Yesterday, Tuesday, April 8, 2003, a Senate and House Conference Committee, without a hearing, public notice or a debate in Congress, attached the Illicit Drug Anti-Proliferation Act (formerly known as the RAVE Act) to the Amber Alert Bill (a child abduction bill). As Drug Policy Alliance comments, "This is “backdoor” policy-making at its worst and in no way upholds the democratic principles rooted in our legislative process." Take action in three easy steps here.

Congress will also vote on the Hatch-Sensenbrenner amendment to the Feeney Amendment to the Amber Alert Child Protection bill. This bill puts in effect puts sentencings in the hands of prosecutors while tying the hands of federal judges. Go here to act now.

Rep. Feeney is feeling proud of himself. The welcome page of his Web site includes a recent Washington Post editorial, with the following prefatory remarks:

"On April 4, 2003 the soft on crime editorial board of the Washington Post commented on Congressman Tom Feeney's Amendment to the Child Abduction Prevention Act. The amendment that was overwhelmingly passed by the House of Representatives, by a vote of 357 to 58, on March 27th was also opposed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Criminal Defense Lawyers."

For those who are interested, on his Web site, , Rep. Tom Feeney offers C-SPAN coverage of his March 27 introduction of the "Feeney Amendment." (under recent floor speeches section) (requires Real Player). Thanks to Peter Parker of Boston, MA and Todd Bussert of CT for flagging this.

It's not law yet. The full house and senate have to vote on it. For what can still be done to oppose it, see the NACDL webpage on the bill.

Atrios has the update on Bush judicial nominee Priscilla Owen and it's good news. He also has some bad news about a new right-wing nominee.

We received an email earlier that there will be a Senate hearing this afternoon on nominee Jeffrey Sutton, who is strongly opposed for his positions on the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Reuters reports major news in the case of "dirty bomb" suspect Jose Padilla, detained more than a year without charges :

A federal appeals court will be asked to determine if President Bush can declare a U.S. citizen captured in this country an enemy combatant and jail him until the conflict with the al Qaeda network ends. U.S. District Judge Michael Mukasey, who is presiding over a case involving "dirty bomb" suspect Jose Padilla, decided on Wednesday to send the matter to the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals to speed resolution of the litigation.

We're not shocked by Hatch's new attempt to repeal the sunset provisions of the Patriot Act, we expected as much from him, but it's still wrong. As Eric Muller at IsThatLegal points out:

The whole point of a sunset provision is to create a deadline by which Congress can assess how well the provision is working before renewing it or making it permanent. The Act has only been in effect for 18 months at this point -- 18 months, I might add, in which the Administration's general stance about its enforcement efforts has been rather secretive. How could anyone actually think that a year and a half under this Administration is long enough to make a judgment about the advisability of permanent and significant changes to the powers of law enforcement?

The ACLU has just fired off this letter to Sen. Durbin. More from the ACLU on this here. [link via Paper Chase]

A California Appellate Court has ruled that possession of marijuana paraphernalia is not illegal under state law. Text of the ruling, In re Johnnie O., may be found here.

The ruling does not pertain to sales, Also, possession of paraphernalia for the ingestion of synthetic THC is technically illegal under the state law. [via email from NORML]

This just in from Kyle O'Dowd, Legislative Director for the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers on the Hatch-Sensenbrenner Amendment on sentencing rushed through the House-Senate Conference on the Amber Alert Bill yesterday. Please note the differences between the versions.

At 1:34 this morning, Sen Hatch's staff circulated a new version of the bill.  The overnight changes improve the proposal but it remains highly objectionable. Here is a revised version of yesterday's list based on a preliminary analysis of the new text:

Update: This gives us a sickening feeling. American military uniforms were found at an Iraqi prison, but no sign of our POWS.

There are still seven American POW's missing in Iraq. CNN just reported that the U.S. does not know their fate or whereabouts.

If you have access to a television, the live street scenes are a chance for a first-hand look at the Iraqi celebration in Baghdad. CNN is reporting the rest of the country is quiet.

Wolf Blitzer got hacked for a few seconds. He asked a question of someone of a different location and an unknown, young male voice speaking in a journalistic tone came on and said the Iraqi Minister is being replaced by Howard Stern. Wolf recovered quickly and went to someone else.

We wonder where Saddam will turn up. Ideas?

"An Army of One?" by Gen. Wesley Clark from the September, 2002 issue of Washington Monthly:

Bin Laden, War Criminal The Kosovo campaign suggests alternatives in waging and winning the struggle against terrorism: greater reliance on diplomacy and law and relatively less on the military alone. Soon after September 11, without surrendering our right of self defense, we should have helped the United Nations create an International Criminal Tribunal on International Terrorism. We could have taken advantage of the outpourings of shock, grief, and sympathy to forge a legal definition of terrorism and obtain the indictment of Osama bin Laden and the Taliban as war criminals charged with crimes against humanity. Had we done so, I believe we would have had greater legitimacy and won stronger support in the Islamic world. We could have used the increased legitimacy to raise pressure on Saudi Arabia and other Arab states to cut off fully the moral, religious, intellectual, and financial support to terrorism. We could have used such legitimacy to strengthen the international coalition against Saddam Hussein. Or to encourage our European allies and others to condemn more strongly the use of terror against Israel and bring peace to that region. Reliance on a compelling U.N. indictment might have given us the edge in legitimacy throughout much of the Islamic world that no amount of "strategic information" and spin control can provide.

From the inimitable, irreverent, excellent Neal Pollack at The Maelstrom on Senator Joe Biden and his planned attempt to sneak the Rave Act past the House-Senate Conferees and into the Amber Child Alert bill:

Now you must excuse me. I'm going to drive down to Delaware, where I assume Senator Biden still keeps an office. There I will snort a delicious line of cocaine. It's Biden's property. Therefore, my drug use is technically his fault. Prisoner Number 34093. Senator Joseph Biden. Convicted April 10, 2003, letting some guy snort coke in his office. Sentence, 50 years. Up for...in 30.

Instapundit nails it on the Buffalo Six cases:

The FBI last fall arrested six Lackawanna, N.Y., men of Yemeni origin and charged them with conspiracy and aiding a terrorist organization. All six had been to Afghanistan in early 2001 for training by Al Qaeda. But prosecutors used dubious tactics to force the men into a plea-bargain admitting guilt to lesser charges. According to The Wall Street Journal, they threatened the defendants with "enemy combatant" status - meaning they could have been turned over to the military, deprived of counsel, and held incommunicado indefinitely. If I recall correctly, at least some of these guys are American.

Instapundit also links to this article in the Christian Science Monitor:

In other words, the government said, convict yourself or we will strip you of your rights and you can rot in jail. That doesn't sound like respect for due process and trial by jury.

Prosecutors also threatened to bring treason charges that carry the death penalty. That's hardball, but within bounds, since the defendants would have a lawyer and a jury trial.

The case is disturbing because it appears the evidence is weak. A former FBI official said surveillance showed no sign the men had hostile intent. The US attorney in Buffalo confirmed he has no evidence they were involved in a violent plot. Several of the men had quit the training, reportedly disillusioned with Al Qaeda.

In passing sentence, the judge should consider the coercive pressure brought on the men to plead guilty and mitigate their sentences.

We still have our doubts that, legally speaking, attending a training camp and listening to or meeting with a terrorist leader or even providing oneself as a soldier (as opposed to providing the services of others) constitutes providing "material support" under the statute. We don't think you can overlook the word "material." As we reported here, even the prosecutorial guidelines contained in the U.S. Attorney's Manual (9-91.100 , scroll down to Personnel and Training) seems to acknowlege this.

The 9th Circuit has declared portions of the law unconsitutionally vague. Hopefully, the Supreme Court will get the case soon and decide the issue--before Bush packs the Court with his right-wing ideologues.

Our full coverage of the case can be accessed here.

A defense lawyer and paralegal representing an Egyptian client charged in a major New York terrorism case were held in a locked cell for two hours after concluding their meeting with their client, despite repeated requests to leave. A federal judge has ordered an investigation.

The lawyer and the paralegal who visited Mr. Sattar on March 20 told a guard they were ready to leave at 3:20 p.m., according to a memo sent by his lawyers to the judge. They asked again at 4:45 p.m., and as 5 p.m. approached, they asked a guard to call their offices so their co-workers would not worry about them, the memo said, but the request was refused. They were released at 5:15, the memo said.

This was not the first time the legal team had problems at the jail, MCC in lower Manhattan. But the situation has gotten progressively worse.

In the last two weeks, our associates and a paralegal have encountered problems which go beyond what we have previously experienced," they wrote, citing what they called "the completely unacceptable behavior" by staff members at the jail.

The jailers' response was essentially, "Sorry, it was busy, we forgot."