If you live in Louisiana, Texas or Mississippi, you just lost an important right: the right to be free from an intrusion and search of your home unless the police have a warrant. In a ruling two dissenting justices called "the road to hell," the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that police may search homes and buildings for evidence without a warrant.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that police do not need an arrest or search warrant to conduct a swift sweep of private property to ensure their own safety. Any evidence discovered during that search now is admissible in court as long as the search is a "cursory inspection," and if police entered the site for a legitimate law enforcement purpose and believed it may be dangerous.

Prior to this ruling, police were only allowed to make a cursory inspection of someone's property if they were there to arrest someone.

"I have no doubt that the deputy sheriffs believed they were acting reasonably and with good intentions," Judges Harold DeMoss Jr. and Carl E. Stewart wrote. "But the old adage warns us that 'The road to hell is paved with good intentions.' "

The ACLU weighs in:

"This decision is the latest roll-back of safeguards to protect the people from being at the mercy of a police state," said Joe Cook, executive director of the ACLU of Louisiana. "Allowing law enforcement to search homes without probable cause or any warrant makes a dramatic and dangerous departure from one of our most fundamental American freedoms."

The case is United States v Gould (2004, CA5 La) 2004 US App Lexis 5505 (pdf).

The Supreme Court has said, “physical entry of the home is the chief evil against which the wording of the Fourth Amendment is directed.” Payton v. New York, 445 U.S. 573, 585 (1980). We think this ruling runs afoul of that principle.

by TChris

Utah has joined the growing list of states that are dropping out of the Multistate Antiterrorism Information Exchange, or MATRIX. TalkLeft's background information about the crime-fighting database can be found here.

Gov. Olene Walker recognized that law enforcement agencies have a legitimate need to share information, but not at the expense of equally legitimate interests in protecting privacy.

Walker's announcement comes a day after a panel that she appointed to review the MATRIX recommended steering clear of the pilot crime-fighting network until "adequate oversight" is established to assure that the billions of public and private records it collects on citizens aren't misused. The panel also suggested that the Legislature decide what shape oversight should take.

Only five of the original thirteen partner states remain in the MATRIX program. Those that have abandoned the program share concerns about its potential for abuse.

©ivil libertarians and those opposed to big government fear the breadth of data stored in the MATRIX will allow law enforcement to spy on law abiding citizens. Its data mining capabilities, for example, would allow police to create lists of people who fit criminal profiles based on their ethnicity, address or credit history.

by TChris

Saddam Hussein has a lawyer.

A French lawyer, known for defending terrorists and a Nazi leader, said Saturday he will defend Saddam Hussein.

Jacques Verges told France-Inter radio he had received a letter from Saddam's family requesting him to defend the former Iraqi leader in court. The letter read: "In my capacity as nephew of President Saddam Hussein, I commission you officially by this letter to assure the defense of my uncle," Verges said. He did not name the person who sent the letter.

Verges may have difficulty meeting with his new client, as the United States has not disclosed Hussein's location. Nor have decisions been made about the date or location of Hussein's trial, the charges he will face, or the nature of the court that will hear the charges.

byTChris

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has affirmed the conviction imposed upon Javid Naghani for interfering with flight attendants. Naghani, an Iranian, had been drinking prior to boarding the Air Canada flight from Los Angeles to Toronto. Flight attendants caught Naghani smoking in an airplane bathroom "and made him sit near the lavatory in a jump seat, where he become angry."

Flight attendants then said they heard Naghani threaten to sue Air Canada and either say that "my people will kill all Americans" or "I will kill all Americans." Naghani, a native Farsi speaker who speaks English with an accent, denied making such statements but was convicted in December 2001 and in March 2002 received a 33-month sentence.

The court justified the sentence by explaining that Naghani diverted flight attendants from their duties, creating a risk if an emergency happened to occur elsewhere on the airplane. Keep that in mind next time you divert a flight attendant's attention by requesting an extra pillow.

Naghani's drunken smoking and ranting were undoubtedly disturbing, and other passengers were inconvenienced when the flight returned to the LA airport (escorted by fighter jets). Nonethless, 33 months is a ridiculous sentence for rude behavior that caused no serious harm.

The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals Friday rejected the Justice Department's attempt to obtain hospital abortion records. The ruling was based on the womens' right to privacy in their records.

The decision, by the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, in Chicago, was the first time an appeals court has weighed in on the politically charged question of whether the federal government has a right to demand abortion records in its defense of the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act. The ruling followed conflicting opinions from several trial courts around the country.

The Justice Department has been subpoenaing the records in various locations around the country. Next week, challenges are set to be heard in New York City, San Francisco and Lincoln, Nebraska.

The Prosecutor asked for six months. The max was three years, nine months. The Judge sentenced Bishop Thomas J. O'Brien to probation--and 1,000 hours of community service--for his fatal hit and run accident.

O'Brien, 68, may be the first Roman Catholic Bishop in U.S. history to be convicted of a felony. He was the head of the Phoenix Diocese.

Judge Stephen A. Gerst said the conviction alone was a significant punishment for a public figure such as O'Brien. "He will bear the quiet glances and whispers of others for the rest of his life," Gerst said.

At the insistence of Attorney General John Ashcroft, two men faced the death penalty in federal court in Binghamton, NY this week. They were convicted in June of killing a rival drug dealer. The jury could not agree on the penalty, which means the pair will get life in prison without parole. A third defendant was found to be mentally retarded the week before trial, and thus could not face the death penalty. He too will serve life in prison without parole.

Please don't feed the trolls.

Wonkette reports that C-Span will be airing its footage of the Radio and Television Correspondents' Association dinner, Saturday night at 8pm.

Bush hits his comic peak at minute 29:30. How good was the president? Well, his opening was some reporter getting an award for a story about maimed soldiers (what a downer!), and Bush still got laughs.

Meanwhile, Kos of Daily Kos was at the Unity dinner in DC Thursday night. He reports:

John Kerry and I were urinal neighbors. And would you believe it, people wouldn't let the guy piss in peace. For my part, I kept my gaze firmly forward.

What does a death row prisoner do on his last day? Read about how Lawrence Colwell, Jr. spent his day. Colwell will be executed in Nevado at 9pm PT, 45 minutes from now. Colwell is a volunteer--meaning he abandoned his appeals. Up until this morning he was talkative. Today he's quiet.

Colwell will be the first Nevada prisoner to be executed since 2001. Here's an strange fact: Of the last 8 executions in Nevada, 7 were of volunteers.

Update: Here's another account of his final hours.

Roy Black, Rush Limbaugh's attorney, has an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, Rush Limbaugh Has Rights Too . Here's what Roy says the prosecutors have done so far to Rush, without charging him with any crime:

Over the past six months, Palm Beach County State Attorney Barry Krischer has: raided drugstores near Rush's home; seized his medical records without going through the required process enacted by the Florida legislature to protect medical privacy; leaked false information to the media that he was about to plead guilty to a felony; threatened to make his medical records public unless he pled guilty to a felony he didn't commit; released to the media confidential letters regarding Rush's situation that he received from my office; and falsely claimed that the Florida Bar and attorney general's office approved of the release.

Roy asks:

So am I wrong to wonder if something is out of whack when the Palm Beach County State Attorney pulls out all the stops in an effort to nail Rush, while giving immunity to the traffickers who supposedly kept him supplied with painkillers, and who, as a result of a deal with the prosecutor, were able to make a six-figure killing selling their "story" to a tabloid?

Roy has a point. We do think Rush is being treated differently than other celebrity drug users who usually slip away into treatment without the cops all over them. It's just hard to work up a lot of sympathy or righteous indignation for him or his predicament. On the other hand, we're 100% behind Roy.

How stupid and counter-productive can prison officials be? In Illinois, they come close to being idiots:

Stateville Correctional Center in Joliet will not allow its prisoners to read a 16-page newspaper written by its own inmates. Officials decided not to distribute "Stateville Speaks" because the maximum-security prison has other priorities, including running the facility that houses more than 2,500 prisoners, Illinois Department of Corrections spokesman Sergio Molina said.

The idea for the newspaper, published in newsletter form, came from an essay contest organized last summer by convicted murderer Renaldo Hudson. After 41 inmates at six of the state's prisons submitted entries, Hudson suggested a newspaper, anti-death penalty activist Bill Ryan said. Ryan secured computers, instructors and donations, but prison officials cited safety concerns and refused to allow the newspaper to be published at the prison.

Ryan self-published the first issue, which includes poems and essays about the dangers of drug use, surviving in prison and the hopelessness of being sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.

by TChris

George Bush should thank Al Gore for inventing the internet. The President is so crazy about the internet that he wants to bring it to your bedroom.

President Bush, hunting for votes in hotly contested Sun Belt states, said Friday his administration is working toward wiring homes throughout America with high-speed Internet access by 2007.

His administration is wiring homes? Cool. As Condoleezza Rice is fishing cable through your walls, maybe you'll have a chance to ask her the questions she doesn't want to answer under oath (new AP story about the administration's latest "public relations nightmare" here).