The so-called state secrets privilege was invoked by the previous administration to stymie a lawsuit challenging the government's warrantless wiretapping program.

"The attorney general has directed that senior Justice Department officials review all assertions of the state secrets privilege to ensure that is being invoked only in legally appropriate situations," Justice Department spokesman Matt Miller said Monday.

"It's vital that we protect information that if released could jeopardize national security, but the Justice Department will ensure the privilege is not invoked to hide from the American people information about their government's actions that they have a right to know," said Miller.

Even as officials promised a thorough review, government lawyers continued to invoke the state secrets law Monday in a federal appeals court in San Francisco. That case involves a lawsuit over the CIA's extraordinary rendition program.

Under that program, U.S. operatives seized foreign suspects and handed them over to other countries for questioning.

Some former prisoners subjected to the process contend they were tortured. Proving that in court has been difficult, as evidence they have sought to corroborate their claims has been protected by the president's state secrets privilege.

The American Civil Liberties Union has been urging the Obama administration to drop its state secrets claim.

ACLU executive director Anthony Romero criticized the new administration's handling of the San Francisco case by continuing the legal arguments of the prior administration.

"Candidate Obama ran on a platform that would reform the abuse of state secrets, but President Obama's Justice Department has disappointingly reneged on that important civil liberties issue," Romero said in a statement.

Muntadhar al-Zaidi, a reporter of Cairo-based Baghdadia Iraqi television, will stand trial on charge of assaulting a foreign leader, Abdula Sattar al-Beirqdar, spokesman of the Higher Judicial Council, told reporters.

Zaidi, 29, has been in custody after he threw his shoes at Bush during a joint statement with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in Baghdad on Dec. 14, 2008.

Late on December, Zaidi was supposed to face an Iraqi court, but his defense team head Diyaa al-Saadi won a postponement after he presented an impugn for the charges against his client.

Saadi wanted to reduce the charge of "assaulting a foreign head of a state during official visit" to simply an insult to Bush.

However, the spokesman confirmed that the assault charge, which is an offense that carries a prison term of between five to 15 years under Iraqi law, will stand.

Court officials compiled their first ever tally of bail jumpers in the city at the request of The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Before the newspaper raised the issue, the magnitude of the problem was unknown. Court officials initially told the Inquirer that only $2 million was owed.

A criminal defendant in Philadelphia is usually freed after paying 10 percent of the bail. Defendants who show up for trial get that money back, minus a small fee.

People who don't show up forfeit the 10 percent and owe the remaining 90 percent, but the city has made little effort to collect that money.

Johnnie Cochran -- O..J. Simpson's famous lawyer -- died four years ago, but remains a powerful brand for his law firm.

The massive visage of legendary defense attorney Johnnie Cochran has been gazing down from Twin Cities billboards in recent days.

They're advertising his firm's recent arrival in the metro area.

But if you harbor hopes of having your legal case handled by the lawyer who most famously won the acquittal of O. J. Simpson, there's one problem: Cochran has been dead for nearly four years.

The departed Cochran remains a powerful brand for his law firm, which has expanded into 28 offices in 18 states from its original Los Angeles base.

"It's absolutely a branding thing for us," said James Rolshouse, who is lead attorney in the firm. "If I move into a market and try to brand Jim Rolshouse, it'd be a waste of money."

And, he added, it's not misleading just because the firm's founder is dead. "It's still the Cochran law firm," Rolshouse said.

There's nothing subtle about the billboards. "INJURED?" one screams in bright red letters, adding that the firm has "aggressive personal injury attorneys."

Locally, the firm opened offices in Burnsville and downtown Minneapolis late last year. Six attorneys work for it.

The billboards have been up for just a couple of days. Eventually about 45 will be erected around the Twin Cities, Rolshouse said.

The billboard rollout follows a few local radio and TV ads.

Cochran was 67 when he died of an inoperable brain tumor in 2005.

A veteran Baton Rouge lawyer has been suspended indefinitely by the Louisiana Supreme Court for alleged misconduct and now faces disbarment.


Donald Ray Smith began practicing law in Louisiana in 1976. He's now accused of practicing law without a license and taking money from clients without performing his legal duties.

The Louisiana Supreme Court on Friday suspended Smith indefinitely based on the charges brought by the Office of Disciplinary Counsel, which prosecutes alleged attorney misconduct. Court records show Smith has yet to dispute the allegations brought by the ODC since prosecutors took the first of a series of complaints against him in June 2005.

Court records show Smith has been serving as an attorney in the state despite being ineligible to practice law in Louisiana since 2004.

Steele paid more than $37,000 to a Maryland company run by his sister, Monica Turner, for work related to his unsuccessful 2006 Senate campaign. If she was not reimbursed, both he and his sister would be violating campaign finance laws, said Steele.

"It was a legitimate reimbursement of expenses," Steele said on ABC's "This Week."

Steele became the first black national chairman in the RNC's history last month. He was the first black candidate elected to statewide office in Maryland in 2002, when he became lieutenant governor, and was chairman of the Maryland Republican Party and then chairman of GOPAC, an organization that recruits and trains Republican political candidates.

Steele's former finance chairman, Alan B. Fabian, claimed to federal prosecutors that Steele made the payment to the company, which was then out of business, as Fabian was seeking leniency on unrelated fraud charges, The Washington Post reported Saturday. Prosecutors gave Fabian no credit for cooperation when he was sentenced in October, the newspaper said.

The charges were made in a confidential sentencing memorandum sent by the U.S. Attorney's office in Maryland inadvertently along with other documents requested by the Post.