Civil libertarians have been complaining that many liberals are ignoring that Judge Sonia Sotomayor has been viewed as hostile to core liberal values and has a fairly conservative voting record in many areas, including free speech, student rights, and criminal procedure. For a review of her cases, click here. Another case has come to light that shows little of the empathy cited by the White House. While Vice President Joe Biden has emphasized the Sotomayor “watches the back of police” in cases (which is supported in some of her more controversial rulings), she has shown little empathy for those challenging police or convictions. The case of Jeffrey Deskovic is being cited as one such case.
Sotomayor was one of the judges who dismissed Deskovic’s 2000 appeal to United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit with a cursory two-page decision. The panel based its decision on the fact that the filing was made four days late due to confusion between the lawyer and the clerk.
Deskovic was convicted at 16 of killing a high school classmate and filed a habeas corpus petition to challenge his conviction. He was later proven innocent by DNA evidence.
His lawyer insisted that he was misinformed about the due date by the clerk’s office and that his client should not suffer for the miscommunication. However, Sotomayor and another judge refused to consider the merits based on the technical filing problem.
He would spend six more years behind bars until finally proven innocent (and the real killer arrested).
The Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 requires that habeas corpus petitions must be submitted no more than a year after a conviction becomes final or, as the courts later determined, no more than a year from the act’s implementation. This meant that he had until April 24, 1997 to file his habeas but his papers were filed four days late. Sotomayor and Judge Rosemary S. Pooler ruled that, even if the lawyer was told by the clerk that he had the later due date, it was still a violation and barred the appeal.
There is an interesting disconnect in the position of many liberal organizations, which have abandoned prior views to support this nominee without a hint of concern. As noted earlier, such rulings would normally cause liberals considerable concern and prompt intense review if this were a Republican nominee. Instead, there is virtually no discussion of such rulings by most liberals despite objections from civil libertarians that the left will lose ground on the Court if Sotomayor votes as she did on the Second Circuit.
For the full story, click here.
BVM, I knew you would ignore the substance of my post. Now I am even more suspicious that your web site is simply a scheme to support yourself through “donations.”
Good, you are not making cover for Obama. That is what I thought.
When one accuses another of committing a crime (and you have alleged the commission of many crimes), the identity of the accuser is a material consideration. Indeed, under the common law, a false accusation that another had acted criminally is libel per se and actionable. Experience teaches us that people act from all sorts of motives, not all of them honorable. Thus, anonymous accusations of crime are particularly questionable, and when the source is an anonymous website that is also engaged in anonymously soliciting donations from the public, the word fraud comes readily to mind.
Finally, I would add that you know who I am, and I do not need to “make cover” for anyone. But if you are going to continually question the bona fides of someone else, perhaps you should give some thought to establishing your own.
Are you attempting to make cover for him?
What does that have to do with Obama’s mass murders?
I have also visited BVM’s site. It purports to be a music company. However, it does not publicize anything it has produced, does not have an address, does not list the names of any of the principals of the alleged business and does not identify the owners of the web site or of the corporation, if it is in fact incorporated. It also solicits donations, without explaining its authority to solicit or the manner in which solicited funds are utilized. In essence, it is an entity without a birth certificate, which means that it is illegitimate.
I am nonviolent and mean no harm to Obama and his baby killers. But not everyone in the world is like I am. Violence begats violence. Obama and his followers need to stop the murders and maiming. They need to repent and turn away from the evil.
I don’t need to argue with the wise, fool.
BVM, a word to fools. Don’t argue with the wise.
You are guilty, as Obama, in murdering and maiming countless men, women and children.
All who support Obama are guilty of complicity in his War Crimes.
Thanks, Michael. Also, thanks to Mike Appleton. We seem to be part of the very small real-name caucus here at the post, and thus subject to name calling.
BVM,
What is wrong, cannot you figure out anything intelligent to offer?
Michael Spindell Obama stooge.
Guilty in cover-up of Obama war crimes.
Buena Vista Mall,
Worshiper of the Anti-Christ, proven by his/her own words and deeds. Also a war criminal, who tries to cover his/her own guilt by attacking others.
The people here who support Obama endorse murder and maiming of children. They are evil.
Michael Spindell supports Obama a man who murders and maims men, women and children by the thousands. What does that say of Michael Spindell? He supports evil.
Vince Treacy,
While there are many lawyers on this site whose intelligence I deeply admire, I have to complement you on some of the outstanding qualities you possess. You are dogged in presenting your case, backing it thoroughly with evidence and holding your temper in the face of frustrating intransigence. It is a pleasure to read you.
Buena Vista Mall is just deranged enough to refer to him/her/itself in the third person and mean it without any irony.
That about says it all.
Now if he/she/it starts giving parade waves or shows up in a fancy horse drawn coach, then I say we have a suspect.
“Buena Vista Mall is for Peace among all.”
Buena Vista Mall is a site that supports the works of the Anti-Christ. It is a tool of Satan. One of its tactics is to use disinformation about the President to hide its’ own agenda. It’s agenda, a perfect Anti-Christ deception of words, is to seem to work for peace in the world, while all it really works for is Satan’s Dominion and the creation of Hell on Earth. The constant posting here is a tactic borrowed from the Nazi’s, also Satan’s followers, Propaganda Chief Joseph Goebbels who created the idea of “The Big Lie.” This simple tactic was to continue to make lying statements so often that after awhile people came to believe them. This has been proven by the BVM poster’s inability to back up his/her Devilish claims with evidence.