We keep hearing television pundits mischaracterize Colorado's rape shield law. Here it is, in it's entirety:

18-3-407. Victim's and witness' prior history - evidentiary hearing

(1) Evidence of specific instances of the victim's or a witness' prior or subsequent sexual conduct, opinion evidence of the victim's or a witness' sexual conduct, and reputation evidence of the victim's or a witness' sexual conduct shall be presumed to be irrelevant except:

(a) Evidence of the victim's or witness' prior or subsequent sexual conduct with the actor;

(b) Evidence of specific instances of sexual activity showing the source or origin of semen, pregnancy, disease, or any similar evidence of sexual intercourse offered for the purpose of showing that the act or acts charged were or were not committed by the defendant.

Here is the transcript of Rush Limbaugh's comments yesterday about his addiction to opiate medication and plans to enter rehab.

In other Rush news, the AP is reporting that unnamed police sources confirm that Rush is under criminal investigation.

So Rush is in Day 1 of rehab. We wonder what happens in Day 1. It can't be pleasant.

There's a lively discussion going on over at Atrios about "when no means no" and how (mainly) men can tell.

We wrote about the courts' treatment of "no after yes" in Rape After Consenting to Sex, which we followed up with " Rape After Consenting to Sex, Part Two."

Bottom line is, "No" can be asserted at any time, even after saying "Yes." Provided , it is clearly communicated to the other person.

Another example of the Justice Department's out-of-control prosecution policy: A typical Greenpeace protest has resulted in a federal prosecution that, if successful, will have an extreme chilling effect on the right of all protest groups to aggressively exercise their First Amendment rights.

Here's the facts:

Three miles off the Florida coast in April of 2002, two Greenpeace activists clambered from an inflatable rubber speedboat onto a cargo ship. They were detained before they could unfurl a banner, spent the weekend in custody and two months later were sentenced to time served for boarding the ship without permission.

It was a routine act of civil disobedience until, 15 months after the incident, federal prosecutors in Miami indicted Greenpeace itself for authorizing the boarding. The group says the indictment represents a turning point in the history of American dissent.

Here's what it means:

Apparently we're not the only one getting hit with comment spam from a robot named Lolita that leaves links to explicit material --particularly involving pre-teens. So is Teresa at Making Light. Thanks to Reading & Writing who did some digging and found out who's behind it.

Update: There's a cure. Jay Allen's MT-Blacklist will be released Monday.

The state of Oklahoma, in the midst of a death penalty prosecution against federally convicted OKC bombing defendant Terry Nichols, has sent a memo to Ashcroft warning him that the Justice Department's lack of cooperation in the case may result in it dismissing the charges against Nichols.

Oklahoma prosecutors have warned U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft that lack of federal cooperation could lead to the dismissal of state murder charges against Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols. In a letter to Ashcroft released on Friday, Oklahoma County District Attorney Wes Lane says an Oklahoma judge may dismiss the case against Nichols because his defense team has not been allowed to depose federal government witnesses.

"The unwillingness of the federal government has brought this case to the brink of dismissal," Lane says in the letter. "There has been NO progress."

Nichols is serving a life sentence imposed for his federal court conviction. His jury considered but declined to impose the death penalty. His federal trial included charges of murder against federal officials killed in the 1995 blast. The state charges are for murder of the remaining victims.

The October issue of Washington Lawyer has an excellent article on how the federal Sentencing Guidelines have changed the practice of law. The article includes these facts about federal criminal cases:

• Only about 6 percent of criminal cases brought by the federal government go to trial.

• The government secures a conviction in about three-quarters of these cases. White-collar crimes constitute about 17 percent of cases in federal court.

• Each year approximately 19,000 “downward departures”—sentences below the minimums in the guidelines’ range—are granted by federal judges, and about 80 percent of these are requested by prosecutors, usually because of the defendant’s cooperation, under section 5K1 of the guidelines, which grants more lenient sentences for “substantial assistance to authorities.”

The article features interviews with six noted members of the Washington defense bar who describe how the guidelines have changed the way they represent their clients in federal court.

Courtesy of Patriot Watch:

Wesley Clark on the PATRIOT Act (Rolling Stone Interview)

Q: The president is urging Congress to grant him wider powers to wage war on terrorism at home.

A: Come on, give us a break. The Patriot Act, all 1,200 pages of it, was passed without any serious congressional discussion. There was no public accountability, and now he wants more? What does he think this country is? We shouldn't do anything with the Patriot Act until it's unwrapped. I'd like to see what violations of privacy it entails, and whether those violations are in any way justified by their preventing terrorism in this country. And we need to do it now before we take another step forward and pay for that.

On a related note, Patriot Watch is endorsing the SAFE Act:

So far, this is our favorite piece of PATRIOT-fix legislation. We believe it is a moderate, targeted bill that incorporates some of the best provisions of recent PATRIOT-fix bills. It also has a solid core of bi-partisan support including Sens. Craig ®, Crapo ®, Sununu ®, Durbin (D), Wyden (D), and Feingold (D).

"The SAFE Act (Security and Freedom Ensured Act) targets four areas of the USA PATRIOT ACT: "delayed notice" warrants, wiretaps, surveillance at libraries and multi-jurisdiction warrants."

After all the hype and buildup, Army Captain James Yee, the former muslim cleric at Guantanamo, has been charged with minor offenses:

A former Muslim chaplain at the military prison for suspected al Qaeda and Taliban fighters was charged yesterday with two counts of mishandling classified material for allegedly trying to take documents from the detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to his home.

...experts said the charges and the wording of the U.S. military's announcement indicate investigators have found little that is sinister in the Yee case.

Fox News is reporting that some of the e-mails turned over by White House officials to the Justice Department in the CIA leak probe mention former Ambassador Joseph Wilson and his wife, former CIA operative Valerie Plame.

We can't find a news article confirming this yet, so stay tuned.

Update: As of Saturday, 1:00 pm, we've seen nothing to confirm the Fox broadcast.

As if the bombshell unleashed by the defense at yesterday's preliminary hearing in the Kobe Bryant case wasn't enough to shock the media, there's more. We're not going to reprint the new details here, so go read the article. Then read the rest of what we have to say.

The hearing has been continued to this coming Wednesday. The prosecution, which last week opposed a defense motion to close the courtroom, has now filed its own motion seeking closure of portions of the upcoming hearing.

Tom Kelley, an attorney representing the media including The Denver Post, said that it was an "interesting flip-flop" and that the judge was being asked, in essence, to let the prosecution present its case publicly and then require the defense to issue a rebuttal behind closed doors.

Victims rights groups are up in arms against Kobe's lawyers. They are quick to shout "rape shield law violation," apparently without having read the actual text of the law. Colorado's law has no requirement that the Judge be advised of the intent to introduce evidence of prior or subsquent sexual conduct at a pre-trial hearing. In addition, the rape shield law provides that while evidence of prior or subsequent sexual conduct is presumed irrelevant and inadmissible, there are exceptions. Here's the actual text of the statute:

A big thanks to Skippy and Tacitus for their support, even when they disagree with our positions. Disagreement is fine, personal attacks cheapen the commenter and feed the opposition.

Damn Foreigner has moved so please update your bookmarks. Mark Kleiman too.