzki of Hamline University in St. Paul, Minn.
  
• Text Messages, Cell Phones, and the Constitution, R. Champ Crocker, AL [Champer Crocker -- A great name for a trial lawyer!]
  
• Post-Trial Motions to Interview Jurors: The Impact of Social Networking and Other Late Discovered Information, Stuart N. Ratzan, FL
  
• Proving Your Failure to Warn Claim Through Twitter, Jason E. Ochs, CA

The things you find reading through the schedule for the American Association for Justice's annual convention, Part II... (Part I is here.)

Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) has scheduled a fundraising reception for Sunday evening, July 10, at the Hilton New York, hitting up the trial lawyers for contributions to his re-election campaign.

Tester is running against Rep. Denny Rehberg (R-MT), and the Democrat's prospects depend greatly on his maintaining his image as a regular Joe, a working rancher true to his Montana ways, untempted by Washington. (See this May 20 Washington Post feature.) But there's no more Washington of Washington special interests than the trial lawyer lobby.

The AAJ has an affinity for Montana Democrats. Gov. Brian Schweitzer was a featured speaker at the 2008 convention in Philadelphia, where he invited controversy by "joking" about manipulating the results of the 2006 election in which Tester narrowly defeated Sen. Conrad Burns (R-MT). In January 2010, the Democratic governor jetted off to Hawaii for the AAJ's winter gathering.

The AAJ is also promoting an appearance of Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) at the summer convention, scheduled July 9-13 in Manhattan. Brown is the invited guest at Sunday's meeting of the AAJ PAC Club M luncheon. The online promotion touts:

Please join AAJ PAC for a special luncheon to thank members who contribute $1,000 or more per year to AAJ PAC with invited speaker Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH). Senator Brown is a true champion of the civil justice system and will give a firsthand update on the issues affecting your clients and your practice in the U.S. Senate.

M Club members know that choosing a member of Congress is as important as choosing a jury and their support is the backbone of AAJ PAC.

That's bald, isn't it? We can't buy juries, but we can sure buy ...

The trial lawyer/Democratic fundraising connection was also in the public eye last summer when 11 U.S. Democratic Senate candidates traveled to the AAJ's convention in Vancouver, B.C., raising money at an event featuring Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-MT). Attendance at the fundraiser quickly became an issue in Senate races in Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, and elsewhere.

The only other fundraiser we see scheduled for this July's NYC annual convention is for Rep. Bruce Braley (D-IA), the former president of the Iowa Trial Lawyer Association. He's a regular.

The House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution holds a hearing at 2 p.m. today, "Can We Sue Our Way to Prosperity?: Litigation's Effect on America's Global Competitiveness." Witnesses:

• 
  Paul Hinton, Vice President, NERA Economic Consulting. Hinton has done extensive work in economic analysis of products liability, with studies of asbestos, silicone breast implants, and homebuilder liability. (Curriculum vitae)
• Charles Silver, McDonald Chair in Civil Procedure, University of Texas School of Law. (Curriculum vitae). Silver is a critic of Texas' medical liability reforms for undermining patient safety and opposes congressional efforts to pass similar federal reforms.
• John Beisner, Skadden, Arps, L.L.P. is a corporate defense counsel, co-head of Skadden's Mass Torts and Insurance Litigation Group. He focuses on the defense of purported class actions, mass tort matters and other complex civil litigation in both federal and state courts.

The things you find reading through the schedule for the American Association for Justice's annual convention, set for July 9-13 in New York City.

The CLE program of the Business Torts section, "New Business Trial Strategies with New Laws," concentrates on possibilities for suing under last year's financial reform legislation, the Dodd-Frank law. Goals of the session:
1. Identify specific changes in the law
2. Identify how to use the new law in business litigation
3. Identify methods of winning trials with the new laws

The first session is "The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act"

• Investment advisors
  
• Derivatives
  
• Credit swaps
  
• Fiduciary duties
  
• Fund managers
  
• Pay to play

The entry lists Joseph P. Borg as the presenter. Borg is director of the Alabama Securities Commission. Is that usual, for a regulator to be speaking to a group dedicated to suing the same people he regulates?

The Birmingham News profiled Borg in 2010, "Joe Borg, Alabama Securities Commission boss, has reputation of being tough on crooks."

Note (10:50 p.m.): We changed the headline to correctly refer to Borg's title, Director of the Alabama Securities Commission.

Tennessee lawmakers on Friday gave final approval to the Tennessee Civil Justice Act of 2011, a major tort reform package and one of new Gov. Bill Haslam's very few legislative priorities to improve the state's business climate. In several votes in both chambers, the bill(s) (HB 2008 and SB 1522) passed by two-to-one margins, more or less.

• News release, "Haslam Applauds Final Passage of Tennessee Civil Justice Act!"
  
• News release from business coalition, "Tennesseans for Economic Growth Praise Governor Bill Haslam and Tennessee Lawmakers for Passing Comprehensive Civil Justice Reform Law"
  
• Nashville Public Radio, "Tort Reform Bill Heads to Governor, With Promise of More Debate in 2012"
  
• Memphis Commercial Appeal, "Tennessee House gives final approval to bill capping personal-injury damage awards"
  
• Southern Political Report, "Tennessee: Haslam, legislature enact conservative agenda"

Legislative debate over the bill took a celebrity turn when the Tennessee Association for Justice, the trial lawyer group, hired actor-turned-Senator-turned-actor Fred Thompson (R-TN) to lobby against the bill. The mixture of star power and avuncular testimony obviously didn't work.

Key provisions as identified in a news release from the Lieutenant Governor's office.

The Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday voted out S. 623, the Sunshine in Litigation Act, intended to compel judges to open settlement agreements and other court proceedings that seal confidential documents. Sen. Herb Kohl (D-WI), the sponsor, and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), talked about how the bill been improved and made more balanced. We don't see it. (See Shopfloor post, "Sunshine in Litigation Act, Polished Up a Little.")

An interesting little exchange followed the 12-6 vote to report out the bill:

Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT): I want to compliment Sen. Kohl. I know he has worked a long, long time on this.

Kohl: 18 years.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA): 18 years?

Kohl: It's been around for 18 years.

Leahy: 18 years. So congratulations.

We detect solicitude toward a senior. Sen. Kohl recently announced his decision not to seek re-election, and -- based on our decade of experience in and around the North Dakota Legislature -- we'd say his colleagues are paying respect to the Senator's years of service by letting the bill get out of committee and maybe even pass the Senate. Legislatures are human institutions, after all, and this sort of gesture has its place. Just as long as the bill doesn't become law.

BTW, the first time the Senator introduced the bill was August 6, 1993. It was S. 1404, the Sunshine in Litigation Act of 1993.

The Senate has just voted 52-43 on the motion to proceed to the nomination of Goodwin Liu to serve on the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, thus failing to reach the 60 votes needed to invoke cloture. (Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska was the only Democrat to vote against cloture. No Republicans voted for it. Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska was the only Republican to vote for it.)

UPDATE (3 p.m.): Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, was speaking on a bloggers' conference call as the vote came in. He said:

The problem of Professor Liu is he has never practiced law. He's lived in, I think, an unreal world. His writings are beyond anything I've ever seen in justifying the "evolving Constitution" theory. It's just remarkable.

I think everybody could agree that a judge takes an oath to faithfully follow the law, faithfully serve under the Constitution and under the laws of the United States. If the judge ha s a philosophy of judging that allows him to update based on cultural changes and advancements and all kinds of evolving standards, at some point they're so untethered from reality, so untethered from law, that they've moved judging from a law practice, an act of lawfulness, to an act of politics, and party and ideology and religion and sociology and whatever's in their head. And judges have never been empowered to do that. Judges are empowered to serve faithfully under the Constitution.

There's a strong belief -among people that studied this over the years - Orrin Hatch, Jon Kyl, Lindsey Graham, and certainly I felt this way - that this nominee was over the line. It wasn't even close. If I can't believe a judge will be faithful to the Constitution, I'm not going to vote for him.

Sen. Sessions was also asked about the message the vote sent to President Obama.

After a Republican Senator delivered his statement Wednesday against the nomination of Goodwin Liu to serve on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) had this to say: "I have been on the Judiciary Committee for 18 years. I have never heard a harsher statement about a brilliant young man than I have just heard."

She was referring to the remarks of Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA), the ranking Republican on the committee, whose (excellent) floor statement concluded:

If confirmed, I am concerned that Mr. Liu will deeply divide the Ninth Circuit and move that court even further to the left. If confirmed, his activist ideology and judicial philosophy would seep well beyond the Berkeley campus. Sitting on the Ninth Circuit, his opinions and rulings would have far reaching effect on individuals and businesses throughout the nine-state Circuit, including places like Bozeman, Montana; Boise, Idaho, and Anchorage, Alaska.

For the reasons I have articulated – (1)his controversial writings and speeches; (2)an activist judicial philosophy; (3) his lack of judicial temperament; (4) his lack of candor before the Committee, and (5) his limited experience – as well as many other concerns which I have not expressed today, I shall oppose this nomination.

Harsh!

It appears Liu's nomination is in serious trouble. The 11 Republicans who voted against a filibuster on the nomination of trial lawyer John "Jack" McConnell to be a U.S. District Court judge in Rhode Island were moved by arguments against "politicizing" the confirmation of district court nominees. But Liu, whose qualifications appear primarily to his being a "brilliant young man" -- he's 40 -- and a legal radical, is being nominated to the appellate court.

The Senate continues the debate on Liu at 11 a.m. with a cloture vote anticipated for 2 p.m.

• Politico, "Goodwin Liu teeters toward a loss"
• Fox News, "GOP On Track To Block Obama Judicial Nominee For First Time

UPDATE (10:15 a.m.): Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) tweets: "Goodwin Liu's outrageous attack on Judge Samuel Alito convinced me that he is an ideologue." When you've lost Sen. Graham ...

UPDATE (1:30 p.m.): Here's Graham's statement opposing Liu's nomination. On Senate floor, Graham says he accepts judicial candidates who have differing views, but there is no excuse for impugning the motives and reputations of conservative judicial nominees.