WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Perhaps as significant as any contempt citation Congress might issue Attorney General Eric Holder on Thursday is the prospect that Republicans will also go to court to enforce congressional demand for documents – a tactic pursued only twice before in U.S. history.

The Republican-led House of Representatives is due to vote on whether to charge Holder, the country’s top law enforcement officer, with contempt of Congress for withholding documents in a botched gun-running sting operation on the U.S.-Mexico border.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Even before President Barack Obama and his Attorney General Eric Holder formally took office in 2009, the National Rifle Association stated that the new administration’s secret “gun-control agenda” posed a clear danger to America’s gun owners and the constitutional right to bear arms.

So after whistleblowers revealed a botched gun-running probe conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives — “Operation Fast and Furious” – a top NRA official called it another “Watergate.”

WASHINGTON, June 7 (Reuters) – The Obama administration
acted within its discretion two years ago when it reclassified
mortgage loan officers as eligible for overtime pay, a federal
judge has ruled in a case that tested the authority of U.S.
labor officials to set overtime rules.

The decision on Wednesday was a loss for mortgage lending
companies, which had hoped to invalidate the rule change as they
face lawsuits from loan officers for back overtime pay.

WASHINGTON, June 4 (Reuters) – The bankruptcy lawyers who
handle the biggest U.S. corporate restructurings responded with
hostility on Monday to new scrutiny of their fees, which can
reach hundreds of millions of dollars at the expense of
creditors.

The lawyers told officials of the U.S. Justice Department
they do not want to keep a budget, they do not want to disclose
details of their billing practices and they do not want to
justify expenses under $500.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Fifteen states asked the U.S. Justice Department on Monday for help in obtaining an anesthesia drug they use in executions but that a federal judge said in March was illegally imported.

The dispute is playing out in a lawsuit over whether the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has the authority to allow shipments of the sedative sodium thiopental into the country, even though the drug is not approved for U.S. use.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Two big cases addressing marriage rights for gays and lesbians are on track to reach the U.S. Supreme Court as soon as this year, keeping the focus on an issue President Barack Obama reignited with his endorsement this week.

The cases, originating on opposite coasts, go to the heart of a question that has churned for two decades: whether states and the federal government may refuse to recognize same-sex marriage.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Callers heaped insults on leading lobbyist Howard Marlowe when he sat in a television studio on Tuesday taking questions during a call-in program.

“I kind of think that you all are like money-launderers,” said one caller to the C-SPAN network identified as “Bob” in Petersburg, Virginia.

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) – Ernst & Young’s lobbying unit is no longer listed as a lobbyist for three major U.S. companies, all of whom were 2011 audit clients of the accounting giant. The deregistration follows questions raised by two U.S. senators in March about whether the dual relationships crossed auditor independence boundaries.

Documents filed last month with Congress showed that Washington Council Ernst & Young, the E&Y unit, was no longer registered as doing lobbying work for Amgen Inc (AMGN.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), CVS Caremark Corp (CVS.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Verizon Communications Inc (VZ.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz).

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Wal-Mart Stores Inc pushed back on Wednesday against suggestions that its lobbyists tried to scale back a U.S. anti-bribery law while the company was aware it may have violated the law.

The company said it “never lobbied on” possible changes to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the law that makes it a crime for U.S. companies to pay bribes overseas.

WASHINGTON, April 25 (Reuters) – Wal-Mart Stores Inc pushed
back on Wednesday against suggestions that its lobbyists tried
to scale back a U.S. anti-bribery law while the company was
aware it may have violated the law.

The company said it “never lobbied on” possible changes to
the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the law that makes it a crime
for U.S. companies to pay bribes overseas.