BTD and I are both busy at work. The ACLU an update on the release of the Iraq detainee photos. There's also goings-on at the Gitmo trials.

Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

Five justices of the Minnesota Supreme Court heard oral arguments today in the Senate seat battle between Norm Coleman and Al Franken.

Coleman attorney Joe Friedberg argued that the panel applied too strict a standard in deciding which absentee ballots to count and that they didn't adhere to the constitution in coming up with that tally.

This argument relies on the fact that poll workers rejected some ballots for reasons that were not considered grounds for rejection by poll workers in other counties. "Every county should come very close to applying the same standards," Friedberg told the justices.

[More...]

The missing Air France Jet with 216 people aboard may have fallen into the ocean. But, nobody knows for sure. It is still missing.

Douglas Ferreira, head of the investigation division of Brazil's Civil Aeronautics Agency, warned reporters that the search could take a long time because it was taking place in a vast stretch of open sea.

"We can fear the worst," said Jean-Louis Borloo, the French minister of ecology, who was overseeing rescue efforts from the Paris end.

Terrorism is not suspected. It was an accident of some kind, probably related to a lightning and thunderstorm. But, as of now, the French Government says it has "no news."

The suspected arrested in the murder of Dr. George Tiller has been identified as 51 year old Scott Roeder of Merriman, KS. [Update: McClatchy has more on him here.]

Authorities expect to charge Roeder with murder today.

[[Roeder]was once a subscriber and occasional contributor to a newsletter, Prayer and Action News.... Dave Leach, an anti-abortion activist from Des Moines who runs the newsletter... said he and Mr. Roeder had met once, and Mr. Roeder had described similar views to his own.

Of Dr. Tiller’s death, Mr. Leach said, “To call this a crime is too simplistic,” adding, “There is Christian scripture that would support this."

An Operation Rescue leader released a contrary view: [More...]

As Apple always tells us in commercials, there's an iPhone app for evertyhing. Even this:

The app features the laws and consequences for possession in each state, facts and figures supporting why marijuana should be legal and a pre-written letter to President Obama that can be sent by pushing a button, described by David as “petition on the go.” It can also locate the nearest NORML chapter.

Why did they make it? [More..]

What a difference a day makes. Susan Boyle was transported by ambulance today from her London hotel to a private health clinic, reportedly suffering exhaustion and some mental distress. [More...]

DougJ provides us this testimonial from a commenter about Dr. George Tiller:

In 1994 my wife and I found out that she was pregnant. The pregnancy was difficult and unusually uncomfortable but her doctor repeatedly told her things were fine. Sometime early in the 8th month my wife, an RN who at the time was working in an infertility clinic asked the Dr. she was working for what he thought of her discomfort. He examined her and said that he couldn’t be certain but thought that she might be having twins. We were thrilled and couldn’t wait to get a new sonogram that hopefully would confirm his thoughts.

[MORE . . .]

General Motors is expected to file for bankruptcy protection tomorrow morning.

Under the restructuring, U.S. taxpayers will own 70% of the new company.

GM is racing to meet the government's Monday deadline to qualify for more aid. It already has received about $20 billion in government loans and could get $30 billion more to make it through what is expected to be a 60- to 90-day reorganization in bankruptcy court.

How it is expected to work: [More...]

Bump and Update: Dr. Tiller's family released this statement through his defense lawyer, Dan Monnat. Planned Parenthood's statement is here. The arrested suspect is a white male. President Obama's statement:

"However profound our differences as Americans over difficult issues such as abortion, they cannot be resolved by heinous acts of violence."

Breaking....Kansas abortion clinic doctor George Tiller was shot and killed at his church this morning. [More...]

Your turn.

This is an Open Thread.

While Glenn Greenwald revisits the scandalously bad work of Jeffrey Rosen regarding Judge Sotomayor, I was struck by this statement from Rosen in the NPR piece Greenwald references:

"I've always been interested in temperament because it strikes me as the most reliable predictor for judicial success," Rosen says. "It turns out that over the course of history, the most successful justices have been the more pragmatic, conciliatory people who have put the interests of the court above their ideological agendas."

(Emphasis supplied.) As his staunch defense of Chief Justice Roberts as a "moderate" (and as his severe criticism of Judge Diane Wood's appointment in 1995) attests, Jeffrey Rosen's track record with his temperament criteria has surely been proven wrong. Indeed, can he identify, defend and explain his "temperament" methodology? While Glenn's piece is valuable in debunking Rosen's nonsensical defense of himself in the Sotomayor matter, I think it is just as important to understand that when it comes to analyzing judicial nominees, Jeffrey Rosen has proven himself to be utterly incompetent. He is the legal journalism equivalent of Michael O'Hanlon. This episode will certainly hang over his every work from now on. And rightly so.

Speaking for me only

Via Matt Yglesias, Ramesh Ponnuru argues for a brand of "neutral" judicial decisionmaking:

[C]ouldn't a third judge "perceive" that the Constitution, properly interpreted, doesn't actually empower him to balance, or say anything at all about, the schools' concerns about security and the girl's psychic needs? And wouldn't Brooks's observations about judicial psychology apply a lot less to a justice with that mental "model"? . . . Conservatives have not been denying that they are prone to these influences ["empathy"]. They have been denying that these influences should be given free rein.

An honest conservative would observe that this ideal justice Ponnoru describes will decide against the white firefighter in Ricci. The reason is simple - the law, as formulated by the Congress of the United States, objectively dictates that Ricci's action against New Haven should be dismissed. Why? Because New Haven's actions are consistent with the dictates of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. There is no real argument, other than one steeped in empathy for Ricci, that could dictate a decision in favor of Ricci. More . .