The Wall Street Journal has an interesting article on the abuse of civil contempt in this country including the story of H. Beatty Chadwick, a former Philadelphia-area lawyer, who has been behind bars for nearly 14 years without being charged. I have handled civil contempt defenses and it is one of the most abused areas by prosecutors and courts. This article shows how this power can be used to punish rather than its purpose to coerce cooperation.
Continue reading “Former Lawyer Held 14 Years Without Charge on Civil Contempt”
While the war crimes controversy continues and questions linger over Barack Obama’s willingness to allow such crimes to be investigated, he is planning a major change that should please civil libertarians: he will reportedly rescind the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy put into place by Bill Clinton. The policy has always been viewed as classic Clintonesque: not fighting on the principle and adopting a murky standard that satisfied no one. The result has been ridiculous cases where military investigators respond to spite claims of homosexuality, often discharging decorated soldiers and sailors. Incoming White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs appears to have jumped the gun and is now trying to rollback on the story.
Christians are often confronted over their desire to have crosses and nativity scenes on public property, so David Engle of Overland Park, Kansas has filed a complaint over two Buddha statues in an Asian-themed area of the 
A couple weeks ago, we followed 
A federal investigation has found that Bradley Schlozman, the former acting head of the civil rights division, made false statements to Congress and violated federal law in overseeing the agency’s civil rights division. However, he will not face charges in a continuation of the Bush Administration’s record of barring prosecution of its own officials.
President-elect Barack Obama appears to be signaling that he is not inclined to investigate crimes committed by the Bush Administration. In an interview with ABC News program “This Week With George Stephanopoulos”, he picked up on the recent Democratic spin that we should all “look to the future and not the past” even if the past happens to contain war crimes committed by his predecessor. I just finished an interview on 
The confirmation of Eric Holder, Jr. is running into some trouble with the planned appearance of witnesses about his role in some of the infamous pardons by Bill Clinton. Some of the greatest abuse of the pardon power occurred in the final week of the Clinton administration, including his use of official power to benefit a family member with the pardon of Roger Clinton. Ironically, however, it is not the most abusive pardons that is attracting the ire of Republicans.
Phillip Dominguez describes himself as “a law-abiding, taxpaying gun enthusiast.” That should be with an emphasis on “enthusiast.” Dominguez is facing charges are a search of his car uncovered 16 guns and 1000 rounds of ammunition.
In Gainesville, Florida, conservatives have begun a campaign reminiscent of the Proposition 8 campaign in California to overturn a ruling in favor of same-sex marriages. This city-wide campaign, however, is about 100 resident transgender citizens and where they can go potty. The city council passed a law allowing the residents to use either the men’s or women’s room and the opponents have unleashed an ad (below) that shows a cute little girl being following into the bathroom by a lurking male.
Andre Thomas is perfectly sane according to Texas prosecutors. The view has not changed despite his habit of pulling out his own eyes. Before his trial for murder in 2004, Thomas pulled out his right eye. Yet, despite a history of mental illness, he was viewed as sane under Texas standards. Now, while on death row, Thomas pulled out his remaining eye and ate it.
The Bush Administration appears intent to go out on a low note. The United States has asked for as many as 15,000 Iraqi prisoners to be held without charge in Iraq even though the authority to hold the prisoners expired at the beginning of the New Year. I discussed the plan as well as the investigation of war crimes on Rachel Maddow in 
Kawaljeet Kaur Tagore has sued the Internal Revenue Service in a free exercise case involving the wearing of the kirpan, the ceremonial knife of Sikhism. Devote Sikhs wear five articles of faith: Kesh (uncut hair), which is kept covered by a distinctive turban, the Kirpan (religious sword), Kara (metal bracelet), Kanga (comb) and Kaccha (under-shorts). The IRS, however, drew the line on the kirpan and fired Tagore, 35, for refusing to take off her knife when coming to work as a revenue agent.
The Daily Show of Comedy Central has often taken news and turned it into comedy. However, in a Pittsburgh case, a comedy segment is becoming news after lawyers have sought to introduce it as evidence in religious exercise case. The Church of Universal Love and Music does not want an interview (shown below) with William Pritts shown to the jury — an effort by county officials to show that the church is not a sincere religious organization. Pritts has been holding concerts on the land for fees and, according to officials, did not claim to be a church until he ran into zoning problems with his expansion plans. On the segment, Pritts insists that “God never said you can’t party on.” (Thou Shalt Party On must be the missing Eleventh Commandment).
The Eighth Circuit has ruled that Wiccans need only three hours to celebrate their faith. Wiccans Lawrence T. Gladson, Darrell Smith, and Scott Everett Howrey at the Iowa State Penitentiary (ISP) in Fort Madison, Iowa brought the challenge and particularly challenged the denial of a full eight hours to celebrate Samhain—the most important of the eight Wiccan holidays. The court found that you can celebrate Samhain in three hours without being viewed a bad Wiccan. Among other things, the inmates alleged that the time limitation forced them to rush the Dumb Supper, which is supposed to be a “lusty and wholehearted feast.”
United States resident Raed Jarrar has received a major settlement of $240,000 from JetBlue and officials at the Transportation Security Authority for an outrageous action taken against him in August 2006 when he was forced to cover up a tee-shirt with Arabic script. Ironically, the shirt displayed the words (shown above) “we will not be silent.” However, other passengers felt uncomfortable simply because it was arabic writing and, instead of telling the passengers that they are dysfunctional morons, JetBlue forced Jarrar to wear a shirt over his tee-shirt to cover the writing.