A judge in Washington state has refused to grant a divorce to a pregnant woman. What's even more absurd about the judge's ruling is that she left her husband two years ago after he went to jail for beating her. The father of the child is her current boyfriend, who she wants to marry.

Shawnna Hughes' husband was convicted of abuse in 2002. She separated from him after the attack and filed for divorce last April. She later became pregnant by another man and is due in March.

Her husband, Carlos, never contested the divorce, and the court commissioner approved it in October. But the divorce papers failed to note that Hughes was pregnant, and when the judge found out, he rescinded the divorce.

"There's a lot of case law that says it is important in this state that children not be illegitimized," Superior Court Judge Paul Bastine told The Spokesman-Review newspaper on Thursday.

Women are allowed to divorce even under Sharia law, which is the strictest law we can think of. What's wrong with this Judge?

Happy New Year to all, we hope it rings in justice and peace.

For those of you spending New Year's by a computer, here's an open thread for you.

Update: Some End-of-Year lists

Media Matters: The Top Ten Most Outrageous Statements of 2004

Fafblog: Thing of the Year : the Blog

President Bush has increased the amount the U.S. will pledge to the Tsunami relief effort to $350 million. He's not putting a ceiling on it, and says the U.S. will continue to revise the amount as needed.

Smart move. Good move.

Here's a profile of James Rogers, president of the union representing Legal Aid Society staff. He did a yeoman's job this year.

In negotiations concluded this month, Legal Aid reached a deal to stave off bankruptcy after financial mismanagement had brought it to the brink of collapse. The agency settled with creditors, negotiated budget cuts with employees and received an unusual $9 million donation from dozens of private law firms. It means the country's oldest and largest defense group for the indigent will stay in business.

The New York Times profiles columnist Robert Novak and recaps the investigation into who leaked the identity of former CIA operative Valerie Plame.

It costs $10k for tickets to all of Bush's inaugural events. Many of his younger supporters, including those that raised $50 and $100k for his campaign, are finding the price too steep for them to attend. What did they expect? They supported an elitest and that's what they got.

The Justice Department tries again to define "torture," and in so doing, expands the definition.

The Justice Department published a revised and expansive definition late yesterday of acts that constitute torture under domestic and international law, overtly repudiating one of the most criticized policy memorandums drafted during President Bush's first term.

In a statement published on the department's Web site, the head of its Office of Legal Counsel declares that "torture is abhorrent both to American law and values and international norms" and goes on to reject a previous statement that only "organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even death" constitute torture punishable by law.

Just a coincidence that the new definition comes less than a week before the confirmation hearings of Alberto Gonzales for Attorney General? Doubtful.

Oscar Jones is a sex offender who completed his criminal sentence but is being held pending a decision on whether California can continue to hold him as a sexually violent predator under California's civil commitment laws. He filed suit to challenge the conditions of his confinement. The 9th Circuit ruled this week Jones can bring his lawsuit. In so ruling, the Court noted, "Purgatory cannot be worse than hell."

With his hearing pending, Jones charged, among other things, that he was strip-searched unreasonably, blocked from practicing his religion and denied access to the courts. The case was tossed in September 2002 on the grounds Jones was late in filing his lawsuit.

In its ruling Monday, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that a "civil detainee" such as Jones who exhibits a good-faith pursuit of his claims, as a matter of fundamental practicality and fairness, isn't barred by the statute of limitations.

It's the tax man...coming after Tennessee drug dealers. Beginning January 1, dealers of illegal controlled substances will have to buy tax stamps. Tennessee becomes the 22nd state to enact such a law. The tax isn't cheap to create or enforce:

Drug peddlers will be required to pay state excise taxes on illegal substances — from marijuana to moonshine, from cocaine to the often illegally obtained prescription painkiller OxyContin — under a new law that goes into effect Saturday.

A 10-person tax agency has been created at a one-time cost of $1.2 million to assess the taxes and collect them. The annual cost to enforce the drug tax will be $800,000...

What a stupid idea.

''It's patently ridiculous. Legal nitwittery,'' said Allen St. Pierre, executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, a Washington nonprofit that calls itself the largest, oldest group devoted to legalizing marijuana for responsible adult use. ''On the one hand, it says you can't own a substance. And on the other hand, it creates a taxing scheme … The law on its face makes no sense.''

President Bush has named a delegation to tour Asia and assess the Tsunami stricken areas. Colin Powell and Jeb Bush will lead the delegation. They will be leaving on Sunday.

White House deputy press secretary Trent Duffy in Crawford, Texas said:

....including the president's brother, who has experience with extensive hurricane damage in Florida, "signifies the high level of importance that the president puts on this delegation."

The Government began it's closing this week but will finish next week, followed by the defense closings. International Action Center reports:

We have just learned that the schedule for the summations in the Trial of Lynne Stewart have changed. The government is going to be continuing their summation on Monday, January 3rd, [2005]. Only comment from the defense is that they must have written it before the evidence was entered. The defense summations will begin immediately after the government summations end and will be David Stern for Mohammed Yousry, followed by the attorney for Ahmed Sattar. Michael Tigar on behalf of Lynne Stewart will be last and will be on either Tuesday, January 4th or Wednesday, January 5th. It is impossible for us to predict exactly what day Tigar's summation will be. Feel free to call 212-625-9696. We will send out another announcement when we know for sure. Come to court for Lynne Stewart. 40 Foley Square, Rm. 110, NYC.

The F.B.I. and the Department of Homeland Security are having a tiff about fingerprints. The critical issue, according to a new report by the Inspector General's Office: Should two fingers or ten be fingerprinted?

The core of the problem, the report said, was that the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department disagree on two basic issues: whether 2 or 10 fingers should be printed and what agencies should have access to those prints.

The F.B.I. has for years used prints of all 10 fingers to identify criminals. But the Department of Homeland Security relies on prints of only the two index fingers to keep track of illegal aliens. Similarly, both the Homeland Security and State Departments have since September relied on digital prints of the two index fingers to keep records of visitors to the United States from 27 specified nations.

The net result of the dispute is that 99% of visitors to the U.S. from foreign countries do not get their fingerprints checked against the FBI database that has 47 million prints and which includes some suspected non-American terrorists. Homeland Securiy's database is much smaller.