American Bar Association witnesses will be lead-off witnesses today as the Senate Judiciary Committee resumes its confirmation hearing for Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan.  

Kim Askew, chair of the ABA Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary, and William J. Kayatta Jr., a committee member from Maine, are scheduled to testify at 4 p.m. ET about how and why the ABA reached its evaluation that Kagan is “well qualified” to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States, giving her the highest possible rating the committee can give.

Written copies of their testimony will be posted on the ABA website by 4 p.m. ET at http://www.abanet.org/scfedjud/statements.html 

The hearing is being televised, and the Senate Judiciary Committee is webcasting the testimony from its site, http://judiciary.senate.gov/hearings/hearing.cfm?id=4679

Also, below is a host of ABA produced materials to support your coverage. The ABA Standing Committee works independently of the association and has been evaluating nominees since the Eisenhower Administration. These materials provide a look behind the scenes at what it takes to issue an ABA SCOTUS rating. 

All digital resources below are available for embedding, linking use, social network sharing and website/blog reproduction purposes in part or in their entirety.

Based on the excellence she has displayed during a long career, if not her evasiveness during her hearings, she is well qualified for the court.

A Montgomery law firm has filed a lawsuit against BP, Halliburton and Cameron International for a commercial landowner in Baldwin County.

Beasley Allen Crow Methvin Portis and Miles PC filed the suit on behalf of James E. Fisher and Kate C. Fisher, who own commercially zoned land in Baldwin County, according to a press release.

According to Beasley Allen, the Fishers have incurred damages to their property, earning capacity, business income and use of natural resources due to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

“Falling real estate values are just one more consequence of this environmental disaster,” said Rhon Jones, head of Beasley Allen’s Environmental Law section. “People who have purchased property as an investment, or who are simply trying to sell their home will be negatively affected by this oil spill. Even property that is not Gulf-front is impacted by the perception that the entire Gulf Coast has been ruined.”

Beasley Allen has filed several lawsuits in response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. They filed a class action lawsuit in April to recoup losses for individuals and business owners on the Gulf Coast. They also filed a lawsuit in June on behalf of scuba company Adventure Sports II and cases for a commercial fisherman and fishing deckhand who work in the Gulf’s waters.

BP has set up a $20 billion compensation fund to cover claims from individuals and businesses impacted by the oil spill that has leaked oil into the Gulf of Mexico and reached the shoreline.

A federal appeals court is set to hear the Justice Department's bid to delay a judge's decision to overturn a six-month deepwater drilling moratorium.

A three-judge panel from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans is scheduled to hear arguments Thursday from lawyers on both sides of a lawsuit filed by companies that oppose the Obama administration's temporary drilling ban.

The Interior Department says it halted new permits for deepwater projects and suspended drilling on 33 exploratory wells to protect the Gulf of Mexico from another environmental disaster while it studies the risks of deepwater drilling.

The government is asking the 5th Circuit panel for an order that would keep the moratorium in place while they appeal last month's ruling.

A Toronto-based law firm with a history of targeting litigation at corporations as varied as chocolate companies and silicone breast implant manufacturers has a new company in the crosshairs: Facebook.

Merchant Law Group, which has offices in 10 Canadian cities, last week launched litigation seeking class action status against the massive social-networking site, alleging the mishandling of sensitive user data--the latest development in a resurgence of action against the social network's privacy policies, after it looked for a while as if all the fuss had calmed down.

The suit alleges that Facebook changed user privacy settings and its terms of service without adequate consent from users, rendering a significant amount of information public to the Web when it had once been protected. The lead plaintiff is a Winnipeg, Manitoba, resident named Donald J. Woligroski, and the complaint alleges that he "has been subject to, inter alia, breach of privacy and the misappropriation of his personal information and, in the addition or alternative, the conversion of said information for commercial use through the materially deceptive conduct of the Defendant"--that defendant being Facebook.

A mattress and furniture retailer here has won a $7.3 million emotional distress verdict against a law firm in a case involving the now-defunct Northern Mattress & Furniture Co. of Fairfield, Maine, according to a report in the Kennebec Journal.

Peter Redman, who now operates Priceless Mattress & Furniture in Augusta, Maine, said the firm Bernstein Shur Sawyer & Nelson was negligent in representing him in a sexual harassment claim brought by a co-worker at the former store in 2004.

He won the case at a jury trial three weeks ago, the Journal reported. An attorney representing the law firm said his client will ask for a new trial.

Republican Sen. John McCain says he plans to vote against confirming Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan.

The Arizona senator's decision makes him the latest in the GOP to oppose President Barack Obama's nominee to succeed retiring Justice John Paul Stevens.

McCain says Kagan is unlikely to exercise judicial restraint, based on her decision as dean of Harvard Law School to bar military recruiters from the campus career services office because of the ban on openly gay soldiers.

Democrats have more than enough votes to confirm Kagan. So far, no Republican has announced plans to back her.