Unequal protection under the law

On Thursday, the House ethics committee recommended that Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) be censured for failing to pay taxes on income he received from a vacation villa in the Dominican Republic. A slap on the wrist, and he gets to stay in office.

Contrast that with the case of Wesley Snipes. The actor was convicted in 2008 on three misdemeanor counts of willful failure to file his income tax returns. He has just been sentenced to three years in prison. That's three years of his life taken away for not turning in a form that in essence violates the Fifth Amendment's prohibition against self-incrimination.

There should be equal protection under the law, which means everyone, including Hollywood actors and 20-term congressmen, should be treated the same. But, as Orwell pointed out, some are considered more equal than others.

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is now officially a legal authority

(io9) - The wisdom of Spock has guided us all for years, but now it's enshrined in Texas law. Ruling on the limits of police power, the Texas Supreme Court quoted from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.

Ruling in Robinson vs. Crown Cork Seal Company (PDF), Justice Don Willett writes:

Appropriately weighty principles guide our course. First, we recognize that police power draws from the credo that "the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few." Second, while this maxim rings utilitarian and Dickensian (not to mention Vulcan), it is cabined by something contrarian and Texan: distrust of intrusive government and a belief that police power is justified only by urgency, not expediency.

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Judge lets states' healthcare suit go forward

(Reuters) - U.S. states can proceed with a lawsuit seeking to overturn President Barack Obama's landmark healthcare reform law, a Florida judge ruled on Thursday.

U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson had already indicated at a hearing last month that he could not uphold parts of a motion by the Justice Department to dismiss the lawsuit, led by Florida and 19 other states.

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Judge orders halt to 'don't ask, don't tell' policy

WASHINGTON (Wall Street Journal) - A federal judge ordered the military to stop enforcing the "don't ask, don't tell" law that has been used to discharge gay service members, putting at least a temporary halt to the 17-year-old policy.

Tuesday's order by U.S. District Judge Virginia Phillips in Riverside, Calif., applies across the U.S. and would halt proceedings against service members suspected of violating the policy, which aims to bar openly gay people from the military.

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Federal judge upholds key provisions of health care law

(Detroit Free Press) - A federal judge in Detroit today upheld key provisions of President Barack Obama's landmark health reform law.

In a 20-page decision, U.S. District Judge George Steeh refused to issue an injunction to halt preparations for putting federal health reforms into full effect in 2014, a law known as the Affordable Care Act passed by Congress in March. Steeh also dismissed the major points of the suit — requiring Americans to buy health insurance and penalizing those who don’t starting in 2014.

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Rules of America's rule of law

by Glenn Greenwald (Salon.com) - The U.S. today charged Bradley Manning with a variety of crimes relating to his alleged leaks of classified material to WikiLeaks, most prominently including the Apache attack video that spawned worldwide debate over the American occupation. The 22-year-old whistle-blower faces 52 years in prison. Marcy Wheeler has interesting analysis of the charges, including some contradictions with the account previously offered by Wired, and I'll have more on this shortly, but for now, I just wanted to review the contemporary rules governing the Rule of Law in the U.S.:

• If you torture people or eavesdrop on Americans without the warrants required by the criminal law, you receive Look-Forward Imperial Immunity.
  
  
• If you shoot and kill unarmed rescuers of the wounded while occupying their country and severely wound their unarmed children sitting in a van -- or if you authorize that conduct -- your actions are commended.
  
  
• If you help wreck the world economy with fraud and cause hundreds of millions of people untold suffering, you collect tens of millions of dollars in bonuses.
  
  
• If you disclose to the world evidence of war crimes, government lawbreaking, or serious corruption, or otherwise embarrass the U.S., you will be swiftly prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and face decades in prison.

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Ohio Supreme Court okays estimates for speeding tickets

(AOL Autos) - The verdict rang alarm bells far beyond The Buckeye State. On June 2nd, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that police officers could issue speeding tickets based merely on visual estimates. The media frenzy was predictable, with most outlets mirroring a CNN report that said, "Motorists in Ohio, beware: Speeding is in the eye of the beholder, especially when police are the ones guesstimating."

But what’s the real story here? Have Ohio police truly been given official sanction to write you a speeding ticket without any radar proof? When it’s your word against the cop’s, does this mean the cop automatically wins, and you have no recourse to appeal? Will this decision grossly impact traffic enforcement in Ohio?

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Obama admin: Don't question torturers' sincerity

(Antiwar.com Blog) - The Supreme Court disgraced itself on Monday by torpedoing the appeal of Maher Arar, the Canadian who was kidnapped at John F. Kennedy International Airport and sent by the U.S. government to Syria for torturing.

The Canadian government has publicly apologized to Arar for providing false information to the U.S. government about Arar’s suspicious connections. The U.S. government has refused to admit it did anything wrong in shipping Arar to the Middle East to be tortured at U.S. behest.

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Right to remain silent? Suspect better speak up

WASHINGTON (AP) - Want to invoke your right to remain silent? You'll have to speak up.

In a narrowly split decision, the Supreme Court's conservative majority expanded its limits on the famous Miranda rights for criminal suspects on Tuesday — over the dissent of new Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who said the ruling turned Americans' rights of protection from police abuse "upside down."

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NY court rules in favor of man killed by police

NEW YORK (AP) - The mother of a man killed by police a decade ago during a drug raid was awarded nearly $3 million on Thursday by a Bronx appeals court.

Malcolm Ferguson, 23, was shot in the head by a narcotics officer in 2000. Police said he was a drug suspect who struggled when they stopped him. Prosecutors called the shooting an accident and did not charge the officer.

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Cameras no show in court

(Athens Banner-Herald) - Lawyer Regina Quick, defending two clients from charges that they were photographed running red lights, subpoenaed five traffic cameras at the West Broad Street-Alps Road intersection to testify that her clients did indeed barge through on red.

"I didn't observe them as they came in, so I don't believe they'll be appearing," Quick said.

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Supreme Court upholds federal government's commitment power

(The Volokh Conspiracy) - This morning the Supreme Court handed down its opinion in United States v. Comstock, a challenge to the federal government's authority to civilly commit a "sexually dangerous" federal prisoner beyond the time of his sentence. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit held that the federal government lacked such authority within its enumerated powers. The Supreme Court disagreed, voting 7–2 to uphold the federal government's commitment power under the Necessary & Proper Clause.

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Obama administration files first defense of health care law in court

WASHINGTON (AP) - Critics who allege that Congress overstepped the U.S. Constitution by requiring Americans to carry health insurance are "flatly wrong," the Obama administration said Wednesday in its first court defense of the landmark health care law.

Congress acted well within its power to regulate interstate commerce and to provide for the general welfare, Justice Department lawyers argued in a 46-page brief filed in federal district court in Detroit. For the courts to overturn President Barack Obama's signature domestic legislation would amount to unwarranted interference with the policymaking authority of Congress, they added.

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Diverse Obama picks changing face of federal judiciary

WASHINGTON (Baltimore Sun) - Lost in the gathering debate over President Barack Obama's next Supreme Court pick, a profound shift in the federal judiciary is taking place below the high court.

Working methodically, and drawing sporadic fire from left and right, Obama is gradually reshaping the U.S. courts.

Already, he's tipped the balance of two appellate circuits to Democratic-appointed majorities, with a third about to flip. He also is choosing a larger proportion of women and minorities for lifetime federal judgeships than other presidents.

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FBI agent short on details on militia inquiry

DETROIT (AP) - An FBI agent who led the investigation of nine Michigan militia members charged with trying to launch war against the federal government couldn't recall many details of the two-year probe yesterday during questioning by defense lawyers.

Even the judge who must decide whether to release the nine until trial was puzzled.

"I share the frustrations of the defense team … that she doesn't know anything," U.S. District Judge Victoria Roberts said after agent Leslie Larsen confessed she hadn't reviewed her notes recently and couldn't remember specific details of the case.

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Supreme Court strikes down federal animal cruelty law

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court struck down a federal law Tuesday aimed at banning videos that show graphic violence against animals, saying it violates the right to free speech.

The justices, voting 8-1, threw out the criminal conviction of Robert Stevens of Pittsville, Va., who was sentenced to three years in prison for videos he made about pit bull fights.

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Judge tells Mississippi schools to stop segregating

(Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Tuesday ordered a rural Mississippi school district to comply with a nearly 40-year-old order and halt long-disputed practices that led to racial segregation in its schools.

The Justice Department accused the Walthall County School District in rural Mississippi of annually permitting more than 300 students, most of them white, to transfer to a school outside of their residential area, shifting its racial makeup.

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