* At the Supreme Court, much ado about a cross. [Washington Post (Robert Barnes); Washington Post (Dana Milbank)]

* Former Heller Ehrman partners deny that the firm was insolvent in 2007. [Am Law Daily]

* The new Honduran government, which came to power through a coup, has hired lawyers and law firms — including Lanny Davis, who recently moved from Orrick to McDermott — to defend its legitimacy. [New York Times]

* And there may be more work for antitrust lawyers, thanks to a new Justice Department invesitgation of IBM. [Reuters]

* Key Democratic lawyers agree to allow Guantanamo detainees to be transferred to the U.S. for trial. [Washington Post]

* Prosecutors drop one victim from the case, but Judge Herman “Who Needs A Spanking?” Thomas still faces charges dozens of counts related to 14 other victims. [CNN]

* No, it’s not your imagination: Gov. Jon Corzine’s campaign commercials are making fun of former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie (pictured) for being fat. (Disclosure: We worked as an AUSA under Christie from 2003 until 2006.) [New York Times]

One of the stranger events during our time in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Jersey was when U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie called an all-hands meeting to announce he was NOT resigning to run for governor. It was a bit odd to announce a non-event, but considering all the water-cooler gossip over the possibility, it made sense to squelch the speculation.

Today Chris Christie convened another all-hands meeting, this time with a different message. From the Newark Star-Ledger:

U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie today resigned his post effective December 1. Christie, 46, a leading contender for the GOP gubernatorial nomination, announced his resignation during a staff meeting at 11 a.m. Christie was not available for comment. His office released a copy of his resignation letter [PDF].

A tipster who attended the meeting said that Christie didn’t mention where he’ll be going. One good guess: Republican holiday parties.

Christie served as U.S. Attorney for almost seven years. In the near term, he will probably be replaced by first assistant Ralph Marra, Jr. (as Acting U.S. Attorney). In terms of who might get the nod in the Obama Administration, some mention the politically well-connected Joe Hayden (husband of Judge Katherine Hayden). Others talk about Essex County Prosecutor Paula Dow, who previously served as an AUSA in Newark, and who would bring diversity to the table (as an African-American woman).

Today seems to be resignation day for New York area U.S. attorneys. Here’s some S.D.N.Y. news, from the WSJ Law Blog:

[P]eople close to the Southern District of New York U.S. attorney’s office tell the Law Blog that USA Michael Garcia will notify prosecutors of his departure during a 5 p.m. meeting.

That’s in five minutes. If anything unexpected comes out of the meeting, we’ll let you know. Unlike Christie’s, Garcia’s next destination is known: Kirkland & Ellis.

U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie steps down [Newark Star-Ledger]
Christopher J. Christie resignation letter (PDF) [Newark Star-Ledger]
Chris Christie coverage [Politicker - NJ.com]
N.Y. federal prosecutor stepping down [AP]
NJ USA Christie Resigns, SDNY’s Garcia to Announce Resignation Today [WSJ Law Blog]

Earlier: Legal Stars of the New Administration

Legendary litigator Brendan Sullivan, who has been involved in some of the most high-profile cases of the past few decades, ensured his place in Bartlett’s when he quipped at the Iran-Contra hearings: “I’m not a potted plant.”

But despite not being a potted plant, Sullivan was unable to prevail against two of our former colleagues, Michael Martinez and Craig Carpenito, of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Jersey. Martinez and Carpenito, a pair of superb young lawyers, were given the daunting task of handling the third trial of former Cendant chairman Walter Forbes. Their triumph over Sullivan and his Williams & Connolly team is chronicled in a fascinating article by Andrew Longstreth in this month’s American Lawyer.

More discussion of the piece, with a few added comments from us, after the jump.

Despite the catchy and provocative title we’ve bestowed upon this story, we must confess: We don’t completely “get” the quasi-scandal surrounding the dismissal of eight U.S. Attorneys around the country (which the WSJ Law Blog has officially upgraded from a “flap” to an “imbroglio”).

The fired folks were not career prosecutors. The chief federal prosecutor in a district is a political appointee, who serves at the pleasure of the president. The president’s power over these posts is pretty much plenary (subject to the Senate’s “advise and consent” function, of course).

For better or worse, U.S. Attorney posts have long been treated as “patronage” posts — in both Republican and Democratic administrations. When a new president takes office, he generally cashiers all (or nearly all) of the 94 U.S. Attorneys, even if they’re doing perfectly fine jobs.

An incoming president doesn’t have to give any reason for dismissing a federal prosecutor. If he did, the reason might be something like: “‘Cause I want to give the job to my fundraising buddy and/or political ally.”

Consider the example of our former boss, Christopher J. Christie, the U.S. Attorney for New Jersey. Christie has been widely praised as a dynamic and effective U.S. attorney — praise that is raising speculation about what he might do next. But at the time he assumed the post, he had practically no criminal law experience. Critics claimed that Chris Christie’s main “qualification” for the job was his (and his family’s) skill at raising funds for Bush.

True? Maybe; maybe not. But that’s why they call it politics, people.

Continued ramblings, plus lots of links, after the jump.

Lately we’ve been distracted by the salacious, sensational lawsuit of Charney v. Sullivan & Cromwell. But fear not, loyal readers — we have not forgotten about Shanetta Y. Cutlar, the commendably strong-willed chief of the Special Litigation Section, in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.

First, a cinematic digression. Early in The Devil Wears Prada, there’s a great scene in which high-powered editrix Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep) steps onto an elevator. A junior magazine staffer is already inside the car. But as soon as Miranda sets foot in it, the terrified staffer mutters an apology and flees, so Miranda can ride the elevator alone.

This type of incident doesn’t happen just in the shiny Gotham tower of Conde Nast Elias-Clarke Publications. It also happens, surprisingly enough, at the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington.

From an email we received from an attorney in the Special Litigation Section of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, presided over by the diva-licious Shanetta Cutlar:

Do you know how Shanetta reacts when someone reaches to stop the elevator when she is on it? How she chews them out for daring to stop the elevator she is on — because she is more important, and could be on her way to a meeting with the “front office”?

Or, how no one goes NEAR the elevators between 3:45pm & 4:30pm, without a drop-dead emergency, for fear of running into Shanetta, and being grilled about where one is going? Then called into her office the next day, to discuss “professionalism” — despite the fact that you got in that morning way before she did?

Props to Shanetta Cutlar for wearing her authority like an ermine-trimmed cloak. We never had a boss this cool when we worked for the DOJ.

In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. Once we were on a completely packed elevator in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Newark (D.N.J.), riding down from the ninth floor. The elevator was full because the entire office was headed to the second floor, for an “all hands” meeting.

The elevator stopped on the seventh floor, the “power floor” of 970 Broad Street. The doors opened, to reveal the U.S. Attorney himself, Chris Christie, and two other members of the “front office.” They were waiting, of course, for the elevator.

Several of us immediately tried to get off the crowded elevator, to make room for Christie and his lieutenants. But he wouldn’t hear of it. He insisted on waiting for the next one, and he practically pushed everyone back into the car. How lame!

WWSCD? She would have ordered everyone off that packed elevator, so she could ride down to the second floor — in solitude.

And THAT, boys and girls, is what you call leadership.

P.S. Interesting questions raised in this recent comment. Do any of you SPLers know the answers?

Earlier: Prior coverage of the Special Litigation Section under Shanetta Cutlar (scroll down)