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Congress passed the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998 which required Presidential appointees to federal agencies to be confirmed by the Senate. President Obama sought to avoid the confirmation process by installing his permanent nominees as “acting” officers. This particular case arises from his appointment of Lafe Solomon as acting General Counsel to the National Labor Relations Board. AEF and its partner, Washington Legal Foundation, argued in support of upholding the DC Circuit’s opinion which held that permitting a permanent appointment to begin work as an “acting” appointment...

AEF has been active in fighting to uphold the integrity of the legal system and has consistently opposed the forum shopping practices of the plaintiffs’ bar, which often results in excessive judgments or forced settlements which are passed on to the general public. Bristol-Myers Squibb v. Superior Court involves an appeal by AEF and its partner, Washington Legal Foundation, from what AEF feels is a misguided California Supreme Court decision which extends California jurisdiction over an out-of-state defendant in violation of a previous U.S. Supreme Court decision (Daimler Ag v. Bauman). T...

The U.S. Supreme Court overturned a decision by the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit that would have permitted private plaintiffs to sue for money damages under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) for injuries allegedly suffered abroad. By clarifying that a private Rico plaintiff must be able to allege and prove a domestic injury, the decision in RJR Nabisco, Inc v. The European Community sharply reduces claims brought under RICO for overseas activity that has little or no connection to the United States. The decision marks another victory for the Allied Edu...

The Allied Educational Foundation suffered a setback in its battle against corruption by governmental officials when the Supreme Court threw out the corruption conviction of former Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell. McDonnell was convicted of granting political favors to a Richmond businessman in exchange for golf outings, lavish vacations and $120,000 in loans. The conviction was upheld by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, but the Supreme Court agreed with former Governor McDonnell’s argument that the federal statutes penalizing bribery and extortion were unconstituti...

AEF is pleased to report a victory in the Oregon high court in the case of Rains v. Stayton Builders Mart, inc., in which we partnered with the Washington Legal Foundation. The court held that the Oregon State Legislature could impose reasonable limits on "non-economic" damage in a tort action (such as pain and suffering and punitive damages). Why is this important? The moving party trying to eliminate limits on judgments is the plaintiffs' bar because plaintiffs’ lawyers generally get paid a large contingency fee and seek to maximize jury awards and their resulting l...

In 1776, America’s Founders gathered in Philadelphia to draft the Declaration of Independence, which dissolved the political ties that had bound the American people to Great Britain. A new nation was thus born, free and independent, the United States of America. Eleven years later, in 1787, after American patriots had won our independence on the battlefield, many of the men who had met earlier in Philadelphia, plus others, met there again to draft a plan for governing the new nation, the Constitution of the United States. In 1789, after the plan had been ratified, the new government was esta...