"President-elect Obama's advisers are quietly crafting a proposal to ship dozens, if not hundreds, of imprisoned terrorism suspects to the United States to face criminal trials, a plan that would make good on his promise to close the Guantanamo Bay prison but could require creation of a controversial new system of justice...."
Showing posts with label U.S. Justice System. Show all posts
Showing posts with label U.S. Justice System. Show all posts
Monday, November 10, 2008
Obama Plans Guantanamo Close, US Trials
MATT APUZZO AND LARA JAKES JORDAN (AP) report:
Friday, July 04, 2008
House Judiciary Committee: Rove Must Testify
Think Progress (via AlterNet) reports:
"Former Bush adviser must tell Congress what he knows about U.S. Attorney purge, Don Siegelman prosecution...."Photo Credit: AlterNet
Monday, April 28, 2008
'Boston Legal' Takes On the Supreme Court
Monday, February 25, 2008
Long Live Whistleblowers!
Mirror Wikileaks sites pop up on internet as US court orders shutdown of whistleblower website
Elana Schor reports for The Guardian UK,
Elana Schor reports for The Guardian UK,
"The US court order shutting down the website Wikileaks today appeared to backfire on the Swiss bank that sought the legal action, as bloggers and other fans of the site gave new life to leaked documents the bank was working to suppress...."
Friday, July 06, 2007
ACLU Slams Appeals Court Decision in NSA Surveillance Case
Court Allows Bush Administration to Continue Illegal Wiretapping:
CINCINNATI - In a 2-1 decision, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals today dismissed a legal challenge to the Bush administration’s warrantless surveillance program. The challenge was brought by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of prominent journalists, scholars, attorneys and national nonprofit organizations who say that the unchecked surveillance program is disrupting their ability to communicate effectively with sources and clients.
Even though the plaintiffs alleged a well-founded fear that their communications were subject to illegal surveillance, the court dismissed the case because plaintiffs could not state with certainty that they had been wiretapped by the National Security Agency.
The following quote can be attributed to ACLU Legal Director Steven R. Shapiro:
“We are deeply disappointed by today’s decision that insulates the Bush administration’s warrantless surveillance activities from judicial review and deprives Americans of any ability to challenge the illegal surveillance of their telephone calls and e-mails. As a result of today’s decision, the Bush administration has been left free to violate the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which Congress adopted almost 30 years ago to prevent the executive branch from engaging in precisely this kind of unchecked surveillance.
“It is important to emphasize that the court today did not uphold the legality of the government’s warrantless surveillance activity. Indeed, the only judge to discuss the merits clearly and unequivocally declared that the warrantless surveillance was unlawful.
“We are currently reviewing all of our legal options, including taking this challenge to the U.S. Supreme Court. In the meantime it is now more important than ever for Congress to engage in meaningful oversight.”
On June 27, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy issued subpoenas to the White House, Vice President and the Justice Department for documents about warrantless surveillance. The deadline for compliance is July 18.
Today’s decision is online at:
www.ca6.uscourts.gov/opinions.pdf/07a0253p-06.pdf
Also See:
- Adam Liptak, New York Times reports:
"A divided federal appeals court yesterday dismissed a case challenging the National Security Agency’s program to wiretap without warrants the international communications of some Americans, reversing a trial judge’s order that the program be shut down.
The majority in a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, in Cincinnati, ruled on a narrow ground, saying the plaintiffs, including lawyers and journalists, could not show injury direct and concrete enough to allow them to have standing to sue.
Because it may be impossible for any plaintiff to demonstrate injury from the highly classified wiretapping program, the effect of the ruling was to insulate it from judicial scrutiny. Thus, the program’s secrecy is proving to be its best legal protection...."
Saturday, June 16, 2007
Official Close to Attorney FIrings Quits
The Houston Chronicle reports:"A senior Justice Department official who helped carry out the dismissals of federal prosecutors said Friday he is resigning. Mike Elston, chief of staff to Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty, is the fifth Justice official to leave after being linked to the dismissals of the prosecutors.Photo Credit: Mike Elston chief of staff to Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty, left, arrives for a closed-door meeting with members of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees, in this March 30, 2007, file photo on Capitol Hill in Washington. Elston, a senior Justice Department official who helped carry out the dismissals of federal prosecutors said Friday, June 15, 2007, he is resigning. (AP Photo/Dennis Cook)
Elston was accused of threatening at least four of the eight fired U.S. attorneys to keep quiet about their ousters....
[...]
House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers said the resignation raises a red flag for investigators.
"When yet another significant player resigns in the U.S. attorney scandal, it only deepens the mystery of who targeted U.S. attorneys for firing, why they did it, and what exactly is going on in the highest reaches of the Justice Department and who is filling the vacuum of leadership that has developed there," said Conyers, D-Mich.
As McNulty's top aide, Elston's duties included overseeing the government's 93 U.S. attorneys nationwide. Elston helped plan and carry out the firings of seven of the eight prosecutors who were dismissed in 2006 — firings which were orchestrated by two of Gonzales' top aides beginning shortly after the 2004 elections. Elston also called several of the U.S. attorneys afterward trying to quell the growing outcry.
At least four of the prosecutors Elston contacted said they felt threatened by his calls, which they interpreted as demands to stay quiet about why they were fired. Congress is investigating the firings, which Democrats believe were politically motivated...."
Sunday, June 03, 2007
More Adventures in Rovian Corruption
(Click For Larger View)
Rove Linked to Prosecution of Ex-Alabama Governor | TIME: Jason Leopold | An Interview With David Iglesias
"In the rough and tumble of Alabama politics, the scramble for power is often a blood sport. At the moment, the state's former Democratic governor, Don Siegelman, stands convicted of bribery and conspiracy charges and faces a sentence of up to 30 years in prison. Siegelman has long claimed that his prosecution was driven by politically motivated, Republican-appointed US attorneys. Now Karl Rove, the President's top political strategist, has been implicated in the controversy...."
In an exclusive, wide-ranging interview with Truthout, David Iglesias, the former US attorney for New Mexico, who was fired in December along with seven other US attorneys for reasons that appear to have been motivated by partisan politics, said he believes a "smoking gun" exists that will lead directly to Karl Rove and blow the scandal wide open. "I believe somewhere on an RNC computer, on some server somewhere there's an email from Karl Rove stating why we need to be axed," Iglesias told Truthout....
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Injustice 5, Justice 4
A New York Times Editorial states:
"The Supreme Court struck a blow for discrimination this week by stripping a key civil rights law of much of its potency. The majority opinion, by Justice Samuel Alito, forced an unreasonable reading on the law, and tossed aside longstanding precedents to rule in favor of an Alabama employer that had underpaid a female employee for years. The ruling is the latest indication that a court that once proudly stood up for the disadvantaged is increasingly protective of the powerful...."
Also See:
Technorati tags: Supreme Court, New York Times, Wages and Salaries, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Goodyear Tire, news, commentary, op ed
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Number of Fired Prosecutors Grows
The Washington Post reports:"The former U.S. attorney in Kansas City, Mo., Todd P. Graves, said yesterday that he was asked to step down from his job by a senior Justice Department official in January 2006, months before eight other federal prosecutors would be fired by the Bush administration.
Graves said he was told simply that he should resign to "give another person a chance." He said he did not oppose the department's request, because he had already been planning to return to private practice. He did appeal to Missouri's senior senator to try to persuade the White House to allow him to remain long enough to prosecute a final, important case -- involving the slaying of a pregnant woman and kidnapping of her 8-month fetus. Justice officials rejected the request.
The former prosecutor's disclosure, in an interview on the eve of a second appearance today by Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales before lawmakers investigating the firings, means that the administration began moving to replace U.S. attorneys five months earlier than was previously known. It also means that at least nine prosecutors were asked to resign last year, a deviation from repeated suggestions by Gonzales and other senior Justice officials in congressional testimony and other public statements that the firings did not extend beyond the eight prosecutors already known to have been forced out...."
Photo Credit: Attorney Todd P. Graves . (Graves Bartle & Marcus LLC)
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Juicy Tuesday Tid-Bits
Bush v. Congress: The Looming Battle Over Executive Privilege
By ADAM COHEN, The New York Times:
By DAVID JOHNSTON, New York Times:
By SIMON ROMERO and CLIFFORD KRAUSS,New York Times:
By EDWARD WONG, New York Times:
By Brent Budowsky
International Herald Tribune:
New York Times
MSNBC.com:
By ADAM COHEN, The New York Times:
"The Supreme Court’s ruling in the Watergate tapes case, and other legal and historical precedents, make it clear that executive privilege should not keep Congress from getting the testimony it needs....Senators Press for More Files on Removing Prosecutors
By DAVID JOHNSTON, New York Times:
"Four senators are concerned that the Justice Department has not turned over all relevant documents related to the dismissals of eight United States attorneys...."High Stakes: Chávez Plays the Oil Card
By SIMON ROMERO and CLIFFORD KRAUSS,New York Times:
"A showdown between President Hugo Chávez and U.S. and European companies over key oil projects could wind up with all sides losing...."Huge Protest in Iraq Demands U.S. Withdraw
By EDWARD WONG, New York Times:
"Tens of thousands of protesters loyal to Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr demanded an end to the American military presence in Iraq...."Destroy Gonzales-ism
By Brent Budowsky
"Thomas Paine once wrote that in absolute governments, the King is law, and in free nations, the Law is king.Iran Planning To Stop Using U.S. Dollar To Price Oil, Central Bank Governor Says
The fundamental problem is not that Alberto Gonzales lied, prevaricated, misrepresented or played Pinocchio when he falsely stated he was not involved in the decisions to fire the U.S. attorneys. Those actions were wrong and appropriate grounds for removal, but there is much, much worse.
Alberto Gonzales is a basically decent guy, a second-tier-quality lawyer elevated to great heights by blind obedience to the concept of absolute power and the unwise president who claims it for himself on matters that grossly violate the American notion of the rule of law.
Gonzales-ism is the problem, not Gonzales....
[...]
In America nobody is above the law, and the principle of Gonzales-ism is that the White House counsel and the attorney general are just two more crony jobs given to weak and submissive sycophants who treat the King as his client, and treat the Constitution, the law and the people as petty cash to be bartered away because of the whims of the King.
In Gonzales-ism, the King is law; in America, the Law is king, and anyone who violates this notion that has defined America since 1776 is not fit to hold high office."
International Herald Tribune:
"KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia: Iran is planning to stop using the U.S. dollar to price oil, with less than half of its oil income now paid in the U.S. currency, Iran's central bank governor said.BBC NEWS | Americas | Guantanamo conditions 'worsening':
"That's the plan for the future, we are working on that," Governor Ebrahim Sheibany said in an interview with Zawya Dow Jones News Service late Tuesday when asked if Iran was planning to stop pricing oil in dollars.
[...]
...Iran is doing fine without economic relations with Washington, and it has "perfect control" in keeping its currency stable, Sheibany said.
"We do not have any problem. We are trading with more than 70 countries, including (in) Asia and Europe," the governor said.
Iran's central bank is also shifting to holding its foreign reserves in a basket of 20 currencies and away from U.S. dollars, which now make up less than 20 percent of the reserves, Sheibany said...."
"Conditions for detainees at the US military jail at Guantanamo Bay are deteriorating, with the majority held in solitary confinement, a report says...."Guant�namo Detainees Stage Hunger Strike
New York Times
"A long-term hunger strike has broken out at the American detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, with more than a dozen prisoners subjecting themselves to daily force-feeding to protest their treatment, military officials and lawyers for the detainees say...."GOP-issued laptops now a White House headache - Los Angeles Times
"Democrats say a private e-mail system was used in violation of federal rules...."How NRC unit became gun-toting cops
MSNBC.com:
"With no public discussion or input from Congress, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has quietly obtained armed federal police status for a small office of investigators whose big cases typically involve people sleeping on the job, falsifying documents or misplacing equipment. 'I didn't realize you needed guns and handcuffs to protect yourself against paper cuts,' said Dave Lochbaum of the Union of Concerned Scientists, a longtime critic of the NRC's Office of Investigations...."
Thursday, October 20, 2005
Court Nominee Is Asked to Redo Reply to Questions
New York Times:The Supreme Court nomination of Harriet E. Miers suffered another setback on Wednesday when the Republican and Democratic leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee asked her to resubmit parts of her judicial questionnaire, saying various members had found her responses "inadequate," "insufficient" and "insulting." ...
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
Why torture is OK
By Maura Stephens | OpenDemocracy:
"Imagine that you are on your way to work, coffee in hand, one December morning when three men in United States military uniforms, armed with guns, approach you. They say your name; you acknowledge it...."
Saturday, October 08, 2005
Reporter turns over notes in CIA leak case
"Judith Miller discovered the notes -- about a June 2003 conversation she had with Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby -- after her testimony before the grand jury last week, the sources said on Friday...."
The Police State Is Closer Than You Think
Paul Craig Roberts writes: is John M. Olin Fellow at the Institute for Political Economy and Research Fellow at the Independent Institute. He is a former associate editor of the Wall Street Journal, former contributing editor for National Review, and a former assistant secretary of the U.S. Treasury. He is the co-author of 'The Tyranny of Good Intentions.'�
"President Bush claims the power to set aside habeas corpus and to dispense with warrants for arrest and with procedures that guarantee court appearance and trial without undue delay. Today in the US, the executive branch claims the power to arrest a citizen on its own initiative and hold the citizen indefinitely. Thus, Americans are no longer protected from arbitrary arrest and indefinite detention...."Dr. Roberts
Wednesday, October 05, 2005
Dems' Non-Ideological Case Against Harriet Miers
David Sirota writes:
"...As Bush's former speechwriter David Frum has written, Miers 'rose to her present position by her absolute devotion to George Bush.' She was, among other things, his personal lawyer, a political appointee of his in Texas (where she got into a lot of trouble), a hatchet person in Bush's efforts to hide his National Guard record, and an all around Bush bootlicker (Frum said Miers said 'the president was the most brilliant man she had ever met').
To even the average onlooker who barely pays attention to Supreme Court nominations, Miers' all-too-close political relationship to the White House is suspect...."
Thursday, September 29, 2005
Trial By Bush
"Constitution-Shredding in the Jose Padilla Case"
By Doug Ireland
By Doug Ireland
"WHY IS THE PADILLA CASE SO IMPORTANT? Because the right to freedom from arbitrary detention and to a jury trial is one of the fundamental rights for which the American Revolution was fought — it is enshrined in our Bill of Rights...."
Saturday, September 24, 2005
Most Disappointing Vote for John Roberts
The Nation reports:
"Of all the votes by Democratic senators in favor of the nomination of John Roberts to serve as Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, none is likely to be more disappointing to progressives than that of Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold...."
Wednesday, September 21, 2005
Senator Ted Kennedy: "Roberts Is the Wrong Choice"
Read Kennedy's floor statement on his decision to vote against the nomination of Judge John Roberts HERE.
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