Quick News Hits: 9/7-911
In Brief
- Dworkin on SCOTUS
- No Taxation of Illegal Drugs
- Death Sentence OK Despite Biblical Intervention
- AA Can't Be Required as 'Get Out of Jail Free'
- DoJ Says "No" to Net Neutrality
- Gov't Spying Extended to "Community of Interest"
- Can Foreigners on US Soil Be Spied on Without Warrants?
- Terrorism Screening Center Data Inaccurate Says OIG
- White House Did Not Inform Congress About Surveillance
- No Continuity for Congress if Catastrophe Occurs
- TSA Screeners Can Still File Claims
- Patent Bill Passes House
The Courts
The New York Review of Books has a lengthy essay by Ronald Dworkin that beings "The revolution that many commentators predicted when President Bush appointed two ultra-right-wing Supreme Court justices is proceeding with breathtaking impatience, and it is a revolution Jacobin in its disdain for tradition and precedent." He reviews the changes wrought by decisions from the Supreme Court's last term. He concludes "I suspect that [Robert's] Senate testimony was actually a coded script for the continuing subversion of the American constitution. The worst is yet to come."
Criminal Law
Jeralyn at TalkLeft reports that an appeals court in Tennessee has found the state's tax on illegal drugs to be unconstitutional because it derives revenue from illegal activities. (AP News Article).
Church and State
Religion Clause examines a Ninth Circuit en banc decision that upheld a death sentence despite the jury foreman's notes setting out Biblical arguments for and against the death penalty because, the court concluded, the arguments had no substantial effect on the jury's decision. (The Court's Opinion)
How Appealing reports on a U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit opinion that held Alcoholics Anonymous has enough religious overtones that a parolee can't be ordered to attend its meetings as a condition of staying out of prison. (S.F. Chronicle)
Telecommunications Law
The Washington Post also reports that the DoJ has come out in opposition to "net neutrality," thereby granting phone and cable companies "the option to charge some users more money for loading certain content or Web sites faster than other content."
National Security and Civil Liberties
Wired's blog "Threat Level" expands on a New York Times article that detailed how the FBI's use of data mining extended beyond "individuals it saw as targets" to "their 'community of interest' — the network of people that the target was in contact with." The FBI stopped the practice, reports the Times, because "of broader questions raised about its aggressive use of the records demands, which are known as national security letters "
Also in Wired's blog was a report of a DoJ announcement "that the new national security electronic eavesdropping rules under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act demand warrants when the "target" of spying is inside the United States." The clarification comes after a DoJ official "suggesting warrants were not required to peer into the electronic communications of foreigners on U.S. soil.' Wired then asked the DOJ to clarify as to whether its official "misspoke, or to elaborate on whether the administration's interpretation of the new spy bill was a radical expansion of what Congress had authorized. "
The Legal Times Blog reports the Office of the Inspector General at the DoJ released a report concluding "the three-year-old Terrorism Screening Center, which is run by the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security, still has inaccurate, outdated or duplicate records among its more than 700,000 entries." (The OIG Report)
ThinkProgress features an interview with former Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Rob Graham, who said "that White House briefings that he attended in the Vice President’s office failed to disclose that the administration was spying on Americans," and concludes that his statement contradicts White House claims that the Senate was fully briefed.
RollCall reports that Congress has not completed a continuity of government plan to ensure the survival of the legislative branch in the wake of a catastrophic attack.
Employment Law
Stephen Barr reports in the Washington Post that although "the government's 43,000 airport screeners do not have full civil service rights, they still can file claims under the Constitution." The three-judge panel concluded "If Congress wishes to deny federal employees the ability to redress alleged constitutional violations, it must state its intention clearly."
Patent Law
The Washington Post reports on the House's passage of a patent overhaul bill, "delivering a victory for computer technology and financial services companies and leaving drug companies, small inventors, and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office bracing for a bigger fight before the bill hits the Senate floor."