Rush Limbaugh, aided by a friend of court brief filed by the ACLU, is asking an appeals court to order his medical records returned to him and declare that they were improperly seized:

Miami attorney Roy Black filed the brief with the 4th District Court of Appeal, asking that Limbaugh’s medical records be returned to his doctors and prohibit the state from seeking them or using any information contained in them. The American Civil Liberties Union filed a brief Tuesday in support of Limbaugh.

The Palm Beach County State Attorney’s Office seized Limbaugh’s medical records by search warrant on Nov. 25 from four doctors in Palm Beach County and Los Angeles. The 53-year-old Limbaugh, who publicly admitted his addiction to prescription painkillers and spent five weeks in a drug rehab, is being investigated for allegedly stocking up on pain medications from multiple doctors, a third-degree felony called "doctor shopping." No charges have been filed against him.

Black says the Florida Constitution requires three steps for obtaining medical records: applying for a subpoena and notifying the patient, giving the patient an opportunity to oppose the action in a court hearing and, if the seizure is opposed, providing evidence at the hearing as to why the subpoena should be granted.

In its brief, the ACLU supports Black's arguments. "A search warrant provides no mechanism for a court to determine what portions of a patient's medical records are relevant," the brief said. "Consequently such a procedure may result in disclosure of treatments or conditions not relevant to any legitimate law enforcement investigation and which could materially harm a patient's professional, social, or personal life."

Ok, we'll admit it. Don Henley is our favorite recording artist (not the same thing as rock and roll star, which goes to Mick Jagger or Bruce Springsteen, but kind of in the same league as them and up there with Tom Petty and Bob Dylan, recording artists who are also in our top five.) So it gives us great pleasure to reprint almost all of Henley's op-ed in today's Washington Post, Killing the Music:

Today the music business is in crisis. Sales have decreased between 20 and 30 percent over the past three years. Record labels are suing children for using unauthorized peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing systems. Only a few artists ever hear their music on the radio, yet radio networks are battling Congress over ownership restrictions. Independent music stores are closing at an unprecedented pace. And the artists seem to be at odds with just about everyone -- even the fans.

Contrary to conventional wisdom, the root problem is not the artists, the fans or even new Internet technology. The problem is the music industry itself. It's systemic. The industry, which was once composed of hundreds of big and small record labels, is now controlled by just a handful of unregulated, multinational corporations determined to continue their mad rush toward further consolidation and merger. Sony and BMG announced their agreement to merge in November, and EMI and Time Warner may not be far behind. The industry may soon be dominated by only three multinational corporations.

So whether they are fighting against media and radio consolidation, fighting for fair recording contracts and corporate responsibility, or demanding that labels treat artists as partners and not as employees, the core message is the same: The artist must be allowed to join with the labels and must be treated in a fair and respectful manner. If the labels are not willing to voluntarily implement these changes, then the artists have no choice but to seek legislative and judicial solutions. Simply put, artists must regain control, as much as possible, over their music.

We're shocked. And delighted. We just got back from a great dinner with a friend of 30 years that we hadn't seen in the last six months. What a great suprise to learn via Atrios that the 2003 lefty blog winners, courtesy of Wampum Blog, have been announced.

For the second year in a row, TalkLeft has won the best single issues blog!

Thanks to all of you who voted for us. We were sure we had no chance given the excellence of the other blogs nominated in the category, and we are thrilled. This is the way to cap off a great night. Our congrats to all the 2003 Koufax Award winners and nominees.

Best Single Issue Blog

The voting for Best Single Issue Blog was the closest of any category. This was the Florida of the Koufax Awards. Our first count resulted a an absolute dead heat between Bob Somerby’s incomparable Daily Howler for coverage of the media and Jeralyn Merritt’s Talk Left for coverage of Criminal Law Issues. Those two blogs could not be any more different but they are both excellent.

After scouring the three different email accounts where votes were sent, the tie was broken and a winner decided by almost the smallest of margins.

For the second year in a row, the Koufax Award for Best Single Issue Blog goes to Talk Left by Jeralyn Merritt. Congratulations, Jeralyn, and thanks for all your great work. Nobody does it better.

Here's a list of all the winners (via Hamster):

This just in from AJ, a frequent TaklLeft reader:

My friends in Plano tell me that Karl Rove was intimately involved in the decision for Bush to pardon David McCall. McCall's son, David McCall III, asked Texas state senator Florence Shapiro (R-Plano) to intercede with Karl Rove and the White House. As you can see from this excerpt from a Boston Globe story on Rove, Florence Shapiro's first state senate race was managed by Karl Rove:

The Boston Globe, July 23, 2000, Sunday

GEORGE W. BUSH'S MAIN MAN AS CHIEF STRATEGIST FOR THE BUSH CAMPAIGN, KARL ROVE TELLS THE CANDIDATE WHAT TO SAY, WHEN TO SAY IT, HOW TO SAY IT, AND WHERE TO SAY IT. AND BUSH IS LISTENING.

By David M. Shribman, Globe Staff

There may be no Classic Rove Campaign - the strategist says he trims his advice to fit the frame of each candidate - but the state senate campaign of Florence Shapiro provides something of a template. In the early 1990s, Shapiro was the mayor of Plano, Texas, a sprawling mass of irrigated Texas subdivisions that provided the setting for the television show Dallas. The road from there to Austin, however, was rough: Shapiro would have to plunge into a Republican contest against two male opponents, face the possibility of a run off after the primary, and then, if she hadn't been pummeled to a pulp politically, take on a general-election battle against a 13-year Democratic incumbent. There are easier ways to make a living.

Shapiro had heard good things about Rove, and she went after him. He became the strategist, but he was more than that. He was really an educator,
teaching her how to build political relationships (the lesson: People like to support a candidate they feel they can be in touch with), reminding her to look at the primary, not at the general election, preaching that she should never - not for a single moment - rely on her emotions, tutoring her in the technique of calculating every move.

"The skill I think Karl brings is to take the long view," says Shapiro. "He knows every possible move, and he knows every possible response. He lays out a plan for you that is day-in, day-out." Shapiro's gerrymandered district was rural, metropolitan, and suburban, all in one. Rove taught her that her campaign message had to be plausible to all three, and he helped her map a political strategy designed to play to her strengths. On it was education (it helped her reinforce her experience as a teacher). Also business (she owns a small advertising firm). And children (she has three). She learned her lessons well. She's been in the state senate for eight years.

We were doing a debate on MSNBC's Dan Abrams Report today on the Scott Peterson case, and in particular, the request of the defense for two juries, one for the guilt phase and one for the punishment phase. A prosecutor on the show did not believe us when we said there were numerous studies showing that death-qualified jurors are more likely to convict in the guilt phase. Upon returning to our computer, it took less than five minutes to find the following:

The Risks of Death: Why Erroneous Convictions Are Common in Capital Cases by Samuel Gross, 44 Buffalo L. Rev. 469, 494 (1996)

Page 494:

Death Qualification. In capital cases, juries decide the sentence as well as determine guilt or innocence. As a result, the jury selection process includes a unique procedure, "death qualification," that is designed to ensure that the jury is qualified for the sentence phase. Most jurors who are strongly opposed to the death penalty, and some who are strongly in favor, are excluded at the outset. fn 108 Many studies have shown that these exclusions make the jury more likely to convict. fn 109 In addition, the process of question- ing jurors about their willingness to impose the death penalty before the defendant has been convicted tends to create the impression that guilt is a foregone conclusion, and the only real issue is punishment. fn 110

fn 109 (some studies)

Claudia L. Cowan et al., The Effects of Death Qualification on Jurors' Predisposition to Convict and on the Quality of Deliberation, 8 LAW & HUM. BEHAV. 53 (1984);

Robert Fitzgerald & Phoebe C. Ellsworth, Due Process v. Crime Control: Death Qualification and Jury Attitudes, 8 LAW & HUM. BEHAV. 31 (1984).

See generally Hovey v. Superior Court, 616 P.2d 1301, 1315-1341 (Cal. 1980) and studies cited therein;

see also Grigsby v. Mabry, 569 F. Supp. 1273 (E.D. Ark. 1983), aff'd 758 F.2d 226 (8th Cir. 1985) (en banc), rev'd sub nom Lockhart v. McCree, 476 U.S. 162 (1986).

Someday we hope the Supreme Court revises the jury selection process in death cases and holds that jurors must be life-qualified instead of death qualified. Until then, we hope and expect that lawyers in Mark Geragos' situation continue to make the motion for separate juries.

We've been on the run today and will continue to be until later this evening. There's a lot of news today though. Here's some:

The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals has reversed a trial judge and upheld a "do not call list" against telemarketers.

Martha Stewart got another favorable ruling today from the Judge who refused to allow the Government to introduce evidence that Bacnovic left a phone message for Martha.

No ruling yet in the San Francisco gay marriage lawsuit.

A jury has convicted Bishop Thomas O'Brien of hit and run .

Federal prosecutor James Convertino has filed a whistleblower suit against Attorney General John Ashcroft claiming mismanagement of the Detroit terror trial.

A federal prosecutor in a major terrorism case in Detroit has taken the rare step of suing Attorney General John Ashcroft, alleging the Justice Department interfered with the case, compromised a confidential informant and exaggerated results in the war on terrorism.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Convertino of Detroit accused the Justice Department of "gross mismanagement" of the war on terrorism in a whistleblower lawsuit filed late Friday in federal court in Washington.

We're not jumping on Convertino's bandwagon yet. Convertino has admitted withholding favorable evidence from the defense in the case. Covertino's lawyer, former AUSA William Sullivan, acknowledges that his client intentionally withheld the letter. Sullivan has said he believes that his client made the right decision in not disclosing the letter because it wouldn't have affected the trial's outcome. We strongly disagree. Details here.

Martha Stewart's trial resumes today and prosecutors are days away from resitng. Should Martha testify in her own defense?

Our view: Too risky, don't do it. Argue reasonable doubt and harp in closing on testimony elicited by others that's favorable to Martha.

First, star witness Douglas Faneuil, the Merrill Lynch & Co. assistant who handled Stewart's sale, did not waver in his assertion that Bacanovic ordered him to tip Stewart that ImClone founder Sam Waksal was dumping his shares.

And second, Stewart's personal assistant, Ann Armstrong, testified that Stewart, just before meeting with federal investigators, altered a computer log of a message left by Bacanovic on Dec. 27, 2001, the day she sold. Stewart then immediately told her to change it back, Armstrong testified.

The Judge dealt a serious blow to the prosecution last week by precluding them from calling an expert to prove that she committed securities fraud.

Gerald Shargel, noted New York criminal defense lawyer and white-collar crime expert whom we respect enormously, also says Martha doesn't need to take the stand.

While the ultimate decision as to whether to testify is up to the client, Martha has made it clear she will follow her lawyers' advice. Barring unforseen developments this week, we suspect they will advise her not to take the stand.

The Prosecution case ran into some potholes --as Shargel points out:

But the primary charge here is obstructing justice. To that end, the chief prosecutor claimed in her opening statement that the case is about deceit, that when interviewed by government officials in a voluntary but ill-advised office visit, Stewart lied repeatedly.

In the Friday court session, however, the jury learned that the sole records of that meeting are notes and reports by FBI agent Catherine Farmer. Yet, by her own admission, Farmer was fresh to the case and knew very little about it while taking the notes.

Under effective cross-examination by Stewart lawyer John Tigue, Farmer also admitted her notes were incomplete and contained fragmentary answers.
Worse, her later typed reports included answers omitted from the notes and reconstructed from memory. That Special Agent Farmer was the only federal agent taking notes that day is not surprising. This is a routine ploy to avoid inconsistencies among note-takers.

But now the government is stuck with inconsistencies of a different kind, inconsistencies between Farmer's own notes and her later typewritten reports.
Without a sworn statement, stenographic minutes or taped accounts of what Stewart actually told the prosecutors, the government's case suddenly seems vulnerable.

Our advice to Martha: You've got a great lawyer. The Judge dealt the prosecution a setbackThe Judge said no to allowing the government's expert to testify. That's a big boon for you. Don't risk it. Follow your lawyer's advice and let him bring the case home.

President Bush has a new group of supporters raising money for his reelection-- Wealthy Arabs:

Wealthy Arab-Americans and foreign-born Muslims who strongly back President Bush's decision to invade Iraq are adding their names to the ranks of Pioneers and Rangers, the elite Bush supporters who have raised $100,000 or more for his re-election.

....the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and the war in Iraq have been a catalyst for some wealthy Arab-Americans to become more involved in politics. And there are still others who have a more practical reason for opening their checkbooks: access to a business-friendly White House. Already, their efforts have brought them visits with the president at his ranch in Crawford, Tex., as well as White House dinners and meetings with top administration officials.

Liberal Oasis interviews Eric Alterman, co-author of The Book on Bush. Some highlights:

• It’s hard to fathom just what an extreme group of people [they] are, how little regard they have for what we think of as the public interest, until you examine the details. And in this case, the devil really is in the details.

• I think there’s a real healthy understanding among all sensible people right now that there is only one hope for the future of this country and that is to get rid of this man, no matter who replaces him. I would very happy to vote for Bob Dole or George Herbert Walker Bush. He is the most dangerous man ever to occupy the American presidency in the past 100 years.

• The one bright spot of the complete and total lack of responsible planning for the entirely predictable aftermath of the invasion of Iraq is that they’re not in a strong position to take this show on the road.

Over at American Prospect, Eric and Michael Tomasky have a new article up, Wake Up Time:

Yes, Bush has bullied the national media. But are they really powerless? Only if they play along. Herewith, five suggestions for how the Fourth Estate can stop the charade.

In honor of President's Day, SKBubba has a list of President Bush's accomplishments. It's a good list-- one to bookmark.

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We reported earlier on President Bush's curious pardon of convicted savings and loan fraud participant and former Plano, TX mayor David B. McCall, Jr. Here's a connection:

A prominent Republican Texas state legislator is Brian McCall of Plano, TX. In 1995, Brian McCall introduced H.R. 595--a bill to commemorate the 50th wedding anniversary of David B. McCall, Jr. and Nellie McCall. Brian McCall is the son of David B. McCall, Jr..

David McCall Jr.,'s other son is David McCall, III, a lawyer with the prominent Plano firm of Gay, McCall, Isaacks, Gordon & Roberts, P.C.

Last week, a Plano downtown plaza was renamed for Mr. McCall. It is now called the David McCall Jr. Sesquicentennial Plaza.

The Dallas Morning News says that the McCalls are not top contributors to President Bush's campaign.