News Intelligence Analysis
Law
and Legal Issues
Regeneration by K. Yurica
Plus: The California
Energy Fraud
Cases
See also articles and
documents in the
following Directories:
Battle for
the Judiciary
Civil Rights Under
Attack
Directory of the
CIA Leak
Directory of Scandals
Government Abuse
Directory
Separation of Church & State
Torture & Prison
Articles
ABC News Interview with Chief Justice
John Roberts
November 13, 2006
NEW: On Robbing Peter to Pay
St. Paul
Or Why the Supreme Court Should
Grant a Rehearing
on the Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization Case
By Katherine Yurica
April 29, 2011
This story began when Arizona's
State legislators passed
an unfortunate law in 1997 that granted a dollar-for-dollar
tax credit to tax payers who chose to make payments of up
to $500 each to any of the states "school tuition organizations"
to help children attend private religious schools. The problem
is the law allows the qualified schools to discriminate on the
basis of a child's religion, but
no one seemed to notice that fact--
A "Lone Pamphleteer"
Answers the
Supreme Court
Or How the Court Took a Perilous
Journey Into Wonderland,
Through the Looking Glass, and Abruptly into The
Professor's Lecture!
By Katherine Yurica
March 21, 2010
Inspired by Chief Justice John
Roberts' statement, "The First
Amendment protects more than just the individual on a soapbox
and the lonely pamphleteer," this article takes on the Supreme
Court's majority in an unforgettable examination of the Court's
decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.
In
fact, you may just want to pass this essay on to anyone you
know who was depressed by the Court's decision.
Mr. Smith Rewrites the Constitution
By Thomas Geoghegan
Should the filibuster
be declared unconstitutional?
Thomas Geoghegan makes a coherent argument that
our present day Senate filibuster does indeed violate
the letter and the spirit of the Constitution. Citing
from the Federalist papers with a quote from Hamilton,
who dismissed a supermajority rule for a quorum by
saying: "All provisions which require more than a majority
of any body to its resolutions have a direct tendency
to embarrass the operations of the government and an
indirect one to subject the sense of the majority to that
of the minority." Geoghegan writes, "senators no longer
had to keep talking. Nowadays, they don't even have to
start; they just say they will, and that's enough. Senators
need not be on the floor at all. They can be at home watching
Jimmy Stewart on cable. Senate Rule 22 now exists to cut
off what are ghost
filibusters, disembodied
debates."
The Rights of Corporations
September 22, 2009
A New York Times Editorial
The question at the heart of
one of the biggest
Supreme Court cases this year is simple:
What constitutional rights should corporations have?
To us, as well as many legal scholars, former justices
and, indeed, drafters of the Constitution, the answer is
that their rights should be quite limited — far
less than
those of people.
The Late Great Supreme Court
An Examination of the “Dead
Constitution”
Heresy and Why It Is Causing the Court to
Die a Slow and Painful Unconstitutional Death
By Katherine Yurica
July 26, 2009
Chief Justice John Roberts acknowledged
the "unparalleled
ability" to prove guilt or innocence using DNA evidence
but
in a stunning and appalling 5 to 4 decision, the Supreme
Court's conservative majority threw out significant due process
claims and denied the right of a prisoner to obtain post-
conviction DNA testing that might prove his innocence.
The court sided with Alaska, the only state in the nation
with no known case of a prisoner receiving DNA testing.
The New York Times wrote, Roberts treated the DNA
breakthrough "more as an irritant than an opportunity."
The question is why? Yurica examines the ideological
grounds behind the decision and asks why Antonin Scalia
did not recuse himself from participating. Read all about it here.
Pushing the Law that Life
and Rights Begin at Conception
Extreme Measures in Colorado's
Amendment 48
by Pamela White
An analysis of the 2008 Colorado
Constitution proposal that
might have changed the law to the degree that even a pronuclear
embryo — a single-celled, newly fertilized human egg —
would have the same rights and protections as a fully
developed, living, breathing human being. The so-called
“Personhood Amendment,” an initiative placed on the
ballot by anti-abortion extremists, could have impacted
not only abortion, experts say, but also a broad range
of issues pertaining to women’s health from access to
contraception to infertility treatment to the flexibility
doctors
have in treating pregnant women.
Former IRS Officials File a Complaint
Against Christian Lawyers
By Meredith Heagney
Three former Internal Revenue Service executives plan
to file a complaint today against a coalition of Christian
lawyers who they say are unethically encouraging pastors
nationwide to talk about political candidates
from the pulpit.
The FBI Deputizes Business
by Matthew Rothschild
Today, more than 23,000 representatives
of private
industry are working quietly with the FBI and the
Department of Homeland Security. The members of
this rapidly growing group, called InfraGard, receive
secret warnings of terrorist threats before the public
does—and, at least on one occasion, before elected
officials. In return, they provide information to the
government, which alarms the ACLU. But there may
be more to it than that. One business executive, who
showed me his InfraGard card, told me they have
permission to “shoot to kill” in
the event of martial law.
Secret U.S. Endorsement of
Severe Interrogations
By SCOTT SHANE, DAVID JOHNSTON
and JAMES RISEN
When the Justice Department publicly declared
torture “abhorrent” in a legal opinion in December
2004, the Bush administration appeared to have
abandoned its assertion of nearly unlimited presidential
authority to order brutal interrogations.But soon after
Alberto R. Gonzales’s arrival as attorney general in
February 2005, the Justice Department issued another
opinion,
this one in secret.
Homeland Security Enlists
Clergy to Quell Public Unrest if Martial
Law Ever Declared
KSLA News 12 has discovered that
the clergy
would help the government with potentially their
biggest problem: Us. For the clergy team, one of
the biggest tools that they will have in helping calm
the public down or to obey the law is the bible itself,
specifically Romans 13. Dr. Tuberville elaborated,
"because the government's established by the Lord,
you know. And, that's what we believe in the Christian
faith. That's
what's stated in the scripture."
Blackwell's Son In Trouble
for Cheating on Bar Exam:
Son of former Ohio secretary
of state
in court fight over bar exam
Rahshann Blackwell could be barred from
becoming a lawyer before 2009 over investigation
findings.
By Laura A. Bischoff
At the 2003 bar exam, Blackwell
— the middle
child of politician J. Kenneth Blackwell and
Cincinnati Schools Superintendent Rosa Blackwell
— wrote in the test booklet after time had been
called. He lost credit for that portion and failed
the bar for the third time.The Board of Commissioners
on Character and Fitness, an arm of the Ohio
Supreme Court, decided the 2003 conduct was
an aberration and he could take the exam again.But
at the July 2005 exam, Blackwell once again wrote
in the booklet after
time had been called.
Another Viable Solution
to
the Bush Appointed Supreme Court:
Stack the Court
By JEAN EDWARD SMITH
WHEN a majority of Supreme Court justices adopt
a manifestly ideological agenda, it plunges the court
into the vortex of American politics. If the Roberts court
has entered voluntarily what Justice Felix Frankfurter
once called the “political thicket,” it may require
a
political
solution to set it straight.
GAO Study Reveals: Thousands
of Organizations Exempt from Federal
Income Tax Owe Nearly $1 Billion in
Payroll and Other Taxes
A study by the GAO found that
nearly 55,000 tax
exempt organizations had almost $1 billion in unpaid
federal taxes as of September 30, 2006. About 1,500
of these entities each had over $100,000 in federal tax
debts with some owing tens of millions of dollars. Willful
failure to remit payroll taxes is a felony under
U.S. tax law.
Tough Talk On Impeachment:
Bill Moyers on the Role of
Impeachment
in American Political Life
Moyers interviews Constitutional
scholar Bruce Fein,
who wrote the first article of impeachment against
President Bill Clinton, and THE NATION's John Nichols,
author of THE GENIUS OF IMPEACHMENT.
Click
here for links to transcript and video.
Justice Denied:
The Supreme
Court's Dark Slide
Into the Power Bog of Political
and Religious Domination
Justice John Roberts’s court
is emerging
as the Warren court’s mirror image. Time
and again the court has ruled, almost always
5-4, in favor of corporations and powerful
interests while slamming the courthouse
door on individuals and ideals that truly
need
the court’s shelter. Is it time to
talk about impeachment?
Fitzgerald Questions
Whether
Equal Justice Prevails in Libby
Case
Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the Republican-appointed
federal prosecutor in the Plame/CIA leak case,
released a brief statement tonight, after President
Bush commuted the prison sentence of Lewis
"Scooter" Libby.
Bush Commutes Libby's
Prison Term in CIA Leak Case
By Edwin Chen
President George W. Bush spared
Lewis
``Scooter'' Libby from prison in the CIA leak
case, saying his 2 1/2-year term
was ``excessive.''
Supreme Court Marches Right
By Linda Greenhouse
It was the Supreme Court that
conservatives
had long yearned for and that liberals feared...
As a result, the court upheld a federal anti-abortion
law, cut back on the free-speech rights of public
school students, strictly enforced procedural
requirements for bringing and appealing cases,
and limited school districts’ ability to use racially
conscious measures to
achieve or preserve
integration.
The Same Words, but
Differing Views
But lawyers who represented the
black schoolchildren
in the Brown case said yesterday that several justices
in the majority had misinterpreted the positions they
had taken in the litigation and had misunderstood the
true
meaning of Brown.
Catholic Justices Limit Use
of Race in Integration Plans
By Linda Greenhouse
With competing blocs of justices
claiming the
mantle of Brown v. Board of Education, a bitterly
divided Supreme Court declared Thursday that public
school systems cannot seek to achieve or maintain
integration through measures that take explicit
account
of a student’s race.
Scalia Lashes Out At Roberts
June 28, 2007
By Linda Greenhouse
It’s not every day that
one Supreme Court justice,
even one as rhetorically unrestrained as Justice
Antonin Scalia, characterizes another justice, let
alone the chief justice of the United States, as a
wimp
and a hypocrite.
Immigrants in Custody Dying
by Nina Bernstein
No government body is charged
with accounting
for deaths in immigration detention, a patchwork
of county jails, privately run prisons and federal
facilities where more than 27,500 people who
are not American citizens are held on any given
day while the government decides whether
to
deport them.
Precedents Begin to Fall
for Roberts Court
By Linda Greenhouse
Both Chief Justice John G. Roberts
Jr. and
Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. assured their Senate
questioners at their confirmation hearings that
they, too, respected precedent. So why were
they on the majority side of a 5-to-4 decision
last week declaring that a 45-year-old doctrine
excusing people whose “unique circumstances”
prevented them from meeting court filing deadlines
was
now “illegitimate”?
The New Civil Rights Focus:
Protecting Religion
Justice Dept. Reshapes Its
Civil Rights Mission
By Neil A. Lewis
In recent years, the Bush administration has recast
the federal government’s role in civil rights by
aggressively pursuing religion-oriented cases
while significantly diminishing its involvement
in
the traditional area of race.
Ginsburg's Hour
By LINDA GREENHOUSE
Whatever else may be said about
the
Supreme Court’s current term, which
ends in about a month, it will be remembered
as the time when Justice Ruth Bader
Ginsburg found her
voice, and used it.
Supreme Court Memo
A Devil in the Details, but
Not the Constitution
By LINDA GREENHOUSE
More than half the cases the
court agrees
to hear are not constitutional, but
statutory.
Justices Back Ban on
Method
of Abortion
By LINDA GREENHOUSE
The Supreme Court reversed course on
abortion on Wednesday, upholding the federal
Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act in a 5-to-4 decision
that promises to reframe the abortion debate and
define the
young Roberts court.
Gonzales V. Carthart: an Abortion
Case
The Politics of Supreme
Court
Nominations
John Nichols
How should Americans react to the U.S. Supreme
Court's 5-4 decision to uphold restrictions on abortion
that place new and potentially dangerous limits on
access to necessary medical
care for women?
The FBI Turns Its Back
on
White-Collar Crimes
FBI's terrorism trade-off
Focus on national security
after 9/11 means that the agency
has turned its back on thousands of
white-collar crimes
Seattle Post-Intelligencer Report
Thousands of white-collar criminals
across
the country are no longer being prosecuted
in federal court -- and, in many cases, not
at all -- leaving a trail of frustrated victims
and potentially billions of dollars in fraud
and theft losses.
Free-Speech Case Divides
Bush
and Religious Right
A Supreme Court case about the
free-speech
rights of high school students, to be argued on
Monday, has opened an unexpected fissure
between the Bush administration and its usual
allies
on the religious right.
Phony Fraud Charges
In its fumbling attempts
to explain the purge
of United States attorneys, the Bush administration
has argued that the fired prosecutors were not
aggressive enough about
addressing voter fraud.
U.S. VP Cheney's former
top aide,
'Scooter' Libby, convicted in CIA leak case
Tuesday, March 6, 2007
Once Vice President Dick Cheney's closest adviser,
I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby stands convicted of lying
and obstructing a federal media leak investigation
that shook the top levels of
the Bush administration.
The Most Important Church-State
Decision You Never Heard of: Everson at 60
By Rob Boston, Church and State
Television preacher Pat Robertson
can barely contain
his anger when he talks about a 1947 Supreme Court
decision called Everson
v. Board of Education.
Spy Program Secrecy
Affects Judges
By ADAM LIPTAK
The Bush administration has employed extraordinary
secrecy in defending the National Security Agency’s
highly classified domestic surveillance program from
civil lawsuits. Plaintiffs and judges’ clerks cannot see
its secret filings. Judges have to make appointments
to review them and are not
allowed to keep copies.
Putting God in His Place
New Jersey Student-warrior
for the
Constitution Gets a Death Threat
by Nat Hentoff
When 16-year-old Matthew LaClair, a junior
at Kearny (New Jersey) High School, 10
miles west of Manhattan, recorded eight
lectures by popular teacher David Paszkiewicz
in an accelerated American history course,
he started a furor not only in his hometown
but elsewhere around this country—whose
Constitution has been degraded for the past
six years by the president and the Republican-
controlled Congress, with the acceptance of
many of the citizenry, either ignorant of their
constitutional liberties or willing to yield them
in fear of
homicidal terrorists.
The Harsh Wages of Sin:
Why Genarlow Wilson is Languishing
in Prison
By SHERRY F. COLB
Genarlow Wilson, a young African-American
man who is serving a mandatory ten-year prison
sentence for aggravated child molestation.
Based on the evidence - which included a
videotape of the crime while in progress -
the conduct for which Wilson now spends
his days behind bars was consensual oral sex
with a 15-year-old girl when he, Wilson, was
himself only
17 years old.
Clarence Thomas Raises
Serious
Questions: Should He Sit on the Bench?
A Big Question About Clarence
Thomas
By Douglas T. Kendall
A little-noticed bombshell was
dropped by
Justice Antonin Scalia in a recently released
biography of Justice Clarence Thomas. It poses
an interesting dilemma for President Bush this
election season, in that it raises the question of
whether he should continue to cite Thomas as
one of his model Supreme
Court justices.
No Pointers to Ruling
in
Abortion Case
Two hours of oral argument on
a federal
"partial birth" abortion ban at the Supreme
Court yesterday showed that the justices
are intensely focused on the procedure's
medical details and health implications --
but produced few clues as to how
they
might rule.
Faith-Based Profits
After Texas exempted religious
day care
centers and drug-treatment programs from
state licensing, a study found that the “alternatively
accredited” facilities had 10 times the rate of
abuse and neglect of the others, and several
were investigated. In 2001, the Texas Legislature,
no enemy of organized religion, did the right
thing and ended
the exemption.
Toward a Medieval Model
The Constitution Restoration
Act
Michael Peabody
Amid all the activity of a turbulent year,
many missed the March 3, 2005, filing of the
Constitution Restoration Act of 2005 (CRA) in
both houses of Congress (S. 520 and H.R. 1070).
If enacted, the CRA would effectively turn the
United States into a theocracy, in which the
arbitrary dictates of God—as interpreted or
discovered by a judge, politician, or bureaucrat—
would override
the rule of law.
What in the Constitution
Cannot
Be Amended?
23 ARIZONA LAW REVIEW
717
by Douglas Linder
Ask most Americans whether the United States
Constitution is amendable, and they will answer,
correctly, of course, that it is. Perhaps rarer still
would be the individual who would identify certain
other impliedly unamendable constitutional
provisions.
Scalia's Dissent in
McCreary County, Kentucky v.
American Civil Liberties
On displaying the Ten
Commandments
In
a pdf file.
Houses of Worship Free
Speech
Restoration Act of 2005
HR 235 IH
A BILL
To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986
to protect the religious free exercise and free
speech rights of churches and other houses
of worship.
Compendium of Articles
on
Defamatory Scenes in 9/11
ABC/Disney Film
The ABC movie promoted itself
as a serious work
based on the 9/11 commission report and featuring
Tom Kean, the commission’s co-chairman, as a co-
executive producer. Two retired F.B.I. agents said
today that they had rejected advisory roles on the
disputed ABC mini-series, “The Path to 9/11,” because
of concerns about the
program’s accuracy.
ABC Apologists Defend
Flawed
Miniseries as Fake but True
From Media Matters
ABC's heavily promoted miniseries,
The Path to 9/11,
billed as being "based solely and completely on the
9/11 Commission Report" has now proven to be a
fraudulent attack on former President Bill Clinton
and whitewash of President Bush's record. Filmmakers
have acknowledged basing the film in part on a book
by a Bush
administration PR official.
God’s Justice and
Ours
May 2002
Antonin Scalia
Before proceeding to discuss
the morality
of capital punishment, I want to make clear
that my views on the subject have nothing to
do with how I vote in capital cases that come
before the Supreme Court. That statement would
not be true if I subscribed to the conventional
fallacy that the Constitution is a “living document”
—that is, a text that means from age to age
whatever the society (or perhaps the Court)
thinks
it ought to mean.
Kerry Reignites 2004
Battle over Ohio
He Accuses GOP Governor Candidate
of Partisanship
- John Wildermuth, Chronicle
Political Writer
Friday, September 1, 2006
Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry jumped back
into the 2004 presidential race this week with a
scathing letter accusing Ken Blackwell, Ohio's
Republican secretary of state, of using "the power
of his state office to try to intimidate Ohioans and
suppress the Democratic vote''
in the 2004 election.
U.S. Judge Strikes Down
Parts of Ohio Election Law
By Lisa A. Abraham
Beacon Journal staff writer
CLEVELAND - A federal judge in
Cleveland
this afternoon struck down portions of the new
state election law, ruling they would have a
chilling effect on voter registration. U.S. District
Judge Kathleen O'Malley granted a preliminary
injunction that prohibits enforcement of sections
of House Bill 3, the election measure that went
into effect earlier this year. The case was brought
against Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell
by numerous groups involved in statewide
voter
registration efforts.
New Questions About
Inquiry in C.I.A. Leak
By DAVID JOHNSTON
Sept. 1 — An enduring mystery of the C.I.A.
leak case has been solved in recent days, but
with a new twist: Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the
prosecutor, knew the identity of the leaker from
his very first day in the special counsel’s chair,
but kept the inquiry open for nearly two more
years before indicting I. Lewis Libby Jr., Vice
President Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff,
on
obstruction charges.
Administration Seeks
to
Weaken War Crimes Law
Changes would end risk of
prosecution
for political appointees, CIA officers
By R. Jeffrey Smith
The Bush administration has drafted
amendments to a war crimes law that
would eliminate the risk of prosecution for
political appointees, CIA officers and former
military personnel for humiliating or degrading
war prisoners, according to U.S. officials
and a copy
of the amendments.
The Court Under Siege
N.Y. Times Editorial
July 29, 2006
One big thing we’ve learned from watching
President Bush’s assault on the balance of
powers is that the federal courts are the only
line of defense. Congress not only lacks the
spine to stand up to Mr. Bush, but is usually
eager to accommodate him. So it is especially
frightening to see the administration use the
debates over the prisoners at Guantánamo Bay
and domestic spying to mount a new offensive
against the
courts.
Bar Association Says
Bush Has Flouted the Constitution
July 24, 2006
By ROBERT PEAR
The American Bar Association said Sunday
that President Bush was flouting the Constitution
and undermining the rule of law by claiming the
power to disregard selected provisions of bills
that
he signed.
Senate Passes Minors
Abortion Bill
Measure punishes those who
help
girls cross state lines for procedure
A bill that would make
it a crime to take a
pregnant girl across state lines for an abortion
without her parents' knowledge passed the
Senate Tuesday, but vast differences with
the House version stood between the
measure and President
Bush's desk.
Judge Rejects Customer
Suit Over Records From AT&T
By ADAM LIPTAK
July 26, 2006
A federal judge in Chicago dismissed a
class-action lawsuit yesterday against AT&T
that claimed it had illegally given information
about its customers to the National Security
Agency. The judge, Matthew F. Kennelly, based
his ruling on the state secrets privilege, which
can bar suits that would disclose information
harmful to
national security.
Judge Declines to Dismiss
Privacy Suit Against AT&T
By JOHN MARKOFF
A federal judge on Thursday rejected a motion
by the Bush administration to dismiss a lawsuit
against AT&T over its cooperation with a government
surveillance program, ruling that state secrets would
not be at risk if
the suit proceeded.
Senators Kyl and Graham's
Hamdan v. Rumsfeld Scam:
The Deceptive Amicus Brief
They
Filed in the Guantanamo Detainee Case
By JOHN W. DEAN
Wednesday, Jul. 05, 2006
Last week, the Supreme Court
issued its historic
decision in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld. There, it dealt
a substantial blow to the Bush/Cheney Administration's
plans for the treatment of detainees at Guantanamo
and, potentially, elsewhere as well - ruling out, for
instance, the option of using military commissions
without due process
to try detainees.
Cheney, Rove and Libby
Sued Over CIA Leak
By Daniela Deane
Staff Writer
Friday, July 14, 2006
Former U.S. ambassador Joseph
C. Wilson IV
and his wife, former CIA agent Valerie Plame,
said today Vice President Dick Cheney and
other Bush administration officials knowingly
lied and abused their power to "exact personal
revenge" against the couple for criticizing Bush's
rationale
for going to war.
Valerie Plame Wilson
V. I. Lewis Libby,
Karl C. Rove,
Richard
B. Cheney, PDF.
Roberts Is at Court's
Helm,
but He Isn't Yet in Control
By LINDA GREENHOUSE
WASHINGTON, July 1 — As the dust settled
on a consequential Supreme Court term, the
first in 11 years with a change in membership
and the first in two decades with a new chief
justice, one question that lingered was whether
it was now the Roberts court, in fact as well
as in name. The answer: not yet. Chief Justice
John G. Roberts Jr. was clearly in charge,
presiding over the court with grace, wit and
meticulous preparation. But
he was not in control.
High Court Rejects
Detainee Tribunals
5 to 3 Ruling Curbs President's
Claim
Of Wartime Power
By Charles Lane
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, June 30, 2006
The Supreme Court yesterday struck
down the military
commissions President Bush established to try
suspected members of al-Qaeda, emphatically
rejecting a signature Bush anti-terrorism measure
and the broad assertion of executive power upon
which
the president had based it.
Justices, 5-3,
Broadly Reject Bush
Plan to Try Detainees
By LINDA GREENHOUSE
WASHINGTON, June 29 — The Supreme Court on
Thursday repudiated the Bush administration's plan
to put Guantánamo detainees on trial before military
commissions, ruling broadly that the commissions
were unauthorized by federal statute and
violated
international law.
The 75 page historic
Supreme Court
Decision that finds the President of the U.S.
had no authority to set up militarycommissions:
HAMDAN v. RUMSFELD, SECRETARY
OF
DEFENSE, et al.
certiorari to the united states
court of appeals
for the district of columbia circuit
No. 05-184.Argued March 28,
2006--Decided
June 29, 2006
Excerpt of Mr. Bush's Remarks on the
Supreme Court's Decision on Detainee Tribunals
President Bush Holds a Press
Conference
With Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi
CQ Transcripts Wire
Thursday,
June 29, 2006; 1:14 PM
The Federal Marriage Amendment:
Why Conservatives and Liberals
Alike Should Be Very Glad It Failed
by Bob Barr as published
by FindLaw.com
Friday, July 16, 2004 at 10:00 AM
On Wednesday, July 14, the Federal
Marriage
Amendment (FMA) failed in the Senate. That's a
good thing - because it was entirely unnecessary,
especially given the existence of the Defense of
Marriage Act (DOMA), which
I authored.
Justices Back Most G.O.P.
Changes to Texas Districts
By ANNE E. KORNBLUT and
JOHN O'NEIL
WASHINGTON, June 28 — The Supreme Court
today upheld the basic outlines of a Republican
Congressional redistricting plan in Texas,
refusing to toss out a sharply contested political
map engineered by the former
House majority
leader, Tom DeLay.
Supreme Court Blocks
Vermont Campaign Finance Law
By NEIL A. LEWIS
WASHINGTON, June 26 — The Supreme Court
ruled today that a Vermont law restricting
campaign donations and expenditures was
unconstitutional. The court said that the law's
limits on how much a candidate could spend
violated a landmark 30-year-old ruling equating
such spending with free speech and that its
limits on donations to a campaign were
far
too stringent.
New Abortion Laws
May Be on Horizon in Ohio
Eight proposals, including a total
ban, have been offered for debate
by Ohio legislators.
By Laura A. Bischoff
In Ohio, the debate over abortion
— which
never quite cools — is heating up again. With
two new faces on the U.S. Supreme Court,
abortion opponents anticipate their best
opportunity in years to overturn the 33-year-
old Roe v. Wade decision that legalized
abortion. And the governor's seat is open.
Republican J. Kenneth Blackwell opposes
abortion in all instances, including if the life
of the mother is
in danger.
Bush Re-Enters Gay Marriage
Fight
Two Speeches Set Pressing
Senate
To Vote for a Ban
By Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, June 3, 2006
President Bush plans to wade
back into the
emotional debate over same-sex marriage for the
first time in his second term beginning today with
a pair of speeches pressing the Senate to approve
a constitutional amendment next week defining
marriage as the union
of a man and woman.
Federal Marriage Amendment
- H.J. Res 56
Defense of Marriage Act
H. R. 1100
Why the "Political
Question Doctrine"
Shouldn't Necessarily Prevent Courts
From Asking Whether a Spending Bill
Actually Passed Congress
Part Two in a Series.
By Vik Amar
The
gist of these lawsuits is that the version of the
Act passed by the Senate and signed by the President
was never, in fact, voted on favorably by the House of
Representatives, and thus cannot be considered a
"Law of the United States" under
the Constitution.
Sex Reporting Nixed by Federal Court
AKA: "Kiss and Tell No
More"
A federal judge in Kansas
has dealt another blow
to the crusade by the state's attorney general, Phill
Kline, to restrict abortions under the phony banner of
combating child abuse....This week, a federal trial
judge in Wichita killed Mr. Kline's daft idea to require
doctors, school counselors and psychotherapists,
among others, to report all sexual activity by people
under 16, from kissing
to sexual intercourse.
Punch-card Voting is Illegal in Ohio
Professor: Appellate ruling in Ohio is first in U.S.
to say a state's equipment violates equal protection
By Lisa A. Abraham
The 2002 case, which was decided
in December 2004,
was filed against Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth
Blackwell by the ACLU on behalf of voters in Summit,
Hamilton and Montgomery counties. The suit claimed
the use of punch-card voting in some Ohio counties
but not in others violated voters' rights to equal protection
under the law. The suit also claimed the system violated
voters' rights to have their votes counted, and violated the
Voting Rights Act of 1965 by having a larger negative
impact on
African-American voters
Christians Sue for the Right to Hate
Many codes intended to protect gays from
harassment are illegal, conservatives argue.
By Stephanie Simon
April 10, 2006
ATLANTA — Ruth Malhotra
went to court last
month for the right to be intolerant. Malhotra says
her Christian faith compels her to speak out against
homosexuality. But the Georgia Institute of Technology,
where she's a senior, bans speech that puts down
others because of their sexual orientation. Malhotra
sees that as an unacceptable infringement on her
right to religious expression. So she's demanding
that Georgia Tech revoke its
tolerance policy.
Gonzales
Suggests Legal Basis
for Domestic Eavesdropping
By ERIC LICHTBLAU
WASHINGTON, April 6 —
Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales suggested
on Thursday for the first time that the president
might have the legal authority to order wiretapping
without a warrant on communications between
Americans that occur exclusively within the
United States.
Justices
Decline Terror
Case of a U.S. Citizen
By LINDA GREENHOUSE
WASHINGTON, April 3 — Jose Padilla, the
American citizen held for more than three years
in military custody as an enemy combatant, fell
one vote short on Monday of persuading the
Supreme Court to
take his case.
Testimony
of John Dean on Censure
Published: Friday March 31, 2006
Testimony of John W. Dean before the Senate
Judiciary Committee Regarding Senator Feingold’s
Proposed Senate Resolution 398 Relating To
the
Censure
of George W. Bush.
The
Bill Never Passed and
What Can Be Done About It
Part One in a Series
By VIKRAM
DAVID AMAR
When is a bill sent to the President
by
Congress and signed by him not a "Law of
the United States" within the meaning of the
Constitution? For one thing, when the measure
did not actually pass both the Senate and the
House. That is the seemingly compelling -- if
a bit eighth-grade civics -- argument being pressed
in a federal lawsuit challenging the validity of the
so-called "Deficit Reduction Act of 2005" approved
by President
Bush on February 8, 2006.
John Dean Blasts
Warrantless Eavesdropping
Mar 31, 2006
By LAURIE KELLMAN
WASHINGTON (AP) - Nixon White House
counselor John Dean, testifying in favor of a
Democratic resolution to censure President
Bush, asserted Friday that Bush's conduct
in connection with domestic spying exceeds
the wrongdoing that toppled his
former boss
from power.
The Broken Branch:
An Unusual Lawsuit Takes Congress to
Task For Shoddy and Partisan Lawmaking,
In Which A Bill Is Unconstitutionally Being
Treated as Law
By JOHN W. DEAN
Republicans promised reform in
1994, when they
won control of the House for the first time in four
decades. But rather than deliver it, GOP leadership
has - according to Mann and Ornstein - undermined
the institution through "the demise of regular order,
the decline of deliberation and the weakening of our
system of
checks and balances."
The Problem with Presidential
Signing Statements: Their Use and
Misuse by the Bush Administration
By JOHN W. DEAN
Friday, Jan. 13, 2006
Rather
than veto laws passed by Congress, Bush is
using his signing statements to effectively nullify them as
they relate to the executive branch. These statements,
for him, function as directives to executive branch departments
and agencies as to how they are
to implement the relevant law.
Shocking
The Conscience Of America:
Bush And Cheney Call For The Right
To Torture And Are Decisively and
Correctly Rebuffed by the House
By JOHN W. DEAN
Friday,
Dec. 16, 2005
If the events I
am about to describe were taking
place in a movie, or novel, I would lose my ability
to suspend disbelief: Who could conceive of an
American President and Vice President demanding
that Congress give them authority to torture anyone,
under
any circumstances?
Bush
Rewrites Patriot
Act Requirement
In signing addendum, he says
oversight rules are not binding
By Charlie Savage
WASHINGTON -- When President Bush
signed the reauthorization of the USA Patriot
Act this month, he included an addendum
[a signing statement] saying that he did
not feel obliged to obey requirements that
he inform Congress about how the FBI was
using the act's expanded
police powers.
Roberts
Dissent Reveals Strain
Beneath Court's Placid Surface
By LINDA GREENHOUSE
WASHINGTON, March 22 — A Supreme Court
decision on Wednesday in an uncelebrated
criminal case did more than resolve a dispute
over whether the police can search a home
without a warrant when one occupant gives
consent but another objects. More than any
other case so far, the decision, which answered
that question in the negative by a vote of 5 to 3,
drew back the curtain to reveal the strains behind
the surface placidity and collegiality of the young
Roberts
court.
Pastors' Get-Out-the-Vote
Training Could Test Tax Rules
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
WASHINGTON, March 20 — Weeks after
the Internal Revenue Service announced a
crackdown on political activities by churches
and other tax-exempt organizations, a coalition
of nonprofit conservative groups is holding training
sessions to enlist Pennsylvania pastors in turning
out voters for the November
elections.
Scrutiny
for Law on Detaining
Witnesses
By ADAM LIPTAK
A 22-year-old federal law that allows people
to be held without charges if they have information
about others' crimes is coming under fresh scrutiny
in the courts, in Congress and within the Justice
Department after reports that it has been
abused in terrorism
investigations.
How
the GOP Messes
up the House
By Erica Rosenberg
The
fate of the Endangered Species Act
under Pombo's leadership typifies House
Republicans' demolition approach to the
nation's legislative process. Measures affecting
long-standing energy policy, mining law and
oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
were similarly railroaded through committee
with little opportunity for debate, amendment
or media coverage. Often, the public record
on what occurred during these bills' travels
through committee was thin, at
best.
Bush
Ex-Aide Arrested for Fraud
By IAN URBINA and DAVID D.
KIRKPATRICK
WASHINGTON, March 13 — Claude A. Allen often said his
religious upbringing took him from a two-room apartment
in a poor neighborhood of Washington to a post at the
White House.Last week, that life and discipline
appeared
to have frayed when Mr. Allen, the president's former
domestic policy adviser, was arrested in suburban Maryland
and charged with stealing thousands of dollars in merchandise
from Target and other stores in a scheme
to fake returns.
Sandra
Day O'Connor Criticizes
Republicans Who Criticize the
Judiciary
March 10, 2006
Katherine
Yurica
Speaking
at Georgetown University, former
Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor
warned against the danger of a potential American
dictatorship that begins with intimidation of the
judiciary. Citing specific examples, without
naming either Tom Delay or Sen. John Cornyn,
both Republican critics of the courts and both
from Texas, she stated their attacks pose "a
direct threat to our constitutional freedom."
Freedom is not possible without an independent
judiciary to protect individual rights she said.
O'Connor warned against "nakedly partisan
reasoning."
Judge
Calls Halt to Penalty
Phase of Terror Trial
By NEIL A. LEWIS
ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 13 — An angry federal
judge delayed the sentencing trial of Zacarias
Moussaoui on Monday and said she was considering
ending the prosecution's bid to have him executed
after the disclosure that a government lawyer had
improperly coached
some witnesses.
Terrorism
Prosecutorial
Incompetence
The Bush administration
has jeopardized the sentencing
of Zacarias Moussaoui, the so-called "20th hijacker,"
by
tampering with witnesses. The federal judge presiding
over the case, Leonie M. Brinkema, said yesterday,
"[I]n all my years on the bench, I've never seen a more
egregious violation of the rule about witnesses." Carla
J.
Martin, a Transportation Security Administration lawyer,
"violated a court order by e-mailing trial transcripts to
seven witnesses -- all current and former federal aviation
employees -- and coaching them on their upcoming
testimony."
Third
Elections Worker Indicted
Over Presidential Recount
3/9/2006, 5:11 a.m.
ET
The third highest ranking
employee at the
Cuyahoga County Board of Elections has been
indicted on charges of mishandling ballots during
the 2004 presidential election
recount.
Contractor
Bilked U.S.
of Millions
Custer Battles Is Told It Should Pay
More Than $10 Million in Damages
By Charles R. Babcock
Friday, March 10, 2006
Two Army veterans and their company
cheated the U.S. government on a contract
to furnish Iraq with a new currency in 2003
and should pay more than $10 million in
assorted damages, a federal jury in
Alexandria
ruled yesterday.
No.
3 Official at CIA Is Subject of
Investigation Related to Bribery Probe
By BRIAN ROSS, RICHARD ESPOSITO
and RHONDA SCHWARTZ
The CIA Inspector General has opened an
investigation into the spy agency's executive
director, Kyle "Dusty" Foggo,
and his
connections to two defense contractors
accused of bribing a member of Congress
and
Pentagon officials.
Abortion
Opponents Win Dispute
By LINDA GREENHOUSE
WASHINGTON, Feb. 28 — The Supreme
Court brought an end Tuesday to a 20-year
effort by the National Organization for Women
to hold a coalition of anti-abortion groups
accountable for a campaign of disrupting and
blockading abortion clinics during the 1980's.
Ruling 8 to 0, the court held that the Hobbs
Act, a federal law that makes it a crime to use
robbery, extortion or, under some circumstances,
violence to obstruct commerce, did not provide a
proper basis for the federal court injunction that
NOW and two women's health clinics had obtained
against groups
like Operation Rescue.
Libby's
Lawyers Say Prosecutor
Acted Unconstitutionally
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON, Feb. 23 — Lawyers for Vice
President Dick Cheney's former top aide asked a
federal judge on Thursday to dismiss his indictment,
saying the special prosecutor in the C.I.A. leak
case lacked the authority to bring the charges.
Lawyers for the former aide, I. Lewis Libby Jr.,
said his indictment violated the Constitution
because the special counsel, Patrick J. Fitzgerald,
was not appointed by the president with the consent
of the Senate. They added that the appointment
violated federal law because the attorney general
did not supervise the investigation. Only Congress,
the lawyers said, can
approve such an arrangement.
I.R.S. Finds Sharp Increase
in Illegal Political Activity
By STEPHANIE STROM
The I.R.S. said yesterday that it saw a sharp
increase in prohibited political activity by charities
and churches in the last election cycle, a trend
that it aims to reverse as the country heads into
the midterm elections. The tax agency found
problems at three-quarters of the 82 organizations
it examined after having received complaints about
their political activities, according to a report the
Internal Revenue Service released. The infractions
included distributing materials that encouraged
people to vote for particular candidates and giving
cash
to campaigns.
Click here to read the full
IRS Report
Scalia
Jeers Fans of 'Living' Charter
Published February 15, 2006
PONCE, Puerto Rico (AP) -- People who think
the Constitution would break if it didn't change with
society are "idiots," U.S. Supreme Court Justice
Antonin Scalia says. In a speech Monday
sponsored
by the conservative Federalist Society, Justice Scalia
defended his long-held belief in sticking to the plain
text of the Constitution "as it was originally written
and intended." "Scalia does have a philosophy; it's
called originalism. That's what prevents
him from
doing the things he would like to do," Justice Scalia
told more than 100 politicians and lawyers from
this U.S.
island territory.
Justices
Scalia and Alito Are Right.
Professor Strang Will Elaborate.
In a speech on February 13, 2006 sponsored by The
Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies,
Justice Scalia defended his long-held belief in sticking
to the plain text of the Constitution "as it was originally
written and intended."
God
bless Antonin Scalia, an Associate Justice of
the United States Supreme Court and a principled,
learned, and brilliant originalist ready, willing and
able to speak clearly, concisely and authoritatively
while less wise and less bold
persons hem and
haw.
Scalia
Text:
Constitutional Interpretation
the Old Fashioned Way
Justice Antonin Scalia delivered the
following remarks at the Woodrow Wilson
International Center for Scholars in Washington
D.C., on March 14, 2005.
JUSTICE SCALIA: It’s a pizzazzy
topic: Constitutional
Interpretation. It is however an important one. I was vividly
reminded how important it was last week when the Court
came out with a controversial decision in the Roper case.
And I watched one television commentary on the case in
which the host had one person defending the opinion on
the ground that people should not be
subjected to capital ..."
The
U.S. Supreme Court in
History and Today
By
Nancy Salvato
Feb 20, 2006,
The U.S. Supreme Court, with its nine black-
draped justices, is at the pinnacle of America's
third branch of government. It wields immense
power, but has sometimes stumbled badly in
exercising its influence. According to Article III,
Section 2, of the U.S. Constitution, "Judicial
Power shall extend to all Cases, in Law and
Equity, arising under this Constitution ..." The
Supreme Court can hear some cases directly
(original jurisdiction) and some only when they're
appealed (appellate jurisdiction). The meaning
of jurisdiction is to interpret the law; therefore,
it is up to the Supreme Court to
interpret federal
law.
U.S.
Reclassifies Many Documents in
Secret Review
By SCOTT SHANE
WASHINGTON, Feb. 20 — In a seven-year-old
secret program at the National Archives, intelligence
agencies have been removing from public access
thousands of historical documents that were available
for years, including some already published by the
State Department and others photocopied years ago
by
private historians.
Sect
Allowed to Import Its
Hallucinogenic Tea
By LINDA GREENHOUSE
WASHINGTON,
Feb. 21 - A unanimous Supreme
Court decision on Tuesday gave a small
religious sect the right to keep importing an
hallucinogenic tea, central to its ritual observance,
that the government wants to ban as a
controlled substance under
federal narcotics law.
GAO
Report Reveals Millions
in Fraudulent Payouts for Katrina
PDF
FILE
FEMA
Flagged for Katrina ‘Fraud
and Abuse’
Audit finds agency never verified identity of aid
recipients, wasted millions
By Lisa Myers & the NBC Investigative Unit
Updated: 7:37 p.m. ET Feb. 10, 2006
WASHINGTON
- The first investigation of how the
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) did
in paying benefits to Hurricane Katrina victims suggests
massive fraud and the waste of millions of dollars of millions
of
taxpayer money.
Spies,
Lies and Wiretaps
A New York Times Editorial
January 29, 2006
A bit over a week ago, President Bush
and his men promised to provide the legal,
constitutional and moral justifications for
the sort of warrantless spying on Americans
that has been illegal for nearly 30 years. Instead,
we got the familiar mix of political spin, clumsy
historical misinformation, contemptuous
dismissals of civil liberties concerns, cynical
attempts to paint dissents as anti-American
and pro-terrorist, and a couple of big,
dangerous
lies.
Charges
Sought Against
Officer at Abu Ghraib
Lt. Col. Steven
L. Jordan would be the
first to be held criminally liable in the
Iraq abuse scandal. His supervisor,
granted immunity, may testify.
By Richard A. Serrano and Mark
Mazzetti, Times Staff Writers
WASHINGTON
— Army investigators have
recommended that criminal charges be filed
against a supervising military officer in the
abuse of detainees at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison,
according to Pentagon officials and legal
documents
obtained Thursday.
Bush
Could Seize Absolute
Control of U.S. Government
By DOUG THOMPSON
Publisher, Capitol Hill Blue
Jan 13, 2006, 07:42
President
George W. Bush has signed executive
orders giving him sole authority to impose martial
law, suspend habeas corpus and ignore the Posse
Comitatus Act that prohibits deployment
of U.S.
troops on American streets. This would give him
absolute dictatorial power over the government
with
no checks and balances.
Court Ruling Allows Challenge
to Bush's Faith Initiative
By Staff and Wire Reports
Jan 15, 2006, 05:29
A group can sue the federal government
over claims
that President Bush's faith-based initiative is an
unconstitutional endorsement of religion, a federal
appeals court ruled.
A three-judge panel of the 7th
Circuit Court of
Appeals on Friday reinstated the lawsuit brought
by the Freedom From Religion Foundation. The group
claims Bush's program, which helps religious
organizations get government funding to provide
social services, violates the separation of
church
and state.
Original
Intent
Revisionist rhetoric
notwithstanding,
the founders left God out of the
Constitution–and it wasn't an oversight.
Susan Jacoby
November/December 2005 Issue of Mother Jones.com
When
the Supreme Court, in one of its most important
decisions of 2005, ordered two Kentucky counties to
dismantle courthouse displays of the Ten Commandments,
Justice Antonin Scalia declared that
the Court majority
was wrong because the nation's historical practices clearly
indicate that the Constitution permits "disregard of polytheists
and believers in unconcerned deities, just as it permits
the disregard of devout atheists."
Fed
Courts Criticize Judges'
Handling of Immigration
Asylum Cases
By ADAM LIPTAK
Federal appeals court judges around the
nation have repeatedly excoriated immigration
judges this year for what they call a pattern
of biased and incoherent decisions in
asylum
cases.
Redistricting
Tom DeLay
The Supreme Court agreed
this week
to review Texas' 2003 Congressional
redistricting, which added five Republicans
to the state's delegation. The plan,
engineered by the former House majority
leader Tom DeLay, is rightly being challenged
as partisan and discriminatory against minority
voters. It is encouraging that the court has
decided
to step in.
Securities
Fraud Litigation Filed
Against Diebold, Inc.
By Brad Friedman
Eight Current and Former Ohio Executives
Named as Co-Defendants, Including former
CEO O'Dell and New CEO Swidarski
Class Action Suit Alleges Fraud, Insider
Trading, Manipulation of Stock Prices,
Concealment of Known Flaws in Voting
Machines and Company Structural Problems
The
suit was filed December 13, 2005 in U.S.
Federal District Court in Ohio and alleges the
company "artificially inflated" stock prices through
misleading public information designed to conceal
the true nature of Diebold's financial and legal
situation. The defendants are also alleged to have
attempted to disguise well-known and ongoing
problems with Diebold's Voting Machine
equipment
and software. Additionally, the suit alleges insider
trading by defendants resulting in proceeds of $2.7
million. Remedies are sought under the Securities
Exchange Act of 1934.
Supreme
Court to Hear Dispute
on Texas Redistricting
December 13, 2005
By LINDA GREENHOUSE
WASHINGTON, Dec. 12 - The Supreme Court
announced on Monday that it would decide the
validity of the much-disputed Congressional map
that Texas Republicans pushed through the State
Legislature two years ago in a highly unusual mid-
decade redistricting that led to the loss of five
Democratic Congressional
seats.
Cheney
For Legalized Torture
Amid all the natural and
political disasters it
faces, the White House is certainly tireless in
its effort to legalize torture. This week, Vice
President Dick Cheney proposed a novel solution
for the moral and legal problems raised by the
use of American soldiers to abuse prisoners and
the practice of turning captives over to governments
willing to act as proxies in doing the torturing. Mr.
Cheney wants to make it legal for the Central
Intelligence Agency
to do this wet work.
Federal
Judge Condemns Intervention
in Schiavo Case
By ABBY GOODNOUGH
and WILLIAM YARDLEY
PINELLAS PARK, Fla., March 30 - A federal appeals
court in Atlanta refused Wednesday to reconsider
the case of Terri Schiavo, with one of the judges
rebuking President Bush and Congress for acting
"in a manner demonstrably at odds with our founding
fathers' blueprint for the governance
of a free people."
Judge
Blocks Rule Allowing
Companies to Cut Benefits When
Retirees Reach Medicare Age
By ROBERT PEAR
WASHINGTON, March 30 - A federal district
judge on Wednesday blocked a Bush administration
rule that would have allowed employers to reduce
or eliminate health benefits for retirees when they
reach age 65 and become eligible for Medicare.Ten
million retirees could have had benefits cut under
the rule, which was adopted last April by the Equal
Employment Opportunity
Commission.
How
to Protect Yourself from
the Schiavo Effect
Because Congress has unconstitutionally
usurped the courts in its attempt to bypass
the wishes of Terri Schiavo and her husband,
millions of Americans are asking how they
can protect themselves from a similar fate.
Here are a number of articles to help guide
you on how to avoid Terri Schiavo's
fate--
living as a vegetable for fifteen years.
Read
the Actual Legal
Arguments and Documents
in the Terri Schiavo Case
The
Schiavo Bill S. 686
The United States District Court for the
Middle
District of Florida shall have jurisdiction to hear,
determine, and render judgment on a suit or claim
by or on behalf of Theresa Marie Schiavo for the
alleged violation of any right of Theresa Marie
Schiavo under the Constitution or laws of the
United States relating to the withholding or
withdrawal of food, fluids, or medical treatment
necessary to sustain her life.
Congress'
action creates
legal tangle
Congress touched off a political firestorm with
its eleventh-hour effort to get Terri Schiavo's case
heard in federal court, but some legal experts say
the legislation raises even more pivotal questions
about limitations on congressional power.
What
Is Contempt of
Congress and What are
the Penalties?
Contempt of Congress is initiated
by a resolution from the affected
congressional committee. The
resolution must then be adopted.
Hypocrisy
of Bush, DeLay and
GOP Exposed!
Hospitals can end life support
Decision hinges on patient's ability to pay
A patient's inability to pay for medical care combined
with a prognosis that renders further care futile are
two reasons a hospital might suggest cutting off life
support, the chief medical officer at St. Luke's
Episcopal Hospital said Monday. Guess who signed
the bill? Yep. George W. Bush! All heart and caring!
Bush
says election ratified
Iraq policy 'Accountability moment'
has passed, president says
By Jim VandeHei and Michael A. Fletcher
The Washington Post "President Bush said the
public's decision to reelect him was a ratification
of his approach toward Iraq and that there was no
reason to hold any administration officials
accountable for mistakes or misjudgments in
prewar planning or managing the violent aftermath."
Vikram David Amar,
a
Constitutional law expert
explains: The Battle over
the Filibuster in the Senate
Part I.
Senate Filibuster:
Part II. by Vikram David Amar
Forgery
of Iraq-War-Justifying
Documents Done in the U.S.
According
to a Former Top U.S. Intelligence
Official on Los Angeles Radio Program
Los Angeles, Ca.--Vincent Cannistraro
is the
former Director of National Security Council Intelligence
under Ronald Reagan (’84-’87) and the former Chief
of Operations of the CIA’s Counterterrorism Center,
who led the investigation into the bombing of Pan
Am Flight 103. On April 3, 2005, he was interviewed
on Ian Masters' Background Briefing radio program,
which broadcasts from Los Angeles, California on
public radio. In the interview, Mr. Cannistraro made
a number of withering observations on the Bush
administration and the process failures
that led
to war.
The
John Dean Library of Articles
It
Appears That Karl Rove
Is In Serious Trouble
By John Dean
As
the scandal over the leak of CIA
agent Valerie Plame's identity has
continued to unfold, there is a renewed
focus on Karl Rove -- the White House
Deputy Chief of Staff whom President
Bush calls his
political "architect."
The
Ambassador's Article
Here's how it all started:
"What I Didn't Find in Africa"
Joseph
Wilson Fights Back
with a letter to the Senate Select Intelligence
Committee. Contrast Wilson's facts to
William Safire's New York Times column,
which attempts to destroy Mr. Wilson's
credibility in order to save President Bush.
Don't take our word for it, you be the judge!
The Empire Strikes Back!
The Ambassador's wife
is targeted.
One more criminal offense to investigate.
One more reason to appoint a
Special Prosecutor. By John Dean
John Dean gives the Wilsons
a sling shot and a stone to slay the
giant Empire.
John Dean's latest article
in Salon.com outlines the power of a single civil
suit aimed at a corrupt administration.
Dean says the Wilsons should file a
lawsuit. During the Nixon years, the
DNC filed the shot
that was heard
around the world causing Watergate
to explode and Nixon to resign.
John Dean takes a further look
at the criminal implications
of Ambassador
Wilson's
case and the leak exposing his
wife Valerie Plame.
Are There Grounds to
Impeach
Bush & Cheney?
Is Lying About The Reason
for War An
Impeachable
Offense? by John Dean
One of the most important
news analysis on the web:
John Dean analyzes the President's
State of the Union Speech and finds:
Eight deceptions that
violate federal
criminal statutes: "It is a criminal
offense
to make false statements to
Congress."
John Dean asks:
Has George W. Bush Met His Own
Ken Starr?
Read his analysis of presidential
lies.
Cheney Lied to Congress.
It's a violation of the
federal statute
and a criminal offense. John
Dean,
a former counsel to the President,
explains it.
John Dean studied the
9/11 Report
and boiled it down to this:
Either the Bush White
House knew
about the potential of terrorists flying
airplanes into skyscrapers or the CIA
failed to give the White House this
essential information, which it possessed
and provided to others. Bush is withholding
the document that answers this question.
Read Dean's startling
conclusion:
Bush Knew.
John Dean Exposes a Rogue
Republican Congress:
A $328 billion spending
bill, created in
secret, with giveaways galore, will be
the first order of business when Congress
returns in January. Dean says, "About half
of America has no voice in Congress at
all." Find out why Americans must object
to
a rubberstamp legislative branch.
The Serious Implications of
President Bush's Hiring A Personal
Outside Counsel for the Valerie Plame
Investigation
by John W. Dean
The Supreme Court's
Ruling on Cheney's Energy
Task Force: Still secret,
but
more litigation will follow by
John W. Dean
The Book Attacking
Kerry's War Record: How It Defames
the Candidate, and Why He Should Sue
By John W. Dean Unfit
For Command reeks of
actual malice. Senator Kerry would be doing
a
public service by suing by warding off
future baseless attacks.
Gay Rights
Without Borders
A human rights lawyer
cites the European Court
of Human Rights--the very
court Dominionists make it
illegal to cite and a reason
for impeachment of a judge
for even referencing in the
Constitution
Restoration
Act of 2004
San Francisco: Did
Mayor Gavin Newsom Err?
California statutes expressly
deny
same-sex couples the ability to
marry, but the law also recognizes
domestic partnerships between
same-sex couples. Joanna
Grossman, Hofstra University Law
Professor sorts it all out.
Courts May Be Stripped on Pledge
By Alexander Bolton
House Republican leaders have plans to pass
legislation that would strip courts of their
jurisdiction
to review cases.
Why Swift Boat Veterans for Truth
and Other 527 Organizations Can't
Be Silenced
By Michael C. Dorf. When
asked
whether he supports the attacks on John Kerry's
Vietnam War record by "Swift Boat Veterans
for Truth," President Bush has
repeatedly dodged the question.
Three Reasons Why Every American
must be concerned over judicial appointments,
so called "Tort Reform" schemes, and judicial
doctrines:
First Case: Prosecutors
Hid Evidence
from the Death Row Defendant and
knowingly presented perjured testimony
against him. What if
he were your son?
Edward Lazarus, a brilliant former federal
prosecutor tells us why justice is not working
in Texas on death penalty cases. The
Supreme
Court is about to decide on the case.
Second Case: What Newsweek's
"Lawsuit Hell" didn't tell you:
Fewer and fewer tort
plaintiffs actually get
their day in court. Fewer and fewer victims
actually get redress. Anthony Sebok, Professor
of Law at Brooklyn Law School tells you how
and why the Newsweek article was misleading.
Third Case: Can the Police Strip You
and
Search Your Naked Body in Public?
On December 4 of 2003
New York Police
Department officers violated the Fourth Amendment
right against unreasonable searches and seizures
when they stripped a suspect in the street in front
of a church. Rutgers' Law Professor Sherry Colb
tells you why
we should be concerned and that it could
happen to you.
Bush Administration's
Biggest Legal Setbacks
Vickram David Amar tells
us what the
recent appellate court decisions mean
to civil and legal
rights in the U.S.
Email Implicates Cheney
in Halliburton Contracts
According to an internal
Pentagon
e-mail sent by an Army Corps of
Engineers official, Cheney's office
"coordinated" the multibillion-dollar
Halliburton
contract.
How Jeb Bush is Seeking
to Appoint a Guardian
for a fetus that may,
if successful,
change women's rights over their
bodies. By Sherry F. Colb,
Professor
of Law.
The Gander Gambit:
Republican Exclusions
Cause Democrats to Play a New
Game: Senate Democrats
have outsmarted
and out manuvered Republicans who have
followed an exclusionary policy making
it impossible for Democrats to serve on
Conference
Committees. The Gander Gambit
Bush's War Against
Abortion and Privacy Rights:
For months in federal
courts the right
to have an abortion has been on trial.
The Bush administration Justice Dept.
does not recognize a physician-patient
privilege. Thousands of medical histories
have been subpoenaed and delivered
to the Justice Dept. for the purpose of
proving that a partial-birth abortion is
never necessary. Women's
rights
are being eroded on a daily basis.
Resegregating
the Schools:
Reactionaries appointed
by Republicans
to the federal courts are chipping
away at integration. Blacks are
being marched back into segregated
schools,
step by step. Bob Herbert
writes.
Why the ACLU Must Challenge
the FBI's Access to libraries
and
bookstores and business records
under
the USA Patriot Act.
How would Jesus Structure
Taxes? Tax the Poor A
Higher
Percentage than the Rich?
See Adam Cohen's
Report on Republican Governor
Bob
Riley of Alabama
Learning from the
California
Recall Experience
by Richard L. Hasen
One Reason Why Arnold
Won
Edward
Lazarus
Lingering Questions
Over Arnold's Win
Legitimacy and Its Basis
in the California Constitution
by
Vickram David Amar
The Controversy Over
the Pickering Appointment
Taking advantage of the
Senate's
recess, President Bush made a
"Judicial Recess Appointment."
Are such appointments constitutional?
Do they hurt the nomination process?
And what can the Democrats do about
it? Constitutional
expert Vikram
David Amar answers the questions.
The New, New Federalism?
A Supreme Court Case
to be Decided This
Term Tests Whether Congress Can Use Its
Spending Power to Create A Broad Federal
Crime of Bribery by Alafair Burke, Professor
of Law at Hofstra Law School
Ashcroft Refuses
to Release Memo to Senate
Judiciary Committee
A 50 page memo describing
the permissable
degrees of pain and suffering legally
allowed by the U.S., which had been
released in part to news agencies,
was
at issue in possible contempt
of Congress charges.
Text of Ashcroft
Statements Before Senate
Judiciary Committee
The complete text of
Ashcroft's
statements now available to
examine
for possible Contempt
of Congress charges
Cheney's Staff Suspected
Federal law-enforcement
officials said
two of the Veep's top staff members
are suspects in the criminal investigation
of
the leak outing CIA undercover agent
Valerie Plame.
Scalia Refuses to
Recuse himself from a Supreme Court
case centering on his
friend Dick
Cheney. The Justice went hunting
with
Cheney but no collusion ocurred.
The Supreme Court Hears
Case on Why Detaining U.S.
citizens without charges
and for an indefinite
period of time--does
not violate the
Constitution.
Republican Forced Exclusion of
Democrats from legislative
participation
violates House and Senate tradition and places
an ominous threat over the democratic process
as it disenfranchises fifty percent of Americans
from representative government. Read
the facts
from the congressional editor of the Washington
Post.
Did Some Go Too Far to
Change A No to a Yes on Medicare?
R. Jeffrey Smith, Washington
Post staff
reporter exposes the threats and bribes
used against House Representatives.
This
may turn out to be the biggest
scandal in our history.
Settlement Is Reached With Enron
By JAD MOUAWAD
Published: July 16, 2005
More than four years after rolling blackouts and
skyrocketing electricity bills shook California and
the rest of the West Coast, the Enron Corporation
finally settled claims that it played a major role in
the energy
crisis of 2000 and 2001
California's Recall of Gov. Gray
Davis is Unconstitutional. Part I.
Can Arnold's Victory
be Reversed?
Two distinguished law professors
point out that an important part of the law
is unconstitutional. Read this article to
see what could
be done with the right
plaintiff filing the right lawsuit.
What About the Governor's
Claim
to run as his own successor? No merit. Part II.
But the fear of a fringe
winner is serious.
Part Two of Vik Amar's California Series
explaining
the legal ins and outs of the Recall.
A Mixed Verdict on the California
Supreme Court's Decision:
Part III of a Series on the Recall
By VIKRAM DAVID AMAR AND
ALAN E. BROWNSTEIN
On Wednesday, August 20, a federal
district
judge rejected the ACLU's request to push back
California's Oct. 7 recall. The ACLU had challenged
the use of outmoded punch card balloting machines
in certain
highly-populated counties.
Reflections on the California Recall
The Lingering Questions Over Its Legitimacy,
And Its Basis in the California Constitution
As the world now knows, the California
gubernatorial
recall campaign was successful, in the sense that
Governor Gray Davis was recalled. California will
now
have a new governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Gray Davis Fights Back:
Files
Lawsuit to delay election and to insert
his name as a replacement candidate.
Readers of the professors' article (above)
will know why Davis' move is wrong.
(Someone should
have told the governor to
read our professors.)
Did the California Supreme Court
lose its golden opportunity to rise
above politics in its
decision on
the Recall Election of Gov. Gray Davis?
Vikram Amar and Alan Brownstein
give a critical
review of the court's
one fell swoop decision.
The
California Energy Fraud Cases
Fraud Traced to the White House
How California’s energy scam was inextricably
linked to a war for oil scheme
By Katherine Yurica
This story begins with the California
energy crisis,
which started in 2000 and continued through the
early months of 2001, when electricity prices spiked
to their highest levels. Prices went from $12 per
megawatt hour in 1998 to $200 in December 2000 to
$250 in January 2001, and at times a megawatt
cost $1,000.
How Bush Pushed Gasoline
Prices Sky High
by Katherine Yurica
With a little
manipulation of the Strategic Petro-
leum Reserves, a little change in the rules, and
a little chutzpah, billions of dollars rolled into
the
back pockets of Big Oil.
Appeals Court Backs Cheney in
Secrecy Case
How come the Yurica Report knows who
advised Mr. Cheney and who wrote the
U.S. Energy Policy?
Settlement Is Reached With Enron
By JAD MOUAWAD
Published: July 16, 2005
More than four years after rolling blackouts and
skyrocketing electricity bills shook California and
the rest of the West Coast, the Enron Corporation
finally settled claims that it played a major role in
the energy crisis of 2000
and 2001
Document Reveals Mr. Bush
Took Aim at Iraqi Oil Before the 2000 Election
Answers Why Mr. Cheney
Has Fought So
Hard to Keep Secrets
August 28, 2004
By Katherine
Yurica
Bush's Energy Policy
The Baker Institute Press Release on the Report
GAO Report to Congress On Energy Task Force
GAO Chronology Energy
Enron May Have Influenced FERC Probe
Emails Show Enron May Have Influenced FERC
Probe On Calif. Power Crisis, Refunds
By Jason Leopold
Did bankrupt energy company Enron
Corp. influence
a controversial decision federal energy regulators
made in November 2000 saying California wasn't
entitled to more than $3 billion in refunds from power
companies who allegedly gamed the state's wholesale
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