Civil legal aid groups that receive money from the Legal Services Corp. estimated that they will cut 163 lawyers and 230 other employees this year after Congress trimmed the agency’s budget by 14 percent for fiscal 2012, according to an LSC survey released Thursday.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that the Constitution did not bar Congress from extending copyright protection to previously free foreign works, rejecting arguments by musicians, conductors, publishers and others who enjoyed free access before Congress acted in 1994.

GOP presidential contender Newt Gingrich ignited a controversy when he proposed that “activist” judges be hauled before Congress or given the boot (along with entire courts, in some instances). In this commentary, Joel Cohen calls on fellow members of the bar to form a united defense against such attacks on an independent judiciary.

Holland & Knight on Wednesday notified Congress that it is no longer lobbying for AT&T, becoming the first firm to disclose that it ceased its government advocacy work for the company after the telecommunications provider dropped its planned acquisition of T-Mobile USA in December.

Saying that Congress has barred the judicial branch from reviewing the treatment of detainees, a D.C. federal judge has tossed out the lawsuit of a former Guantanamo Bay detainee seeking damages for the physical and psychological abuse to which he was allegedly subjected at the U.S. military base.