DNA Evidence Clears Two Men in 1983 Murder - NYTimes.com. Photo.
CISPA / TPP / ACTA / SOPA / PIPA / COICA. FISA. PATRIOT Act. DOJ. SCOTUS. Bill of Rights. US law: States. Boxed In: How a Criminal Record Keeps You Unemployed For Life. Prosecutor in Aaron Swartz 'hacking' case comes under fire. A politically ambitious Justice Department official who oversaw the criminal case against Aaron Swartz has come under fire for alleged prosecutorial abuses that led the 26-year-old online activist to take his own life .
Carmen Ortiz, 57, the U.S. attorney for Massachusetts who was selected by President Obama, compared the online activist -- accused of downloading a large number of academic papers -- to a common criminal in a 2011 press release. The Truth about Aaron Swartz’s “Crime” « Unhandled Exception. I did not know Aaron Swartz, unless you count having copies of a person’s entire digital life on your forensics server as knowing him.
I did once meet his father, an intelligent and dedicated man who was clearly pouring his life into defending his son. My deepest condolences go out to him and the rest of Aaron’s family during what must be the hardest time of their lives. If the good that men do is oft interred with their bones, so be it, but in the meantime I feel a responsibility to correct some of the erroneous information being posted as comments to otherwise informative discussions at Reddit, Hacker News and Boing Boing. Carmen Ortiz and Stephen Heymann: accountability for prosecutorial abuse. Honest Hyperbole and Free Speech - Adam Liptak. In court, the commission, represented by the office of Ohio’s attorney general, Michael DeWine, asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit on procedural grounds.
But Mr. DeWine, a Republican and a former United States senator, filed his own brief, one that was at odds with that of his office. Comment: Stolen Valor and Super PACs. A peculiar law with a mellifluous name will meet its doom before the Supreme Court this week.
The reasons why will tell us something about the Presidential campaign. To explain: Congress passed the Stolen Valor Act in 2005 to address a distasteful, if not exactly earth-shaking, problem. News reports had revealed several cases of would-be politicians and other prominent people who had falsely claimed to be decorated war heroes. The new law made such lies a crime. Why I’m Suing Barack Obama - Chris Hedges' Columns. Attorneys Carl J.
Mayer and Bruce I. Afran filed a complaint Friday in the Southern U.S. District Court in New York City on my behalf as a plaintiff against Barack Obama and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta to challenge the legality of the Authorization for Use of Military Force as embedded in the latest version of the National Defense Authorization Act, signed by the president Dec. 31. The act authorizes the military in Title X, Subtitle D, entitled “Counter-Terrorism,” for the first time in more than 200 years, to carry out domestic policing.
With this bill, which will take effect March 3, the military can indefinitely detain without trial any U.S. citizen deemed to be a terrorist or an accessory to terrorism. What makes our NDAA lawsuit a struggle to save the US constitution. I am one of the lead plaintiffs in the civil lawsuit against the National Defense Authorization Act, which gives the president the power to hold any US citizen anywhere for as long as he wants, without charge or trial.
In a May hearing, Judge Katherine Forrest issued an injunction against it; this week, in a final hearing in New York City, US government lawyers asserted even more extreme powers – the right to disregard entirely the judge and the law. On Monday 6 August, Obama's lawyers filed an appeal to the injunction – a profoundly important development that, as of this writing, has been scarcely reported. In the earlier March hearing, US government lawyers had confirmed that, yes, the NDAA does give the president the power to lock up people like journalist Chris Hedges and peaceful activists like myself and other plaintiffs. The degradation of justice. By now you will have read that self-described 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other alleged plotters will shortly have their day in court.
Jurors Can Say No.
US law enforcement & criminal justice. U.S. Drug Policy Would Be Imposed Globally By New House Bill. The House Judiciary Committee passed a bill yesterday that would make it a federal crime for U.S. residents to discuss or plan activities on foreign soil that, if carried out in the U.S., would violate the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) -- even if the planned activities are legal in the countries where they're carried out.
H.R. 313, the "Drug Trafficking Safe Harbor Elimination Act of 2011," is sponsored by Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), and allows prosecutors to bring conspiracy charges against anyone who discusses, plans or advises someone else to engage in any activity that violates the CSA, the massive federal law that prohibits drugs like marijuana and strictly regulates prescription medication. The law could also potentially affect academics and medical professionals. For example, a U.S. doctor who works with overseas doctors or government officials on needle exchange programs could be subject to criminal prosecution.