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”
Category: Courts
Theodore B. Olson, the U.S. solicitor general under Bush and his lawyer in Bush v. Gore, and David Boies, who represented former vice president Al Gore in that case, have joined forces to challenge Proposition 8 in federal court after this week’s loss in the California state court system.
Continue reading “Olson and Bois Team Up on Proposition 8 Challenge”
What happen when you hold a trial and the police are the ones who take the Fifth? That question was answered by Cook County Circuit Judge Clayton Crane who ordered a new trial for Gangster Disciple member Cortez Brown, who alleged that he was forced to confess during beatings in custody.
The United States has been vocal in its denouncing of the recent arrests of journalists by North Korea and Iran. These countries refuse to comply with American values and legal process, particularly in the treatment of journalists. The biggest difference thus far: North Korea and Iran gave the journalists trials. Reuters cameraman Ibrahim Jassam has been held since September by the U.S. military in Iraq without charges or evidence.
Continue reading “U.S. Holds Journalist For Almost a Year Without Charges or Evidence”
The Justice Department is facing yet another possible contempt sanction from a federal judge. This is becoming something of a trend for the Justice Department. One could only imagine the response of the bar to a private law firm with such a record of contempt. The latest threat comes from United States District Court Chief Judge Vaughn Walker in Al-Haramain v. Obama. This remains one of the most troubling cases from the Bush Administration and the Obama Administration has again yielded to the worst element in the Justice Department in continuing the same policies and practices of its predecessor.
Continue reading “Another Court Denounces Justice Department and Threatens Sanctions”
Conservative radio host Erich “Mancow” Muller has been one of the loudest voices denying that waterboading is torture. Like Sean Hannity (who said that he would allow himself to be waterboarded), Muller volunteered for a session to prove the point. Unlike Hannity, Muller fulfilled his commitment. As shown on the video below, in a few seconds, Muller went through the full range of Kübler-Ross of torture from denial to acceptance.
Continue reading “Yep, It’s Torture: Video Shows Conservative Radio Host Moving From Torture Denial to Torture Acceptance”
Speaking to the graduating class of U.S. Naval Academy, President Barack Obama told the graduates that the best way to protect our nation is to stand up to its principles. I discussed the detainee issue last night on this segment of Countdown.
Continue reading “Obama: We Must Uphold Our Principles To Be Safe and Strong”
There have been rare professional charges filed against five lawyers for their role in crafting a secret settlement for former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. The lawyers were involved in a $8.4-million lawsuit settlement to conceal text messages that showed that the major and his top female aide had lied about their affair. The lawyers are chief assistant corporation counsel Valerie Colbert-Osamuede; her ex-boss, former city corporation counsel John E. Johnson; city-retained private lawyers Samuel McCargo and Wilson Copeland II, and Mike Stefani, who represented three cops in lawsuits against the city.
Continue reading “Five Lawyers Charged Over Settlement of Case Involving Former Detroit Mayor”
President Barack Obama today defended his decision to close the military detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and promptly raised more serious concerns for civil libertarians. In his speech, Obama announced that the country’s “moral authority” demanded closure but then said that his lawyers were working new policies to hold certain detainees indefinitely without trial.
Continue reading “A Law Unto Himself: Obama Promises To Hold Some Detainees Without Trial”
A French judge has ordered a magazine off newsstands for publishing a photo of a Jewish man Ilan Halimi, who was allegedly tortured to death. The alleged culprits are facing trial. Judge Phillipe Jean-Draeher based his decision on the “exceptional” attack by Choc magazine on the feelings of Halimi’s mother and sisters.
Continue reading “French Judge Censors Magazine to Protect Feelings of Family in Torture Case”
We have seen a number of cases on this blog where prosecutors fought efforts by prisoners to obtain DNA tests that might prove their innocence — only to be proven innocent once the tests were performed. Prosecutors are rarely denounced for these reprehensible efforts. The story in the New York Times indicates that prosecutors are continuing to oppose such testing even in states that passed new laws guaranteeing such testing.
Continue reading “Prosecutors Still Opposing DNA Access for Prisoners Despite New Laws”
Derrick Ross took the term “cell phone” a bit too literally. Ross, 38, acquired a cell phone and charger while serving time at Coffeild prison in Texas. Due to Texas habitual offender laws, he has received an absurd 60 years for the violation.
Continue reading “Hidden Phone Charges: Texas Inmate Gets 60 Years For Possession of Cell Phone”
Minnesota Judge John Rodenberg has ruled in the case of Daniel Hauser, 13. We discussed this case earlier regarding the religious objections that the parents raised to chemotherapy for Daniel’s cancer –even though he has a 90 percent chance of survival with the treatment and little or no change of survival without it.
Continue reading “Court Overrules Parents in Religious Refusal of Chemotherapy for 13-Year-Old Boy”
We have another incident of texting in court. Miami Judge Scott Silverman went justifiably ballistic when he discovered a witness, Gavin Sussman, messaging another witness in the courtroom. He declared a mistrial in the contracts case.
Continue reading “OMG: Witness Says NP to Texting But Judge Says STBY”
President Barack Obama continued his replication of the Bush policies today with the disclosure that he will now restart the controversial Bush tribunal system — now to be called the Obama tribunal system. This follows Obama’s adoption of an even more extreme theory of executive privilege in court, the reversal of the decision to comply with a court order and turn over abuse photographs, the continuing effort to extinguish dozens of public interest lawsuits on privacy violations, and the proposed adoption of the Bush policy of holding detainees indefinitely without trial, here. In the meantime, he and Attorney General Eric Holder continue to block the appointment of a special prosecutor despite mounting evidence of war crimes committed by the prior administration. I will be discussing these recent developments tonight on Countdown.
Continue reading “Bush 2.0: Obama To Continue Military Tribunals”