John Wesley Hall, author of the legal text book Search and Seizure (3rd Ed. 2000), who monitors new fourth amendment cases daily over at FourthAmendment.com (a free site with online supplements to his book) writes of a quirky Nebraska decision. A minor is stopped for a traffic offense and then asked for consent to search. The Court holds the consent is valid because the juvenile was free to go even though he was never told so. The case is In re Clinton G. (2003) 12 Neb App 178, 2003 Neb App Lexis 253.

This court finds that a minor would know he was free to go because of prior case law which he was expected to be on notice of; what a crock. This case is so off the wall that I shouldn't even include it in the Book Updates except that Nebraskans need to know that they are in a police state.

Did you fly Jet Blue before September, 2002? Then there may be a file on you and the ACLU says you're entitled to a copy.

If you flew on JetBlue before September 2002, a file containing a variety of personal information about you may have been created by a Department of Defense subcontractor called Torch Concepts. On this page you will find information about what kind of information may be in your dossier, and how you can find out.

Here's the ACLU's FOIA form you can fill out and send online to the Pentagon and TSA.

The Total Information Awareness Program(TIA) is no more! Congress passed a bill Thursday dismantling the program and the office.

The House vote Wednesday was 407-15. The Senate voted to pass it Thursday, 95 to 0.

Under the legislation, TIA -- which had been housed in the Pentagon -- would be shut down and the government forbidden from using the technology envisioned by TIA in any other successor program.

....Had it been implemented, the ACLU said TIA would have used data-mining technology to sift through vast amounts of personal transactional data in the unproven hope of discerning obscure patterns that would suggest terrorist activity is intended or ongoing. The ACLU said that this approach would not only violate privacy, but would make all Americans terrorism suspects as the system would have scoured credit card purchases, travel records, financial statements and even Internet viewing habits.

The ACLU also reminds us to remain vigilant:

The bill, however, does authorize a separate, classified program for “processing, analysis, and collaboration tools for counter terrorism foreign intelligence” but the legislation prohibits its domestic use against Americans. “While TIA may be dead and buried,” Edgar added, “we must remain on a constant lookout for other super-snoop programs.”

Patriot Watch congratulates Sen. Ron Wyden and links to this press release from his office.

Attorney General John Ashcroft is avoiding print reporters on his Patriot Act tour. What's he afraid of? Or is he just a paranoid conspiracy theorist at heart? Columbia University Journalism professor Todd Gitlin and Department Chair Jay Rosen suggest the latter:

Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft, who is continuing his tour of the country to promote the Patriot Act, has at several stops, including Buffalo and Philadelphia, refused to speak to print reporters. While television correspondents can often breeze right in, their newspaper colleagues are kept at bay by Secret Service agents doing the bidding of the nation's chief law enforcement official, who prefers audiences of handpicked enthusiasts and interviews with local television reporters.

According to Justice Department spokeswoman Barbara Comstock, Ashcroft wants to explain "key facts directly to the American people" and not have to subject himself to "as much of a filter from people who are already invested in having a different view of it."

Democratic presidential hopeful Dennis Kucinich introduced a bill in the House yesterday to repeal portions of the Patriot Act. The sections that would be repealed are those that:

allow secret searches and wiretaps as well as detaining suspects indefinitely without meaningful judicial review, and that broaden the definition of what constitutes a terrorist group.

Kucinich's bill also would overturn laws that require airport screeners to be U.S. citizens, repeal Justice and Homeland Security department exemptions to the Freedom of Information Act and toss out a law that lets the FBI conduct undercover investigations of religious centers.

The ACLU and NAACP have given their support to the bill, as have 18 Democrats and 1 Republican in the House. Kucinich named the bill the "Benjamin Franklin True Patriot Act." The Act begins with the quote,

"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."

We received this email a little while ago, and think the writer makes a good point:

Dear TalkLeft:

I would like to encourage TalkLeft to give accelerated coverage to the possibility of election fraud and vote manipulation through touch screen voting machines and also internet voting, including military internet voting. Far too few people know about this potentially massive problem and I think it is a very good idea for all of us who are concerned about this issue to bring it into wide public view before the primaries begin.

Here's where you can get the info:

David Neiwert at Orcinus

Bev Harris at Black Box Voting (Diebold shut the site down but their activism page is up with lots of info.)

Kos at Daily Kos.

Jeanne D'Arc at Body and Soul.

Salon: An Open Invitation to Election Fraud

Slashdot

Law Prof Rick Haasen's Election Law

Florida has a two year statute of limitations on inmates requesting DNA testing to prove their innocence -- the shortest of any major state. And it's running out . With a prison population of 78,000, Florida ranks fourth among the states in the total number of inmates.

Florida's restrictive law was passed in 2001, sponsored by Sen. Alex Villalobos, R-Miami. It provides that anyone convicted of a crime has two years after a sentence becomes final to ask a judge to review DNA testing of physical evidence. Those convicted before the Villalobos law went into effect have until Oct. 1 to file their petitions.

Lawyers in Florida have asked the Courts for a one year emergency stay of the deadline, but as of now, there has been no ruling. Villalobos has no problem with granting a stay for a specified period. But Florida Governor Jeb Bush does object.

In the federal system, since 1996 and the passage of AEDPA (the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act) there has been a one year statute of limitations on all claims, including those based on new evidence showing factual innocence.

Why is the deadline so short? How harmful is the deadline?

Congratulations to Atrios. Eschaton recorded its 5 millionth visitor today.

Atrios asks you to express your congratulations by donating to the DNC.

We'll do the same. We're small potatoes by comparison, but TalkLeft will hit the 1 million visitor mark sometime tomorrow morning (And 1,700,000 page views. Since June, 2002.) Boot Bush in 2004, give early and give often.

The Government agreed with standby lawyers for Zacarias Moussaoui today that criminal charges should be dismissed in the case.

Prosecutors claim they made the motion so that they can appeal the Court's prior ruling ordering the Government to make three captured al-Qaeda members available for an interview by Moussaoui.

The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals has already heard legal arguments in the case, but declined to rule until Judge Brinkema decides what sanctions to impose on the Government for failing to comply with her order. The penalty could range from dismissal of the charges to preventing the Government from seeking the death penalty.

We think the Government wants to avoid being told it can't impose the death penalty in the federal case. It would rather the charges were dismissed first. Otherwise, as a public relations matter, if the Administration later declares Moussaoui an enemy combatant and tries to get a death verdict from a military tribunal, it will be viewed as bad form. The decision will be criticized world-wide. Think about it. The leader of the free world tries an individual and seeks to execute him in a secret proceeding after a judge in an open proceeding declares he is being treated unfairly.

As to the appeal,

The government said in the motion the issue before the court is whether the constitutional right to access to favorable witnesses applies to an enemy combatant "seized and held abroad during armed hostilities."

We have little doubt that the Government is proceeding under the theory that one way or another Moussaoui will be moved to a tribunal proceeding. It wants as little interference with that as possible.

We hope Judge Brinkema stops the Government from seeking the death penalty in the federal trial. How can we send a man to his death when we don't allow him the opportunity to obtain and present evidence to show he isn't guilty of the very offense carrying the death penalty?

Here is the full transcript of today's debate among Democratic contenders for the presidential nomination. Wesley Clark participated. The Washington Post reports that Kerry and Gephardt went after Dean and all the candidates avoided heavy criticism of Clark.

Al Sharpton, as always, provided the humor:

It was the feistiest of the trio of debates held so far. But it was also leavened with moments of humor, as when Al Sharpton described the field as "eight career politicians, an officer (pointing to Clark) and a gentleman (pointing to himself)."

As the laughter from the audience died down, former Illinois Sen. Carol Moseley Braun added, "And a lady."

Good for her. We're glad Mosely Braun is in the race. She's smart, liberal, poised and experienced. She won't win, and likely doesn't expect to, but she at least can get the country used to the idea that a woman easily can be as effective as a man in the position of President. And who knows, maybe she will end up as the VP candiate. A Clark-Braun ticket or a Dean-Braun ticket could really be something.

Former President Jimmy Carter attacks the Patriot Act:

"Former President Jimmy Carter warned Americans against curtailing human rights in the name of homeland security, saying it undermines the country's credibility in nations struggling with oppressive governments.

Carter, speaking Tuesday at the Carter Center in Atlanta, said the Patriot Act, profiling of Muslims and holding suspected terrorists in Guantanamo Bay run counter to the principles of democracy the United States preaches to the rest of the world.

They have been held in prison without access to their families, or a lawyer, or without knowing the charges against them, Carter said. We've got hundreds of people, some of them as young as 12, captured in Afghanistan, brought to Guantanomo Bay and kept in cages for what is going on two years."

[link via Patriot Watch, the best site around for monitoring Patriot Act developments.]

Law Professor and Instapundit Glenn Reynolds reviews Scott Turow's new book Ultimate Punishment at his MSNBC weblog Glenn Reynolds.com today. Glenn succinctly describes Turow's main points:

...regardless of whether the death penalty is moral or not as applied to the guilty, everyone agrees that it’s wrong to execute the innocent. And, he says — echoing Charles Black — the innocent often wind up being executed. What’s more, as Turow demonstrates, prosecutors aren’t always above stretching a point to obtain a conviction...

But it's Glenn, not Turow, who makes the astute observation:

One needn’t, however, be soft on criminals to pick up on another point that Turow himself doesn’t raise: If death penalty cases, subject to far more rigorous safeguards than ordinary criminal cases, still manage to convict the innocent, how many innocent people are convicted of crimes that don’t carry the death penalty? Far too many, I would imagine. Some of the safeguards proposed for death penalty cases — like requiring that all questioning of suspects by police be videotaped, or that all defendants have access to DNA evidence that might clear them — should be applied to criminal cases across the board.

Peter Neufeld, co-founder and co-director of the Innocence Project, echoes this point in an interview with New Scientist.com :

There are wrongful convictions everywhere in the world. The US probably has one of the fairest criminal justice systems, but nevertheless we have seen how easy it is to make mistakes. It is certainly terrible to execute people who are innocent but it's not a hell of a lot better keeping them in prison for the rest of their lives. If you are innocent you are innocent and you don't belong there.

We wrote at length about Turow's involvement with capital punishment and his new book here. [link fixed]