Yaser Hamdi, a U.S. citizen seized on the battlefield in Afganistan two years ago and imprisoned ever since in a military brig in South Carolina, will have his case heard by the Supreme Court. The Court is being asked to determine if Hamdi's detention is illegal.

Yaser Esam Hamdi is being held in a naval brig in South Carolina, without access to attorneys and without charges being filed against him. "The man's been locked up for two years," said Frank W. Dunham Jr., a federal public defender who filed the appeal on his behalf. "He wants an opportunity to be heard in court. It goes right to the heart of our liberties."

Dunham told justices in a filing that the appeals court not only "embraced an unchecked executive power to indefinitely detain American citizens suspected of being affiliated with enemies, but it also abandoned procedural safeguards designed to promote truth and fairness."

We're told the brief in support of his Petition is outstanding. You can read it here.

The Senate Judiciary Committee votes Thursday on the nomination of Charles Pickering to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. Fierce debate is expected . But, in the end, as this is just the committee, and the Republicans have the majority (it's a 50/50- vote), Pickering will get approved for a full senate vote.

But then the fun begins--Dems are promising a filibuster. Call today and tell your Senator you want one too. Here's the phone list with their individual office numbers. Or call the toll free Congressional switchboard, 1- 800-839-5276.

All of our Pickering coverage and reasons for opposing him can be found here.

Attorney General John Ashcroft is under increasing pressure from Democrats to appoint a special counsel to investigate the alleged CIA leaks by White House officials. Why? Check out his ties to the subjects of the investigation:

Karl Rove, President Bush's top political adviser, whose possible role in the case has raised questions, was a paid consultant to three of Mr. Ashcroft's campaigns in Missouri, twice for governor and for United States senator, in the 1980's and 1990's, an associate of Mr. Rove said on Wednesday.

Jack Oliver, the deputy finance chairman of Mr. Bush's 2004 re-election campaign, was the director of Mr. Ashcroft's 1994 Senate campaign, and later worked as Mr. Ashcroft's deputy chief of staff.

....At the very least, the relationships have given new grist to the Democrats. "This is not like, `Oh, yeah, they're both Republicans, they've been in the same room together,' " said Roy Temple, the former executive director of the Missouri Democratic Party and the former deputy chief of staff to Gov. Mel Carnahan of Missouri. "Karl Rove was once part of John Ashcroft's political strategic team. You have both the actual conflict, and the appearance of conflict. It doesn't matter what's in the deep, dark recesses of their hearts. It stinks."

To high heaven.

Rush Resigns.

In the wake of his controversial statements regarding Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb, Rush Limbaugh has resigned from his position on ESPN's NFL pregame show. ESPN has accepted the resignation. Limbaugh issued a statement late Wednesday night in which he wrote:

"My comments this past Sunday were directed at the media and were not racially motivated. I offered an opinion. This opinion has caused discomfort to the crew, which I regret. "I love NFL Sunday Countdown and do not want to be a distraction to the great work done by all who work on it.

"Therefore, I have decided to resign. I appreciate the opportunity to be a part of the show and wish all the best to those who make it happen."

George Bodenheimer, President, ESPN and ABC Sports, issued the following response: "We accept his resignation and regret the circumstances surrounding this. We believe that he took the appropriate action to resolve this matter expeditiously." [Link via Counterspin]

Liberal Oasis did the research and comes up with this gem from Attorney General John Ashcroft from October 4, 1997 when he appeared on CNN's Evans & Novak, in which he expresses his support for independent counsel to investigate issues surrounding Al Gore's fundraising:

ASHCROFT: The truth of the matter is that if the law's been violated, we should be able to ascertain that. We can, if we have an independent person without a conflict of interest…

ROWLAND EVANS: …The attorney general has shaved down all the allegations that Vice President Gore apparently down to one single allegation -- which telephone he used to make these fundraising calls from. Do you really think that alone is worthy of a special prosecutor?

ASHCROFT: …you know, a single allegation can be most worthy of a special prosecutor. If you're abusing government property, if you're abusing your status in office, it can be a single fact that makes the difference on that.

Pat M. Holt, former chief of staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, writes in Tuesday's Christian Science Monitor, that John Ashcroft is the worst Attorney General in the nation's history, save for A. Mitchell Palmer, who held the office during the Woodrow Wilson Administration. Holt says its a tossup as to who is worse.

One of the duties of the attorney general as head of the Justice Department is to protect the Constitution. Both Mr. Ashcroft and Palmer found that the Constitution, especially the Bill of Rights, got in their way more than it protected anything. It has gotten in Ashcroft's way in his pursuit of terrorists after Sept. 11, especially those who dress differently and practice a different religion.

Palmer's crusade was the pursuit of communists, in the aftermath of World War I. He especially went after people with what to him were funny names from Eastern Europe. He tended to equate liberals with communists.

Ashcroft's vehicle is the USA Patriot Act, which Congress, abdicating its own duties of vigilance, passed with a whoop and a holler in the days after Sept. 11. Even the name of this odious legislation is offensive. It implies that the purpose of the act is to promote patriotism and that those not cooperating with it are somehow less patriotic.

Update 10/7: The Toledo police department is investigating the use of NORML's logo on its internet site.

Check out the "wallpaper" on this page from the Toledo Police Department's Vice and Narcotics Unit manual. Think they are paying licensing rights? [received from NORML]

Update: link really fixed now. If you were looking for the jury nullification article, it's here.

A county treasurer is handing out booklets to potential jurors saying they are answerable "only to God almighty" and not to the law when it comes to deliberations. Jefferson County Treasurer Mark Paschall, a former state lawmaker known for his anti-abortion and pro-gun views, said the booklets are "my personal gift to the people."

The 61-page booklets promote "jury nullification," a concept promoted by conservative groups that say juries have the right to not only decide guilt or innocence, but also whether laws are just and adhere to God's law. "You are above the law!" the booklet says. "As a juror in a trial setting, when it comes to your individual vote of innocent or guilty, you truly are answerable only to God almighty."

Ugh, it's politicians like Paschall that give jury nullification a bad name.

While the conservative concept is relatively new, juries have always in effect practiced nullification from time to time. Juries refused to convict people who harbored runaway slaves before the Civil War, sold alcohol during Prohibition or resisted the draft during the Vietnam War.

Update: Walter in Denver has more on the jury nullification issue.

Notice how Reuters begins its afternoon's article describing the White House request of its employees to provide information on the Wilson-Plame matter:

The White House said on Wednesday that anyone with information about a leak that blew the cover of a CIA officer, whose husband is an Iraq war critic, should report it to the Justice Department for criminal investigation.

Plame is named as an officer, not an undercover operative.

Joseph Wilson is described solely as an "Iraq war critic," rather than as former ambassador or by other titled position he held.

We don't know if this is Reuters' doing or if Reuters just passed along the language the White House provided to it. We suspect it's White House language because three paragraphs down, Reuters gets it right:

The Justice Department is investigating whether someone at the White House or CIA disclosed the identity of Valerie Plame, a CIA operative whose husband, a former U.S. diplomat in Iraq, Joseph Wilson, challenged President Bush's claims about Iraq's weapons threat. Revealing classified information is a federal crime punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

The problem is, many people will just read the first paragraph and move on. The first paragraph of this article is misleading at best. Maybe we're being too picky as we've been writing a brief and playing with words all day, but it just strikes us as poor and biased reporting.

Josh Marshall of Talking Points interviews Gen. Wesley Clark, [link via Media Horse]

How ironic:

DUBAI: Iran will soon enact a law banning death penalty for offenders under 18 years of age.

Iran's judiciary has drafted a bill to be presented to parliament shortly raising the minimum age for death sentences to 18 from 15 and also excluding under-18s from receiving life terms or lashing as punishment, media in Iran quoted Alireza Jamshidi, Secretary of the Supreme Council for Judicial Development, as saying.

As Curtiss Leung, our reader who sent in the article, writes:

I understand that Supreme Court's latest word on juvenile execution was a 1989 decision written by Justice Scalia that affirmed 16 and 17 year olds could be sentenced to death. How ironic that an Islamic theocracy should be more humane than the United States.

In a press release this afternoon titled " Intimigate" Scandal at the White House, the Center for American Progress says:

...the White House has developed a pattern of firing, intimidating and defaming anyone who has had the courage to tell the truth about Iraq. In fact, the Iraq policymakers whose influence has grown in the White House are largely those who parsed and distorted intelligence and misled the American people.

INTIMIGATE

The recent story of the Bush Administration leaking classified information in an effort to defame a WMD report is just the latest in a well-established pattern. A look at the historical record shows that the Bush Administration has summarily fired, intimidated and defamed anyone who has had the courage to tell the truth about Iraq. In fact, the Iraq policymakers who have remained in the White House are largely those who parsed and distorted intelligence and misled the American people.

They go on to give several examples. As we haven't had time to read them, we'd like to hear your thoughts.

Former Congressman Bob Barr has filed formal objections to CAPPS II , the Passenger Profiling System. Barr calls the proposed profiling system unconsitutional, unfair and ineffective.

Barr, who occupies the 21st Century Liberties Chair for Privacy and Freedom at the American Conservative Union, headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, submitted six pages of reasons why the proposed system violated provisions of the U.S. Constitution, including citizens' right to privacy. Barr also included in his objections, recommendations that other, less intrusive and constitutional steps by the government would be more likely to identify terrorists than the vast database of information on the travelling public, whose only "crime" leading the government to gather evidence against them, was that they needed to travel by air.

Way to go, Bob. Nice to have you on our side on this one.