Say hello to the new Wall Street Journal Law Page, and its new law blog, written by Peter Lattman, formerly a journalist with Forbes and before that a lawyer. It looks very promising. The new law page is available only to subscribers, and I'm not sure if the law blog is free or not. However, it includes free links to some of the Journal's regular articles.

The Journal explains the additions here.

Today, WSJ.com introduces its new Law Page, covering law, business and the business of law. We will be writing about news, trends and buzz for lawyers at firms and in-house law departments, as well as the business people who work with them.

There's a funny article today (free link) on boxing promotor Don King, who has rehired his former lawyer and nemesis, Judd Bernstein, to represent him in a lawsuit filed against one of Bernstein's former clients. Conflict issues apparently will be resolved by the court.

The acrimony between the two has been so intense over the years that Mr. Burstein once referred to the promoter as a "cancer" on boxing. Mr. King described Mr. Burstein as an "insidious insect.

The new law blog at the Wall St. Journal is reporting that Ana Marie Cox will be leaving Wonkette and replaced by David Lat, the male prosecutor who authored Underneath Their Robes pretending to be a female named Article Three Groupie.

If true, count me as underwhelmed and very disappointed. The few times I read Underneath Their Robes, Lat was praising conservative judges to the hilt. His favorite word was "hottie."

As for whether the report is true, while Gawker Media won't confirm, Lat did quit the U.S. Attorney's office last week and said he'll be back blogging in Washington. Today on the UTR, he says he's leaving for a two week vacation in India.

Good luck to Ana Marie, who reportedly is about to begin a national book tour to launch her new book, Dog Days.

On the other hand, the Wall St. Journal law blog is well worth reading and free.

by Last Night in Little Rock

Fires are burning all around Oklahoma City. In Texas, whole towns were burned out. Pray tell us, Revs. Falwell and Robertson: What have these heathens done to bring the fires of hell upon them?

Geoffrey R. Stone is a Distinguished Service Professor of Law at the University of Chicago. He also is the former Dean of the law school and former Provost of the University of Chicago. His most recent book, Perilous Times: Free Speech in Wartime from the Sedition Act of 1798 to the War on Terrorism (W.W. Norton 2004), received both the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for the Best Book of the Year in History.

Today, over at Huffington Post, Professor Stone analyzes Bush's warrantless NSA electronic surveillance program in the context of the Fourth Amendment.

Here's a snippet:

Tomorrow's Christian Science Monitor has an excellent article on the battles that will erupt during Congressional hearings this year. The Democrats finally are about to make some noise. Alito is the only a small part of it.

Even better, with GOP moderates joining Dems on key issues, and bucking the White House over secret prisons and eavesdropping, the fights could help the Democrats re-take Congress in 2006.

Here's some of what we're in for:

Scotusblog reports:

The Bush Administration appears to be preparing to try to scuttle the two most significant pending cases on the legal rights of foreign nationals now being held at the terrorism prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. One of those cases has been granted review by the Supreme Court, the other is awaiting a decision in the D.C. Circuit Court.

President Bush himself signaled this strategy of challenge in a statement last Friday that got little mention in the media, during the holiday lull. His remarks, made at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, came as he signed into law a new defense authorization bill, H.R. 2863, that contains the "Detainee Treatment Act of 2005" as part of its Title X, "Matters Relating to Detainees." (The full text of the President's signing statement can be found here. The discussion of the detainee issue is in the eighth paragraph, which begins "The executive branch shall construe Title X...")

Go on over and read the rest. Marty Lederman has more at Balkanization.

It's a new year. Let's get started on the right track.

There are too many right-wing chatterers commenting on TalkLeft who are making noise without substance. Several are new in the past few months, and may not have read the commenting rules. They are here. Please read them. If you continue to comment in disregard of the rules, you will be banned.

In particular, there is a four a day comment limit for right wing chatterers. Readers should let me know when a new chatterer pops up or violates the rules. I will then find their last or their offending comment and add a warning. So, if you are a contrarian commenter on this site, check back to the last comment threads you've posted on. Once you are notified you're a chatterer, it's four a day max for you. If you disregard the limit, you will be banned.

Next, and this goes for all commenters regardless of your political philosophy: Lose the insults, the name-calling and degrading responses to other commenters. You may think you are being witty, I don't.

I'm a little late getting this up today, but I'm busy at work and so awash in paper I might drown. I need one of these, badly. [Update: A huge thank you to the generous reader that just contributed the money to buy the scanner. TalkLeft readers never cease to amaze me. This is so appreciated.]

In case I miss the news about whether Jack Abramoff has a plea deal, please fill us in. Also of note:

• Raw Story: Abramoff's firm knew of the payments he received from ex-DeLay aide before the story broke.

• Va. Gov. Mark Warner has two weeks left to order DNA testing in the case of Roger Coleman, executed in 1992. If he does, and if it turns out he was innocent, he will be the first known case of wrongful execution in the country.

• Atrios on 2005 being the year of the President who believes he can break the law.

• Crooks and Liars has some great Daily Show clips up.

• Reddhedd at Firedoglake reviews the Patriot Act debate and the Fruit of the Poisonous Tree Doctrine as applied to Bush's warrantless NSA surveillance. Also read Judd at Think Progress on how the NSA plan put us all at risk.

The New York Times has an article today about journalists and bloggers. It goes on for three pages, and if there's a central theme, I'm not getting it. On the other hand, Jane of Firedoglake does an excellent job of taking the basics of the article and expanding it into what it is that blogs really do, vis a vis the mainstream media.

...bloggers serve the function of analysts. Or re-analyzers, more aptly, who attempt to contextualize as they sort through available data and look for patterns, inconsistencies and greater truths.

....From our standpoint we're trying to come up with new ideas and theories as we try to sort through the available information and expose the systemic bias from which it comes. We're not afraid to be wrong in our speculations, nor are we afraid to interact with people who like to think along side us.

If there's a better description, I haven't seen it. Way to go, Jane.

Update: Digby adds context, Jane heartily agrees in an update.

Congratulations to Steve and Melissa. Preston Davis Green has arrived on the planet earth. Another example of beautiful people making beautiful babies. And check out the hair!

A new law went into effect in Great Britain today, allowing police to arrest for every offense, no matter how trivial:

Police are to be given sweeping powers to arrest people for every offence, including dropping litter, failure to wear a seat belt and other minor misdemeanours.

The measures, which come into force on Jan 1, are the biggest expansion in decades of police powers to deprive people of their liberty. At present, officers can generally arrest people if they suspect them of committing an offence which carries at least five years in prison. They will now have the discretion to detain someone if they suspect any offence and think that an arrest is "necessary".

This reminds me of Rudy Giuiliani's program to clean up Times Square and other areas by arresting the squeegee men that wanted to clean your car windows. It's taking the broken windows theory of policing to new and dangerous heights.

Subcomandante Marcos and the Zapatistas have a new goal for 2006. They are giving up their military role and becoming involved in the electoral process. Marcos will know be known as Delegate Zero, as he and the Zapatistas embark on a tour of Mexico.

The Zapatista rebels of Mexico are emerging from their jungle hideout for a six-month campaign tour of the country, designed to be an alternative to this year's already contentious presidential race.

Marcos and the Zapatistas have been fighting for years for the rights of indigenous Mexicans. They will not be running for office themselves, since they still view the political process as overly corrupt, but instead will build a "nationalist leftist movement that will "shake this country up from below" during a visit to Mexico's 31 states."

The Zapatista's command council said in a recent statement: "A step forward in the struggle is only possible if we unite with other sections of society. We have to unite with labourers, teachers, students and all the workers in the city and countryside."