The Ashcroft Memo with its " sound legal basis " standard encouraged ( or at least seemed to support ) greater use of FOIA exemptions by federal agency personnel.

Ashcroft was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Grace P. ( née Larsen ) and James Robert Ashcroft.

In 1974, Ashcroft was narrowly defeated for election to that post by Jackson County County Executive George W. Lehr, who argued that Ashcroft, who is not an accountant, was not qualified to be the State Auditor.

Missouri Attorney General John Danforth, who was then in his second term, hired Ashcroft as an Assistant Attorney General.

In 1976, Danforth was elected to the U. S. Senate, and Ashcroft was elected to replace him as State Attorney General.

In 1980, Ashcroft was re-elected with 64. 5 percent of the vote and winning 96 of Missouri's 114 counties.

Ashcroft was elected governor in 1984 and re-elected in 1988, becoming the first ( and, to date, the only ) Republican elected to two consecutive terms in Missouri history.

During his second term ( 1991-92 ), Ashcroft was the chairman of the National Governors Association.

While Ashcroft was in office:

* Though Ashcroft initially opposed the legislation, while he was governor, Missouri enacted its first hate crimes legislation, creating penalties for ethnic intimidation and crimes committed for motives based on race, color, religion, or national origin, and penalties for institutional vandalism for damages to ethnically-related buildings and property.

In 1994 Ashcroft was elected to the U. S. Senate from Missouri, again succeeding a retiring John Danforth.

In December 2000, following his Senatorial defeat, Ashcroft was chosen for the position of US attorney general by president-elect George W. Bush who was impressed by Ashcroft.

After the September 11, 2001 attacks, Ashcroft was a key supporter of passage of the USA PATRIOT Act.

In March 2004, the Justice Department under Attorney General John Ashcroft ruled that the Stellar Wind domestic intelligence program was illegal.

In March 2006, the New York Times reported that Ashcroft was setting himself up as something of an " anti-Abramoff ", and that in an hour long interview, Ashcroft used the word integrity scores of times.

Ashcroft was subsequently hired by the National Association of Broadcasters, which is strongly opposed to the merger.

Ashcroft composed a paean called " Let the Eagle Soar " which he sang at the Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in February 2002, which was satirically featured in Michael Moore's 2004 movie Fahrenheit 9 / 11 and has been frequently mocked by comedians such as David Letterman, Stephen Colbert and David Cross, to name a few.

In the 1986 TV play, Murder by the Book, Christie herself ( Dame Peggy Ashcroft ) murdered one of her fictional-turned-real characters, Poirot.

Other books written by Ashcroft are On My Honor: The Beliefs that Shape My Life and Never Again: Securing America and Restoring Justice.

When Karl Rove was being questioned by the FBI over the leak of a covert CIA agent's identity in the press, Ashcroft was allegedly briefed about the investigation.

Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition,, further upheld these rights by invalidating the Child Pornography Prevention Act of 1996, holding that, because the act " rohibit child pornography that does not depict an actual child ..." it was overly broad and unconstitutional under the First Amendment and that:

Iachimo was played by Geoffrey Keen, whose father Malcolm had played Jachimo with Ashcroft at the Old Vic in 1932.

Supporting the law were the U. S. government, represented by the Attorney General in an ex officio capacity ( originally Janet Reno, later replaced by John Ashcroft ), along with a set of amici including the Motion Picture Association of America, the Recording Industry Association of America, ASCAP and Broadcast Music Incorporated.

President Bush's then-Attorney General, John Ashcroft denied that private residences would be surveilled by private citizens operating as government spies.

Mr. Ashcroft nonetheless defended the program, equivocating on whether the reports by citizens on fellow citizens would be maintained in government databases.

Ashcroft said the five videotapes, shown by the FBI without sound, had been recovered from the rubble of the home of Mohammad Atef outside of Kabul, Afghanistan.

Other famous works presented at the Savoy included the première of Noël Coward's Blithe Spirit ( 1941, which ran 1, 997 consecutive performances, setting a new record for non-musical theatre runs ), Robert Morley in The Man Who Came to Dinner, and several comedies by William Douglas-Home starring, among others, Ralph Richardson, Peggy Ashcroft, and John Mills.

* The 1984 film version directed by David Lean, and starring Judy Davis, Victor Bannerjee, James Fox, Peggy Ashcroft and Alec Guinness, won two Oscars and numerous other awards.

Arguments have been advanced by Neil Ashcroft and others that there is a melting point maximum in compressed hydrogen, but also that there may be a range of densities ( at pressures around ) where hydrogen may be a liquid metal, even at low temperatures.

Eremets et al., confirming earlier theoretical prediction by Ashcroft.

The Verve were an English alternative rock band formed in 1989 in Wigan by lead vocalist Richard Ashcroft, guitarist Nick McCabe, bass guitarist Simon Jones and drummer Peter Salisbury.

While on the USS Bataan, Attorney General John Ashcroft, on January 16, 2002, announced that Lindh would be tried in the United States.

John David Ashcroft ( born May 9, 1942 ) is an American politician who served as the 79th U. S. Attorney General ( 2001-05 ), in the George W. Bush Administration.

While Attorney General, Ashcroft consistently denied that the FBI or any other law enforcement agency had used the Patriot Act to obtain library circulation records or those of retail sales.

When interviewed about it, he stated, “ I certainly believe that people who are in pain should be helped and assisted in every way possible, that the drugs should be used to mitigate their pain but I believe the law of the United States of America which requires that drugs not be used except for legitimate health purposes .” " Attorney General Ashcroft Asks Supreme Court To Ban Assisted Suicide – California Healthline.

* 1942 – John Ashcroft, American politician, 79th United States Attorney General

In Monday, 18 March 2002 the Attorney General of the United States John Ashcroft indicted leaders of the FARC after an 18-month investigation into their narcotics trafficking.

In 2003 John Gilmore sued United Airlines, Southwest Airlines and U. S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, arguing that requiring passengers to show identification before boarding domestic flights is tantamount to an internal passport, and is unconstitutional.

On June 6, 2002, Attorney General Ashcroft proposed regulations that would create a special registration program that required males aged 16 to 64 who were citizens of designated foreign nations resident in the U. S. to register with the Immigration and Naturalization Service ( INS ), have their identity verified, and be interviewed, photographed and fingerprinted.

* 5: 00 p. m .: Attorney General John Ashcroft announces that some of the hijackers were pilots trained in the U. S.

* 2: 50 PM US Attorney General John Ashcroft press briefing: 96, 000 tips.

As a result, U. S. Attorney General John Ashcroft announced McVeigh's execution would be stayed for one month.

* May 9 – John Ashcroft, United States Attorney General

When United States Attorney General John Ashcroft on June 10, 2002, announced the arrest of José Padilla, allegedly plotting to detonate such a weapon, he said:

After January 14, 2002 bin al-Shibh was found to be among five suspected al-Qaeda members delivering what United States Attorney General John Ashcroft described as " martyrdom messages from suicide terrorists " on five discovered videos.

On October 12, 2001, Attorney General ( AG ) John Ashcroft issued a policy memorandum on FOIA to all federal executive agencies.

The Domestic Security Enhancement Act of 2003 was draft legislation written by United States Department of Justice during the George W. Bush administration, under the tenure of United States Attorney General John Ashcroft.

Attorney General John Ashcroft

Attorney General John Ashcroft said that Al-Arian and his co-defendants played: a substantial role in international terrorism.

On 28 March 2003, Judicial Watch filed a complaint to the Office of Government Ethics, the Office of the Defense Department Inspector General, the Office of the Homeland Security Inspector General, United States Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller in the matter of Former Defense Policy Board Chairman Richard N. Perle, Former President Bill Clinton, Former Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen, former Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe and Global Crossing.