Congress, Courts, Environment, Politics, Society, Supreme Court

Supreme Court Limits EPA Authority In Regulation Of Greenhouse Gases

scalia220px-AlfedPalmersmokestacksAssociate Justice Antonin Scalia eked out a victory against the Environmental Protection Agency in a 5-4 opinion today limiting the EPA’s ability to regulate greenhouse gases. However, the decision however does not prevent the EPA from using other means to regulate the pollutants linked to global warming. Specifically the vote means that the Clean Air Act does not allow for the EPA require a point source to obtain a PSD or Title 5 permit. The vote was a straight ideological division with Justice Anthony Kennedy joining his conservative colleagues in the majority. The majority held that “A brief review of the relevant statutory provisions leaves no doubt that the PSD program and Title V are designed to apply to, and cannot rationally be extended beyond, a relative handful of large sources capable of shouldering heavy substantive and procedural burdens.” Utility Air Regulatory Group v. Environmental Protection Agency is the lead case of six cases on the regulation of greenhouse gases.

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Constitutional Law, Courts, Criminal law, Society

ACLU: Documents Show Effort Of Police And U.S. Marshals To Deceive Courts In Use Of Controversial “Stringrays”

marshals-660x494stingray_500x280_0There is a highly disturbing story out of Florida where the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has uncovered instructions from the U.S. Marshals Service that appear to tell police to actively deceive judges and defendants about the use of the controversial surveillance tool called Stingrays, or IMSI catchers, which simulate a cellphone tower and trick any nearby mobile devices into connecting with them. The federal officials reportedly told police to lie to courts and defendants and say that the suspect’s location came from a “confidential source.”

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Criminal law, Politics, Society

Oy Gevalt! Major Corruption Trial Halted In New York Due To Lack Of Yiddish Translators

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Judge Kenneth M. Karas of United States District Court had declared a mistrial in the bribery and fraud trial of Sen. Malcolm A. Smith on a less than common objection: a lack of Yiddish translators. Smith was the Democratic majority leader and the minority leader of the State Senate. He is accused of working with a developer to give out envelopes of cash and gifts to leading Republicans to engineer a run on the Republican side for mayor to avoid a crowed Democratic field. His attorneys discovered 70 hours of taped conversations that were not disclosed by the prosecution — a third of which was in Yiddish. However, those wiretapped conversations could not be translated due to a lack of translators. That led to a kvetsh and a motion for mistrial. While the government argued that the defense was having a plotz for no reason, they looked like a bunch of shlemiels.

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International, Politics, Religion

Presbyterians To Divest In Israel

Presbyterian_Church_(U.S.A.)Emblem_of_Israel.svgWe previously discussed the growing boycott of Israel by various academic, political, and business groups. On Friday, another major organization joined the movement. The Presbyterian Church voted — by a razor thin margin of 310-303 — to join the boycott. The Church only has about $21 million in investment capital so this is not a significant financial hit for the Israeli government but the vote carried obviously considerable symbolic value for the boycott movement and could further damage tourism for Israel.

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Columns, Congress, Politics, Society

THE R-WORD: ANOTHER FEDERAL AGENCY GOES OUT OF BOUNDS

350px-Washington_Redskins_logo.svguspto-logoBelow is my column in the Sunday Washington Post on the stripping of the trademark protection from the Washington Redskins. The decision effectively negates a decision in 2003 by the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board that barred a challenge to the Redskins name on the basis that such a challenge had to have been made soon after the Redskins registered their nickname in 1967. In 1999, another court issued a similar ruling. This use of the trademark laws creates a dangerous slippery slope as the agency identifies names that it considers disrespectful. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi celebrated the decision as sanctioning “disparaging or offensive names” and added “[w]hile we respect the right to free speech, slurs have no right to trademark protections.” But what of other “slurs” that reference ethnicity like the Atlanta Braves or the combative Kansas City Chieftains. There is also the cartoonist grinning Chief Wahoo of the Cleveland Indians. These teams have critics who say that the names and images are offensive. What is the objective line to distinguish such teams? The column focuses on the highly ambiguous standard in the federal law that would seem to make a vast array of marks as potentially violative and unprotected.
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Constitutional Law, Courts, Criminal law, Justice, Media, Society

Mississippi Burning, 50th Anniversary of a Crime That Nearly Went Unpunished.

By Charlton Stanley, Weekend Contributor

FBI MIBURN Poster
FBI MIBURN Poster

Fifty years ago today, the course of American history changed. It was changed by a few carloads of haters, with law enforcement officers complicit. Murder, pure and simple. It was June 16, 1964 that the Mount Zion Methodist Church was burned to the ground by arsonists. The church offended the Ku Klux Klan because it housed a Freedom School. This was a part of the educational program designed to help black Mississippians register to vote. The attack on the church was not a sneak arson in the wee hours. In fact, Klan members assaulted and beat several African Americans present at the church. Then they set the church on fire, burning it to the ground.

Intelligence gathered later by legitimate law enforcement discovered that the Neshoba County church was not chosen by accident. The attack on the church and the people inside was designed to lure more CORE (Congress Of Racial Equality) volunteers to the area. The Klan was interested in one worker in particular, Michael Schwerner. He had attracted interest as a target, aside from being Jewish, because he had helped with a boycott of Mississippi stores, his Freedom Summer activities, and of course helping set up Freedom Schools around the state. The carefully planned trap worked.
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Congress, International, Military, Politics, Science

Forty Billion Dollar Failure

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Respectfully submitted by Lawrence E. Rafferty (rafflaw) Weekend Contributor

Forty Billion Dollars is a heck of a lot of money.  It seems like an even larger number when you realize that just one defense program spent that large sum, and it has arguably been a disaster.  I am talking about the highly political missile defense system program.  You have probably heard about that program.  It is supposed to stop any wild-eyed dictators from successfully sending any ICBM’s into our air space.  It may just be an amazingly expensive pipe dream! Continue reading “Forty Billion Dollar Failure” →

Bizarre, Courts, Criminal law, Society

Hoping For Hope

By Mark Esposito, Weekend Guy

soloWith the pivotal World Cup game of the Americans versus Portugal just a day away, sports fans were greeted yesterday with sad news about one of America’s finest players. Olympian Hope Solo was arrested on domestic violence and assault charges at her sister’s home in Seattle. Solo who is a heralded goalie is much more than that. She’s a bona fide star in a sport sorely in need of one. While soccer enjoys a world-wide popularity, its reception in the U.S. has been … well … muted. Lacking the violent collisions of football (for the most part) and the non-stop  artistry of professional basketball, American males have routinely turned up their noses at what some call derisively “Communist kickball.” Add that to this year’s controversial move of leaving the greatest American male soccer star off the U.S. team and you have a sport that only an advancement to the final round of the World Cup playoffs could whet the public’s appetite the way American football does.

Solo earned her star power  following her brilliant but controversial Olympic performance. In 2005, she became the Americans starting goalie and recorded 7 shutout in 7 matches. In 2007 at the women’s World Cup, while facing the best he world had to offer, she  allowed just two goals in four games while recording 3 consecutive shutouts. No mean feat when you patrol a goal net about half the size of New Jersey. When she was benched in the semi-final game against Brazil for a reputed attitude problem, Brazil blew out the U.S. team 4-0. Solo was not the strong silent type castigating her coach and her replacement for the move and earning the ire of her more team-oriented teammates. Solo rebounded from that controversy and helped the U.S. win gold in the 2008 and 2012 Olympics solidifying her as a top — if not the top — goalie in the world. She also played professionally for several teams and is now starting for the Seattle Reign of the National Women’s Soccer League.

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Bizarre, Criminal law, International, Justice, Religion, Society

The Risk of Reforming God’s Bank

By Mark Esposito, Weekend Guy

Logo_IOROvershadowed by Pope Francis’ announcement Thursday that the mob is now persona non grata in Roman Catholic Churches (“RCC”) throughout the world is the very real –and related –struggle behind the scenes at the Vatican Bank. Officially known as the Istituto per le Opere di Religione or Institute for the Works of Religion, the bank has been at the center of RCC-Mafia relations for years. The bank itself is ostensibly independent but situates itself squarely on sovereign territory owned and controlled by the Pope and its Board of Superintendence answers directly to the Curia and the Pope.

Founded in 1942 by papal decree, the bank has had a tumultuous history. Unlike other financial institutions, the assets of the bank are not loaned to borrowers who pay back with interest. Rather the bank functions more like a holding company for assets which are intended to be distributed for charitable functions of the RCC. In this role as repository for the billions of dollars in assets and cash, the bank has been subjected to considerable criticism both for its haphazard administration and the customer it attracts. Customers, who Italian prosecutors say, have ties to organized crime. Continue reading “The Risk of Reforming God’s Bank” →

Criminal law, International, Politics, Religion

Pope Francis: Mafia Members Will Be Excommunicated

Unknown120px-Pope_Francis_in_March_2013_(cropped)I have previously expressed my admiration for Pope Francis and his extraordinary reforms of the Catholic Church. As someone of Sicilian descent, that admiration has grown even further today after reading the Pope decision to excommunicate Italian Mafia members. On Saturday, the Pope declared “Those who in their life have gone along the evil ways, as in the case of the Mafia, they are not with God, they are excommunicated.”

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Bizarre, Criminal law, International

Edinburgh Couple Sentenced For Defacing Mosque By Wrapping Bacon On Door Handles

220px-NCI_baconThere is a bizarre case out of Edinburgh where Chelsea Lambie, 18, and Douglas Cruikshank, were arrested for defacing a mosque by wrapping bacon around door handles and, last year, throwing strips of bacon inside. It was a stupid and hateful act. What is interesting is the length of the sentences, which were a year and nine months. We have previously discussed how sentences tend to be lower in England but these are pretty stiff.

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Congress, Constitutional Law, International, Military, Politics

Obama: I Need No Congressional Approval To Go Back To War In Iraq

President_Barack_Obama220px-B-2_spirit_bombingWe have been discussing the growing concerns over President Barack Obama’s series of unilateral actions in ordering agencies not to enforce law, effectively rewriting laws, and moving hundreds of millions of dollars from appropriated purposes to areas of his choosing. One of the greatest concerns has been his unchecked authority asserted in the national security area. I previously represented members of Congress in challenging Obama’s intervention in the Libyan civil war without a declaration from Congress. In the case, President Obama insisted that he alone determines what is a war and therefore when he needs a declaration. Since the court would not recognize standing to challenge the war, it left Obama free to engage in war operations in any country of his choosing. As with his approach in Libya, Syria and other combat operations, President Obama declared this week that he does not need any approval or even consultation with Congress if he decides to commit us again to war again in Iraq.
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Bizarre, Criminal law, Society

Winsome, Lose Some: Felon’s Mugshot Goes Viral As Heartthrob

viralmugshotinternal1616This story is truly an insight into our often superficial society. Jeremy Meeks, 30, is considered by police to be “one of the most violent criminals in the Stockton area.” However, his mug shot has gone viral with tens of thousands of “likes” as people gush over his movie-style good looks. Many women cannot see beyond the high cheek bones and blue eyes to see those six felony charges, including gang crimes.

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