I'm still participating at a Yale Law School conference on Constitutional Interpretation on Jack Balkin's book "Living Originalism. I wrote about it last week. Some previous posts on the subject: Constitutional Interpretation, Originalism and a Living Constitution and Dred Scott, Originalism and a Living Constitution..

You can watch a live stream of the conference. It should be fascinating.

I'll be part of the panel asking the author questions. Our segment begins at 1 pm:

I know a lot of people want to continue dissecting the facts (as opposed to law) in the George Zimmerman-Trayvon Martin case. I cleaned several comments from an earlier thread about today's hearing, after asking commenters to copy and save them for an open thread, or a new thread about the evidence in the case. My post today was about the court hearing.

If anyone wants to continue the discussion of Zimmerman, on any facet of the case, you can do so here.

Comments on other topics are also welcome.

From Fox News: Sex tape at Edwards trial? Defense, prosecution wrangle over its admission. The article falsely states:

Opposing lawyers in the John Edwards trial wrangled Friday over whether to allow into evidence a sex tape of the former presidential candidate and allegations of an extramarital affair involving an ex-aide who is the prosecution's chief witness.

No one is trying to admit the tape. The battle is over testimony about the tape. Team Edwards wanted to question Andrew Young about statements he had made about the tape. [More]

A Peru Court will hold a hearing May 8 on a request by the U.S. for the extradition of Joran van der Sloot, who is serving a 28 year sentence for the murder of Stephany Flores. Van der Sloot is charged in federal court in Alabama with extortion of money from Natalee Holloway's mother and wire fraud, following a sting operation by the FBI and Holloway's lawyer. The Indictment is here. Joran has never been charged anywhere with the murder of Natalee Holloway, thus he is presumed innocent of that crime.

The media reports if granted, Van der Sloot will be tried in the U.S., then returned to Peru to finish serving his sentence, and then, assuming he has been convicted in the U.S., returned to the U.S. to serve the sentence imposed here.

Here is the extradition treaty. It provides:

More drama in the George Zimmerman case.

A hearing on Zimmerman's lawyer surprise disclosure on CNN last night that his client's website had raised a little more than $200,000, was addressed at court today. The Judge declined to order a bond increase but wanted more information about when the payments were received. He will make his final decision after receiving the information.

The state asked for a re-examination of the amount of bond and a gag order on O'Mara. The Judge declined the gag order. O'Mara pointed out he hadn't spoken publicly on the facts of the case and "handlers" of the Martin family were still talking to media. I agree with O'Mara, if anyone in this case needs to be restricted in their extra-judicial comments, it's the lawyers for the Martin family. [More...]

I'm participating at a Yale Law School conference on Constitutional Interpretation on Jack Balkin's book "Living Originalism. I wrote about it last week. Some previous posts on the subject: Constitutional Interpretation, Originalism and a Living Constitution and Dred Scott, Originalism and a Living Constitution..

You can watch a live stream of the conference. It should be fascinating.

A federal judge has invalidated Governor Rick Scott's executive order that state employees be tested for drugs, finding it violates constitutional protections against unreasonable searches and seizures.

U.S. District Judge Ursula Ungaro declared that Scott’s executive order to conduct random drug tests of 85,000 state employees amounted to an “unreasonable” search under the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution. Her decision was based on U.S. Supreme Court precedents that have cited the Fourth Amendment ban on unreasonable searches, concluding that governments cannot require job applicants to take drug tests absent a “special need,” such as safety.

The lawsuit was brought by the The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. The ACLU commented:

“If the state is going to require a drug test as a condition of keeping your job, it needs to have a reason. And simply being against drugs isn’t enough,”

I haven't even gotten around to opening my email yet today. I'm also trying to watch American Idol. Katy Perry was just on singing her catchy "Part of Me" song and now I can't get it out of my head.

George Zimmerman's lawyer today said the now-defunct website Zimmerman set up raised $200.000. He said he'll inform the court. Here's the video of O'Mara's comments to Anderson Cooper Our Zimmerman threads are full, so you can comment on that case, and any other topics, here.

Star witness Andrew Young today admitted in cross-examination he co-mingled and used funds received from Bunny Mellon and Fred Baron for his personal benefit -- the construction of his dream home. He even billed Baron for things Mellon had already paid.

Young testified Thursday he had sent Baron an invoice for many of the expenses the aide had already paid for with money from Mellon; he said Baron then wired another $325,000 to the builder constructing the Young's house.

He also got stung on his claim it was Edwards idea for him to claim paternity of Rielle Hunter's baby:

Lowell asked Young to recount his story of how Edwards had asked him to claim paternity of Hunter's child on December 13, 2007. Young had said the phone conversation occurred while he was sitting in his car and had looked over to the passenger seat to see a copy of Newsweek magazine with Edwards on the front.

The defense then flashed a photo of that magazine cover up on the screens visible to the jury. It was dated two weeks later.

[More..]

John Edwards has a multiple defenses planned for the Bunny Money -- the funds provided by Bunny Mellon through her decorator Bryan Huffman to Andrew and Cheri Young. Their arguments also apply to the Fred Baron money. It essentially boils down to: If Bunny's Money Went to My Honey, You Must Acquit.

The Government says the donations from Mellon and Baron were for the purpose of influencing the 2008 election – helping Edwards be elected President of the United States – and that Edwards knew it. [More...]

I'm going to a conference on Constitutional law the next two days. I'll probably write about it over the next few days.

Open Thread.

Reuters has a lengthy profile (pun intended) of George Zimmerman's life and the burglary reports in the Twin Lakes community.

The burglary reports were posted on the City of Sanford's website and later removed, but not before they were reposted around the internet. You can read them here.

I've gone over the burglary reports several times, and checked their dates against Zimmerman's prior calls to non-emergency and the audio of the 6 or 7 prior calls published at the Seminole County Sheriffs Office. The last time I examined them was after the Affidavit for Zimmerman's arrest issued, because I was curious why the affidavit was worded so oddly:

....During the recorded call Zimmerman made reference to people he felt had committed and gotten away with break-ins in his neighborhood.

Why did the state cast it as a feeling, as if it was a misperception? So I checked. [More...]