by TChris

Senators Charles Schumer and Russ Feingold would like John Roberts to explain his decision to sit on the panel considering the Hamdan appeal. The United States, after all, was a party to that appeal, and Judge Roberts was being interviewed for a presidential appointment to the Supreme Court while the appeal was pending. In fact, his nomination was announced just a few days after the Hamdan decision was released.

“Why did you believe it was appropriate to continue participating in the Hamdan case while being interviewed for a vacancy on the Supreme Court?” the Democratic senators asked in the letter. The senators said Roberts' answers will determine whether they bring the issue up at his confirmation hearings beginning Sept. 6.

Pointing out that Judge Roberts recused himself from a case involving the American Bar Association, which rated his fitness for a position on the Supreme Court, the senators thought it was “clear that you have long understood the ethical issues raised by continuing to work on a case in which a party is considering you for another position.”

by TChris

Loyal TalkLeft readers may recall this post about a New Ipswich police officer who decided that any undocumented alien who set foot in New Ipswich was “trespassing” on town property. New Hampshire’s attorney general has made the sensible decision not to appeal a judge’s dismissal of those foolish trespassing prosecutions.

“Having carefully examined the Court’s decision and the relevant case law, this office has determined that there is an insufficient basis for appeal,” Attorney General Kelly Ayotte wrote in a memo dated Aug. 15. “Accordingly, New Hampshire law enforcement officials should not make future arrests for criminal trespassing based solely on the defendant’s immigration status.”

This should deter other officers from following the lead of New Ipswich, incluing the chief of police in Hudson, NH, who has also arrested undocumented aliens for trespass.

We haven't had one of these in a while, and since I've got a lot of work to do today, the time is right.

Also, if you've had trouble posting comments the past few days, let me know in the comments. One poster has, and we're having a hard time getting him and his new computer past the typekey screen. It would help to know if it's happening to anyone else.

I have a new edition of "Scoring Scotus" up on Judge John Roberts over at Eric Alterman's Altercation today. And definitely check out PFAW's new report on the nominee here.

by TChris

Driving While Black (DWB) is viewed with suspicion by police officers in many jurisdictions. Statistics that establish a relationship between race and the treatment of drivers during traffic stops are routinely discounted by law enforcement, so it isn't surprising that the Justice Department wants to minimize their importance. In keeping with the Bush administration�s treatment of unpleasant facts -- deny or bury -- the administration, according to Lawrence Greenfeld, pressured the Bureau of Justice Statistics (headed by Greenfeld since 2001) to censor a news release that would have announced the results of "a major study on traffic stops and racial profiling, which found disparities in how racial groups were treated once they were stopped by the police."

The Bush administration's heavy-handed approach to federal employees who tell the truth was evident in the demotion of Greenfeld, who "refused to delete the racial references, arguing to his supervisors that the omissions would make the public announcement incomplete and misleading." The Justice Department responded by killing the news release, in the evident hope that the ugly reality of racial profiling wouldn't be noticed.

Cindy Sheehan writes at Huffington Post that she's going back to Crawford.

I'm coming back to Crawford for my son. As long as the president, who sent him to die in a senseless war, is in Crawford, that is where I belong. I came here two and a half weeks ago for one reason, to try and see the president and get an answer to a very simple question: What is the noble cause that he says my son died for?

Good. We need her there.

Maybe I've been in a cave somewhere, but I really didn't know that the feds and states are proposing laws requiring doctors to offer pain medication specifically for the fetus to women getting abortions at 20 weeks or more - and to tell them that the fetuses feel pain.

Anyway, now there's a study to refute the notion.

Taking on one of the most highly charged questions in the abortion debate, a team of doctors has concluded that fetuses probably cannot feel pain in the first six months of gestation and therefore do not need anesthesia during abortions.

Their report, being published today in The Journal of the American Medical Association, is based on a review of several hundred scientific papers, and it says that nerve connections in the brain are unlikely to have developed enough for the fetus to feel pain before 29 weeks.

Bowing to the radical right cries against illegal immigrants, Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff today said the U.S. plans to toughen the deportation system :

"In addition to [cameras and motion detectors] the secretary intends to bolster the deportation process so that an overwhelmed detention system does not cause illegal immigrants to be set free instead of being sent home. He plans to add beds for detainees, expedite deportations by making more judges and lawyers available, and try to track down more illegal immigrants who do not appear for deportation hearings.

Take the Democratic Loyalty Quiz. It's got some humorous choices. I scored a 9 out of 10:

You are a pure, unabashed, die-hard Democratic loyalist. You are appalled by the way Republicans are turning America into a theocratic, corpo-fascist police state, and you'd gladly walk through a furnace in a gasoline suit to elect a Democratic president. In your view, there is no higher form of patriotism than defending America against the Republican Party and every intolerant, puritanical, imperialistic, greed-mongering, Constitution-shredding ideal for which it stands.

[Via Ralph at Colorado Soapblox.]

“Drinking Liberally,” the meetup for liberals that has met with pretty good success across the country is coming to Denver beginning this Wednesday. You can meet and commiserate with your fellow liberals over a beer or drink. Soapblox Colorado has the details.

It's at 7:30pm at Mario’s Double Daughter’s Salotto, 1632 Market St., Denver.

Bill Moyer, 73, wears a "Bulls**t Protector" flap over his ear while President George W. Bush addresses the Veterans of Foreign Wars. (AP Photo/Douglas C. Pizac)

[Via Democratic Underground]

New York City has just signed a $212 million security contract has just been signed with Lockheed Martin. 1,000 cameras, 3,000 motion detectors will be installed on subways and other forms of mass transit. The intent is:

to stop attacks before they happen by spotting unattended packages that may contain bombs and alerting its employees to unauthorized intruders in its tunnels and other sensitive areas.

Of course, it won't spot explosives or biological agents. I guess hand searches of your bags will do that.

Get your TalkLeft Fourth Amendment subway tote and confront the searchers with those hallowed words every time you're on the subway. It may not make a difference, but it will make you feel good.