JONATHAN TURLEY

With the Democratic leadership continuing to block any impeachment effort or any serious effort to hold officials liable for the U.S. torture program, Congress was free to hold another bizarre hearing today to calmly discussed our use of torture. Even though current Attorney General continues to evade the question, former Attorney General acknowledged and defended water boarding.

Continue reading ‘Ashcroft Defends Waterboarding — Congress Calmly Discusses the U.S. Torture Program’

In the last hearing, Prosecutor Gordon Kromberg indicated that Dr. Al-Arian was being charged with his refusal to answer questions from his Florida trial — not questions related to the IIIT investigation. Indeed, as these affidavits established, Dr. Al-Arian voluntarily answered every question on IIIT and addressed every documents in the IIIT investigation. He then submitted a second affidavit answering questions beyond IIIT. Both statements were made under oath and Dr. Al-Arian repeatedly offered to take a polygraph examination to prove that he was not withholding information. We have decided to release the affidavits publicly after they were filed this week in court.
Continue reading ‘Dr. Sami Al-Arian: Affidavits Filed With the Court Show Government Seeks to Re-Argue Florida Trial’

In Winnipeg, a white nationalist mother thought it was fun to draw a swastika on the arm of her seven-year-old daughter. When a teacher rubbed off the mark, the mother drew it back on. The second time, the school reported the incident and child welfare officials took both the daughter and a two-year-old boy away from the mother. It is a case that raises very serious questions of free speech balanced against child welfare.
Continue reading ‘Children Taken Away From Nazi Mother in Canada’

In what is now an almost mocking level of contempt, Karl Rove has refused to appear before Congress despite a subpoena to do so. While claiming executive privilege, there is no justification for the failure to appear and to answer any questions on the firing of U.S. attorneys. The question is what will the Democratic Congress do beyond expressions of outrage. It is a question that I will discuss on the Dan Abrams show tonight.

Continue reading ‘Rove Again Refuses to Testify Under Subpoena’

Marie Jarry, the former second-grade teacher who resigned after making an appearance in a bikini on the “Howard Stern Show,” is suing Southington, Connecticut school officials as well as her union. She has good reason to complain about being fired for an appearance in a swimsuit on a television program on her own time. The increasing enforcement of after-hours codes of conduct by employers should be viewed as a cause of alarm for a society that prides itself on freedom of association and speech.

Continue reading ‘Teacher Marie Jarry Sues School Over Howard Stern Bikini Controversy’

President Bush has been unsuccessful lately in abridging the Constitution with stinging loses in the last month before the Supreme Court and lower courts. He appears now to be attacking the problem at its source: the Founders. In a July 4th speech at Monticello, Bush cleaned up a famous quote by Jefferson by deleting a line that is viewed as critical of religious superstitions and ignorance. The video of the event and the original quote are below.

Continue reading ‘Jefferson Abridged: Bush Deletes Line from Jefferson Quote that Criticizes Religious Superstition’

A new study concludes that the “don’t ask, don’t tell” law does little in terms of actual military readiness and that openly gay soldiers would not significantly diminish morale or fighting capability in the U.S. military. If raised by reporters, the study could put pressure on Barack Obama, who is trying to move to the right in preparation for the general election. John McCain is expected to support the continuation of the current law.

Continue reading ‘Study: Openly Gay and Lesbian Have No Significant Impact on Morale or Fighting Capability’

Just as Democrats are leading the effort to extinguish lawsuits against telecommunication companies for unlawful surveillance of citizens, a federal judge has ruled that President Bush and his aides violated federal law in conducting the surveillance program. Not addressed in the opinion of U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker is that a violation of the FISA law (which he found trumps the military and state secrets privilege) is a felony. Meaning? President Bush knowingly committed felonies over thirty times and Congress has remained completely passive. In the meantime, Walker has ruled that the Al Haramain Islamic Foundation must still supply evidence that it was the subject of the illegal program despite the fact that the courts will not let it use evidence accidentally disclosed by the government (that seems to establish that fact).

Continue reading ‘Court Rules that Bush Surveillance Program Was Unlawful’

Dwight Sullivan, a colonel in the Marine Corps Reserve, has some crowing rights this week. He found a serious factual error in the majority opinion barring the death penalty for child rape defendants — a flaw that was missed by both the majority and dissenting justices in Kennedy v. Louisiana as well as all of the attorneys in the case. The error was flagged by Sullivan on CFlog.

Continue reading ‘Military Blogger Finds Flaw in Supreme Court’s Child Rape Ruling’

Below is today’s column on the end of the Supreme Court term. It looks at the implications of the current Court for either a President Obama or a President McCain. An interesting analogy can be drawn to the Four Horsemen and Three Musketeers of the Hughes Court during the first term of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Continue reading ‘The Roberts Court and The Return of the Four Horsemen’

For years, many have cited international and domestic law to show that President Bush has committed grave crimes in office. Now, the Court of Appeals has enlisted Lewis Carroll and his poem “The Hunting of the Snark” to bring home the point in it ruling against the Administration in the case of a Huzaifa Parhat, a Chinese Muslim held at Guantanamo Bay.
Continue reading ‘The Poetry of Presidential Abuse: The D.C. Circuit Rules Against the President With “Snarky” Poem’

In the last year, we have seen some alarming examples of how Canada has rolled back on free speech, particularly in cases of alleged discrimination (here and here). However, the Supreme Court of Canada has handed down a unanimous decision that offers great hope that free speech is not dead in the North. The Court ruled 9-0 in favor of controversial Vancouver radio broadcaster Rafe Mair in his libel case.
Continue reading ‘Supreme Court of Canada Defends Fair Comment and Free Speech’

The Ninth Circuit has rendered an interesting first amendment decision on the right to cover one’s car with unpopular or obnoxious statements. Matthew Fogel painted his van with such ditties as “ALLAH PRAISE THE PATRIOT ACT . . . F***ING JIHAD ON THE FIRST AMENDMENT! Most notably, he taunted police with “PULL ME OVER! PLEASE, I DARE YA[.]” The police agreed and did precisely that. He was arrested- then forced by police to paint over the words as a condition for his release. He was charged as a bomb threat by Grass Valley, California police.

Continue reading ‘Old Van w/ Low MPG, High FS (Free Speech): Ninth Circuit Rules in Favor of Van Speech’

Late last night, I filed our challenge to the ironically names “The Fairness for Experienced Pilots Act,” legislation that wipes out the seniority, benefits, and status of pilots who turned 60 before December 13, 2008 — the date of the Act’s enactment. This new Age 60 rule violates a host of constitutional and statutory laws, as the brief below explains.

Continue reading ‘Senior Pilots Challenge “The Fairness for Experienced Pilots Act”’

The Second Amendment has always been like the lost continent of the Constitution. Well, today the Supreme Court discovered it — right between the first and third amendments — after 127 years. The Court ruled that the Second Amendment does indeed create an individual right to gun ownership. The opinion can be accessed here.

The Supreme Court also gave a victory to millionaires running for office who can finance their campaigns more freely — or buy guns more easily.

Continue reading ‘The Lost Constitutional Continent Found: Supreme Court Recognizes Individual Right of Gun Ownership’

George Carlin has died at 71. Carlin represents one of the few entertainers to have a significant impact on the law with his showdown over profanity in his monologues. His famous stand up routine on “”Seven Dirty Words You Can’t Say on Television” is linked below. The Supreme Court case on his “filthy words” is linked below as well.

Continue reading ‘George Carlin Dies at 71′

The Supreme Court knows how to build suspense. While many expected the Court to release its long-awaiting decision on the Second Amendment in the Heller and Parker cases, the Court did not release the decision today. The array of opinions today has fueled speculation that Scalia will author the historic decision.

Continue reading ‘Supreme Court Holds Heller — Second Amendment Case Last Case to Be Announced from March Sitting’

John Freshwater has long been a controversial teacher in Mount Vernon, Ohio. Parents and other teachers accused him of not teaching required science subjects while drilling in creationism into his students. Now, a lawsuit accused him of literally impressing his students with Christian values by branding them.

Continue reading ‘Branding for Jesus: Ohio Teacher Accused of Teaching Creationism and Burning Crosses into Arms of Students’

The Supreme Court continued the downward spiral of our insanity rules this week. The majority held that a defendant can be held to be competent to stand trial but held incompetent to represent himself — a green light for judges to continue to find clearly crazed individuals sane while denying them the right to act in their own defense. Justices Scalia and Thomas wrote a stinging and well-founded dissent.

Continue reading ‘Court Rules that Mentally Disturbed Defendants Can Be Competent to Stand Trial But Incompetent to Represent Themselves’

A little noticed provision in new legislation would cost some citizens hundreds of thousands of dollars to renounce their citizenship. Congress has come up with another moronically named bill, Heroes Earnings Assistance and Relief Tax (HEART) Act, that contains the provision. It is designed to stem the tide of Americans renouncing their citizenship due to the double taxation that they face when living abroad.

Continue reading ‘Love Us or Pay Us: Congress Sets a High Price for Citizens to Renounce Their Citizenship’

The democratic leadership is preparing to move a final bill giving immunity to the telecommunication industry after months of waiting for public interest to wane. The new bill would give President Bush and the powerful lobby would it has long sought: immunity from violating federal law and the privacy of customers.

Continue reading ‘Democratic Leadership Caves to the White House and Telecommunication Lobby on Immunity’

On the heels of the Supreme Court’s decision affirming basic constitutional protections for detainees, a report has emerged that shows precisely why habeas corpus is so important. The Administration is accused of knowing that certain detainees were in fact innocent but still held them for years.
Continue reading ‘Administration Accused of Holding Detainees That It Knew Were Innocent’

Rachelle Jackson, a Chicago nurse, was probably expecting a thankful reception from the colleagues of Officer Kelly Brogan, a police officer that she dragged from a burning police cruiser. Instead, she was arrested and stayed in jail for 10 months on charges that she robbed, battered and disarmed a peace officer. She now has $7.7 million worth of apologies from a Chicago jury. Defense counsel is irate, insisting that the officer said that Jackson put her into a strangle hold and took her gun.
Continue reading ‘Chicago Nurse Wins $7.7 Million After She Rescued an Officer Only to Be Arrested by His Colleagues’

Justice Edward H. Lehner has taken the ultimate form of judicial notice. His salary is too small so he has ordered the legislature to give him and the rest of the state’s 1,250 judges a raise within 90 days.
Continue reading ‘Judicial Notice: New York Judge Orders Himself a Raise’

Maclean Magazine is the latest publication to be called to the dock to answer to the new speech police in Canada. The magazine is accused of hate speech and has had to answer for the publication of an article written by Mark Steyn entitled Why the Future Belongs to Islam. The British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal, a Robespierrean institution that reviews and punishes improper speech, held a week of hearings on the magazine and will soon issue its ruling. The tribunal is an example of an expanding crisis in various Western nations, where free speech is being sacrificed in the name of combatting intolerance.
Continue reading ‘Maclean’s Magazine Faces Speech Police In Canada’

In a massive blow to the Bush Administration, the Supreme Court has ruled 5-4 in favor of the detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. In the opinion below, Justice Kennedy delivers the opinion of a lifetime: holding faithfully to the Constitution in a time of prolonged crisis.
Continue reading ‘Supreme Court Rules in Favor of the Detainees in Massive Blow to Bush Administration’

The steady decline of student rights and free speech continues with another high school cracking down on free speech. In Redding, California, Shasta High School’s student newspaper Shasta High Volcano will be shutdown because administrators did not like a photograph of a flag-burning student.
Shasta High School Principal Milan Woollard appears to believe that conformity and censorship are important components to teach new citizens.

Continue reading ‘Censorship 101: High School Shuts Down Student Newspaper Over Flag-Burning Photograph’

The Bush Administration has been cracking down on obscenity across the country and a very interesting (and very disgusting) case is being heard by a jury in Los Angeles. At issue is the work of Ira Isaacs who produces and sells videos of so called “poo porn” involving bestiality and sexual fetish films involving feces and urine.

Continue reading ‘New Obscenity Case Goes to Trial in Los Angeles’

A very disturbing free speech case has emerged out of Canada: another example of how the West is abandoning principles of free speech in its widening definitions of hate speech. The Alberta Human Rights Commission has punished Rev. Stephen Boission and the Concerned Christian Coalition for anti-gay speech, not only awarding damages but censuring future speech that the Commission deems inappropriate. Boission’s offense came in the form of a letter containing anti-gay language.
Continue reading ‘Oh Canada! Alberta Human Rights Commission Punishes and Censures Anti-Gay Speech’

In the nation’s capitol, the Washington, D.C. police are closing off whole neighborhoods this weekend in a crack down on crimes — and civil liberties. No one will be allowed into areas of the Capitol unless they live their or can show that they are going things like going to church.

Continue reading ‘Your Papers Please: Police Seal Off Neighborhoods; Checking Identifications and Arresting the Disobedient’

In a case closely watched by religious and gay rights groups, the Virginia Supreme Court has ruled that the state must enforce parental visitation rights of a mother’s former lesbian partner under a Vermont court order. The victory for Janet Jenkins over Lisa Miller is what many religious groups had feared that the full faith and credit clause and other provisions would required other states to recognize the marital and parental status of gay couples from states like Vermont and soon California.
Continue reading ‘Virginia Upholds Parental Rights of Non-Biological Lesbian Mother’

The Turkish Constitutional Court delivered a great victory for those fighting to preserve the country’s secular traditions. It upheld the ban on female university students wearing headscarves — despite the efforts of Turkey’s new pro-Islamic president. For secularists, it is a great victory, but it is highly problematic from a civil liberties standpoint.

Continue reading ‘Turkish Constitutional Court Upholds Ban on Students Wearing Scarves’

Fantasy baseball players rejoice. The fantasy continues. The Supreme Court refused to hear the appeal in Major League Baseball Advanced Media v. C.B.C., 07-1099 — letting stand a ruling in favor of fantasy baseball businesses. It is a maor blow against Major League Baseball, which could now face a reexamination of fees paid by large Internet sites. Continue reading ‘Play Ball! Supreme Court Declines Fantasy Baseball Case’

Below is the text of the latest court order in the Al-Timimi case. Today, I will be reviewing the classified material in the case.

As noted before, we will continue to try to update this website with any new developments subject to the restrictions of the classification rules and court seals.
Continue reading ‘Latest Court Order in the Case of Dr. Ali Al-Timimi’

A Tampa case may present an ideal context to review the long-criticized pornography test and the role of community standards in the Internet age. Paul F. Little, known as “Max Hardcore,” is facing an obscenity prosecution for selling porn on the Internet. The Bush Administration could have chosen any state in the Union, but engineered an indictment in Tampa — an open case of forum shopping for the most conservative jury pool that it could find. The Supreme Court has never produced a coherent and consistent approach to obscenity and this case is the result of this long-standing judicial failure. Continue reading ‘James Madison Meets Max Hardcore: Florida Obscenity Case Could Force Review of Community Standards in Internet Age’

Al Qaeda No. 2 leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri has already violated every possible international and domestic law in his career. However, he has now been recorded admitting to a knowing violation of Title VII: the refusal to allow women to serve as terrorists and suicide bombers. If he thought the CIA was dogged, wait until he feels the wrath of NOW.
Continue reading ‘Shattering the Terrorist Glass Ceiling: Al Qaeda Leader Rejects Role of Women as Terrorists and Suicide Bombers’

Judge Brinkema has issued a new order in the case of Dr. Ali Al-Timimi. The order discloses that the government has been granted a protective order over material currently under seal. However, I have been informed by the court security officer that I may review classified material next week.
Continue reading ‘Court Orders Access of Defense Counsel in Al-Timimi Case’

In yet another expansion of the regulation of student speech, the Second Circuit has ruled against high school student Avery Doninger who contested her punishment for posting an objectionable message on an Internet site about Lewis Mills High School. When she objected to the cancellation of a school event in vulgar terms, school officials barred her from running for Senior Class secretary. In Doninger v. Niehoff, the Second Circuit upheld the right of school officials to punish students for out-of–school speech in a major blow to both the first amendment and student rights.

Continue reading ‘Second Circuit Upholds Punishment of High School Student for Out-of-School Web Entry’

In yet another blow to the Texas officials who ordered the mass removal of children from the Yearning for Zion Ranch, the Texas Supreme Court has agreed with an appellate court that they must be returned. Officials will now have to reunite as many as 450 children with their parents. It is not must a rebuke to Child Protective Services, which adopted the most extreme measures in the case without evidence of individual guilt, but to District Judge Barbara Walther who showed very little concern over the rights of the accused parents in the matter. Continue reading ‘Texas Supreme Court Orders Return of Children in Polygamy Case’

Writer Matt Taibbi has a hilarious account of going undercover to the camp of former John McCain supporter Rev. John Hagee. One highlight is requiring the faithful to throw up “demons” that range from “incest” to “hand-writing analysis.”
Continue reading ‘Puking for Jesus — Writer Details Hagee’s Spiritual Camp’

Harvard Law School professor Charles R. Nesson saw the arrest of Richard E. Cusick and R. Keith Stroup as an opportunity to challenge the Massachusetts ban on marijuana — insisting that the law did not even meet the minimal “rational basis” test and seeking jury nullification. Instead, his clients were not even given an evidentiary hearing, found guilty quickly by the jury, and sentenced to time served.
Continue reading ‘Legal Defense Goes Up in Smoke: Harvard Professor Challenges Pot Laws Seeking Jury Nullification — and Loses’

The North Coast Women’s Care Medical Group treated Guadalupe Benitez, of Oceanside, with fertility drugs for roughly a year. However, when they learned that she was a lesbian, they refused on religious grounds to inseminate her. Now, just on the heels of its historic same-sex marriage ruling, the California Supreme Court has taken the case.
Continue reading ‘California Supreme Court Takes Historic Lawsuit by Lesbian Against Fertility Clinic’

In Southern California, Kieffe and Sons do not want non-Christians and civil libertarians to drive Hondas — or at least anything other than their Fords. The dealership has added a standard package of prejudice to its car sales with the ad below denouncing those who oppose prayer in school and intermingling of church and state — full religious intolerance is standard with each car but specific sectarian hatred is optional with some models. Continue reading ‘No Hybrids Wanted: Ford Dealer Tells Non-Religious Citizens and Civil Libertarians to Get Lost’

I have an interesting constitutional case developing before the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Older pilots are challenging the Fair Treatment for Experienced Pilots Act, Pub. L. No. 110-135, 121 Stat. 1450 (2007). The legislation presents not only a raw example of age discrimination but a possible bill of attainder.
Continue reading ‘Senior Pilots Prepare Constitutional Challenge’

The House Judiciary Committee on Thursday served a subpoena on former top Bush aide Karl Rove in another showdown with the White House. He is being called to answer questions about the firing U.S. Attorneys and the politicization of the Justice Department. His lawyer had earlier indicated he would testify. The real question is the stomach of the House for taking real action in wake of the likely failure to appear. Continue reading ‘House Judiciary Subpoenas Karl Rove’

Polygamous parents in Texas won a major ruling today from the Texas appellate court in the opinion below. As we have discussed on this blog, the trial court appears to have ruled down the line with the Texas government — requiring little in terms of individual suspicion against these parents. Now, the trial court will have to do a little more to ensure that justice is tailored to the cases before her and not simply declare all parents presumptively unfit until proven otherwise.

Continue reading ‘Texas Court of Appeals Rules with Polygamous Parents in Texas’

The Ninth Circuit has handed down an important decision on gay rights and the military. The three-judge panel did not strike down the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy but it did reinstate the lawsuit of Major Margaret Witt, a decorated Air Force nurse. The ruling forces the government to prove that the policy advances an important government interest.