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...]

A new season of American Guns airs tonight on the Discovery Channel.

It's a show about Denver Gunsmith and former law enforcement officer Rich Wyatt and his family, who own and operate Gunsmoke. Among other things, Gunsmoke teaches people how to properly use guns in self-defense.

The Wyatts are your typical suburban family who just happened to own one of the premiere firearms facilities in the world. Rich Wyatt and his wife Renee own Gunsmoke, located outside Denver, Colorado, where they buy, sell and trade guns - from hand canons to hunting rifles. And if you don't see what you want, they'll build one for you - from nothing more than a block of metal. Gunsmoke has the largest and most experienced group of gunsmiths in the state. When the Wyatts aren't building or selling guns, they're shooting them. No gun leaves their shop without being test fired by the family first. They - and the one-of-a-kind and historic guns they make and sell - are featured in Season 2 AMERICAN GUNS, premiering Wednesday, April 25th at 7PM Mountain Time.

[More...]

Update: NBC 6 Miami acknowledges its mistake for its March 19 report and story with the misleading edit of George Zimmerman's call to police. Apparently, the Today show's erroneous and prejudicial edits were separately done and unrelated. NBC 6 Miami does not address why it waited until April 9 to correct the articles, or why another of its reporters whose byline appeared on one of the stories using the false quote repeatedly maintained on Twitter on April 10 that the producer responsible was not on their team, but from New York (see tweets below.)

The Miami Herald confirms it was Jeff Burnside who was fired, and has his reaction. The Herald credits but does not name the conservative bloggers who outed NBC 6 Miami's March 19 mangling of Zimmerman's quote. They are, as I said in my April 9 post on the topic, Les Jones and Tom McGuire. [More...]

John Edwards' lead defense attorney, Abbe Lowell, will get his chance to rip apart Andrew Young right after lunch.

The question: Will Young be annihilated on cross-examination or will the jurors be left with the impression that while he's an opportunistic Brutus, he is worthy of belief? [More...]

Down goes Altmire! Maybe andgarden and I will be the only TLers who care.

Also, too, Chelsea shocked Barca yesterday in the Champions League. Madrid must beat Bayern today to redeem the reputation of La Liga (not really). Go Los Merengues!

Down goes Madrid on PKs.

Go Chelsea!!

Open Thread.