by Last Night in Little Rock

Late Thursday night, the Senate concurred in a House bill to extend the Patriot Act until March 10. The previous extension was to have ended Friday.

This was a mere skirmish and retreat in the war on civil liberies, which is continued to be waged with greater vigor than the War in Iraq.

A second criminal defense lawyer has filed a motion challenging the NSA warrantless wiretaps. Talkleft wrote here about Albany lawyer Terry Kindlon who filed the first such motion. David Smith of Alexandria, VA, another excellent defender is now representing Iyman Faris, the trucker from Ohio who pleaded guilty to planning to take down the Brooklyn Bridge.

A motion filed by Faris' attorney David Smith in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., argues that investigators improperly obtained evidence against Faris and that his trial lawyer was ineffective.

Given the likelihood that Faris' phone conversations or e-mails had been electronically monitored, Faris' trial lawyer, Frederick Sinclair, should have asked for evidence of such surveillance, Smith said in the motion. "Had he done so, the government would have been in a real bind and this would have enabled Faris to, at a minimum, negotiate a much more favorable plea bargain," the motion said.

....At his sentencing, prosecutors acknowledged that federal agents were led to Faris by a telephone call intercepted in another investigation.

The challenges are going to be multiplying rapidly. Here's who reportedly is next on deck:

The media must have censored President' Bush's State of the Union Address. Here's what we missed, from The Onion.

"Tonight, by executive order, I am creating a permanent department with a vital mission: to ensure that the political scandals, underhanded dealings, and outright criminal activities of this administration are handled in a professional and orderly fashion," Bush said.

The centerpiece of Bush's plan is the Department Of Corruption, Bribery, And Incompetence, which will centralize duties now dispersed throughout the entire D.C.-area political establishment.

Tomorrow, the Associated Press will release 200 pages of government documents it has received concerning debates in the Ford Adminstration over conducting warrantless surveillance for national security purposes.

The roughly 200 pages of historic records obtained by The Associated Press reflect a remarkably similar dispute between the White House and Congress fully three decades before President Bush's acknowledgment he authorized wiretaps without warrants of some Americans in terrorism investigations.

Among those named in the documents: George H.W. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney. As one analyst says, "It's deja-vu all over again."

FISA was passed in 1978, during the Ford Administration. Papa Bush and other Republicans were afraid the law would diminish presidential powers.

by TChris

This NYTimes article reminds us that internet use isn't as private as it might feel.

[Even though] companies that provide Internet service and run Web sites ... promise to protect the privacy of their users, they routinely hand over the most intimate information in response to legal demands from criminal investigators and lawyers fighting civil cases. ...

When it comes to e-mail and Internet service records, "the average citizen would be shocked to find out how adept your average law enforcement officer is at finding information," said Paul Ohm, who recently left the Justice Department's computer crime and intellectual property section.

Read the article to learn what information you leave behind when you surf the net, and how easy it is for others to find it.

by TChris

As TalkLeft discussed here, Ken Starr is trying to persuade Gov. Schwarzenegger to spare the life of Michael Morales. The judge who sentenced Morales to death now thinks he shouldl live. Today, the Mercury News weighs in:

Innocence is not at issue in Morales' case. He committed a terrible crime. But the state appears to have wrongfully condemned him to death, under false pretenses. If so, killing him would be an injustice.

Lewis Libby had a court hearing today. His trial is set for January, 2007.

Raw Story analyzes the Libby filings from January 31 and reports that Libby's lawyers say his superiors authorized the Valerie Plame leak.

Former federal prosecutorElizabeth de la Vega opines why Rove is not off the hook.

Continuing from my post below, here is today's unsealed information in the Judith Miller case from the newly revised opinion (pdf):

With respect to Miller, the special counsel seeks evidence regarding two exchanges with I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Cheney's Chief of Staff and National Security Adviser: first, an in-person meeting in Washington, D.C. on July 8, 2003, and second, a telephone conversation on July 12, 2003. Before the grand jury, Libby testified that although he had previously learned about Wilson's wife's employment, he had forgotten it by July 8 and recalled no discussion of Wilson during his meeting with Miller. (I-105, 134-35, 279.) As to the July 12 conversation, Libby stated, "I said to her that, that I didn't know if it was true, but that reporters had told us that the ambassador's wife works at the CIA, that I didn't know anything about it." (I-208.) Because other testimony and evidence raises oubts about Libby's claims, the special counsel believes Miller's testimony is "essential to determining whether Libby is guilty of crimes, including perjury, false statements and the improper disclosure of national defense information." (8/27/04 Aff. at 28; see also id. at 1-2.)

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuithas issued a per curiam opinionorder unsealing portions of Circuit Judge David S. Tatel's previously redacted opinion concurring in the judgment in the Judith Miller Grand Jury subpoena case. You can access the newly-reissued, partially-unredacted opinion at this link (pdf). [Via How Appealing]

by Last Night in Little Rock

In the Civil Rights / Vietnam War protest era, spanning over a decade, the FBI routinely engaged in surveillance of anyone associated with either. It was in the J. Edgar Hoover FBI playbook, and Richard Nixon required his FBI to keep files on war protestors. (Ok, you got me; there's probably a report or two on me.)

Today's NY Times has an article about the NYPD videotaping demonstrators in NYC. The strange part about it is that they are videotaping NYPD officers demonstrating for lack of a contract with the police union. The union sued the NYPD claiming First Amendment intimidation, and the allegations read like the Hoover horror stories of the 60's-70's.

Atrios has this link to Rep. Boehner's voting record on religious issues. It's scary.

That prompted me to do a little research. Here's his abysmal record on abortion. Not surprisingly, he's terrible on criminal justice issues. Check these out:

Say hello to the Nation's new blog, The Notion:

Starting today, The Nation launches The Notion blog, which will feature light, off-the-cuff commentary, spontaneous reaction to breaking news, and unfiltered ruminations on debates of the day. Readers should expect lively debates, insightful critiques, crucial questions, bold new visions and the occasional sophomoric Bush joke. Notion contributors will interact and respond to each other, as well as readers who post comments.

It has an all-star lineup: