The American Bar Association (ABA) released a statement Friday expressing concern about congressional funding for federal public defenders. The group notes that federal courts have requested $1.69 billion in FY 2025 to meet the constitutional requirement of providing public defenders to every criminal defendant who cannot afford a lawyer. The U.S. House of Representatives, according to the association, has proposed $1.5 billion in funding. Although this represents a 3.4% increase over current funding, it falls short of what is needed, the ABA says.

Rep. James Comer, R-Kentucky, chair of the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, is urging the U.S. Judicial Conference to review the role of litigation finance, including considering transparency rules and mandatory disclosure of outside funding in federal lawsuits. “Understanding the funding terms, sources, financial details and potential conflicts of interest are vital to ensuring informed decision-making and guarding against perceptions of undue influence,” Comer wrote in a letter to U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts. The Judicial Conference meets twice a year and makes recommendations to Congress concerning legislation involving the judicial branch. The chief justice serves as its presiding officer. Bloomberg Law has more.

A bipartisan group of U.S. senators, including Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn, have introduced a bill that would protect creatives and journalists from the unauthorized use of their work by artificial intelligence (AI). The Associated Press reports that the “Content Origin Protection and Integrity from Edited and Deepfaked Media Act” (COPIED Act) would require developers and providers of AI tools to allow content owners to attach to their work information documenting the origin and history of the asset. Any content with this attachment could not be used to train AI models or generate AI content. News Channel 5 has the story.

U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-New York, has introduced articles of impeachment against U.S. Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, The Hill reports. The congresswoman said in a statement that the justices’ "pattern of refusal to recuse from consequential matters before the court in which they hold widely documented financial and personal entanglements constitutes a grave threat to American rule of law." She also says the pair should be removed for their “failure to disclose” millions of dollars in gifts over decades.

U.S. Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Brentwood and Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota have introduced a bipartisan bill that would establish a national human trafficking database at the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The Tennessean reports that the program would compile state-level trafficking crime data, streamline connections with anti-trafficking and survivor support organizations, create incentives for state agencies to report data, and provide federal grants to support collection and reporting of data. A risk assessment index outlined in the bill is based on the success of a Tennessee data collection program facilitated by Belmont University’s Data Collaborative.

The U.S. House of Representatives voted today to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt for refusing to turn over audio recordings of a special counsel interview with Democratic President Joe Biden. The measure passed 216-207 on a party-line vote with one Republican joining Democrats in voting no. Garland is the third attorney general to be held in contempt: both Eric Holder (under President Barack Obama) and Bill Barr (under President Donald Trump) were held in contempt, but the Justice Department did not pursue charges in either case. Reuters has the story.

The federal judiciary and the U.S. Supreme Court would receive increased funding for security in a bill approved by a U.S. House subcommittee. The judiciary would receive $774.4 million for court security, a 4% boost, while the court would get extra funding to support protection of justices' homes. The bill next goes to the full House Appropriations Committee, where several lawmakers said they plan try to amend it. Reuters has more on the proposal.

U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles' campaign finance reports have been under scrutiny and were the basis of an ethics complaint filed against him in January by the Campaign Legal Center, a campaign finance watchdog group. According to the Nashville Banner, Ogles amended nearly a dozen past campaign finance reports this week, acknowledging that a reported $320,000 personal loan he made to his campaign never happened and was a "pledge if needed." Axios Nashville reports that in April, Ogles filed a disclosure showing he had about $449,000 cash on hand, including the $320,000. On his amended form, the outstanding obligation was reduced to $20,000.

The U.S. House of Representatives has passed the "Transparency In Charges for Key Events Ticketing (TICKET) Act," which would require event ticket sellers to disclose the total cost of tickets upfront to consumers, including so-called hidden fees. According to The Hill, lawmakers say the bill is aimed at increasing transparency in the live event ticket marketplace by requiring the full cost of event tickets to be disclosed to consumers upfront. The bill also seeks to ban sales of tickets that sellers do not have and guarantee refunds for event cancellations, according to a release detailing the measure. The bill also has been introduced in the U.S. Senate.

The U.S. House Judiciary Committee today approved a measure asking the Department of Justice to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress. The party line vote moves the measure to the House Oversight Committee, which is expected to vote this evening, The Hill reports. The committees are seeking access to audio recordings of President Joe Biden’s interview with special counsel Robert Hur. While they already have transcripts of the proceeding, Republican members argue that the audio recordings could be more revealing. The Biden administration recently claimed executive privilege over the recordings, making it unlikely the department would pursue charges of criminal contempt even if the measure passed the full Congress.