When the case of the shooting of a Chicago police officer in 2012 came to the chambers of Cook County Circuit Judge Thaddeus Wilson, the court saw something that it said was obvious to anyone who has done any practice in the criminal law: the statement of the mother of the suspect Paris Sadler was free of any corrections or edits. Since the mother Talaina Cureton said that she had edited and corrected the statement prepared by Assistant Cook County state’s attorney Joseph Lattanzio, it was a curious fact. However, Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez, long criticized for her policies such as prosecuting citizens who dare to video police in public, fought to block any effort to reexamine the statement and denied that her office omitted critical information. Now, it appears that one of those videotapes that Alvarez hates, existed showing Cureton editing the statement. Lattanzio has been fired. However, once again, without the videotape, Alvarez’s office would have likely succeeded in blocking the challenge and protecting the prosecutorial misconduct.
Category: Politics
There is a curious case out of Georgetown, Texas, where Williamson County District Judge Rick Kennon has ruled that Williamson County District Attorney Jana Duty intentionally withheld evidence in the murder trial of Crispin Harmel. However, Kennon refused a defense motion to bar a second trial under the double jeopardy clause. There is no indication of any punishment for Ms. Duty for this case. She continues to serve as a lawyer and a prosecutor in Texas. She has however racked up an impressive number of allegations of misconduct and was sent to jail in August for contempt. However, it is odd not to see a direct referral by the court. I can understand the ruling, though the Texas Court of Appeals recently extended double jeopardy protections to a case where prosecutors intentionally forced a mistrial to avoid an acquittal. However, at a minimum, one would expect a court to deal separately with the violation of her core obligations to the court and the bar.
I have been highly critical of the environmental policies of Australia’s Prime Minister Tony Abbott who has led the world in rolling back efforts to deal with climate change and reducing pollution while opening up pristine areas of mining and other industries. In a move that is likely to be celebrated by environmentalists around the world, Abbott is Prime Minister no more. In a remarkable change, ruling conservatives ousted Abbott (right) as party leader in favor of former party leader and Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull (left).
Continue reading “Tony Abbott Dumped As Australian Prime Minister”
There are some cases that produce truly Earth shaking ironies. The prosecution of Pennsylvania attorney general Kathleen Kane is one such case. We previously discussed the case where Kane is accused of leaking grand jury information and lying about it to a grand jury. She is accused of using the leaks to attack her opponents or critics. Her team is now objecting to the damage to her case after a leak that confirmed that bar authorities in Pennsylvania are seeking to suspend her law license. They insist that such leaks are clearly designed to hurt Kane.
By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
Decades of progress in making cooler, faster, more race-car like patrol cars took a turn for the worse when LAPD, at the behest of (of course) the mayor and city suits, handed down a rather puny runt of a patrol car. While this car might be good for a general purpose civilian strip mall warrior, in police culture it does not cut the mustard.
The city stuck the PD with some of the city’s 160 BMW i3 electric vehicles. While I certainly applaud this for a general purpose city vehicle as I am a supporter of electric cars, but an i3 patrol car? No thank you. When first reading USA Today’s article announcing this, one of my first thoughts was that rookies better hang low for a few months.
By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
Kentucky was faced with another case of drama and failure to perform statutory duties and the federal courts. The Casey County Clerk announced that he would refuse to issue marriage licenses to couples who’s marriage he objects to.
The clerk, in a bit of irony, is named Casey Davis.
Davis insists that he has a duty to himself to violate state law but oddly he feels the Commonwealth should pay for an attorney to represent him.
City Council member Daniel Dromm, chairman of the education committee, will reportedly push an investigation into Jewish schools after reports of shockingly sub-standard educations at the 39 hasidic yeshivas in the city. The schools have been accused of spending little relative time on basic education in favor of religious studies — to the point that they have produced graduates who cannot read or write English or do basic math.
Continue reading “Hasidic Schools Accused Of Sub-Standard Educational Standards”
There was a wonderfully ironic moment in the White House as reporters spared with Press Secretary Josh Earnest who has been often criticized for less than forthcoming statements to the media. Now “Siri” is getting in the act as she was heard in the midst of the press conference saying “Sorry, I’m not sure what you want me to change.” It seemed for a moment like Earnest had developed a second persona.
Continue reading “iPresser: Siri Answers Question In White House Press Conference”
Wendy Joyce Terry, 43, the longtime prosecutor in Davidson County, North Carolina, was indicted this week in a bizarre case where she is accused of texting an offer to pay $20,000 to get an opponent to drop out of an election for a superior court seat. Putting aside the wisdom on texting bribes or payoffs, Terry is accused of texting the offer to district court Judge April Wood.
The House’s entire legal team would like, first and foremost, to express its gratitude and respect for Judge Rosemary Collyer in issuing this historic and profound decision. The opinion is attached below.
Continue reading “FEDERAL COURT RULES THAT HOUSE HAS STANDING IN HISTORIC CHALLENGE”
Defiant Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis has appealed the contempt order that has left her languishing in jail. At the same time, her lawyer has argued that marriage licenses issued without her signature are invalid — an interesting question given the state’s requirement that her signature be affixed to every such license. Below is my recent Washington Post column on Davis and how she fits within our collective social and legal iconography. Defiance is a heroic value when it is Martin Luther King violating police orders and standing unbent before biting dogs and swinging batons. It was inspiring to millions when King cited St. Augustine to declare “an unjust law is no law at all”. Such figures stood against not just our prejudice but our laws in their defiance. As Henry David Thoreau stated “Unjust laws exist; shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once?” Those who transgress upon unjust laws today are often heralded as heroes tomorrow from early American patriots to abolitionists to suffragists to desegregationists. Even today many praise Edward Snowdon for his criminal actions in disclosing a massive surveillance system of U.S. citizens even though those same laws are designed to protect our national security. Yet, Davis is using her public office to impose her religious values on neighbors. That contrast led to the column below.
Continue reading “Kim Davis: Hero or Villain?”
By Mike Appleton, Weekend Contributor
“Smith relegated our national commitment to the free exercise of religion to the sub-basement of constitutional values.”
-Michael P. Farris and Jordan W. Lorence, “Employment Division v. Smith and the Need for the Religious Freedom Restoration Act,” 6 Regent U.L.Rev. 65, 66 (1995)
Several years following the ratification of the Constitution, a man named Jonas Phillips was subpoenaed to testify on behalf of a defendant in a criminal case in Pennsylvania. The problem was that the trial was scheduled for a Saturday and Mr. Phillips was a devout Jew. He refused to be sworn on the Jewish Sabbath and was subsequently held in contempt and fined ten pounds, despite invoking the protection of the Pennsylvania constitution, which provided that “no human authority can in any case whatsoever, control or interfere with the rights of conscience. . . .” Stansbury v. Marks, 2 Dall. 213 (Pa. 1793). Fortunately, the defendant waived Mr. Phillips’ appearance and the fine was discharged.
Jonas Phillips’ “rights of conscience” were deemed subordinate to the orderly administration of the judicial system in a state which boasted one of the most religiously tolerant constitutions in the young nation. Therefore, when the Supreme Court held in 1878 that rights of conscience likewise could not be raised as a defense to a charge of bigamy, the ruling was hardly earthshattering. Reynolds v. United States, 98 U.S. 145 (1878). And the decision over one hundred years later in Employment Division v. Smith, 494 U.S. 872 (1990), appeared to confirm a principle that had largely guided free exercise jurisprudence since the nation’s founding: the Religion Clauses do not mandate religious exemptions from valid laws intended to be binding upon all of us. Yet the Smith decision produced a harsh political and academic reaction, resulting in legislation that has radically altered the free exercise landscape. How did that happen?
By Darren Smith Weekend Contributor
After the Rowan County Kentucky Clerk, Democrat Kim Davis, defied a court order to issue gay couples marriage licenses, and was subsequently arrested by the U.S. Marshal’s Service and jailed, her husband stated that she chose to remain in jail rather than compromise her religious beliefs by performing her statutory duty. Her contempt of court ruling will stand until she resumes issuing such licenses and thus in jail she shall remain.
And so it should.
The issue is not the content of her religious beliefs that are on trial. It is that of failure to perform her duty and denial of a civil right as mandated by the Supreme Court. For this reason she has two choices: being in contempt indefinitely; or resigning her position. For the near term it is as simple as that. If she continues her defiance, a third party must step up, show some leadership, and make the decision for her by ejecting her from office.
Continue reading “County Clerk Who Refuses To Issue Marriage License To Gay Couple Says She Will Remain In Jail, So Be It.”
By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
Many politicians are often a detriment to scientific advancement. Now, politicians can use science to the detriment of advancing legislation…using of course a most titanic word. It shows great promise in the realm of filibusters and gridlock.
The magic word is Titin.
Titin /ˈtaɪtɪn/, also known as connectin, is a protein that, in humans, is encoded by the TTN gene. Titin is a giant protein, greater than 1 µm in length, that functions as a molecular spring which is responsible for the passive elasticity of muscle. It is composed of 244 individually folded protein domains connected by unstructured peptide sequences. How can this be a useful tool of politicians? It is only a matter of expansion of Titin to its full chemical name that presents the opportunity to quash most debate. A typical manifestation of what can become a powerful English sentence using this word might be concatenated as follows:
“[Full chemical name for titin], [full chemical name for titin], parting is such sorrow, that I shall say [full chemical name for titin] till it be morrow.”
Of course, one could speak it slowly for “easier understanding” and repeating this until collapse.
What is [Full chemical name for titin]? Well for the purpose of brevity the full chemical name of the human canonical form of titin is most easily described as having 189,819 letters: over 2,372 lines of typing. It is renowned for being the longest scientific word in the English. Expanding the sentence in the above paragraph using the full chemical name would constitute over half a million letters, and well suited for congressional usage. Prepare yourself, the word is quite a doozy.
Continue reading “Politics 405: Yes, You Can Filibuster With One Sentence”
The former aide that helped set up the private email server used by Hillary Rodham Clinton will, according to the New York Times, invoke his Fifth Amendment right to remain silent to avoid self-incrimination before the congressional committee investigating the matter. Bryan Pagliano worked for Clinton in her failed presidential campaign in 2008. He was then brought into the State Department and helped her create a server separate from the secured State Department system so she could control her own emails. If this news was not bad enough, the Washington Post is reporting that Clinton herself wrote and transmitted classified emails on her unsecured server. If that is not bad enough, Fox News is reporting that Clinton staff members may have changed classified markings on documents to hide their classified status.