by TChris

Prepare to hear more complaints about "activist" judges -- "activist" being defined as any judge who interprets the law in a way that upsets the religious right -- after a California Superior Court judge ruled today that the state's voter-approved definition of marriage as the union of a man and a woman violates the state's constitution.

"The denial of marriage to same-sex couples appears impermissibly arbitrary," wrote San Francisco Superior Court Judge Richard Kramer. "Simply put, same-sex marriage cannot be prohibited solely because California has always done so before."

Drawing an analogy to the "separate-but-equal" justification for school segregation that prevailed before the Brown decision, the judge held that providing "marriage-like rights without marriage" is insufficient to assure equal protection of the law.

Jackson Trial Update
Monday March 14

Michael Jackson looked much better today in court. The cross-examination of his accuser continues, with the boy making admissions that helpful to the defense.

The accuser was known as a disruptive student and twice told the dean at the school that Jackson never did anything improper to him.

Additional mistakes by law enforcement are coming to light in Friday's Atlanta courthouse shootings:

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Monday that a courthouse surveillance camera recorded Nichols' initial surprise attack on Deputy Cynthia Hall but that no one in the control center noticed the assault.

"It's not just horrible, it was preventable," Senior Superior Court Judge Philip Etheridge told the newspaper. A video camera that is supposed to be monitored by two guards in a command post shows Nichols lunging at Hall and knocking her backward, according to a law enforcement official who saw the tape.

Etheridge said Hall, a petite 51-year-old, should not have been alone with Nichols, a former college linebacker who had been found with two sharpened door hinges in his socks earlier in the week.

From all the interview segments I've seen of hostage Ashley Smith, it sounds like she will be a good mitigation witness for Nichols. That's good news for the lawyers who will be trying to save his life.

by TChris

Tom DeLay's meltdown continues.

And for the first time, a significant number of Republicans have begun to question DeLay's political survival. Frets a senior G.O.P. Congressman about the odor surrounding DeLay: "It just isn't going away."

CNN today recounts DeLay's ethical lapses, his coziness with lobbyists, and his mounting legal problems before asking the question: Will DeLay survive? (CNN's answer, quickly summarized: "Probably, but it depends.")

After the debacle over the ethics rules, more than a few House members say they can ill afford to put their necks out much farther for DeLay. And their support could erode further--and quickly--if they start hearing complaints about DeLay from their constituents at home. ... A more ominous sign for DeLay: those who might succeed him have begun quietly positioning themselves to make a move if the opportunity arises, sources say.

The Judge in the Scott Peterson case is scheduled to rule on Scott Peterson's motion for a new trial Monday. If he denies it, Peterson will be sentenced Wednesday. If the judge affirms the jury's death sentence, he will be transferred from the county jail to San Quentin's death row, where he will wait five years before a lawyer is appointed to represent him in his first appeal.

Out of fear for their safety, a federal judge Saturday issued a temporary restraining order preventing the Administration from transferring 13 Yemeni detainees at Guantanamo to other countries.

Jackson Trial Update
Sunday March 13

Cross-examination of Michael Jackson's accuser resumes tomorrow. The trial is proceeding more rapidly than anticipated. Jackson's lawyer, Tom Mesereau, has been doing an excellent job.

Here's a quick wrap-up of the three juvenile witnesses, the accuser, his brother and his sister:

Newsweek reports on the more than 1,000 American kids who have lost a parent in Iraq.

Bump and Update: Say hello to Stop Fake News, brought to you by Start Change, the same folks who began Stop Sinclair. They are seeking an FCC investigation into President Bush's use of fake news. Turns out, there are at least two laws or regulations that may have been violated:

• 47 U.S.C. 317, the Radio Act, prohibits broadcast stations from airing government-produced programming without proper disclosure.

• 31 U.S.C. 1341, Pub. L. No. 108-199, prohibits the use of public funds for creating and distributing partisan propaganda.

Join their sign-on letter here.

In Appalachia, a Christian foundation has decided not to wait for the Government and its drug war to help their communities.

In the latest initiative, the Christian Appalachian Project announced Friday that it plans to invest $1 million to open long-term rehabilitation centers in Eastern Kentucky to help drug abusers to break their addictions. Bill Mills, president of the ministry that has fed and clothed the poor in Appalachia for 40 years, said churches and other Christian organizations are stepping forward to deal with the drug problem.

"Substance abuse is a plague upon our Eastern Kentucky communities," he said. "It is the most dominant and devastating of the problems we face today. We simply are choosing to be part of the solution."

Here's how they are doing it:

Newsweek has Mark Geragos' first interview about his client Scott Peterson since his conviction. And yes, he does believe Scott is "stone cold innocent." Best line,

What was it like to represent the most reviled defendant in America?

At least O.J. had his constituency.

Geragos makes a point we often make here: Guilt sells in America. As I pointed out the day of the death verdict in the Peterson case, (see comments):

This case has been driven by a total lynch mob mentality since day one. Guilt sells in America.

by TChris

Access to information held by the federal government has become tougher to obtain in recent years, according to an Associated Press review.

The locations of stores and restaurants that have received recalled meat, the names of detainees held by the U.S. overseas and details about Vice President Dick Cheney's 2001 energy policy task force are all among the records that the government isn't sharing with the public.

The FBI, always stingy with information, gave Freedom of Information Act requesters "everything they asked for just 1 percent of the time in 2004, compared to 5 percent in 1998." The percentage of requests granted by the CIA dropped from 44 percent to 12 percent in the same period.

In addition to decreasing some types of information released under FOIA, the federal government is increasing the number of documents deemed secret and has pulled thousands of documents and databases off public Web sites.

The administration contends that the new restrictions are necessary for public safety. Yet an open government also keeps us safe by making it more difficult for our public officials and employees to behave abusively.