There is a controversy in Dayton over the decision of the police department to lower its testing standards under pressure from the Obama Administration to allow for more minority officers.
Category: Justice
Submitted by Lawrence Rafferty, (rafflaw), Guest Blogger
In just the latest example of corporations taking over the reins of government, the Missouri State Senate has decided that the voters of Missouri are stupid. Last fall, the voters approved a referendum that placed restrictions on the countless puppy mills in the state to ensure humane and healthy conditions were enforced by state regulators. Of course, the tea party lobbied against the passage of the referendum and since the Republicans gained a majority in the State Senate, a new bill was passed in the Missouri Senate to over ride the will of the people in the fall referendum and remove the safeguards that were approved directly by the voters! Continue reading “Puppies vs Corporations”
-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger
We have previously discussed the Obama administration’s attempt to derail a Spanish judicial investigation into torture, here. Spanish law recognizes the principle of universal jurisdiction. Universal jurisdiction (UJ) is a doctrine of international law that holds that certain crimes are so terrible that the duty to prosecute them transcends all borders.
Continue reading “Spanish Judges Rule That U.S. Torture Case Can Proceed”
Submitted By Lawrence Rafferty, (rafflaw), Guest Blogger
I actually thought that I had misread the article when I first read it. It described the horrific gang rape of an 11-year-old in the Texas town of Cleveland. Eighteen young men and teenagers have been charged with the rape that is alleged to have started in a house and eventually moved to a deserted trailer nearby. I am sure that this kind of vicious crime occurs all too often in our country, but there is one thing that makes this crime a little different. Many of the townspeople are blaming the eleven year old girl for her own gang rape! Continue reading “In One Texas Town, There is No Such Thing as Rape!”
Submitted by Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger
Poster’s Note: Today’s will be my last set of posts for a couple of weeks. Suzanne and I will be traveling to her family’s homeland for a pint and song or two. I’ll try to send JT a picture from Dublin on St. Patrick’s Day. Erin Go Braugh !
The usual skills of judgeship like prudence, patience, neutrality, and gravitas pale sometimes to good tackling form. His honor Judge Marks Moore,60, learned that fact the hard way immediately following a jury trial in his London courtroom.
Submitted by Lawrence Rafferty, (rafflaw), Guest Blogger
I have been concerned lately about the Constitutional attacks that we have discussed here on Prof. Turley’s blog. One case that I have noticed lately received very minimal main stream media attention and it concerns a vitally important issue. This past week the ACLU argued a case in the Supreme Court that challenges the government’s use of the Federal material witness statute to pick-up and hold in detention an American citizen named al-Kidd who was arrested by Federal authorities in 2003 and detained for over two weeks without a charge. Continue reading “Ashcroft v. al-Kidd”
Submitted by Elaine Magliaro, Guest Blogger
From Change.gov (The Office of the President-Elect Barack Obama):
“Often the best source of information about waste, fraud, and abuse in government is an existing government employee committed to public integrity and willing to speak out. Such acts of courage and patriotism, which can sometimes save 
lives and often save taxpayer dollars, should be encouraged rather than stifled. We need to empower federal employees as watchdogs of wrongdoing and partners in performance. Barack Obama will strengthen whistleblower laws to protect federal workers who expose waste, fraud, and abuse of authority in government. Obama will ensure that federal agencies expedite the process for reviewing whistleblower claims and whistleblowers have full access to courts and due process.”
Is President Obama following through on his promise to protect whistleblowers? It doesn’t appear so. One has only to look at the case of Jeffrey Sterling to see that our President has definitely not been working to strengthen laws that would protect them. Sterling, an alleged whistleblower, was arrested in early January on charges that he leaked national defense information to the media and revealed the identity of a “human asset.”
Continue reading “Promises, Promises: Is the Obama DOJ Going after Whistleblowers?”
Submitted by Lawrence Rafferty, (rafflaw), Guest Blogger
The nightmare started back in July of 2010. Pvt. Bradley Manning was arrested and detained in the Brig at the Quantico Marine Base on allegations that he stole and then leaked classified documents to Wikileaks. The conditions that Pvt. Manning has been held under have been outrageous from the start. He has suffered shackling, solitary confinement and he has not been allowed normal contact with visitors and the outside world. His visitors have been denied access to him and now the latest humiliating tactic being used by the Department of Defense is to force Pvt. Manning to strip naked in his cell for hours! Continue reading “Stop The Torture of Pvt. Bradley Manning”
Submitted by Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger
Wisconsin Republican leaders are law and order types indeed. Unhappy that fourteen Democratic state senators are boycotting Governor Scott Walker’s union busting party, they have authorized the Senate Sergeant at Arms to round-up the legislative desperadoes “with or without force.” The Gang of 14, of course, are holed up in the neighboring Illinois badlands but Sheriff Walker wants to get his men (and his agenda railroaded through) so niceties like democracy and respect for the rights of the opposition need not be observed.
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has reportedly unleashed an attack on his critics for his violations of disclosure laws and alleged conflicts of interest. He warned law students that these critics are “undermining” the Court and endangering the country by weakening core institutions. As one of those critics, I am flabbergasted by Thomas’ remarks which show an implied disregard that seems to have now reached open contempt for certain principles of judicial ethics. There is not a hint of concern for his own conduct and how it has undermined the Supreme Court as an institution. For a prior column, click here
Continue reading “Thomas Condemns His Critics As Undermining The Supreme Court”
Submitted by Lawrence Rafferty, (rafflaw), Guest Blogger
With the constant news reports highlighting the economic woes of the State and Federal governments and the important battle in Wisconsin and other states over the claim that workers need to sacrifice a little more to help out their state governments, it is interesting to learn just how much big corporations pay in Federal Taxes. Would it surprise you if I told you that many of our largest corporations pay zero Federal taxes? Continue reading “Big Corporations and Federal Taxes”
Submitted by Lawrence Rafferty, (rafflaw), Guest Blogger
After a few recent discussions about Free Speech in earlier threads, I came across another example of how limited our Free Speech really is. At a recent speech by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a former CIA employee, Ray McGovern, attempted to protest her speech about Democracy and Freedom of Speech and how the freedom to disseminate information helped the Egyptians rid themselves of a brutal dictator. Continue reading “Is Free Speech Really Free?”
Submitted by Lawrence Rafferty, (rafflaw), Guest Blogger
You may have missed this story in the corporate media. It is an issue that is near and dear to my heart. It seems that a Federal Judge has dismissed a case brought by Jose Padilla and others against Donald Rumsfeld and other Bush administration officials, for a very interesting reason. Continue reading “Judge Disallows Padilla Torture Suit Because He Was Tortured?”
Mike Appleton (guest blogger)
A Florida circuit judge has issued an administrative order virtually certain to result in a court battle pitting the right of free speech against the duty of courts to protect the integrity of jury deliberations. The order prohibits “the dissemination of all leaflets and other materials to summoned jurors, as well as approaching a summoned juror for the purpose of displaying a sign to, or engaging in oral protest, education or counseling with information tending to influence summoned jurors on any matter, question, cause, or proceeding which may be pending, or which may be brought, before him or her as such juror… .”
Submitted By Lawrence Rafferty, (rafflaw) Guest Blogger
Professor Turley has recently discussed the ethical problems raised by Supreme Court Justices Scalia and Thomas by their attendance and participation in fund raisers for conservative groups. In addition, Justice Thomas’ wife has also come under criticism for working for a lobbying group that benefitted from the Citizen United decision. With all of the potential conflicts of interest that these Supreme Court Justices are involved in, it looks like someone is finally attempting to rein in the Justices and make them subject to the Judicial Conference’s Code of Conduct which all other Federal Judges have to adhere to. Continue reading “Ethics and The Supreme Court”