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Senators Press Holder to Declassify Key Facts about Patriot Act

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Salem-News.com - Nov. 19 (News Report) - We believe that the information we referenced in those paragraphs – specifically about the use of section 215 – is essential to understanding the full scope of the PATRIOT Act, which is about to be debated in Congress. As we said in June, if you have concerns about declassifying the specific language contained in our letter, we ask that you work with us to find language that conveys enough information to allow for an informed public debate on the PATRIOT Act’s reauthorization

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Would U.S. Need To Read Bin Laden His Miranda Rights?

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

All Things Considered - By Frank James - Nov. 18 (News Report) - Attorney General Eric Holder's decision to give a federal court trial instead of a military commission hearing to five Guantanamo detainees the government has linked to the 9/11 attacks has led to criticism that the Obama Administration is transforming the war on terror from a military to law-enforcement affair. This has led some critics to wonder if captured terrorist suspects would have to be read their Miranda rights on being captured by U.S. military or law enforcement representatives.

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Dallas police chief: Dozens of tickets issued for not speaking English

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Dallas Morning News - By Scott Goldstein - Oct. 23 (News Report) - Dallas Police Chief David Kunkle said this afternoon that his officers have written at least 39 citations to people over the past three years for not speaking English

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They're showing what in schools?!

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Glenn Beck - By Glenn Beck - Oct. 21 (Opinion) - The job of the government is to take care of you -- no it's not. They get this idea from the "promote the general welfare" part of the constitution. I can't believe they get it from there because I don't think they ever read it.

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The constitutionality of healthcare

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Los Angeles Times - By Erwin Chemerinsky - Oct. 06 (Opinion) - There's nothing illegal about requiring Americans to buy medical insurance. There's nothing illegal about requiring Americans to buy medical insurance.

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Editorial: Animal Cruelty and Free Speech

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Editorial - Oct. 06 (Opinion) - Anyone with an ounce of decency should be tempted to ban animal-abuse videos, but anyone with an appreciation for the First Amendment understands why we cannot.

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Obama’s Dick Cheney Moment

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Benjamin Wittes - Sep. 28 (Opinion) - His decision not to consult Congress on detentions represents a virtually wholesale adoption of Bush’s failed policies.

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Appeals court rules against Ashcroft in 9/11 case

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Associated Press - Sep. 04 (News Report) - A federal appeals court delivered a stinging rebuke Friday to the Bush administration's post-Sept. 11 detention policies, ruling that former Attorney General John Ashcroft can be held liable for people who were wrongfully detained as material witnesses after 9/11. A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the government's improper use of material witnesses after Sept. 11 was "repugnant to the Constitution and a painful reminder of some of the most ignominious chapters of our national history

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Another Feingold Idea

Sat, 29 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

BuzzFlash - By Jeff Fleischer - Aug. 29 (Opinion) - This amendment is another example of putting country before party, as four of the current appointments owe their jobs to fellow Democrats -- Obama, Clinton, Salazar, and Joe Biden -- getting promoted. Both parties should endorse it. This isn't another divisive amendment designed to fire up voters. It's simply a modest step to empower them.

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Freedom from fear: Why the First Amendment trumps the Second Amendment

Sat, 22 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Seattle Times - By David Sirota - Aug. 22 (Opinion) - We should worry about gun-toting protesters and public political events. The First Amendment ethos guarantees people — whatever their politics — a fundamental right to participate in their democracy without concern for physical retribution. It is the primary amendment because America was first and foremost created not as a gun-owners' haven, but as a place to shelter citizens from oppression.

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Canada court says its officials knew U.S. abused detainee

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

McClatchy - By Carol Rosenberg | Miami Herald - Aug. 14 (News Report) - Canada must seek the immediate return of Toronto-born Guantanamo captive Omar Khadr rather than await the outcome of his U.S. military trial because American troops mistreated the alleged teen terrorist and Canadian officials knew about it, Canada's appeals court ruled Friday.

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Obama’s Military Is Spying on U.S. Peace Groups

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

TruthDig - By Amy Goodman - Jul. 28 (News Report) - Anti-war activists in Olympia, Wash., have exposed Army spying and infiltration of their groups, as well as intelligence gathering by the Air Force, the federal Capitol Police and the Coast Guard. The infiltration appears to be in direct violation of the Posse Comitatus Act preventing U.S. military deployment for domestic law enforcement and may strengthen congressional demands for a full-scale investigation of U.S. intelligence activities, like the Church Committee hearings of the 1970s.

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Revelations About the Nominee

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Ann Gerhart - Jul. 15 (News Report) - Sonia Sotomayor speaks slowly, deliberately and at length, and she has a ready sense of humor.

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Obama Goes to Bat for Bush Wiretap Program

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

San Francisco Chronicle - By Bob Egelko - Jul. 15 (News Report) - President Obama is adamant about maintaining the secrecy of a wiretapping program authorized by George W. Bush, an administration lawyer told a federal judge in San Francisco on Wednesday.

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The Seinfeld Hearings

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Wall Street Journal - By Randy Barnett: - Jul. 13 (Opinion) - If you suspect this week's Senate confirmation hearings for Sonia Sotomayor will be, like "Seinfeld," a show about nothing, you are probably right. To understand why, we need to revisit an era that remade how lawyers and the public think about law, and especially the Constitution. In the 1930s, academics developed a philosophy they called "legal realism" to undercut judicial resistance to "progressive" statutes such as laws restricting the hours a baker or a woman could work. Legal realism elevated just results over the rule of law. It saw analysis of "the law" as an after-the-fact rationalization that allowed reactionary judges to conceal their empathy for the oppressed. Because legal realists believed judges inevitably made law when they ruled, they thought judges should decide cases with progressive ends in mind.

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Bush Spying Relied on Faulty Theories

Sun, 12 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Consortium News - By Jason Leopold - Jul. 12 (News) - George W. Bush justified his warrantless wiretapping by relying on Justice Department attorney John Yoo’s theories of unlimited presidential wartime powers, and started the spying operation even before Yoo issued a formal opinion, a government investigation discovered.

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Sidebar - Guilty by a 10-2 Vote - Efficient or Unconstitutional? - Series - NYTimes.com

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Adam Liptak - Jul. 07 (News Report) - “Twelve Angry Men” might have been a much shorter movie had it been set in Oregon. Instead of letting Juror No. 8, the lone holdout played by Henry Fonda, methodically convince his fellow jurors that there was good reason to doubt the defendant’s guilt, an Oregon jury might have just voted and been done with it. That’s because Oregon is one of only two states that does not require juries to reach unanimous verdicts in criminal cases. Like Louisiana, it allows convictions by a vote of 10 to 2. In a pair of decisions in 1972, the Supreme Court said that was all right, that the Constitution does not require states to insist on unanimity.

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Obama Has Become Radical in His Commitment to Secrecy

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Martin Garbus - Jun. 30 (Opinion) - Obama's campaign promise was for a transparent government, yet this past Friday, after 3pm, hoping to avoid the weekend news cycle, his administration announced major events he hoped the public would not see. Denying the public information, rejecting the public's free speech "right to know" has become a pattern of this administration. Obama has become radical in his commitment to secrecy, not totally unlike the Bush administration.

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Stripping Away Free Expression: A Pennsylvania town tries—and fails—to ban a form of exercise.

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Reason Magazine - By Shawn Macomber - Jun. 27 (Special Report) - Despite its cheeky name, the city of Mars isn’t always amenable to cultural efforts perceived as alien. The “pink-and-black color scheme of Ms. Babines’ website and the high-heeled shoe in her logo” were enough, according to court documents, to convince Code Enforcement Officer Gary Peaco to protect the community from these exercise classes.

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Free speech vs. surveillance in the digital age

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

dailytidings.com - By Amy Goodman - Jun. 27 (Opinion) - The Chinese government now requires any computer sold there after July 1, 2009, to include software called "Green Dam," which critics say will further empower the government to monitor Internet use. Josh Silver, executive director of media policy group Free Press, says Iran and China should alert us to domestic surveillance issues in the U.S.

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Obama issues signing statement on $106B war bill

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The Hill - By Michael O'Brien - Jun. 26 (News Report) - President George W. Bush was heavily criticized for his use of signing statements, declaring he'd ignore some elements of legislation by invoking presidential prerogative. The Obama administration announced in the statement it would disregard provisions of the legislation that, among other things, would compel the Obama administration to pressure the World Bank to strengthen labor and environmental standards and require the Treasury department to report to Congress on the activities of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF).

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Dr. George Tiller (1941-2009): Murdered Abortion Provider Remembered for Lifelong Dedication to Women's Reproductive Health

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Dr. George Tiller, Ellie Smeal,Bonnie Scott Jones,Dr. Susan Robinson,Dr. Shelley Sella,Laura Shaneyfelt,AMY GOODMAN - Jun. 01 (Special Report) - The suspect, fifty-one-year-old Scott Roeder, has a history of involvement in anti-abortion activism and was once arrested and jailed on explosives charges. He has ties to the right-wing separatist group known as the Freemen. We look at the life of Dr. Tiller with five women who worked alongside him to uphold reproductive rights: two women doctors who fly into Wichita every month to work alongside him performing abortions; two of the attorneys who defended him through years of legal harassment, one in Wichita and one in New York; and Ellie Smeal of the Feminist Majority Foundation, who knew him for twenty years.

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Attorneys Olson & Boies Interviewed About Filing Federal Suit Against Cailf. Prop 8

Thu, 28 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

MSNBC - By Chris Matthews - May. 28 (Interview) - Attorneys Ted Olson and David Boies Interviewed About Filing A Federal Lawsuit Against California Prop 8

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Ted Olson and David Boies on why Prop 8 is unconstitutional

Thu, 28 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Hot Air - By Allahpundit - May. 28 (Comment) - As clear and simple a case for attacking marriage laws in the courts as you’re ever likely to hear.

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Fixing America, Erasing Bush

Mon, 25 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

TruthOut - By William Rivers Pitt, - May. 25 (Opinion) - issues of torture and secrecy lead directly to the office of the President of the United States, and the manner in which Mr. Obama has proceeded thus far offends the very nature of the nation he presumes to lead. Mr. Obama sang the praises of our founding documents on Thursday, while failing utterly to live up to the oath he swore to them.

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