The Appellate Staff was established in 1953 by Warren Burger,
then Assistant Attorney General of the Civil Division. Attorneys on the Staff
draft briefs and argue cases in the courts of appeals. In addition, each attorney
participates in drafting various documents for the United States Supreme Court,
including petitions for certiorari and briefs on the merits.
The Staff's broad and varied litigation includes constitutional
issues of individual liberties, issues of societal and collective rights exercised
by the government and issues affecting national security and executive authority.
For example, the Appellate Staff has been involved in several cases challenging
state AMegan's Laws,@ laws that protect children by requiring released sex offenders
to register with state officials and permitting the state to publish their identities
so that communities can be aware of the presence of these sex offenders.
In Global Relief Foundation v. O'Neill, the Appellate
Staff successfully defended against challenges to actions taken by the Secretary
of Treasury pursuant to the global terrorism financing executive order issued
by President Bush. Global Relief, a charitable organization with ties to Hamas,
a foreign terrorist organization, had claimed that the blocking, in aid of investigation,
of their bank accounts and business records violated the International Emergency
Economic Powers Act and the Constitution.
The Appellate Staff also handles cases with enormous potential
impact on the public fisc. In Schism v. United States, for example,
plaintiffs sought free lifetime medical care (for themselves and their dependants),
contending that the Government induced them to serve in the military by recruiters'
repeated promises that, upon retirement, they and their dependents would be
entitled to such care. The government advised the appellate court that the
Department of Defense had estimated that the panel's decision could potentially
lead to claims by 1.5 million individuals for more than $15 billion in damages.
The Appellate Staff is also actively participating in important
litigation concerning campaign finance reform. McConnell v. FEC involves
a challenge to the constitutionality of various provisions of the Bipartisan
Campaign Finance Reform Act of 2002, popularly known as the McCain-Feingold
statute, which imposes various restrictions on the financing of federal election
campaigns.
