GQ interviews former Attorney General John Ashcroft and it’s an interesting read. For example, the following is Ashcroft’s explanation on how he got into politics:

The way my life unfolded would have required the kind of vision that could make a man rich overnight. I mean, look at my career. I started out as a teacher. After five and a half years, the congressman from my district decides heís resigning, so I decide to go and sign up. I couldnít even name the counties in the district, but I said, ìWell, Iím going to make an American election out of this.î So I go out with more naÔvetÈ than you could get in two dump trucks and a coal train. And it turns out that there are two other kooksóI put myself in the categoryówho also sign up. So it becomes a four-man primary, and I lose. But little did I know that in losing, Iíd get the attention of the man who was being elected governor, Kit Bond, and his election would mean he vacated his position as state auditor, so he would appoint me to replace him. Now, if I had figured that out in advance, you would think that this is a guy whose counsel I should seek, because he can see around corners. But thatís the story of my life.

In another part of the interview, Ashcroft talks about one of his weaknesses:

You mentioned public outreach as a failure. What other failures did you have?
Oh, my gosh. How much time do you have? One thing, Iím too hasty to make decisions. Sometimes I think that Iím so right that I donít need to consider things carefully. Thatís when I have to be very careful. One good thing about the Justice Department is that there are lots of bright people. I mean, where theyíre used to flyspecking: ìNot so fast there.î ìAnd on the other hand.î ìHave you thought about this?î I staged meetings just for that purposeóto guard against my own propensity to make a snap judgment.

H’mm. Looks as if someone missed the “have you thought this through” meeting on the Justice Department’s decision to prosecute Arthur Andersen out of business.

Turnabout is fair play as this Third Circuit decision holds that the plaintiffs in a settled asbestos class action can pursue a class action against their lawyers for breach of fiduciary duty. The theory of the plaintiffs’ case is that their former class action attorneys did not disclose to the plaintiffs fee arrangements that the lawyers routinely made with local counsel that allegedly led to lower settlement payments for the plaintiffs. Not the greatest theory in the world, but what the heck.
At any rate, a U.S. District Court declined to certify the class and granted summary judgment for the defendant plaintiff’s lawyers, but a divided Third Circuit panel reversed and remanded on the grounds that the District Court used the wrong standard in evaluating the plaintiffs’ claims. Thus, under applicable Texas law, the appellate court ruled that the plaintiffs’ are entitled to proceed with their claims. As a result, a legal theory based on Texas law that tort reformers probably oppose is being used to pursue taking money out of the pockets of plaintiff’s lawyers, which is certainly something that the tort reformers support. This is a great state, isn’t it?
Hat tip to Robert Loblaw for the link to the Third Circuit decision.

Texas Supreme Court Justice Nathan L. Hecht, who was the subject of a public admonition by the State Commission on Judicial Conduct for his public support of former US Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers, was cleared by a three-judge Special Court of Review that heard Justice Hechtís appeal of the sanction, which carries no civil or criminal penalty. The ruling, which had been expected, noted that the ethics rules under which Justice Hecht was sanctioned were impermissably vague and did not apply to his public reply to questions regarding his relationship of Ms. Miers. One of the members of the special court concluded that Justice Hecht had violated the rules, but that the rules were unconstitutional because they limited his freedom of speech. This Chronicle article on the ruling includes pdfs of the special court’s opinions, but if you want them, move quickly — the Chronicle’s links do not always last long.

Peter Henning over at the White Collar Crime Prof Blog notes this Justice Department press release the other day announcing a wide-ranging crackdown on bankruptcy fraud, although none of the cases appear to have been landed in Houston:

United States Attorneys have filed criminal charges against 78 individuals in 69 separate prosecutions in 36 judicial districts on a variety of federal bankruptcy fraud and related counts, including 18 cases charged Tuesday, Deputy Attorney General Paul J. McNulty, announced today. The announcement is the culmination of ìOperation Truth or Consequences,î a nationwide sweep that demonstrates the breadth of enforcement actions taken by the Department of Justice to combat bankruptcy fraud and protect the integrity of the bankruptcy system. [. . .]
Collectively, the Operation Truth or Consequences bankruptcy fraud sweep includes charges filed against nine attorneys, two bankruptcy petition preparers, and one former law enforcement officer; alleged concealment of more than $3 million in assets; use of false Social Security numbers and false identities; submission of forged documents and use of false statements; defrauding of individuals whose homes were in foreclosure; fraudulent receipt of government loans and benefits; and various other unlawful acts.

I have no idea whether the DOJ’s initiative is justified. But bankruptcy is strong medicine with serious side effects, and the exposure to criminal liability in bankruptcy is often underestimated by debtors and their counsel. It shouldn’t be.

Two Houston doctors — Charles Frank Skripka Jr., 65, and Jayshree Patel, 62, — were among four local men who were convicted by a jury this past Friday afternoon in federal court on charges related to accepting kickbacks in a scheme that allegedly defrauded Medicare of more than $21 million. The other two men convicted were James Ekiko, 43, the owner of a medical equipment supply company, and David Dennis Brown, 47, who recruited patients into the scam.The Justice Department’s press release on the convictions is here.
The jury convicted all four men of health fraud in connection with a scheme to prescribe motorized wheelchairs to people who didn’t need them. Skripka, Ekiko and Brown also were convicted of wire fraud and conspiracy to defraud Medicare, while Skripka and Ekiko were also convicted of money laundering. Prosecutors contended that recruiters such as Brown would pay prospective patients $50 each to see the doctors, who would then prescribe motorized wheelchairs. The medical supply company would bill Medicare $4,200 for the wheelchairs that cost $1,600, pay the doctors $200 per prescription, and then pocket the balance as profit. At the height of the scam, the doctors were writing as many as 80 prescriptions a day!

Not just any judge has one of these. But it’s a darn good idea. The following is the website’s description:

The purpose of this site is to make freely and easily available to the public Richard Posner’s largest and greatest body of work ó his judicial opinions. The database contains opinions from 1981 to 2006. It will not contain the most recent opinions.
Why this site? While Posner’s books and popular writings are easily available to the public, his opinions are difficult or expensive for the public to access, let alone search. This site, for the first time, collects almost all of his opinions in a single searchable and easily readable database.
For lawyers and those interested in law, Posner’s opinions have a particular substantive value. One thing that distinguishes the opinions is the effort to try and get at why a given law actually exists, and an effort to try and make sense of the law. That can make them more useful than most case reports.
In addition, the opinions often develop the American general and state common law. Posner is among the judges who feels free to take the rule of Erie as more suggestion than injunction.
Finally, some of the opinions are funny.

I wonder whether Judge Easterbrook will get one, too?