The Washington Times reports that John Kerry is a firm foe of the death penalty, and that he is " the first major-party presidential candidate in more than 15 years to take such a strong stand against capital punishment."

Kerry supports the death penalty only for foreign terrorists. Before 9/11, he opposed the death penalty for all, because it is unfairly applied.

This year's White House race pits two extremes on this issue against one another. Mr. Bush's home state of Texas has executed more murderers than any other state, while Mr. Kerry's Massachusetts is among only 12 states that still bans the death penalty....When Students Against the Death Penalty rated the nine candidates seeking the Democratic nomination last fall, it gave only Mr. Kerry and Ohio Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich perfect scores.

The International Court of Justicein the Hague will issue its decision Wednesday in the case of 51 Mexican nationals on death row in the U.S. The case is Avena and Other Mexican Nationals (Mexico v. United States of America). The suit concerns the U.S.’s failure to comply with the Vienna Convention’s guarantee of allowing foreign nationals access to consular officials prior to interrogation. From one of our earlier posts on the case:

The government of Mexico, in a direct challenge to the Bush administration, asked the International Court of Justice today to block the executions of 51 Mexicans on death row in the United States. The court, the highest tribunal of the United Nations, sits in The Hague. It has no enforcement powers. But if it issues an injunction, the United States must choose whether to respect or defy its judgment.

The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights is the country's oldest, biggest and most diverse civil and human rights group. It has more than 180 member organizations. The group has sent a letter to CBS charging that Mike Wallace's '60 Minutes' interview with Bush recess appointee Charles Pickering was distorted in its coverage of those opposing his nomination:

Far from a balanced piece of journalism, Mr. Wallace's segment unfairly distorted arguments put forth by Pickering's opponents; failed to accurately convey the range of serious concerns that many Americans have with this nomination; and chose to highlight only those aspects of Pickering's record supporting his thesis that opposition to Pickering's confirmation is thin and that the criticism is exaggerated," said Wade Henderson, executive director of the Leadership Conference, in a letter to Don Hewitt. The Leadership Conference.... and more than 84 national, state and local organizations opposed Pickering's confirmation, saying his record as a district court judge and as a state senator shows his hostility to civil and constitutional rights.

"Most significantly," Henderson said, "the 60 Minutes piece, rather than discussing the arguments of proponents and detractors forthrightly, instead set up a straw-man — the notion that opposition to Pickering is rooted in charges that he is a racist. ... It is not, in fact, any part of the real debate over this confirmation. The real question is whether Pickering's record warrants elevation to the Fifth Circuit."

Since Pickering is a recess appointee, unless confirmed by the Senate, he will have to leave his seat on the 5th Circuit next January. [link via How Appealing.]

In other judiciary news, Senator Tom Daschle has vowed to block all Bush judicial nominees unless he promises not to make any more recess appointments.

From John Wesley Hall at Fourth Amendment.com:

The Supreme Court held today that the border exception does not require reasonable suspicion for a gas tank search. The reasonable suspicion standard for searches of the person was imported by the 9th Cir. into overly intrusive vehicle searches, and the Supremes declined to extend the rule that far. The fact of a delay at the border of 1-2 hours is not
unreasonable and "to be expected." United States v. Flores-Montano, 2004
WL 609791 (U.S. 2004).

In the overall scheme of things, this will not have much effect because customs officers do not have the time to search every car, and they will usually have reasonable suspicion before they do an overly intense search of the car. We lost, but I don't think that this is a big deal.

John is the author of the text book, Search and Seizure (3d. Edition), published by Lexis.

Arthur of Light of Reason expounds today on Bush's attempt to eviscerate the time-honored writ of Habeas Corpus, and what that means for America.

The Bush administration believes habeas corpus is a luxury the United States cannot afford in its war on terror. The profound and immensely disturbing importance of these developments appears to be unappreciated by the great majority of Americans.

Please join us in wishing a speedy recovery to Stuart Buck, lawyer and author of The Buck Stops Here. Stuart has been hospitalized with a sudden stroke. He is 29 years old and was perfectly healthy. His wife has posted some info at his blog, and it looks like he is going to be ok.

George Hunsinger, who teaches at Princeton Theological Seminary, writes about Occupational Hazards: Iraq One Year Later for Antiwar.com:

Adequate words are lacking to describe the mendacity of the current administration and the folly of its "preemptive" war. Judged by just-war standards, it has waged war on Iraq without just cause, without legitimate authority, without right intention, without due regard for civilians, and without reasonable chance of success. It is hubris that will come to grief, one that threatens to engulf the entire world.

In an about face for the White House, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice will be allowed to testify in public under oath before the commission investigating the failure to prevent the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The official said the decision is conditioned on the Bush administration receiving assurances in writing from the commission that such a step does not set a precedent, said the official speaking on condition of anonymity. It appeared the administration already had such assurances verbally in private and is confident it will get them in writing.

Perhaps the Judge's ruling on the defense motion to overturn the verdicts in the Detroit terror trial and dismiss the case is imminent. Via How Appealing:

The Detroit News focuses on Detroit's terror trial: Today's newspaper contains articles headlined "Con man key to terror convictions; Feds initially didn't believe admitted liar, scam artist who later became star witness" and "Detroit defendants showed no defiance; Four terror suspects never confessed, were never belligerent and showed no signs of extremist beliefs."

And yesterday's newspaper contained articles headlined "Fed missteps jeopardize terror case; Federal review finds government ignored own rules, withheld more than 100 documents from defense"; "Government leaks, remarks plagued case; Ashcroft, Justice Dept. sidestep federal judge's gag order leading to trial"; and "Infighting leaves Justice Dept. red-faced; Two key figures dumped in terrorist case accuse agency of politicking," along with a graphic headlined "Suspicious sketches.

You can access all of our coverage of the trial here.

Liberal Oasis today has an exclusive interview with Craig Unger, author of "House of Bush, House of Saud". Mr. Unger talks about:

• "The Great Escape", how 140 Saudis were ferried out of the US by the White House after 9/11 before key figures could be interrogated

• Are the neocons right on Saudi Arabia?

• The Clinton record on cracking down on the Saudis.

House of Bush, House of Saud:The Secret Relationship Between the World's Two Most Powerful Dynasties