The Wall St. Journal has an article today about a recent 5th Circuit opinion reining in multi-district wiretapping. The opinion is here.

Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

The Texas 3rd Court of Appeals has reversed the conviction of Former Congressman Tom DeLay for money laundering and conspiracy, finding the evidence insufficient to convict him. The reversal is an acquittal which means he cannot be retried. Nor will he have to serve his three year prison sentence.

An overview of his case from 2010 is here. Here's a Today Show video where he and his excellent trial lawyer, Dick DeGuerin, discuss the case.

Dick DeGuerin always predicted DeLay would never spend a night in jail. [More...]

The Office of Inspector General has issued a new report on DOJ's reporting of prosecutions and convictions, including terrorism cases. The report is a follow-up to a 2007 and 2012 report which found DOJ inflated its terror case statistics. The new report finds DOJ continues to misreport its record in terrorism cases. The OIG attributes the mistakes to shoddy record-keeping.

“These inaccuracies are important in part because DOJ management and Congress need accurate terrorism-related statistics to make informed operational and budgetary decisions,” [I.G. Director Michael] Horowitz said in a statement accompanying the audit’s release.

The full report is here. [More..]

Busy jail today for me. The federal immigration detention facility is in the flood impacted part of Aurora. By tomorrow, it should be fine, so that's where I'll be.

Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

The FISA Court today released the August 29, 2013 opinion by FISA Court Judge Claire Eagen finding the NSA's mass telephony data program is constitutional and statutorily permissible.

The opinion is here.

[B]ecause there is no cognizable Fourth Amendment interest in a telephone company's metadata that it holds in the course of its business, the Court finds that there is no Constitutional impediment to the requested production.

[More...]

The Federal Judicial Conference issued a press release today supporting the Justice Safety Valve Act of 2013 which would give federal judges discretion not to impose a mandatory minimum sentence.

Acting on the recommendation of its Criminal Law Committee, the Conference agreed to seek legislation, such as the Justice Safety Valve Act of 2013 (S. 619), which is designed to restore judges’ sentencing discretion and avoid the costs associated with mandatory minimum sentences.

The judges are also seeking legislation that would early termination of supervision for inmates who have been granted compassionate release.

Ohio Death Row Inmate Billy Slagle committed suicide on in the early morning hours of August 4, three days before his scheduled execution. An official "after action review report" publicly released yesterday finds the guards did not make their required rounds every 30 minutes as required and that the electronic logs about one guard's rounds that evening were falsified. Videos show the actual time the rounds occurred.

According to the review, DRC officer John McCollister, 30, falsely indicated on the prison's electronic log that Slagle's death row cell was checked consistently in 30-minute intervals, as required by the DRC, during the overnight shift.

The log shows rounds were conducted in the required intervals beginning at 10 p.m. Aug. 3 – when the shift began -- until about 5 a.m. Aug. 4, when Slagle's body was found hanging in the cell. The DRC review states that corrections officer Clay Putnam, 19, conducted the shift's first check on Slagle's cell at 11:20 p.m. and that he completed rounds once every hour beginning just after 2 a.m.

The actual report is available here. It concludes: [More...]

Police have identified Aaron Alexis, a 34 year old from Texas, as the Navy Yard shooter. 13 people are dead, including Alexis.

Aaron Alexis, a native of New York, who served in the Navy from 2007 to 2011 as an aviation electrician’s mate 3rd class, allegedly entered the base early Monday morning, perhaps using another man’s identification card to pass through the gates.

....From 2008 until his discharge in 2011, Alexis was a member of an aviation support squadron based in Fort Worth, Texas, where he worked on C-40s, a military version of the Boeing 737 that the Navy uses as a cargo plane. Law enforcement officials said that he was more recently working as a military contractor.

He was born in Queens, NY. Authorities say he used another employee's ID to enter the yard. But they don't believe that employee was involved. His motive is unknown.

It's still raining hard here in Colorado. Latest numbers: 19,000 homes have been damaged or destroyed, 11,700 people have been evacuated and 1,200 people are unaccounted for.

It looks like Bob Dylan has joined the copyright crowd -- There are very few live performances still on You Tube. I couldn't find a good one for Shelter From the Storm, so here's one from somewhere with a nice rainy graphic of NYC and with good sound. If you move your mouse or pointer past the right border, the distracting social media links go away.

Shelter from the Storm - Hurricane Irene New York City

[More...]

The picks: Vanderbilt +14 Competitor: South Carolina; Alabama -8½ Competitor: Texas A&M (3 units); Oklahoma -24 Competitor: Tulsa; UCLA +3 Competitor: Nebraska; Georgia Tech -9 Competitor: Duke Mississippi State +6 Competitor: Auburn, Army +30 Competitor: Stanford; Utah -3 Competitor: Oregon State; Purdue +19 Competitor: Notre Dame; Kentucky +15 Competitor: Louisville; Oregon -28 Competitor: Tennessee (3 units); Bowling Green +3 Competitor: Indiana; Washington -10 Competitor: Illinois; Mississippi +3 Competitor: Texas.

Open thread.

Below, John Amato of Crooks and Liars and I talking sports and various sundry things. Also to be broadcast on Netroots Radio tomorrow morning at 9 am EST (noon PST):

Saturday College Football Open Thread tomorrow morning.

Open Thread.

The rains are expected to continue. Denver was spared for the most part, but Boulder, Lyons, Estes Park, Fort Collins, and some areas of Jefferson County are a mess. And we're not out of the woods. The latest alert has lots of counties including Denver under a flash flood warning until tomorrow morning.

Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Broomfield, Clear Creek, Denver, Douglas, Gilpin, Jefferson, Larimer, Park, Weld

Live Boulder Press Conference (4:00 pm MT): Boulder is reminding people to stay out of the water -- it's filled with sewage. Evacuation orders are not being lifted because more rain is on the way. 80 people are unaccounted for, and another death was confirmed today. For those with flooded basements, the city can't help, they need to call a recovery company. Here's how to find a reputable one. [More...]