News stories by Analysis by WillIam Fisher

With the resignation of Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, U.S. President Barack Obama faces an opportunity that may become a migraine - or vice versa.

With Sonia Sotomayor’s swearing in over the weekend as an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, legal experts are aggressively debating what was learned from her four days of gruelling testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee - and whether these hearings are instructive or merely Capital Hill’s version of Kabuki Theatre.

Congressional Democrats and many Washington journalists are predicting that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s current dispute with the Central Intelligence Agency may ultimately hasten the push toward the last thing Republicans want - a comprehensive investigation of prisoner detention and interrogation during the administration of former President George W. Bush.

Human rights lawyers are proving to be a major headache for the new administration of President Barack Obama, stepping up court challenges on issues of prisoner abuse to test the reality of the president’s pledge to create a 'an unprecedented level of openness' in government.