Category: Justice

Roberts Court Gets One Right

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They have ruled by 9-0 that a warrant is required to plant a GPS tracker on someone’s car.

The the majority opinion was that  the physical installation of a tracker was a trespass, and hence required a warrant, while 4 justices, Alito, Ginsburg, Breyer, and Kagan argued more broadly that it “impinged on the expectation of privacy.”

This is not a distinction without a difference.  The former position leaves issues like, for example, tracking a cell phone, unclear, and you can be sure that lazy members of the law enforcement community will exploit this ambiguity.

And as SOPA/PIPA Goes Down, the Supreme Court Decides to F%$# the Concept of Public Domain

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The Supreme Court just ruled that the public domain can be taken away whenever Congress wants to:

We’ve been talking about the Golan case, and its possible impact on culture, for years. If you’re unfamiliar with it, it’s the third in a line of cases, starting with the Eldred case, to challenge aspects of copyright law as violating the First Amendment. The key point in the case was questioning whether or not the US could take works out of the public domain and put them under copyright. The US had argued it needed to do this under a trade agreement to make other countries respect our copyrights. Of course, for those who were making use of those public domain works, it sure seemed like a way to unfairly lock up works that belonged to the public. It was difficult to see how retroactively taking works out of the public domain could fit into the traditional contours of copyright law… but today, on the day of the big SOPA/PIPA protests… that’s exactly what happened (pdf).

The ruling is ridiculously depressing. The Justices basically just keep repeating the mantra they first set forth in Eldred, that as long as Congress says it’s okay — and that the “fair use” and the “idea/expression” dichotomy remain — all is just dandy. They also claim that since the very first copyright law took works from the public domain and gave them copyright protection, clearly there’s nothing wrong with removing works from the public domain. This decision reinforces why the Eldred decision was a complete disaster, and just keeps getting worse. The Eldred ruling basically ignored the fact that copyright had changed entirely in a way that went against the First Amendment… by retroactively granting copyright extension. Now that ruling is being used to take works out of the public domain as well.

First, as with Eldred (and the second case in the trilogy, the Kahle case), I believe that the Court is greatly mistaken in its analysis of copyright law. First it claims that there’s little fight between copyright and the First Amendment because the two things were put in place at about the same time. That’s a specious argument for a variety of reasons. First, the original copyright law was significantly limited in a way that it was unlikely to really come into conflict with the First Amendment. It was limited to just a few specific areas, and for a very short period of time. It’s only now that (1) copyright law has been totally flipped to make just about everything you create covered by copyright, (2) the law has been massively expanded in time and (3) changes in technology make us all create tons of “copyrighted” material all the time — things have changed an entirely. It’s hard to see how the Court can reasonably argue that the traditional contours of copyright law have not changed… but that’s exactly what it does. Stunningly, the majority decision here, written by Justice Ginsburg, seems to suggest that there’s no First Amendment issue here, because if people want to make use of the works that were previously, but are no longer, in the public domain, they can just buy those rights:

This ruling sucks wet farts from dead pigeons.

IP increasingly resembles the Enclosure Acts in England, with a similar outcome. The ordinary people get f%$#ed, and the nobility makes out like raped apes.

Needless to say, this does not serve, “To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts,” as the constitution states.

It’s A Start

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Love the mug shot

You know, it’s refreshing when a billionaire ignores a judge, and the judge throws his ass in jail:

The elderly billionaire owner of Detroit’s Ambassador Bridge has been jailed today for failing to meet court-ordered deadlines on a multimillion dollar construction project.

Manuel ‘Matty’ Moroun, along with company president Dan Stamper, has been sent to jail until his company complies with a 2010 court order to get the work on the $230m Gateway project done.

It is not yet clear how long the men will stay behind bars, but the work could take up to a year.

Well, were freed on appeal, so they only spent one night in the clink.

That being said, I want Wayne County Judge Prentis Edwards on the Supreme Court.

Good News Everyone! Bigots Don’t Get to Steal Property.

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So a bunch of bigots were upset with the Episcopal Church not hating on te ghey enough, so they left the Episcopal Church, and affiliated with a “Kill the Gays” Anglican Bishop in Nigeria.

Well, now a judge has ruled that their churches are property of the Diocese of Virginia:

A Virginia judge has ruled against seven conservative congregations that broke away from the Episcopal Church in 2006, rejecting their argument that they should be able to keep some $40 million in church real estate that the national denomination also claims.

The case has drawn worldwide attention because it involves a cluster of large, prominent churches with well-known conservative pastors and because the issues at hand — particularly the Episcopal Church’s acceptance of same-sex relationships as equal to heterosexual ones — are roiling much of organized religion. Various Protestant congregations in particular have wound up in litigation across the country.

The 113-page ruling was handed down Tuesday by Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Randy Bellows.

A spokeswoman for the congregations said they were considering their next step, but a letter sent to some 4,600 congregants sounded as though they are bracing for the worst. Each congregation has a contingency plan if they have to vacate, said Caitlin Bozell Manaois.

Couldn’t happen to a more repulsive group of people.

For too many people, religion is just an excuse to hate.

BTW, it appears that Caitlin Bozell Manaois is Brent Bozell’s daughter.  (She works at CRC Public Relations, which is one of his front groups)

Brent Bozell is the head of the “Media Research Center” and is probably best known for referring to Barack Obama as a, “skinny ghetto crackhead.”

Manning is Referred For Court Martial

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22 counts, including “aiding the enemy, which carries a potential death penalty, for leaking thousands of files to Wikileaks.

It appears that the “the enemy” is the American public.

It’s a f%$#ing kangaroo court, as evidenced by the convening authority refusing to allow the most of the defense’s witnesses, because the goal, of both the military and the Obama administration is to suborn perjury from Manning, so that they can manufacture a case with which to prosecute Julian Assange.

Supreme Courts Says that there are Limits to Campaign Donations

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So, if you are a foreign person, you are still forbidden from making campaign donations:

In a terse four words, the Supreme Court on Monday issued an order upholding prohibitions against foreigners making contributions to influence American elections.

The decision clamped shut an opening that some thought the court had created two years ago in its Citizens United decision, when it relaxed campaign-finance limits on corporations and labor unions. On Monday the Supreme Court, upholding a lower court’s decision in Bluman, et al., v. Federal Election Commission, refused to extend its reasoning in Citizens United to cover foreigners living temporarily here.

Foreign nationals, other than lawful permanent residents, are completely banned from donating to candidates or parties, or making independent expenditures in federal, state or local elections.

The Supreme Court’s order did not discuss the merits or suggest that there was any dissent among the justices.

It sounds to me like they just said that foreign persons cannot make campaign donations, but under Citizens United, foreign corporations can.

Our political system, brought to you by BMW, the ultimate driving machine.

Louis Freeh to Account Holders, Drop Dead

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You knew it was coming when this corrupt rat-bastard was appointed trustee. Now he’s trying to f%$# the account holders out of the money that JP Morgan Chase and the rest of the usual suspects stole from the:

MF Global Holdings Ltd. (MF)’s creditors should have some priority to be repaid by the bankrupt estate, said Chapter 11 trustee Louis Freeh, citing intercompany loans made between the failed parent and its operating unit.

Freeh, representing the interests of creditors of the parent company, commented on the legal principles that will govern repayments in papers filed late yesterday in Manhattan bankruptcy court. Former customers of the broker-dealer unit, seeking an estimated $1.2 billion missing from their accounts, are being repaid in a related case overseen by a different trustee, James Giddens, appointed under the Securities Investor Protection Act.

The holding company has “substantial intercompany claims” against the broker-dealer unit on account of former intercompany loans, and any recoveries of that money shouldn’t be “diverted” to customers, giving them a priority at the expense of creditors of the parent company, Freeh said.

Freeh is concerned that “an inappropriate interpretation” of the law may lead Giddens to deny the rights of creditors to recover from property that was never deposited by them, lawyers for Freeh wrote.
Customer Pool

The conflict is “not whether certain estate property can be distributed to customers, but whether estate assets that would otherwise be available for distribution to MF Global Inc.’s creditors can be reallocated to the customer pool,” Freeh said.

Seriously, the assets he is referring to were stolen by those “creditors”.

First, he obstructs the investigation of the theft of client accounts, and now he’s trying to f%$# the account holders.

It must be nice to be able to be so blatantly corrupt and get paid for it.

Yes, Some of these Folks are Actually Guilty of Bad Things

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But it’s right to dismiss charges against all the kids that the cash for kids judges sent up:

A judge brought in to clean up after a “kids for cash” scandal has expunged every juvenile court case decided by a Pennsylvania jurist convicted of corruption.

Senior Judge Arthur Grim was selected almost three years ago to review juvenile court cases decided by former Luzerne County Judge Mark Ciavarella, who’s serving time in jail for his involvement in the corruption case.

As a result of Grim’s efforts, records have been expunged for more than 2,000 juveniles sentenced by Ciavarella.

Ciavarella and another ex-judge are serving federal prison sentences for sending juveniles to for-profit youth detention centers in return for money.

Grim called the handling of juvenile cases in Luzerne County a judicial process “run amok,” and he gave recommendations to prevent such renegade justice again.

Pennsylvania State Supreme Court Chief Justice Ron Castille said Thursday that Grim has suggested many reforms that require legislative action, but the courts have already changed certain rules to treat kids more fairly.

When the checks and balances fail so badly that judges manage to get kickbacks for sending kids to private prisons, and no one says anything for years, expunging every conviction is least that we owe them as a society.

Background here.

I May Be Wrong About Eric Holder

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Because it does appear that he is actually investigating allegations of police brutality, with investigations being described as having, “mushroomed to unprecedented levels,” involving investigations of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Department  (Joe Arpaio), Seattle’s police department,  Newark, East Haven, Miami, and Puerto Rico.

The cynic in me notes that Obama’s closest move toward action on this matter was his now-disavowed comments on the arrest of professor Henry Louis Gates, which, when juxtaposed with his history is one of studiously avoiding involvement in any issue that might remind people that he’s black, would lead me to conclude that he is studiously uninvolved with this issue.

Compare this to clear White House directives on torture and the banksters, where it is clear that the word went out that there would be no prosecutions.

I’m assuming that the fact that actual law enforcement is occurring here because the Obama administration is largely uninvolved with this.

OK, I Didn’t Expect This in Maryland

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But two doctors have been charged with fetal homicide for late term abortions:

Two doctors who Maryland authorities say botched an abortion last year in Elkton have been indicted on murder charges — in what appears to be the first use of the state’s fetal homicide law involving a medical professional performing surgery.
“We’re in uncharted territory,” Cecil County State’s Attorney Edward D.E. Rollins said Friday. He declined to comment further because the indictment remains sealed until the suspects are arraigned in Maryland. They were arrested Wednesday in New Jersey and in Utah.
Dr. Steven Chase Brigham, 55, of Voorhees, N.J., faces five counts of first-degree murder, five counts of second-degree murder and one count of conspiracy to commit murder. Dr. Nicola Irene Riley, 46, of Salt Lake City faces one count each of first- and second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
Authorities would not describe the indictment in detail. A statement from Elkton police says some of the charges relate to an abortion that went awry 16 months ago. Detectives investigating that case — in which a teenager had to be rushed to a hospital and survived — said they found nearly three dozen late-term aborted fetuses in a freezer in Brigham’s Elkton clinic.
Maryland is one of 38 states with a fetal homicide law. But unlike many, Maryland does not define when it is too late to perform an abortion. Under the law, enacted in 2005, it is illegal to abort a fetus deemed viable, or showing signs of healthy development.

In case you are wondering, Edward D.E. Rollins is a Republican, and this is fairly clearly a case where they are trying to use this as another wedge against Roe v. Wade to the Supreme Court.

What is interesting here is that they aren’t charging the mothers in the conspiracy charges, when, if there is a conspiracy, they are clearly co-conspirators.

Prosecutors love conspiracy charges.  They are easier to prosecute, and they are a remarkably effective tool for turn witnesses, but we aren’t seeing its use here, because this is all about an anti-choice political agenda.

I expect to see this before the Supreme Court in the next 2-3 years.

That’s Guilty, Guilty, Guilty, Guilty!!!

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This referring to the conviction of “Bad Hair Bob” Erhlich’s 2010 gubernatorial campaign manager of attempted vote fraud:

Paul E. Schurick, the 2010 campaign manager for former Maryland governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., was convicted Tuesday by a Baltimore jury of four counts stemming from a robocall that prosecutors said was intended to suppress the black vote.

The call, which Schurick acknowledged authorizing, was placed on Election Day to 112,000 voters in Baltimore and Prince George’s County, the state’s two largest majority-African American jurisdictions. Recipients were told by an unidentified woman that they could “relax” because Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) had been successful.

The guilty verdict not only sullied the three-decade career of one of Maryland’s best-known political operatives, it also served as a major embarrassment for Ehrlich, the state’s only Republican governor in a generation.

Although prosecutors have never suggested that Ehrlich approved the calls, he is pushing a new book that draws anecdotes from his four years in Annapolis and contends his failed comeback bid last year was “swamped” by the black vote.

The jury convicted Schurick — who got his start in politics working for Democrats — of trying to influence votes through fraud, failing to identify the source of the call as required by law and two counts of conspiracy to commit those crimes.

Schurick’s defense argued during the week-long trial that he relied on the judgment of a campaign consultant hired to reach out to black voters, who said the calls would make use of “reverse psychology” and motivate potential Ehrlich supporters to go to the polls.

This is where it gets interesting, because now that prosecutors have gotten a conviction, people are going to start thinking about rolling over.

While I think that prosecutors are probably right when they say that, “prosecutors have never suggested that Ehrlich approved the calls,” after all, when you break the law, you make sure that the candidate has no direct knowledge of it.

That being said, I think that he had to know that the central pillar of his campaign was suppressing the black vote, and he had to know that, and I’m hoping that this come out at trial.

I’m With Amnesty International…

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They are calling for George W. Bush’s arrest for war crimes while he is doing his foreign tour:

Amnesty International is calling for the arrest of former President George W. Bush while he is traveling overseas in Africa.

The human rights group issued a statement Thursday calling for the governments of Ethiopia, Tanzania or Zambia to take the former president into custody. According to Amnesty, the 43rd president is complicit in torture conducted by the United States during his administration and should be held pending an international investigation.

“International law requires that there be no safe haven for those responsible for torture; Ethiopia, Tanzania and Zambia must seize this opportunity to fulfill their obligations and end the impunity George W. Bush has so far enjoyed,” said Amnesty senior legal adviser Matt Pollard in a statement.

Bush is traveling overseas in Africa to raise awareness for HIV/AIDS, cervical and breast cancer across the continent. He participated today via satellite in a Worlds AIDS Day event put on by the ONE Campaign and (RED) where he was joined by President Barack Obama and former President Bill Clinton.

Amnesty commended the philanthropic nature of the president’s trip but said in a statement that does not excuse what they believe are breaches of international law.

Or US law for that matter, but Barack Obama has publicly stated that he intends to cover it all up, which, BTW, does put this under the purview of the ICC.

Let’s get his ass into the Hague.

If You Believe in His Hope and Change, You Are Deluded

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Because financial fraud prosecutions have fallen even further under Obama than under Bush:

During the first 11 months of the 2011 fiscal year, the federal government filed 1,251 new prosecutions for financial institution fraud. If that pace continues, TRAC projects a total of 1,365 prosecutions for the fiscal year. That’s less than half the total a decade ago.

The decline in these new cases stands in contrast to the government’s broader approach to federal criminal prosecutions. Federal prosecutions for other crimes have grown tremendously, with the number of total new prosecutions filed for all federal crimes nearly doubling over the last decade:

(emphasis original)

As you can see, federal prosecutions have skyrocketed:

But prosecutions for financial fraud have fallen.

If you were wondering whether or not Obama was a willing captive of Wall Street, this should disabuse you of this.

The only hope here is to play on his weakness and cowardice to force him to do the right thing, because it’s clear that his better angels lie with the Vampire Squid.*

*Alas, I cannot claim credit for the bon mot describing Goldman Sachs as a, “great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money.” This was coined by the great Matt Taibbi, in his article on the massive criminal conspiracy investment firm, The Great American Bubble Machine.

This is Literally the Worst Idea I Have Ever Heard

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The Department of Justice is seeking to expand anti-hacking laws to make it a criminal offense to violate the terms of a click-through license on a web site:

A commonly invoked anti-hacking law is so overbroad that it criminalizes conduct as innocuous as using a fake user name on Facebook or fibbing about your weight in a Match.com profile, one of the nation’s most respected legal authorities has said.

This came to prominence when the DoJ decided to prosecute the infamous (and unsuccessful) Lori Drew Myspace cyberbulling prosecution.

And the Response of the USDepartment of Justice?

In fact, quite the opposite: Downing and the Justice Department want to expand the law’s scope and impose harsher sentences on cybercriminals.

As CNET reported, the Justice Department is after an expansion of its powers under CFAA because of what happened when the agency attempted to prosecute Lori Drew, a Missouri mother who created a phony MySpace account to harass her 13-year-old neighbor, who later committed suicide. Drew was in 2008 convicted under CFAA of felony conspiracy and three counts of intentionally accessing a protected computer without authorization.

What you have to understand here is that the goal of the DoJ is to have another “arrow in their quiver”.

They want to have a world where everyone can be criminally prosecuted for something, because that way, they can go after anyone that they find inconvenient.

The fact that the Obama DoJ is in full throated support of this is why I refer to him as the “The Worst Constitutional Law Professor Ever”.

When you give the state security apparatus the power to manufacture criminality, which is the desire of most agents of the state security apparatus, you create a blueprint for tyranny.

Why Law Enforcement Friendly Legislation Should Be Viewed With Suspicion

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Eichmann tried this argument as well.

Because when things are made too easy for the cops, you tend to get influence peddling and corruption about the small things, and it will then grow until you approach a police state.

Case in point, wherein fixing parking and traffic tickets for family, friends, and politicos leads to bigger crimes and bigger coveruyps:

A three-year investigation into the police’s habit of fixing traffic and parking tickets in the Bronx ended in the unsealing of indictments on Friday and a stunning display of vitriol by hundreds of off-duty officers, who converged on the courthouse to applaud their accused colleagues and denounce their prosecution.

As 16 police officers were arraigned at State Supreme Court in the Bronx, incensed colleagues organized by their union cursed and taunted prosecutors and investigators, chanting “Down with the D.A.” and “Ray Kelly, hypocrite.”

As the defendants emerged from their morning court appearance, a swarm of officers formed a cordon in the hallway and clapped as they picked their way to the elevators. Members of the news media were prevented by court officers from walking down the hallway where more than 100 off-duty police officers had gathered outside the courtroom.

The assembled police officers blocked cameras from filming their colleagues, in one instance grabbing lenses and shoving television camera operators backward.

The unsealed indictments contained more than 1,600 criminal counts, the bulk of them misdemeanors having to do with making tickets disappear as favors for friends, relatives and others with clout. But they also outlined more serious crimes, related both to ticket-fixing and drugs, grand larceny and unrelated corruption. Four of the officers were charged with helping a man get away with assault.

Jose R. Ramos, an officer in the 40th Precinct whose suspicious behavior spawned the protracted investigation, was accused of two dozen crimes, including attempted robbery, attempted grand larceny, transporting what he thought was heroin for drug dealers and revealing the identity of a confidential informant.

The case, troubling to many New Yorkers because of its implication that the police officers believed they deserved special treatment, is expected to have long tentacles. Scores of other officers accused of fixing tickets could face departmental charges. Some officers have already retired. Moreover, the indictments may jeopardize thousands of cases in which implicated officers are important witnesses and may be seen as untrustworthy by Bronx juries.

(emphasis mine)

This is what happens when law enforcement officials feel entitled.

You will always have a few bad eggs in any endeavor, but when the entire culture is one of entitlement, corruption, and law breaking, you end up with a toxic mix that can eats at the core of society.

Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss

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The Marijuana Policy Project has just declared that Barack Obama is the worst President ever on medical Marijuana.

I think that this is not a deeply felt philosophy, but yet another case where a lack of ideology, or perhaps a contempt for ideology, that leads him to placate the most extreme of the dead enders, whether it be the drug war, or the Iraq war. (Where we were thrown out, we didn’t leave voluntarily)

What this means is that he doubles down more aggressively on bad policy than he would if he actually believed in it.

It’s kind a metaphor for his whole a political career.

H/t Disinformation.

Another Stinker of a Bank Deal from

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Hoocoodanode that Biden’s Kid Would Be a Hero in All This?

Another day, another sell-out deal from Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller and the Obama administration:

Talks between U.S. states and top banks over mortgage abuses are nearing agreement on a major sticking point that has bogged down settlement negotiations for more than a year.

…………

Under the proposed terms of the settlement — which could total $25 billion — banks would get broad legal immunity from state lawsuits in exchange for refinancing underwater loans, those mortgages where borrowers owe more than their homes are worth, the sources said.

…………

Banks have been holding out on a multi-billion-dollar settlement because they wanted broader legal immunity than state attorneys general were prepared to offer.

Originally, the states were only considering immunity for shortcuts taken during mortgage servicing and foreclosures, including the so-called “robo-signing” of documents to evict people behind on their mortgages.

In recent days, the state attorneys general agreed to release major banks from claims that they made legal errors when first originating the loans, such as approving loans for borrowers without verifying any income, according to two people familiar with the talks.

In exchange, banks would agree to refinance mortgages for borrowers who are current on their payments but owe more than their homes are currently worth, the sources said.

So, as Biden notes (see vid), they are getting a (pretty lame) deal from a contractor for bad gutters, and he demands to be cleared for the roof and the gutter they put in too.

But, as Yves Smith observes, the relief, such as it is, would only apply to non-securitized mortgages (about 20% of the mortgages), and the banks get to write the deal for the homeowners, meaning more booby traps for the the people who get “relief”, and probably a waiver of private liability.

BTW, this likely f%$#s the MBS investors, because without an official investigation of the securitization process, any potential private suit will be hamstrung.

About Time…

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It look like Prosecutors have finally gotten the guts to prosecute a bishop for concealing child abuse:

The first U.S. bishop criminally charged with sheltering an abusive clergyman has been accused of failing to protect children after he and his diocese waited five months to tell police about hundreds of images of child pornography discovered on a priest’s computer, authorities said.

Bishop Robert Finn and the Kansas City-St. Joseph Catholic Diocese have pleaded not guilty on one count each of failing to report suspected child abuse, officials said Friday.

Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker said Finn and the diocese were required under state law to report the discovery to police because the images gave them reason to believe a child had been abused.

“Now that the grand jury investigation has resulted in this indictment, my office will pursue this case vigorously,” Baker said. “I want to ensure there are no future failures to report resulting in other unsuspecting victims.”

The indictment, handed down Oct. 6 but sealed because Finn was out of the country, says the bishop failed to report suspicions against the priest from Dec. 16, 2010, when the photos were discovered, to May 11, 2011, when the diocese turned them over to police.

Finn denied any wrongdoing in a statement Friday and said he had begun work to overhaul the diocese’s reporting policies and act on key findings of a diocese-commissioned investigation into its practices.

“Today, the Jackson County Prosecutor issued these charges against me personally and against the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph,” said Finn, who officials said was not under arrest. “For our part, we will meet these announcements with a steady resolve and a vigorous defense.”

Finn faces a maximum penalty of one year in jail and a $1,000 fine if convicted of the misdemeanor. The diocese also faces a $1,000 fine.

Maybe if some of these guys at the top start seeing the inside of the jail cell, they will stop aiding and abetting sexual abuse among their ranks.

The Lesson Here is If You Cheat Investors, Be a White Man

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Long prison term, dark face, any questions?

You know why Raj Rajaratnam just got sentenced to 11 years in prison for insider trading:

Fallen hedge fund tycoon Raj Rajaratnam has been sentenced to a record 11 years in prison after his conviction in the biggest Wall Street insider trading case in decades.

Prosecutors had pushed for 25-year sentence after convicting Rajaratnam, 54, in the biggest insider trading investigation ever conducted by US authorities.

Legal experts said that while prosecutors may have been disappointed with the decision, the sentence was still the highest ever given for insider dealing.

The thing to remember here is that this is actually fairly small time by the scale of the financial meltdown, and that he is not white.

I won’t believe that there is any sort of meaningful crackdown on the banksters until we see someone who is both white, and at least at the VP level for a major bank.

This is just, “Rounding up the usual suspects.”