Legal Commentary

The Alberto Gonzales Defense: Judge Bybee Reportedly Denies That He Wrote Infamous Memo

Posted on April 26, 2009
According to close friends, Judge Jay S. Bybee appears to have adopted the Alberto Gonzalez defense: he is now claiming that he did not write his infamous memo and only signed it. This is similar to the defense that Democrats allowed Gonzales to make on the first torture memo at his confirmation hearing for [...

Jewish Professor in California Accused of Anti-Semitism

Posted on April 26, 2009
A Jewish professor at the University of California at Santa Barbara has been accused of anti-Semitism for material that he shared with his students in a course on sociology and globalization. The material critical of Israel led to two students dropping the course and charges filed against Professor William I...

Bush Officials Surface To Answer Torture Claims

Posted on April 26, 2009
In light of the recent defenses made recently on behalf of Judge Jay Bybee, John Yoo, and Steven Bradbury, this picture appears to capture their sudden emergence into the public debate. Of course, it is important to get people to join you in the gutter when arguing that torture is excusable when committed by Americans [...

Finland Prosecutes Politician for Blasphemy in Calling Mohammad a Pedophile

Posted on April 26, 2009
Recently, I wrote a column on how the West has used hate crime laws to create a Western version of blasphemy prosecutions in the Middle East. Finland has now added to the list of countries charging people with blasphemy. Helsinki city councilman, Jussi Halla-aho was charged with blasphemy and incitement of an ethnic-group [...

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Senior Police Officer Overheard on Police Radio Threatening Criminal Act Against Daughter-in-Law ? Police Discipline Man Who Disclosed Recording

Posted on April 25, 2009
Gloucester Massachusetts police have a curious way of dealing with potentially criminal threats. Lt. Michael O’Hanley accidentally broadcasted a threat toward his estranged daughter-in-law over the department radio. However, it was the person who disclosed the threat to the media was that disciplined...

Pastor Pushia Confesses to Using Church Funds to Hire Hitman to Kill Blind, Disabled Man for Insurance Money

Posted on April 25, 2009
There is double indemnity and then there is double depravity. Baltimore Pastor Kevin Jerome Pushia, 32, is accused in a shocking criminal conspiracy. He allegedly befriended a blind and disabled man, Lemuel Wallace, as part of his work with developmentally disabled people at his church, The Arc of Baltimore...

White House: No Special Prosecutor on Torture

Posted on April 25, 2009
It is getting rather difficult to follow the line of logic at the White House on the torture investigation. For months, President Obama has been speaking about his intentions as to any investigation into the torture program. Then, this week, he suddenly declared that he should have no role in such decisions...

Pittsburgh School Suspends Kids for Making Pencil Slingshots

Posted on April 25, 2009
Pittsburgh schools have added another loony example of zero tolerance policies resulting in zero judgment. Five fourth-grade students at Fawn Elementary School have been suspended on weapons charges for making pencils into little sling shots to see who could shoot a paperclip the farthest...

Jordan?s King Abdullah: Evidence of Torture By United States Is Obvious

Posted on April 25, 2009
Jordan’s King Abdullah II joined the ever-lengthening list of people saying that the United States tortured detainees in an interview to air on NBC Meet the Press. He joins a long list of Bush officials, the International Red Cross, countless NGOs and experts who have come forward in the last few weeks...

Professor Sought As Suspect in Murder of Three People in Georgia

Posted on April 25, 2009
University of Georgia Professor George Zinkhan is being sought by police in connection with the shooting deaths of three people at an off-campus murder scene. Zinkhan is a professor in the department of marketing and distribution at the Terry College of Business...

Report: Condoleeza Rice and John Ashcroft Approved of Torture Program

Posted on April 24, 2009
A Senate Intelligence Report shows that Condoleeza Rice, then national security adviser, approved of the torture program as early as 2002. One week later, Attorney General John Ashcroft signed off the the legality of the torture by finding that the “proposed interrogation techniques were lawful...

Rotten Apple: Company Pulls Baby Shaking Application for IPhone

Posted on April 24, 2009
As an IPhone and a longtime Apple user (I got the first Apple and never have used anything other than Apple and Mac computers since), I am positively disgusted by the decision of someone at Apple to feature an application where people can have fun shaking a baby to stop it from crying...

It Depends What ?Know? Means: Pelosi Admits That She Was Briefed on Torture But Claims Ignorance on its Actual Use

Posted on April 24, 2009
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is trying to fend off criticism over her knowledge of the Bush Administration’s plan to torture detainees. Pelosi has adopted a highly lawyered exclamation that she was briefed on the plan but never told that they were implementing the plan...

New Law School Rankings

Posted on April 24, 2009
U.S. News and World Report has released its 2010 law school rankings after they were first leaked by an industrious blog. There appears to be a change in methodology that affected the ranking in the top 25 (George Washington took a big hit in overall ranking while coming in second for its part-time program)...

Texas Supreme Court Overturns Verdict Based on Nine-Word Note From Foreperson

Posted on April 24, 2009
The Texas Supreme Court has overturned the verdict in a major torts case based on a nine-word note from a juror. During the second-day of jury deliberations in a rollover cases against Ford, a note was sent to the judge from forewoman Cynthia Cortez of the jury asking, “What is the maximum amount that [...

New York City Council Votes to Evict Animals From Bronx Zoo Due to Budget Shortfalls

Posted on April 24, 2009
While New Yorkers continue to enjoy a rent control system, animals at the Bronx Zoo will be soon sent packing in the search of zoos due to the economic downturn. Hundreds of animals may soon be put out on the curb, including deer, bats, foxes, and antelopes...

Holder Promises to Follow the Law on Any Torture Investigation But Fails to Mention Special Prosecutor

Posted on April 23, 2009
Attorney General Eric Holder said Wednesday that he will “follow the law” in deciding whether to pursue criminal charges against Bush officials for the torture program. While first reported as a major advance, the statement conspicuously does not mention the appointment of a special prosecutor, an essential component to any investigation since the [...

The Wedding Plaintiff: New York Woman Sues Guest Over Wedding Outburst

Posted on April 23, 2009
This may make for a better movie than a torts case, but Sandrina Purdum, 31, alleges that Jennifer Angevine ruined her wedding in Queens, New York, by telling guests that she had been sleeping with her new husband, Harold Purdum, 31. She is alleging slander, infliction of emotion distress, and battery...

New York Lawyer Arrested For Throwing Kids Out of Car

Posted on April 23, 2009
Madlyn Primoff, 45, a partner at Kaye Scholer specializing in international financial matters spent the night in jail and is facing criminal charges after she allegedly throw her two daughters, 10 and 12, out of her car on the side of the road. One daughter succeeded in catching up with the car and jumping back [...

Report: Bill Nye ?The Science Guy? Revealed as Godless, Soulless Blasphemer in Texas

Posted on April 23, 2009
There is an interesting account out of Waco, Texas where Bill Nye “The Science Guy” was booed for saying that the Moon does not generate it own light — in contradiction to the Bible. This will likely end any designs of Nye to open a new Bill Nye “The Religion Guy” line of products...

Broken Heart, Empty Head: Florida Man Admits to Staging Robbery to Woe Ex-Girlfriend

Posted on April 23, 2009
Derick A. Culberson, 22, is accused to moving beyond the normal roses and dinners to win back a girlfriend. Culberson has been charged with making a false police report that he was robbed at gunpoint in order to get his girlfriend feel guilty for leaving him The Palm City, Florida resident told police that he [...

Former Columbia Professor Sues University for $200 Million

Posted on April 23, 2009
Madonna Constantine, the former professor of the Teachers College of Columbia University who reported a noose found on her door, has filed a lawsuit against Columbia for $200 million after she was fired for plagiarism. Constantine says that her termination for plagiarism ruined her academic reputation...

Harman Refuses to Confirm Conversation With Suspected Israeli Spy and Calls Interception of Her Calls an ?Abuse of Power?

Posted on April 22, 2009
Rep. Jane Harman, D-California, has called the alleged interception of her calls with a suspected spy “an abuse of power” and has called for the transcripts of the call to be given to her. As suggested in an earlier blog, she has promised to make the transcript public if given to her...

Gilded Cage: Jailbird Contractor Sentenced to Live in the $5 Million Mansion That He Upgraded Through His Tax Evasion Scheme

Posted on April 22, 2009
Now this is a sentence that most of my clients would relish. Pittsburgh contractor William G. Tomko Jr. was convicted of using his $5 million mansion as part of a tax evasion scheme where he avoided $228,000 in taxes by having work on the mansion disguised as payments for work done at five area [...

President Obama Leaves Open Possibility of Prosecutions for Torture While His Intelligence Director Affirms That the Torture Program Was Successful

Posted on April 22, 2009
President Obama reversed earlier statements statements made as late as this weekend from Raum Emmanuel and others that he did not want anyone — low level or high level officials — prosecuted for torture. In a clear break from his past statements, Obama insisted that the matter had to be left to Attorney [...

Monumental Shakedown: Cashing in on Martin Luther King, Jr.

Posted on April 22, 2009
Below is today’s column from the Los Angeles Times on the demand of the family of Martin Luther King that the King Center be paid roughly $800,000 for the right to use his image and words in the planned memorial to the late civil rights leaders on the Washington Mall...

Israeli Foreign Minister: The United States Does What Israel Decides Should Be Done

Posted on April 22, 2009
At a time when the Harman scandal is focusing attention on the power of the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) in Congress, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman is quoted in his very first interview on foreign policy as saying “Believe me, America accepts all our decisions...

Leahy Calls for Judge Bybee?s Resignations and Others Call for Impeachment

Posted on April 22, 2009
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has called for Judge Jay Bybee to resign in light of his central role in the torture program and memos. Leahy declared that “[t]he fact is, the Bush administration and Mr. Bybee did not tell the truth...

Torture Works: Cheney Unrolls New Campaign to Justify War Crimes

Posted on April 21, 2009
After refusing to release even unclassified materials as Vice President, former Vice President Dick Cheney is now calling for the release of all interrogation reports to show that torture works. This is the same Cheney who supported the denial of such evidence to courts and criminal defendants and Congress...

Waddling Into Controversy: Harman Reportedly Intercepted in Quid Pro Quo Deal With AIPAC For the Chairmanship of the House Intelligence Committee

Posted on April 21, 2009
For civil libertarians, this story is proof of a divine being. Rep. Jane Harman has long been criticized for her knowledge of the unlawful warrantless surveillance program and torture program. The democrats have blocked any investigation into the unlawful programs in part to protect democratic members like Harman who would be implicated...

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