Check out the new State Department Website. It has Hillary's theme, Diplomacy in Action and a transcript of her confirmation hearing testimony.

There's a blog, DipNote. Look for other features to go live after she's confirmed. [More...]

The Senate is now voting on the confirmation of Hillary Rodham Clinton as Secretary of State.

Vitter votes no. I think that will be the only no vote. Ooops. Apparently I missed DeMint voting no.

By a vote of 94-2, Hillary Clinton has been confirmed by the Senate as the Secretary of State.

Via Balloon Juice, in a WaPo chat today, Ruth Marcus wrote:

[Q]: But many of us do not want criminal prosecutions which would be almost impossible to achieve since most of the evidence (e-mails, et al) has been “lost.” We simply want the facts about torture, illegal spying, habeas, etc. made public so the next time a President seeks to break the law, he will think twice.

Ruth Marcus: That’s a different question. I’m more agnostic on investigation in a non criminal sense. What I’d like to know is, What needs investigating that has not already been investigated? What information that could reasonably be made public has not already emerged? But do you really think the prospect of investigation would have deterred Bush? Didn’t seem so.

More . . .

Another decision causing one to rue the day Justice Sam Alito made it to the Supreme Court: Pearson et. al. v. Callahan (pdf).

Although the opinion was unanimous, it is authored by Justice Alito, who in his fervor to protect police officers from liability when they violate someone's fourth amendment rights, throws precedent out the window, saying it's okay to ignore it. At least, that's my take.

Even worse, the case was from my own circuit which has held that "consent once removed" doesn't apply to snitches, only to undercover officers. Alito says because at the time of the search, two states and three other federal districts had ruled differently, the cops were entitled to rely on those rulings since their own circuit hadn't yet ruled at the time. And, he writes, the legal test established by the Supreme Court for determining whether immunity applies isn't mandatory for courts to follow. [More..]

Bump and Update: The Obama Administration is circulating a draft of an executive order allowing for up to a year to close Guantanamo. As the Center for Constitutional Rights says, that's too long.

It only took days to put these men in Guantanamo, it shouldn’t take a year to get them out. We are proud that President Obama made addressing Guantánamo one of his first acts in office. Yet we are disappointed that he outlined no concrete steps for closing the base and gave his administration an entire year to sort out its plans – meaning that some men could have been detained indefinitely in terrible conditions for eight full years. Surely he could do better.

[More...]

The Government of Switzerland made a generous offer today -- it is willing to consider taking Guantanamo detainees who cannot return to their home countries:

"For Switzerland, the detention of people in Guantanamo is in conflict with international law. Switzerland is ready to consider how it can contribute to the solution of the Guantanamo problem," the government said in a statement.

Switzerland said it welcomed the expressed intention of U.S. President Barack Obama to close the prison and would investigate security and legal implications of possibly taking in detainees.

Portugal and France have also expressed a willingness to consider taking detainees. [More...]

Read Glenn Greenwald discussing the affidavit of former Gitmo military commissions prosecutor Darrell J Vandeveld (PDF) in support of the habeas petition of Mohamad Jawad (here is the habeas brief prepared by the ACLU) (PDF), held in Gitmo for more than 6 years, since he was transported from Afghanistan when a teenager. A stain on our Nation.

In our names. President Obama ordered military prosecutors to seek a 120 day suspension of the military commission tribunals to allow for a review by his incoming Administration. His review of what has been done in our names must extend beyond the military commissions.

Speaking for me only

Your turn.

This is an Open Thread.

Judging an inaugural speech in the moment is a mistake in my opinion. Immediate plaudits and pans are meaningless. Barack Obama's inaugural speech will best be judged after he acts as President. For example, in the most widely admired passage of the speech, President Obama said:

As of the weekend, I had no plans for watching the inauguration down here in New Orleans. I'm firmly in the camp of Andrew Bacevich who rightly believes that we cannot solve our problems by simply electing a new president.

But Monday night I had dinner with a friend who said that she was going to watch the swearing in ceremony from this incredible church in New Orleans' Holy Cross neighborhood.

It seemed like an opportunity too good--and too historic--to pass up. When I arrived at the Greater Little Zion Church yesterday morning, I was immediately glad that I'd made the trip: there was a big, multi-racial crowd and there was an almost electric feel in the air. [More...]

A new report by the University of Arizona reveals the substandard medical treatment afforded to women at immigration detention centers.

The study concluded that immigration authorities were too aggressive in detaining the women, who rarely posed a flight risk, and that as a result, they experienced severe hardships, including a lack of prenatal care, treatment for cancer, ovarian cysts and other serious medical conditions, and, in some cases, being mixed in with federal prisoners.

A sample story:

[A] woman being held at the Central Arizona Detention Center in Florence who experienced excruciating abdominal pain for months after she had been forced to undergo female genital mutilation in West Africa was told by the center’s staff to “exercise and watch her diet,” her lawyer at the time, Raha Jorjani, said. After nearly six months, the woman, who had been convicted of a nonviolent crime, was taken to a hospital where an ultrasound revealed a cyst the size of a five-month-old fetus, Ms. Jorjani said.

Immigration officials then suddenly released the woman with no money or health insurance to treat the cyst, Ms. Jorjani said.

Nationally, 3,000 are being held in immigration detention centers pending deportation. The study examined three centers in Arizona, home state to our new Homeland Security Secretary, Janet Napolitano. [More...]

The Presidential Pledge

Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher got their star friends to participate in this video, The Presidential Pledge, urging everyone to embrace public service, a key point of the Obama Administration.

Will it work? I don't know, but it's a nice effort.