U.S. District Court Judge Jack Weinstein is on a mission. It's not his first. He frequently fights what he calls "the unnecessary cruelty of the law.”

Judge Weinstein was in the news today for his latest crusade which has lasted three years, finding ways to avoid imposing a five year mandatory minimum sentence for a defendant convicted of receiving child p*rn on his computer.

Judge Weinstein, who sits in the United States District Court in Brooklyn, has twice thrown out convictions that would have ensured that the man spend at least five years behind bars. He has pledged to break protocol and inform the next jury about the mandatory prison sentence that the charges carry. And he recently declared that the man, who is awaiting a new trial, did not need an electronic ankle bracelet because he posed “no risk to society.”

[More...]

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia today reversed a trial court decision by Judge John Bates, a Bush appointee, and ruled that three detainees who have been held at Bagram AFB in Afghanistan without charges since 2002-2003, are not allowed to bring a habeas corpus action seeking release in U.S. courts. The opinion is here.

Judge Bates ruled in April, 2009 that there was no difference between those held at Bagram and those held at Guantanamo. His decision applied only to about a dozen detainees who were non-Afghans captured outside Afghanistan.

The three men in the case are a Tunisian man who says he was captured in Pakistan in 2002, and two from Yemen. One says he was captured in Thailand in 2002, and the other says he was detained in 2003 also outside Afghanistan.

The Appeals court based its ruling on the fact that "Bagram was on the sovereign territory of another government" and “pragmatic obstacles” of giving hearings to detainees “in an active theater of war.” [More....]

The House Armed Services Committee has unanimously passed H.R. 5136, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2011. Among it's provisions: There can be no money expended on buying Thomson Correctional Center (or any other prison in the U.S.) to house detainees from Guantanamo:

PROHIBITION ON FUNDS TO MODIFY OR CONSTRUCT U.S. FACILITIES FOR DETAINEES

The Committee firmly believes that the construction or modification of any facility in the U.S. to detain or imprison individuals currently being held at Guantanamo must be accompanied by a thorough and comprehensive plan that outlines the merits, costs, and risks associated with utilizing such a facility. No such plan has been presented to date. The bill prohibits the use of any funds for this purpose. Additionally, the bill requires the Secretary of Defense to present Congress with a report that adequately justifies any proposal to build or modify such a facility in the future.

[More...]

I'm about to hit the road again.

See you late tonight.

Open Thread.

The Act exceeds Congress’s powers under Article I of the Constitution of the United States, and cannot be upheld under the Commerce Clause, Const. art. I, §8; the Taxing and Spending Clause, id.; or any other provision of the Constitution. -- Para. 56 of the Complaint (PDF) joined by 20 Republican-led states challenging Congress's power under the Commerce Clause to enact the Obama Health Bill

Republican Senators will question Elena Kagan on the constitutionality of the Obama health bill:

[O]n Fox News, Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) said that he wants to make this fringe view of health care reform a centerpiece of Solicitor General Elena Kagan’s Supreme Court confirmation hearing:

BARRASSO: Twenty states right now, Martha, are suing the federal government, and she is going to have to make a decision if she’s on the court about how that goes forward with these 20 states suing. So where do states’ rights come in, where is the role of the federal government, what can they mandate to the American people, and I’m going to want to hear answers on that.

(Emphasis supplied.) Rand Paul's views on the Civil Rights Act and the Congress' Commerce Clause powers are not fringe Republican views. They are mainstream Republican views. The Republicans yearn for a return to the idyllic pre-1937 Era.

Speaking for me only

Dennis Blair, the Director of National Intelligence, is resigning at the request of President Obama.

Among the agencies Blair has supervisory authority over is the National Counterterrorism Center. Analysts at the NCTC have been blamed for failing to connect intelligence dots and for not sharing information about Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab who planned to blow up Northwest Airlines Flight 253 on Christmas Day.

Blair took a big hit from the Senate Intelligence Committee this week when it released a declassified report on the failed attack. (More from the report here.)

While Blair, as Director of National Intelligence, is responsible for supervising the NCTC and 15 other intelligence-related agencies, the actual Director of the NCTC is Michael E. Leiter. Will he keep his job? The FBI and State Department were also found to have contributed to the intelligence lapses that failed to prevent Abdulmutallab from boarding the plane. Is anyone being canned from those agencies? Or is Blair just expendable and a convenient fall guy? [More...]

The Gulf of Mexico oil leak is worse than previously reported.

Oil giant BP conceded Thursday that the Gulf of Mexico oil leak is larger than it originally estimated, adding more worry as portions of the massive spill began trickling ashore for the first time.

In addition to questions about the accuracy of BP's disclosures, there's big issues about the dispersants being used. More here.

I haven't been following this closely, but for those of you who are, here's a place to discuss it.

Regarding Rand Paul's statements on the Civil Rights Acts, Ezra Klein wrote:

I take Paul at his word that he's not a racist. What he is, however, is an ideological extremist. He is so categorically opposed to public regulation of private enterprise that he cannot even bring himself to say that the Woolworth lunch counter should've been desegregated. [. . .] If this isn't about race, then it is about all questions relating to federal regulation of private enterprise. As a senator, Paul will be faced with that question frequently. And his views on it are clearly very, very far from the mainstream.

(Emphasis supplied.) The notion that Rand Paul's view of the Commerce Clause power is extreme in the sense that it is not espoused by a major political party and mainstream Media figures is incorrect. The "Constitution in Exile" movement based in the Federalist Society completely agrees with the views espoused by Paul. But to make the point clearer, in 2005 Ezra Klein's WaPo colleague George Will expressed Paulian views of the Commerce Clause power:

I'm off to the jail and court today.

I'm wondering if the iPad would be a good way to go from basic Spanish comprehension to becoming fluent, particularly with verb tenses. Most of the apps I see focus on vocabulary. Any ideas?

BTD - Busy day for me too. Talk to ya'll tonight.

Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

Justice isn't blind. A new study conducted at Cornell University shows unattractive defendants are 22% more likely to be convicted than attractive ones. They also get longer sentences.

For once, the war on drugs takes a back seat as President Obama meets with President Calderon in Washington. On the front burner: immigration. Some predict there may be less cooperation from Mexico in the drug war when Calderon leaves office in 2012.

Arizona is threatening to stop providing electricity to Los Angeles as payback for the bocyott.

The final three get cut to two on American Idol tonight. It's got to be Crystal and Lee. I like Casey, but he's just not in their league.

I totally love my iPad, I'm off to play with it some more as I watch AI, here's an open thread for you, all topics welcome.

Go Suns! Beat LA!

Open Thread.

The best take on the Pennsylvania Dem Senate primary comes from Atrios:

There are a lot of reasons Arlen managed to work his fake moderate game for so long, but I'm glad that era is over. I hope (and am mildly optimistic) that Joe Sestak will be a better senator than one might expect, but in any case getting rid of Arlen was a worthy goal in and of itself.

Good analysis.

Open Thread.