Sorry to have been AWOL from the blog the past few days, but J and TChris have been filling the page with great stuff.

I should be back tomorrow blogging on things politics and SCOTUS.

This is an Open Thread.

The Supreme Court today decided Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts (opinion here.) It ruled for the defense, which had objected to the state's reliance on an affidavit to prove a substance was cocaine. The defense said it was entitled to the live testimony of the chemist so it could cross-examine him or her. The Court agreed with the defense that live testimony was required under the Sixth Amendment's right to confront witnesses.

At petitioner’s state-court drug trial, the prosecution introduced certificates of state laboratory analysts stating that material seized by police and connected to petitioner was cocaine of a certain quantity. As required by Massachusetts law, the certificates were sworn to before a notary public and were submitted as prima facie evidence of what they asserted.

Petitioner objected, asserting that Crawford v. Washington, 541 U. S. 36, required the analysts to testify in person. The trial court disagreed, the certificates were admitted, and petitioner was convicted. ....

Held: The admission of the certificates violated petitioner’s Sixth Amendment right to confront the witnesses against him.

In my view, too many defense lawyers stipulate to the chemical evidence rather than take on a chemist. Maybe this decision will encourage more of them to challenge the evidence. [More...]

In an eight-to-one decision, the Supreme Court ruled this morning thaat “a school’s strip search of an Arizona teenage girl accused of having prescription-strength ibuprofen was illegal.”

Who dissented? Clarence Thomas.

Writing for the majority, and finding there was a Fourth Amendment violation, Justice David Souter said:

"Savana's subjective expectation of privacy against such a search is inherent in her account of it as embarrassing, frightening, and humiliating. … Here, the content of the suspicion failed to match the degree of intrusion."

The Court also ruled, however, that the school officials are immune from personal liability for the strip search.

Reporter Murray Waas has a long and meaty article today on the Bush Justice Department and alleged improprieties in the criminal investigation of corruption allegations against former AZ Republican congressman Rick Renzi.

The alleged impropriety: Leaking a wiretap on Renzi. The reason, according to Waas:

In the fall of 2006, one day after the Justice Department granted permission to a U.S. attorney to place a wiretap on a Republican congressman suspected of corruption, existence of the investigation was leaked to the press — not only compromising the sensitive criminal probe but tipping the lawmaker off to the wiretap.

Career federal law enforcement officials who worked directly on a probe of former Rep. Rick Renzi (R-Ariz.) said they believe that word of the investigation was leaked by senior Bush administration political appointees in the Justice Department in an improper and perhaps illegal effort to affect the outcome of an election.

Renzi, who did not seek re-election in 2008, ultimately was indicted on "36 felony counts of money laundering, extortion, insurance fraud and various other alleged crimes" and is scheduled for trial in September. [More...]

I've been writing mostly about crime issues here today. In case there are other things you'd like to discuss, here's an open thread for you.

All topics welcome.

Rep. Bill Delahunt (D-MA) told Huffington Post today he is introducing a companion bill to Sen. Jim Webb's bill to create a commission to study criminal justice and sentencing reform.

Delahunt, the senior Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, said that reform of the American justice system should begin with a broad look at drug policy.

"I think it's really time to do an absolute overview of the issue of drugs and come at it with an open mind," he said.

[More...]

Update: At the press conference today, Tom Angell of LEAP asked Gil Kerlikowske if in light of the report and others calling for consideration of legalization, whether discussion about it might not be a good thing. His answer:

"As regards legalization, it is not in the President's vocabulary and it's not in mine."

***

Via Huffington Post, the U.N. today released its 2009 World Drug Report report and reversed course. The report endorses drug decriminalization. [More...]

South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford has returned from Argentina and admits he has been having an affair (that began by e-mail) with a woman who lives there. He says his wife has known about the affair. His wife said today she asked him to leave the family home two weeks ago.

Sanford has submitted his resignation as chairman of the Republican Governors Association. Here's the transcript of his press conference remarks. Another paper is printing Sanford's romantic e-mails to the woman. How embarrassing for all of them.

Bottom line: He's a Republican whom we now don't have to worry about being on a future national ticket. Other than that, it's his business and I have no interest in reporting more details of his affair, making fun of him or castigating him for his behavior. It's between him, his family and the people of South Carolina who elected him.

Via Sentencing Lsw and Policy, Attorney General Eric Holder today spoke at the event "“Rethinking Federal Sentencing Policy: 25th Anniversary of the Sentencing Reform Act." His remarks are here.

The AP reports he is soliciting cocaine sentencing reform.

"This administration firmly believes that the disparity in crack and powdered cocaine sentences is unwarranted," Holder said. "It must be eliminated."

As I noted a few days ago, Holder spoke to judges about sentencing last week at the D.C. Judicial Conference. I opined he was trying, but needed to try harder to light a fire under Congress to revise both cocaine penalties and mandatory minimums. Today he clearly called for a 1:1 sentencing ratio for crack and powder, instead of saying "if" a 1:1 ratio "is our goal." I'm glad to see him stepping up the pressure. [More...]

There are reports of brutal assaults on protesters in Tehran. There are eyewitness reports of people being thrown off bridges.

At least two trusted sources described wild and violent conditions at a part of Tehran where protesters had planned to demonstrate. “They were waiting for us,” the source said. “They all have guns and riot uniforms. It was like a mouse trap.”

“I see many people with broken arms, legs, heads — blood everywhere — pepper gas like war,” the source said. Around “500 thugs” with clubs came out of a mosque and attacked people in the square, another source said. The security forces were “”beating women madly” and “killing people like hell,” the source said.

Best way to follow the updates live is on Twitter. Try #Tehran, #IranElection. HuffPo is live-blogging information. and CNN is on it as well.

Navanethem Pillay, a lawyer from South Africa who serves as the U.N.'s top Human Rights offical, criticized President Obama and the U.S. today over the continued detention of Guantanamo detainees:

In her most detailed statement on U.S. detention policy, the South African lawyer criticized President Obama's decision to hold some suspected terrorists in detention indefinitely without a trial. She also called for a probe into officials who participated in torture sessions or provided the legal justification for it.

"People who order or inflict torture cannot be exonerated, and the roles of certain lawyers, as well as doctors who have attended torture sessions, should also be scrutinized," Pillay, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, said in a statement dedicated to victims of torture.

[More...]

Richard Falkenrath, head of NYPD's terrorism squad is truly clueless...and spreading fear-engendering disinformation.

Falkenrath is arguing against trying terrorism suspects in U.S. courts. Who is this guy? A former senior domestic security official in the Bush administration.

Falkenrath Complaint Item #1: The cases will eat up valuable federal court resources. Does it not occur to him that the answer is to reserve the federal courts for serious federal crimes and take drug crimes and other cases that can be equally tried in state courts to them? We have over-criminalized the federal courts for the past few decades. Tell Congress to stop passing laws that put these offenders in the federal system. And tell the DOJ to decline prosecution in favor of state courts. Problem solved. [More...]