Legal Commentary

Scouts Denied Asbestos Badge: Boy Scouts Shutdown Eden

Posted on May 14, 2009
Eden, Vermont is one of the main boy scout camps around the country for summer adventures. This summer, however, it will be closed due to the fact that it is located near an asbestos mine in a contaminated area. The EPA told the scouts that there is a dangerous level of asbestos in the area [...

Tracking Privacy Rulings: New York Finds Warrantless Use of GPS To Be Unconstitutional While Wisconsin Gives Police Unlimited Use

Posted on May 14, 2009
In a major ruling, the New York Court of Appeals has held that the police cannot use a GPS device on a suspect’s car without a warrant — ordering a new trial for Scott Weaver, 41, a burglary suspect. In the meantime, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals came to the opposite conclusion: finding no [...

Video: California Cop Kicks Suspect in the Head and Then High Fives Partner

Posted on May 14, 2009
Police are reviewing a videotape showing an officer kick a suspect, Richard Rodriguez, 23, in the head despite the fact that the suspect was not resisting and was lying on the ground with his arms and legs spread. The officer then high fived a partner...

Pelosi Now Claims That She Was Misled By CIA

Posted on May 14, 2009
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has continued her effort to explain past statements on torture and her failure to act to stop a war crime after she was briefed on the torture program. After being contradicted by both documents and one of her aides, Pelosi has now accused CIA officials misleading her in 2002...

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Obama Considering Continuing Bush Policy of Indefinite Detentions Without Trial

Posted on May 14, 2009
The Obama administration has already adopted extreme executive privilege arguments that dwarfed the arguments of George Bush. It has moved to kill dozens of citizens lawsuits to uncover criminal acts of the government. This week, it refused (despite a court ruling) to release embarrassing photos of detainee abuse...

Schwarzenegger To Call For Sale of San Quentin

Posted on May 14, 2009
As the United States continues to gush billions of dollars each week in Iraq and Afghanistan, states are selling off airports, parks, and other public areas to pay for basic services. This week, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will propose selling San Quentin Prison, the Los Angeles Coliseum and other state-owned properties...

Bauer: Good Christians Torture

Posted on May 14, 2009
There has been a long controversy over the ability of the religious right to justify most any position of the GOP on the environment or civil liberties in terms of religious faith. However, the recent Republican effort to embrace and justify torture presented a bit of a problem for the faithful, particularly Christians who [...

Inmate Paul House Cleared of Murder After 22 Years on Death Row

Posted on May 13, 2009
After 22 years on death row, Paul House has now been cleared of murder charges with Tennessee state prosecutors asking for all charges to be dropped against him. He had been sentenced to die in 1986 and his case is already being used by opponents of the death penalty as an example why states [...

Pelosi Aide: Speaker Was Told About Torture Being Used on Subjects

Posted on May 13, 2009
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been struggling to explain contradictions between her public statements and the release of documents showing that, despite her earlier denials, she was told about the torture of subjects. She recently (and implausibly) insisted that, while she was told of the torture, she was not told that it was actually [...

Potty Police: Students Limited in Bathroom Visits To Prevent Cheating at Syracuse Law School

Posted on May 13, 2009
ABA Journal ran an interesting story on the crackdown on cheaters by Syracuse University Law School. The school will now limit law students to one potty visit during an exam: thereby guaranteeing the law students with larger bladders will reign supreme on law school curves...

Run to the Border: Indiana Man Takes Police on Chase to Get to Taco Bell for One Last Burrito

Posted on May 13, 2009
Most criminals run to the actual border, but Jermaine Askia Cooper, 36, told police that he took them on a 90-mph chase in Indiana because he knew he was going away for a long time and wanted one last burrito. If Taco Bell does not make this a commercial, their marketing people are senseless...

Obama Seen in Ohio Home Invasion: Two Women Arrested for Allegedly Breaking Into Home to Steal Picture of President Obama

Posted on May 13, 2009
Ok, he was not actually there, but Fox News may report this differently. President Barack Obama is so popular that people are now breaking into homes to steal his picture. Marla Anderson, 24, was arrested for breaking into an Ohio home and wrestling with its owner to steal the picture as her alleged getaway driver, [...

Third Time Is the Charm: Justice Department Succeeds in Convicting Liberty City Seven Defendants After Two Failed Trials and Two Individual Acquittals

Posted on May 13, 2009
The Justice Department finally succeeded in securing convictions against Miami men accused of plotting to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago. Five defendants were convicted and one was acquitted. The prior two trials ended in hung juries and this trial was a close call with the replacement of a clearly pro-defense juror in [...

Obama Reverses Decision and Refuses to Release Abuse Photos

Posted on May 13, 2009
Despite earlier indications that there would be a release of detainee photos, President Obama has ordered that the photos been withheld in defiance of a judicial ruling. I will be discussing the development on tonight Rachel Maddow Show. The Defense Department was set to release hundreds of photographs showing alleged abuse of prisoners in detention [...

Self-Made Curve?: U.S. News and World Report To Investigate Brooklyn Law School?s Ranking and Data

Posted on May 12, 2009
Brooklyn Law School has been charged by unnamed rival school of cooking the books in the figures that it gave to U.S. News and World Report. The schools called the principal to say that they believe the school was cheating and now the magazine is investigating whether Brooklyn manipulated its figures relating to part-time [...

New Jersey Student Claims Discrimination Over Referenced to Himself as ?White African American?

Posted on May 12, 2009
A student at University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey has made an interesting discrimination claim. Paulo Serodio says that he was harassed and suspended for calling himself a “white African-American” because he was born in Mozambique and later became a U...

Cutie Confession: ?Father Oprah? Admits Affair With Woman

Posted on May 12, 2009
Rev. Albert Cutie, known in Miami as “Father Oprah” for his popular radio program, has admitted to an affair with a woman after being taken off the air after the release of photos with the woman at a bar and the beach. The photos were published in the Spanish-language magazine TVnotas...

Supreme Monopoly: Justice Scalia Tells American Student That She Has Little Chance For Clerkship Because She Is At Wrong School

Posted on May 12, 2009
Justice Antonin Scalia has once again earned himself the ire of law students. Not long ago, Scalia was clearly out-of-line in slapping down a law student for a perfectly reasonable question. Now, he is being quoted in telling students out of the top schools that, no matter how hard they work, they will probably [...

Shock and Aawe: Study Finds Most People Cannot Tell The Difference Between Pa?te? From Dog Food

Posted on May 12, 2009
Finally, some serious academic research. The American Association of Wine Economists have answered that long-standing and vexing question: can people tell the difference between pa?te and dog food? The answer in AAWE Working Paper, No. 36, is entitled, “Can People Distinguish Pate from Dog Food?” is no...

Austin Traffic Cameras Catch Dozens of Police Officers Running Red Lights

Posted on May 12, 2009
Austin has joined various cities in installing cameras to catch speeders. They nailed 36 violators who just happen to be police officers running lights. The officers were not responding to a call. None of them were ticketed. Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo responded with a powerful statement: “It is a concern...

Ninth Circuit Dismisses Lawsuit By Shooting Victims Against Glock

Posted on May 12, 2009
A panel on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has voted 2-1 to dismiss a lawsuit against Glock Inc. by victims of a 1999 shooting rampage by Buford Furrow, a white supremacist. In 1999, Furrow brought at least seven guns into a Jewish center in Granada Hills and wounded three children, a [...

Maryland Police Conduct Another Mistaken ?No Knock? Raid on a House, Bust Down Front Door, and Later Ticket Owner for Having a Door Laying on This Front Yard

Posted on May 11, 2009
Andrew Leonard, 33, is understandably ticked. Police in Baltimore conducted a mistaken “no knock” raid on the wrong house: busting through his front door, handcuffing him, and interrogating him and his wife about his relationship with a drug dealer who he has never met...

Judge Samuel Kent Sentenced to 33 Months in Federal Prison

Posted on May 11, 2009
Federal judge Samuel Kent has been sentenced to 33 months for obstruction of justice for lying to a judicial committee investigating allegations that he sexually harassed an employee. Kent, who was viewed as a harsh sentencer for criminal defendants, avoided a maximum sentence of 20 years...

Cheney: We Will Be Vindicated in Use of Torture

Posted on May 11, 2009
Vice President Dick Cheney continued his campaign to get the nation to embrace torture this weekend. He appeared on CBS’s Face the Nation. He insisted that they were “not in the torture business” despite previously admitting to using waterboarding, a well-known torture technique...

Woman Sues Website Over Posting Accusing Her of Being Ugly and Herpes Carrier

Posted on May 11, 2009
There is a new case involving a website being sued for a vicious posting. A 27-year-old woman in La Porte, Texas is suing thedirty.com site for a posting that she was humiliated her over the posting that called fat, sexually promiscuous, cocaine using herpes carrier...

Texas Couple Kills Seven-Year-Old and Wounds Adult Who Trespassed on Property

Posted on May 11, 2009
Texas is proud of its laws allowing citizens to shoot and kill intruders into their homes under so-called Castle Doctrine or “Make My Day” laws. However, critics have charged that these laws have encouraged homeowners who are predisposed to use violence as the first response to intrusions as in the recent cases of Joe [...

Saudi Judge: Husbands Are Allowed to Slap Wives Over Over-Spending

Posted on May 11, 2009
The Saudi Arabian legal system has given the world yet another medieval moment: Judge Hamad Al-Razine has ruled that husbands are allowed to slap their wives for over-spending or excessive shopping. Judge Hamad Al-Razine held that “if a person gives SR 1,200 [$320] to his wife and she spends 900 riyals [$240] to purchase [...

Journalist Roxana Saberi Released From Jail in Iran

Posted on May 11, 2009
After a sham of a trial, Journalist Roxana Saberi has been released from an Iranian jail after an appeal. She had been convicted on charges of espionage. She was originally arrested after buying a bottle of wine. Her appeal lasted five hours — longer than her original trial...

English Lawmakers Charge Public For Everything From Manure to Maids

Posted on May 11, 2009
Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s government is facing some sharp questions from the public after a list of expenses were leaked to the media. The list shows government officials charging the public for everything from a maid to manure to porn movies...

HAPPY MOTHER?S DAY

Posted on May 10, 2009
Happy Mother’s Day to all of the Turley Blog Moms (the other Moms will have to join to be appreciated). Of course, Mother’s Day pales in comparison to that more grand even: Father’s Day. We will forget about today’s story of the ravages of Mother Nature and such infamous characters as Ma Parker...

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