My Sunday daily kos article, Prof. Jack Balkin on 'Living Originalism' and the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act, covers ground regular readers will be familiar with. See Constitutional Interpretation, Originalism and a Living Constitution and Dred Scott,Originalism and a Living Constitution.

Open Thread.

There must be readers with something besides the George Zimmerman-Trayvon Martin case to talk about. If so, here's a place.

If you want to continue the Zimmerman discussion, you can do that here too. It's an open thread, all topics welcome

I'm going to watch Key Largo on PBS, and check for new developments in the John Edwards and Kim DotCom/ MegaUpload cases.

Our hero

Happy Ben Masel Day:

Ben Masel, the happy warrior against the drug war who became one of Madison’s most beloved civil libertarians, may have died last year. But his legacy is very much alive. It will be celebrated this afternoon at the Capitol — where Masel so frequently protested secrecy, intolerance and injustice — and tonight at the Barrymore Theatre. City officials have even voted to make this “Ben Masel Day.” And rightly so.

Not at a computer for a while. Here is an open thread, all topics welcome.

Stuff happening I'm sure. I'll try to get to it at some point today.

Open Thread.

I'm short on time to follow the news today. Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

Update: Frontline tonight: The Real CSI

The media joins forces to request the unsealing of all records in the George Zimmerman case. The motion is here. My view: Keep it sealed. The time to release it is after the case ends, whether by pre-trial dismissal or verdict. The public can then decide if they believe the judge or jury's actions were justified. There's no need for them to "play along" as the case progresses. The media's motion makes the best case for keeping it sealed. It says:

"Defendant's confession has already been disseminated in various news articles."

Zimmerman has not confessed to any crime. He hasn't publicly said anything yet. No statement signed by Zimmerman or police recording of any of his statements has been released. A police report and statements by his lawyers and family that he acknowledged shooting Martin is not a confession of wrong-doing or confession to a crime. By all reports, he is denying he committed a crime.

Since the media cannot be trusted to report fairly, the motion should be denied. Update below, with a change in my position: [More...]

I'm still trying to figure out why the state's attorney in Florida would charge George Zimmerman with second degree murder in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, and approve the filing of such an empty affidavit for an arrest warrant, that with all its other faults, fails to even refer to, let alone establish, the elements of the charged crime.

Where is their evidence that Zimmerman's act of shooting Trayvon demonstrated a depraved mind and was an act "done from ill will, hatred, spite, or an evil intent," indicative of an indifference to human life, as required for a second degree murder conviction? What is their theory?

Here's my theory: Every Affidavit Tells a Story. When examining an affidavit, the choice of words, the sequence of events and the facts omitted are all key to something. The story may not be the truth, but it represents the state's version of what it believes to be the truth. Affidavits are intended to tell the story in such a way that the reader will conclude it is both accurate and makes sense. They can also be a road map showing how the state intends to prove its case.

After reading the affidavit for George Zimmerman's arrest at least 10 times, each time more perplexed than I was here by the lack of probable cause for a second degree murder charge and its other shortcomings, I decided to focus instead on the state's story. (If this isn't it, then I'm out of guesses and there is just no excuse for the heavy-handed charging.) [More...]

Radley Balko examines The Unchecked Charging Power of the Prosecutor with reference to, among others, the George Zimmerman case.

If Angela Corey is a Minister of Justice, why is she prosecuting this 12 year old as an adult for murder?

Cristian Fernandez was charged as an adult at age 12 for murder 1, which carries a life sentence. He is the youngest person ever charged as an adult for murder in Jacksonville. If convicted, he will be the youngest person convicted of adult murder in America. [More...]

A federal court in Virginia today will hear arguments on what to do with the data on the MegaUpload servers.

Jury selection is underway in the John Edwards trial. The witness list was released late yesterday. Not surprisingly, it includes Rielle Hunter and Andrew Young. The Judge told prospective jurors:

"This is not a case about whether Mr. Edwards was a good husband or politician," U.S. District Judge Catherine Eagles told the jury pool. "It's about whether he violated campaign finance laws."

....“You can watch 'Law & Order’ and 'CSI’ 24 hours a day,” she said. “I know this will shock you, but they make stuff up.”

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

Busy today.

Open thread.

Remember Slate? Me neither. Sorry Yglesias, you fell into a black hole there. Hope the pay is good.

Open Thread.