by TChris

Driving while black is a too-common reason for traffic stops. In Eastpointe, Michigan, bicycling while black was viewed as sufficient reason to stop bicyclists, according to a lawsuit filed "on behalf of black youths from Detroit who said police violated their constitutional rights by unfairly stopping and searching them as they rode their bikes."

The City maintains its officers did nothing wrong, but it agreed to pay $160,000 to settle the claims of 21 kids who were stopped by Eastpointe police.

The settlement comes less than a year after the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned U.S. District Judge John O'Meara's 2003 dismissal of the case. The appellate court expressed concerns about potential Fourth Amendment violations and said there was enough evidence of racial discrimination and illegal searches by the police department to take the case to a jury trial.

by TChris

The Supreme Court has long held that public employees do not have an unfettered First Amendment right to speak freely without fear of losing their jobs. In the past, the Court has protected employees who speak out on a matter of public concern (including blowing the whistle on governmental misconduct), but not when the employee speaks about private concerns. If the employee's speech addresses a public concern, the Court balances the employee's interest in speaking freely against the government's interest in avoiding disruption of the workplace. (Note: this is a simplified and necessarily incomplete summary of a complex body of law. To understand the two tests more fully, read Connick v. Myers and Pickering v. Board of Ed.)

The Court today added a new wrinkle to its analysis. In a 5-4 decision, the Court denied First Amendment protection to Los Angeles prosecutor Richard Ceballos, who "wrote a memo questioning whether a county sheriff's deputy had lied in a search warrant affidavit." Ceballos argued that he was "demoted and denied a promotion for trying to expose the lie." While this would seem to be a classic instance of whistleblowing -- the kind of speech by public officials that should be encouraged -- the Court held that Ceballos was discharging his official duties when he wrote the memo, and that he was not entitled to the same protections he would have had if he had been speaking out against the lie as a private citizen.

Bush is speaking now on immigration. What do you think?

News analysis here.

Update: He supports a 5 part program.

1. Must secure borders. It must be open to trade and lawful immigration and shut to illegals, drug dealers and terrorists. By the end of 2008, border patrol officers will increase by 6,000. Will install high tech fences, motion censors, etc. along the borders.

Immediate steps: Use the National Guard, up to 6,000 guard members will be deployed to the southern borders. They will not be involved in direct law enforcement activities. For one year. We will not militarize our borders.

Comment: Did Bush just make the second most unpopular proposal of his presidency, after the War in Iraq? I think so. This will cause outrage among many different groups, including those who have previously supported him.

From Full Court Press:

On May 5, 2006, the Eleventh Circuit issued a split, 2-1 decision denying asylum to a Colombian woman who, because of her political work, had been on the receiving end of menacing phone calls, a death threat note and gunfire. Previously filibustered, formerly recess-appointed, highly controversial Bush II pick Bill Pryor authored the majority opinion over a stinging dissent by Bush I appointee Ed Carnes.

Despite the growing evidence that immigration courts have been falling down on the job, the Eleventh Circuit has never - yes, never - reversed an immigration court's refusal to grant political asylum. In Luz Marina Silva's case, Judge Carnes felt the time had come. Unfortunately for Ms. Silva, Judges Pryor and Frank Hull (a Clinton appointee who regularly joins the court's most conservative wing) thought otherwise.

by TChris

The Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility wondered what role Justice Department lawyers played in assisting the Bush administration's warrantless wiretapping of Americans. OPR wanted to learn whether Justice Department lawyers broke any laws or otherwise behaved unethically, but the National Security Agency refused to give OPR's lawyers the security clearances they would need to learn about the program. (Any lawyer who investigates an administration program is apparently regarded as too disloyal to merit a security clearance.) Stymied, OPR closed its inquiry.

Any meaningful investigation will have to come from a legislature that has been loathe to expose any of the Bush administration's misconduct.

"This administration thinks they can just violate any law they want, and they've created a culture of fear to try to get away with that. It's up to us to stand up to them," said [Rep. Maurice] Hinchey.

Yes it is. And it's up to the rest of us to vote for legislators who have the courage to do so.

The "We Are America Alliance" is launching an immigrant voter registration drive today in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and other cities. Its goal is to register 1 million immigrant voters for the November elections.

During the summer, immigrant advocates will encourage community organizations, union halls and churches across the country to become "immigrant action justice centers." Voter registration forms, citizenship information, letters addressed to politicians and phone numbers to call members of Congress will be available. The groups also plan to set up mobile information centers in high-traffic areas.

by Last Night in Little Rock

A search that was a virtual replica of a search of the person in the first episode of FX's "The Shield" (official site; academic review), an officer's reaching into a suspect's pants on the street to seize drugs hidden under his testicles was suppressed as unreasonable by the U.S. District Court for Minnesota. United States v. Williams, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 26410 (D. Minn. May 4, 2006).

The problem here was that the search precinct house parking lot and not in the building, a few feet away. At least the search in "The Shield" happened in an alley where others were less likely to see it, which was the point: No witnesses, no harm, no foul. Maybe the officers use "The Shield" as a training video.

From the case:

larger version

The Washington Post has an article today comparing the immigration debate today with that of a century ago. It nicely puts the lie to the claim that in the old days, people came to to the U.S., particularly Ellis Island legally, with permission. There was no permission necessary until 1918.

Until 1918, the United States did not require passports; the term "illegal immigrant" had no meaning. New arrivals were required only to prove their identity and find a relative or friend who could vouch for them.

Customs agents kept an eye out for lunatics and the infirm (and after 1905, for anarchists). Ninety-eight percent of the immigrants who arrived at Ellis Island were admitted to the United States, and 78 percent spent less than eight hours on the island. (The Mexico-United States border then was unguarded and freely crossed in either direction.) "

Another excellent read is this letter to the editor in the Aspen Daily News. Jordan E. Mollersten reminds us of the simple laws of supply and demand when it comes to the labor force. His argument makes a lot of sense to me.

by TChris

First they attacked Roe v. Wade, now they're going after Griswold v. Connecticut. The next culture war (as if we need another one) will be waged over contraception, according to this article in the NY Times Magazine.

"We see a direct connection between the practice of contraception and the practice of abortion," says Judie Brown, president of the American Life League, an organization that has battled abortion for 27 years but that, like others, now has a larger mission. "The mind-set that invites a couple to use contraception is an antichild mind-set," she told me. "So when a baby is conceived accidentally, the couple already have this negative attitude toward the child. Therefore seeking an abortion is a natural outcome. We oppose all forms of contraception."

Contraception prevents abortion, an obvious reality that doesn't deter this crowd from arguing that sex without procreative intent is "anti-child." Sex without procreative intent is fun, and it seems a hard sell to convince people otherwise. The article informs us that a growing number of evangelicals are trying to do just that.

by Last Night in Little Rock

From Crooks and Liars is a video clip, posted today and reprised from January from Keith Olberman's Countdown on MSNBC where a General with the NSA doesn't even know what the Fourth Amendment says. And to think that these bozos are determining what is right or wrong when the NSA decides to seize our communications.

Read the transcript on Crooks and Liars or Countdown. It is pathetic. Olberman's final observation:

by TChris

The Bush administration wants to make it easier for law enforcement agencies to wiretap calls made over the internet. The FCC made its pitch to a panel of federal judges today, and the response is priceless:

A judge said the government's courtroom arguments were "gobbledygook."

The judge also characterized the arguments as "nonsense." It gets even better:

"Your argument makes no sense," U.S. Circuit Judge Harry T. Edwards told the lawyer for the Federal Communications Commission, Jacob Lewis. "When you go back to the office, have a big chuckle. I'm not missing this. This is ridiculous. Counsel!"

by TChris

Students at the University of the Cumberlands in Williamsburg, Ky. are scrambling to erase their MySpace profiles after university officials discovered that Jason Johnson's profile mentioned his boyfriend. Johnson was expelled for being gay, which is contrary to the private school's "high standards." According to President James Taylor:

"We tell prospective students about our high standards before they come. There are places students with predispositions can go, such as San Francisco and the left coast or to many of the state schools."

The Kentucky Legislature gave Cumberlands $11 million. Should Kentucky continue to assist a school that discriminates on the basis of sexual orientation? Kentucky Sen. Ernesto Scorsone doesn't think so.