Tuesday News Wrap-Up
Florida Secretary of State Glenda Hood has promised to throw out hundreds of voter registration forms where the voter forgot to check a box indicating they are a US Citizen, even though the forms also include a signed oath affirming the voter's citizenship.
The Ninth Circuit held a prosecution of a woman on federal child pornography charges was unconstitutional when the pornographic image did not travel in interstate commerce.
The Supreme Court yesterday refused to hear a case challenging the Do-Not-Call Registry, allowing a lower court ruling affirming its constitutionality to stand. According to a Washington Post article, telemarketers were challenging the Registry as an infringement on their freedom of speech.
The Court also refused to hear a case challenging the U.S. detention of Saddam Hussein, in which attorney Curtis F. J. Doebbler attempted to bring the case without any contact with Hussein, circumventing Court rules. For fulller coverage of yesterday's Supreme Court activities, check out SCOTUSblog
An LATimes editorial urges Californians to vote for Proposition 66, a reform of the three strikes law which is currently the only such law under which "conviction on any third felony [can] put someone behind bars for life." Talkleft weighs in on the law, originally passed in the wake of Polly Klass's murder, saying "legislation should never be passed out of grief and passion or in response to a singular event, no matter how horrific. Cooler heads are needed when our fundamental liberties are at stake. California voters should pass Proposition 66."
In international law news, the Seattle Post-Intelligence reports that Cambodia may begin trying former leaders of the Khmer Rouge for genocide by the end of next year after passing a series of laws paving the way for such prosecution.
Leiter Reports discusses the problems with US News' ranking of law schools.
The ACLU is challenging the fingerprinting of protesters at the RNC in New York last month. According to the New York Times, the ACLU argues that "although the law allowed the police to fingerprint people charged with minor offenses in certain circumstances, "this could not justify the routine fingerprinting of the nearly 1,500 people reportedly arrested during the convention for minor offenses."
Want more? How Appealing has a particularly good news roundup today, including kids on death row, Barbie's recent lawsuit, and the affect of Edwards' background as a lawyer on the race for the White House.