In a split 5-4 decision, Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. ruled that an individual cannot demanded access or testing to DNA material after his conviction becomes final in District Attorney’s Office v. Osborne (08-6).
Continue reading “Supreme Court Rules Against Constitutional Right to Access to DNA Testing”
Attorney General Eric Holder left little question in anyone’s mind this week that the Obama Administration will not allow a prosecution of unlawful surveillance during the Bush Administration. As with the torture program, the Administration has been avoiding questions about its failure to prosecute the illegal surveillance program. Now, Holder has refused to call the program “illegal” and would only refer to it as “unwise.” I intent to use this as my main defense in my next criminal case: my client’s robbery of a bank was merely “unwise” and a lack of wisdom does not justify prosecution.
Continue reading “Holder: Warrantless Surveillance was “Unwise” Rather than “Illegal””
President Obama has already adopted or expanded many of the most controversial Bush policies on executive privilege, detainee treatment, termination of privacy lawsuit, and other matters. Now, he has adopted the identical position of Vice President Dick Cheney in seeking to withhold visitor logs to the White House.
Continue reading “Obama Adopts Cheney Policy and Opposes Release of White House Logs”
Sen. Dick Durbin, the second most senior democrat in the Senate, cashed out his stock the day after meeting with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. Durbin took the money and invested much of the $115,000 in Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
Continue reading “Senatorial Privilege? Sen. Dick Durbin Cashed Out His Stocks and Shares After Meeting With Paulson and Bernanke on Economic Crisis”
U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White has cleared the way for Jose Padilla to sue University of California Professor John Yoo for the violation of his rights due to his physical abuse as a detainee. It is a relatively novel ruling that holds that government lawyers must be treated as other officials in participating in illegal programs or policies.
Continue reading “Judge Rules that Jose Padilla Can Sue John Yoo”
Civil libertarians have been outraged by President Barack Obama’s adoption of extreme Bush policies on secrecy and executive privilege, including his effort to dismiss public interest lawsuits and his Administration’s refusal to investigate war crimes committed by the Bush Administration. Now, Obama has filed to dismiss the case of Arthur Smelt and Christopher Hammer, who are challenging the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which blocks same-sex couples from securing Social Security spousal benefits, filing joint taxes and enjoying other federal rights of marriage.
It comes to all of us with age. As hairlines recede and waistlines expand, cosmetic surgery becomes more attractive. While this blog is just around 2 years old, in human-to-blog years that is almost middle aged. In the last few weeks, various regulars have suggested that the site needs work to handle the large number of visitors and entries. This is an attempt to see what you would like to do with the site. I view this site as belonging to all of the regulars and I would like to solicit your thoughts on changes that you would like to see from different cosmetic touches to different structure. This entry will also allow discussion of those things (not people) that you least like.
Continue reading “DOES TURLEY BLOG NEED A NIP AND TUCK?”
Among the material release this week by the White House is the disclosure that Judge Sonia Sotomayor belong to a private women’s-only group. The membership raises an interesting question given the controversies in the past over nominees who belong to men-only club. Should the standard be different for women or should exclusive club membership no longer be an issue in nominations?
Continue reading “Sotomayor Belongs to All-Female Club”
The Obama Administration succeeded yesterday in getting three dozen public interest lawsuits dismissed against telecommunication companies. President Obama voted for the bill that gave the companies immunity and sought to prevent a court from declaring the warrantless surveillance program illegal. U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker also ordered investigations in Maine, New Jersey, Connecticut, Vermont and Missouri to be halted. However, he retained the issue of whether to sanction the Justice Department for its conduct in the case.
Continue reading “Federal Judge Tosses Out Unlawful Surveillance Cases”
The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit has handed down a decision that could play a role in the Sotomayor confirmation process. In National Rifle Association v. Chicago, the Seventh Circuit upheld a Chicago ordinance banning handguns and automatic weapons within city limits. In so doing, it held that the individual right to bear arms is not a fundamental right applicable to the states. It is precisely the hypothetical that some of us discussed in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision in District of Columbia v. Heller, which recognized an individual right to bear arms in the Second Amendment. It also supports the view of Judge Sonia Sotomayor, who has been criticized for two opinions (including one after the Heller decision) that rejected the right to bear arms as a fundamental right. Sotomayor received indirect support from two unlikely sources: conservative icons Frank Easterbrook and Richard Posner.
With hearings scheduled for House Judiciary Committee Task Force on Impeachment, U.S. District Judge Samuel B. Kent has decided to turn in this resignation to President Barack Obama. His lawyer Dick DeGuerin says that the hearings are now unnecessary and Judge Kent will not participate. However, his resignation will reportedly only be effective June 1, 2010.”
Continue reading “Judge Kent Resigns On Eve of Impeachment Hearing — Effective One Year From Now”
With the virtual absence of any objective review of Sonia Sotomayor’s opinions or positions by members of Congress, the Senate Judiciary Committee appears to be gearing up for another confirmation process with little substantive content. As noted previously with regard to the Roberts and Alito hearings, confirmation hearings have become little more than extended photo ops for Senators.
Continue reading “Senate Prepares for the Sotomayor Confirmation Hearings”
The United Nations has released a new report on human rights that has found the record of the United states to be “deplorable.” With the continuing refusal of the Obama Administration to investigate war crimes and to support the Bush policies in court, we have lost an opportunity to show the country has committed itself to change these policies and demand accountability for those who implemented them.
Continue reading “United Nations: U.S. Human Rights Record “Deplorable” — Including the Continuing Failure to Investigate Torture By the Obama Administration”
Sen. Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has issued a stinging rebuke to former Vice President Dick Cheney — saying that undisclosed memos do not support his claim that torture works and save lives.
Continue reading “Levin: Cheney Lied About Torture’s Success”
The debate over Judge Sonia Sotomayor continues to rage this week. What is remarkable is how much is being said and how little substance can be found in the coverage. One would think that the law of averages alone would guarantee that some substantive points would be hit, if only by accident. It is becoming increasingly clear that, once again, we will not have a substantive and civil review of the qualifications of a Supreme Court nominee. Neither conservatives nor liberals seem to want (or are willing to tolerate) objective discussion of Sotomayor’s qualifications or opinions. For what it is worth, I would like to discard some of the most often heard arguments in the vain hope that we might still achieve some level of reasonable discourse in this debate.
Continue reading “Confirming Nonsense: Both Liberals and Conservatives Distort Debate Over Sotomayor”