US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales unveiled the First Freedom Project (FFP) Tuesday afternoon, a new Department of Justice initiative aimed at stricter enforcement of laws against religious discrimination and educating the public about their rights in this area. The DOJ will hold training seminars across the US in conjunction with the program, and the FFP website includes instructions on how to file a religious discrimination complaint with the DOJ. The program was prompted by a DOJ report, also released Tuesday, that describes how the DOJ's Civil Rights Division has "dramatically increased enforcement" of religious discrimination laws between 2001 and 2006.

Gonzales made the following remarks during a Wednesday meeting of the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention:

The Department of Justice has actively pursued cases involving religion not just in access to education and public facilities, but in equal access to housing, lending, and employment as well. Over the past six years, we have had many successes. We've launched scores of investigations involving religious discrimination in education and housing, a sharp and marked increase in the Justice Department's enforcement of these important federal protections. We have fought to maintain and make clear the crucial distinction between improper government speech endorsing religion and constitutionally protected private speech endorsing religion.

Why should it be permissible for an employee standing around the water cooler to declare that 'Tiger Woods is God,' but a firing offense for him to say 'Jesus is Lord'? These are the kinds of contradictions we are trying to address...

As part of our ongoing efforts to strengthen and preserve religious liberty in this country, I am unveiling today a new initiative: the First Freedom Project. Under this program, the Department will build on our extensive record of achievement in this area and commit to even greater enforcement of religious rights for all Americans.

Federal investigators and prosecutors fudged data on the number of anti-terrorism investigations and cases for the four years after 9/11, according to an audit by US Department of Justice Inspector General Glenn A. Fine released Tuesday.

In a report on terrorism-related incidents and case-loads, the inspector general found that "some of these statistics were significantly overstated or understated." According to the audit, DOJ officials used non-terror-related immigration violations and drug trafficking to inflate the number of anti-terror cases reported.

The data was collected from multiple DOJ divisions, including the FBI, the Executive Office of US Attorneys, the Criminal Division, and the US Attorney's Office , and is used to monitor the DOJ's efficiency in fighting terrorism.

The Justice Department today announced that on Feb. 20, 2007, it will monitor the special election in Richmond County (Staten Island), N.Y., to ensure compliance with the Voting Rights Act. The Department monitors will watch and record activities during voting hours at polling locations in the county. A Civil Rights Division attorney will coordinate the federal activities and maintain contact with local election officials.

Each year, the Justice Department deploys hundreds of federal observers from the Office of Personnel Management, as well as departmental staff, to monitor elections across the country. During calendar year 2004, a record number of 1,463 federal observers and 533 Department personnel were sent to monitor 163 elections in 105 jurisdictions in 29 states. This compares to the 640 federal observers and 103 Department personnel deployed during the entire 2000 presidential calendar year. In 2006, another record was set for the mid-term elections with more than 800 federal observers and Department personnel sent to monitor polling places in 69 jurisdictions in 22 states on Election Day. The Department’s election monitoring program also has been very active in non-federal election years. In calendar year 2005, for example, 640 federal observers and 191 Department personnel were sent to monitor 47 elections in 36 jurisdictions in 14 states.

Hanson Bridgett Marcus Vlahos & Rudy LLP said the former lawyer for the San Francisco 49ers has joined the firm.

Ed Goines spent five years with the football team as vice president and general counsel, He directed the legal and business contractual matters of 49ers' sponsorship and broadcast media contracts, player and coaching contracts and front office employment agreements. Goines also acted as a liaison to governmental officials.

Goines left the team in May 2006 and started a solo practice focusing on sports and entertainment law.

Goines decided to bring his practice to San Francisco-based Hanson Bridgett in order to offer his clients more services. Goines' sports and entertainment practice, Sui Generis P.C., will operate from Hanson Bridgett's San Francisco office. Goines and Hanson Bridgett share some clients, including Russell Baze, thoroughbred racing's winningest jockey.

Former Enron prosecutor Kathy Ruemmler has joined the law firm of Latham & Watkins in Washington, D.C.

Ruemmler was one of three Assistant U.S. Attorneys who took leading roles in the 2004 Enron Nigerian barge case and the criminal trial of former Enron executives Jeff Skilling and Ken Lay last year.

Prior to joining the Department of Justice in 2001, Ruemmler was Associate Counsel to President Bill Clinton. She also handled white collar criminal defense cases and civil litigation at both Latham and Zuckerman Spaeder in Washington.

She joins former Enron Task Force chief Sean Berkowitz, who joined Latham in November.