This is not a good sign for our jury system. The judge in the upcoming Anna Nicole Smith trial of Drs. Sanjeep Kapoor and Khristine Eroshevich and boyfriend Howard K. Stern has ordered prospective jurors to disclose their medical histories, including listing the prescription drugs they have taken. The three are charged with conspiring to provide Smith with sedatives and opiates. (They are not charged with causing her death.)

While the judge has nixed cameras in the courtroom, he has ordered jurors names be kept secret from the lawyers in the case and is going to have his staff periodically check the jurors' Facebook and social media sites. [More...]

I am so tuned out from the Establishment Media that I just found out about L'Affaire Sherrod (I first thought it was about Sherrod Brown). Digby writes:

When our new overlord Andrew Breitbart says jump, the White House says, "how high?" Kevin Drum:

[. . .] BigGovernment.com "broke" a story yesterday about a speech given a few months ago by Shirley Sherrod, USDA Georgia Director of Rural Development, at an NAACP Freedom Fund dinner. In it, Sherrod tells a story from 24 years ago about not helping a white farmer as much as she could have because she was "struggling with the fact that so many black people had lost their farm land." The point of this story, told in a public venue, was that she quickly realized that she had done wrong. "That's when it was revealed to me that it's about poor versus those who have. It's not so much about white...it is about white and black but it's not, you know...it opened my eyes."

The Secretary of Agriculture explained why he did Breitbart's bidding:

No surprise here, but the Senate Judiciary Committee has approved the nomination of Elena Kagan for Supreme Court Justice.

Newsweek reports that Lindsay Graham's support for Kagan kills any chance of a filibuster.

President Obama lauded the vote calling it a "bipartisan affirmation."

Today's vote by the Senate Judiciary Committee is a bipartisan affirmation of her strong performance during her confirmation hearings.

I think some would disagree with that characterization. I just wish he'd stop harping on the need for bi-partisanship and remember that Republicans didn't elect him, Democrats did, and it's not only okay to be partisan, it's what we expected when we voted for him -- change and all that.

I usually do not write much about the Tea Party "movement" because, well, it is stupid, ignorant, and in my view, not particularly relevant. But digby pulls a Tea Partier quote from a Greenberg report on the Tea Partiers that is stunning in its "up is downism" --

We don’t need any fresh ideas. It is fresh ideas that have gotten into this mess. All the ideas we need can be found in an 8 page document, it’s the Constitution; if you need to go beyond that just look at the Federalist papers. We don’t need any fresh ideas.

The ignorance of how the Constitutional Convention came to be, what it did and what the Federalist Papers and the Founding Fathers achieved is truly amazing. The real heroes of the Tea Partiers from the Founding Era should be the anti-Federalists, not the Federalists, who argued for the views now espoused by the Tea Partiers. The Tea Partiers should abhor the Federalist Papers, and, especially, one of its principal authors, Alexander Hamilton. Consider Hamilton's famous defense of the First Bank of the United States:

Back in 2004, we reported on Thomas Mink, a student at the University of Northern Colorado who had his residence searched and computer seized following the publication of an online satirical editorial related to a professor. Charges were never filed. The search warrant was found to be invalid.

The case has gone back and forth through the courts regarding whether the prosecutors were immune from civil liability in lawsuit for violating his civil rights. Yesterday, he won another round.

The trial court had dismissed his case as to the prosecutor, and he appealed. The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday issued an opinion, available here, reinstating his Section 1983 lawsuit against the former District Attorney who approved the search. [More...]

Lord Conrad Black has been serving his sentence for honest services fraud since March, 2008. The 7th Circuit just granted his release on bail.

Black’s request for bail followed a U.S. Supreme Court decision in June that narrowed the scope of a federal statute used at his trial, returning the Hollinger executive’s case to the appeals court. Black and three associates had been found guilty in the theft of $6.1 million from Hollinger International -- once the world’s third-largest publisher of English-language newspapers -- as they engineered its sale of assets.

The order is here. [Hat tip to Sentencing Law and Policy.]

Update: The LA Sheriff says Lindsay will be released after 13 or 14 days due to overcrowding and good time.

Lindsay Lohan surrendered at the Beverly Hills courthouse today to begin serving her 90 day jail sentence for probation violations. She was accompanied by her original lawyer, Shawn Chapman Holley. Her parents were there as well.

A clearly upset LiLo sat and listened as Judge Revel ordered Lindsay's surrender. But before Lindsay was cuffed and taken away, the judge ordered all cameras to stop rolling.

Judge Revel made it clear -- no house arrest, and no early release. But that doesn't mean Lindsay will have to serve the full 90 days. The Sheriff's Department will use the 90 days to compute the actual time Lindsay will have to serve, and because of overcrowding, she will only serve 25% ... 23 days. Lindsay didn't cry. When she was cuffed she was stoic.

[More...]

CNN reports former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich will testify today.

Rod's brother and co-defendant, Rob Blagojevich, testified Monday.

In his testimony, he came off as the protective older brother, refusing to blame his sibling for any wrongdoing. The former governor watched with a look of admiration on his face....

...Confronted by his and his brother's recorded words, Robert Blagojevich pleaded ignorance on some issues and claimed his brother was misunderstood on others.

[More...]

In a setback for Joran Van der Sloot, Luz Marina Romero Chinchay, the mysterious attorney who appeared with him when he gave his confession, has surfaced after being sued by his current attorney (background on lawsuit here.)

In an interview to CNN's "In Session," she insists Joran retained her, promising payment from his mother, and that his confession was voluntary.

She also maintains Joran and she conversed in "perfect Spanish," and questions his truthfulness:

She also questioned the truthfulness of van der Sloot. For instance, when he signed some documents after talking to his mother, Romero noticed that he signed very differently than what he signed on the police statement, she said.

"I told him, 'you signed differently' and he winked his eye and made a silence signal with his hands," Romero said.

She denies she was working with the authorities, but doesn't say who arranged for her to meet Joran in the first place.

TMZ reports Robert Shapiro is no longer representing Lindsay Lohan. The reason has not yet surfaced.

As to who will represent her today when she has to turn herself in, why does she need a lawyer for that? Doesn't she just show up at the jail?

I never understood what legal function Shapiro was providing in the first place. He announced getting in the case he would only represent her if she did her jail time. What did she need him for if he wasn't going to either appeal or file a motion trying to get the judge to change or at least delay imposition of the sentence? [More...]

British author Alan Shadrake, whose book Once a Jolly Hangman: Singapore Justice on the Dock, was recently released, has been detained in Singapore on charges including criminal defamation and contempt of court.

His book contained an interview with Darshan Singh, pictured above, the now retired head executioner at Singapore's Changi Prison.

The book also features interviews with local human rights activists, lawyers and former police officers on various cases involving capital punishment in the city-state, which carries out the death penalty by hanging.

[More..]

From news reports, Linsday Lohan sounds ready for jail tomorrow. In a tweet about her father, who is urging an appeal of her sentence, she writes: "I am in a great place and he only brings negativity in my world."

Where will she go? The media consensus seems to be Century Regional Detention Facility in Lynwood, CA, where Paris Hilton served her sentence. Her 90 days, according to some sources, could be cut to 25% with good time or early release.

She is set to be housed in a 12-foot-by-8-foot cell in the 2,200-bed facility's special needs unit, where she would live in isolation for her own safety. Inmates must wear orange jumpsuits with no jewelry and are given a minimal set of toiletries. Lohan will be served her meals in her cell and will be allowed outside the 12-foot-by-8-foot space for at least an hour each day. She will not be allowed to use a computer or a cellphone.

[More...]