Law

One of the pages who received inappropriate messages from Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL) worked for Rep. Rodney Alexander (R-Louisiana). Alexander was notified of the problem, and he brought it to the attention of the House leadership (Dennis Hastert and either Tom Delay or Roy Blunt) 10-11 months ago. And they did nothing about it. UPDATE September 30, 2006: Alexander notified Rep. John Shimkus (R-Illinois), who says “We ordered Congressman Foley to cease all contact with this former House page to avoid even the appearance of impropriety.” Also informed was Majority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), who blocked a vote yesterday on a resolution from Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi calling for a preliminary investigation into the matter and the Republican leadership’s response to it by the House Ethics Committee. Boehner nixed the latter part, and a motion was passed to investigate Foley’s conduct but not the Republican leadership’s handling of the matter. It’s also now been verified that Dennis Hastert was told about this issue “months ago”.

From TPM Muckraker: Hundreds of contacts between top White House officials and former lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his associates “raise serious questions about the legality and actions” of those officials, according to a draft bipartisan report prepared by the House Government Reform Committee. The 95-page report, which White House officials reviewed Wednesday evening but has yet to be formally approved by the panel, singled out two of President Bush¹s top lieutenants, Karl Rove and Ken Mehlman, as having been offered expensive meals and exclusive tickets to premier sporting events and concerts by Abramoff and his associates. ...

Today the Senate, following the House, voted to legalize the right for the government to engage in physical interrogation techniques that most people would consider to be torture and to detain individuals permanently without criminal charges by designating them “unlawful enemy combatants,” even if they are U.S. citizens who have never left the country. As Glenn Greenwald puts it, Congress has legalized tyranny. Both of Arizona’s Senators (John McCain and Jon Kyl) voted for the bill, S. 3930. Arizona’s Representatives voted as follows on the detainment bill, H.R. 6166 (the Senate bill is S. 3930): In favor: Jeff Flake (R-District 6) Trent Franks (R-District 2) J.D. Hayworth (R-District 5) Jim Kolbe (R-District 8) Rick Renzi (R-District 1) John Shadegg (R-District 3) Against: Raul Grijalva (D-District 7) Ed Pastor (D-District 4) Once again, a completely partisan vote in which the Republicans demonstrate their disregard for this constitutional republic. You can find the complete House vote results here. UPDATE September 29, 2006: Ed Brayton has more at Dispatches from the Culture Wars. The founders of this country would have found this grounds for revolution. UPDATE October 1, 2006: I fully expect the courts to overturn this, since the U.S. Constitution allows only two conditions for the temporary suspension of habeas corpus in Article I, Section 9 (“when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it”). It is also worth noting that there is some simplification, above. The designation of “unlawful enemy combatant” (UEC) in the bill is made by “a Combatant Status Review Tribunal or another competent tribunal established under the authority of the President or the Secretary of Defense." Also see Richard Epstein’s testimony to the Senate (PDF) urging them to kill this bill, which they disregarded.

Scottsdale’s City Council passed a zoning ordinance prohibiting private helipads in residential neighborhoods, forcing wealthy helicopter owners to fight street traffic like everyone else.

Judge Michael Eubanks has ruled that Cory Maye’s defense attorney was incompetent at sentencing, which means he’ll get a new sentencing trial. He ruled that she was competent for the trial. There are a number of other defense motions which have not yet been ruled on. Radley Balko reports that he feels like he’s been watching a movie attending the hearings–no doubt this story will become a book or a movie. Also check out Balko’s update on the informant whose testimony caused Maye’s duplex to be raided by police in the first place. ...

The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy has placed anti-drug PSAs on YouTube. You know, those same ads that have been shown to increase drug use? Perhaps they hope that the video replies which YouTube users generate in response will similarly have an effect opposite to their intent? (Via CNN.)

Ed Brayton rightly criticizes the Arizona Civil Liberties Union’s lawsuit to try to prevent Arizona from giving corporate tax credits for donations to organizations that provide private school tuition for students from low-income families. The AzCLU has previously failed in two lawsuits to eliminate the state income tax credit for individual donations to private school tuition organizations. There is no reason to believe this third lawsuit will be anything but a waste of money. As Ed points out, this is not a violation of the establishment clause of the Constitution (or the Arizona Constitution’s prohibition on state funds being used to promote religion) because no state funds are going directly to any religious organization. I support the Institute for Justice on this issue, and this is a reason I’ve never given funds to the AzCLU (though I support the ACLU Foundation). I am a beneficiary of the individual state tax credit–I annually make the maximum qualifying contribution to the Arizona School Choice Trust, which is the single most efficient charity I donate to (100% of donations are distributed as tuition payments for students from low-income families; salaries for employees and administrative overhead are paid by another private organization). UPDATE (June 7, 2007): Judge Janet Barton granted the Institute for Justice’s motion to dismiss this case, back in March. UPDATE (March 12, 2009): The Institute for Justice won this case again today in the Arizona Court of Appeals.

Rep. Rick Renzi (Republican, Arizona District 1) has made the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington’s list of the 20 most corrupt members of Congress. Renzi has engaged in self-dealing, sponsoring legislation that has funneled hundreds of millions of dollars to his father’s business, ManTech International of Fairfax, VA. His father is an executive vice president at ManTech, which also has offices in Sierra Vista, AZ. A more detailed report on Renzi’s ethical lapses may be found here (PDF). The other Congressmen on the list, with links to more information: Sen. Conrad Burns (R-MT) Sen. Bill Frist (R-TN) Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) Rep. Roy Blunt (R-MO) Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA) Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA) Rep. Tom Feeney (R-FL) Rep. Katherine Harris (R-FL) Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA) Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA) Rep. Gary Miller (R-CA) Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-WV) Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R-CO) Rep. Richard Pombo (R-CA) Rep. Rick Renzi (R-AZ) Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX) Rep. John Sweeney (R-NY) Rep. Charles Taylor (R-NC) Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) Rep. Curt Weldon (R-PA)Rep. J.D. Hayworth (Republican, Arizona District 5) makes a “dishonorable mention” for his Jack Abramoff connections and payment of $145,212 to his wife through his PAC. Hayworth’s report may be found here (PDF). Rep. Chris Cannon (R-UT) Rep. Dennis Hastert (R-IL) Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R-AZ) Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) Rep. Don Sherwood (R-PA) Hat tip to Dispatches from the Culture Wars.

The Covington & Burling defense team has tracked down (via private investigator) the anonymous informant who caused the police raid on the duplex Cory Maye lived in. The account he gave the PI is significantly different than the account he gave officer Ron Jones which prompted the raid, and the informant appears to be an angry bigot. Cory Maye is a black man in Missouri whose door was kicked in in the middle of the night in a no-knock raid, who killed Officer Jones in the raid. Maye was found guilty of murder and sentenced to death even though the prosecution’s account contained inconsistencies, there was no legitimate reason for Maye’s apartment in the duplex to be raided, and Maye says he did not know the person breaking into his apartment was a police officer–he thought he was defending himself and his young daughter. There have been many posts on this blog, mostly referring to the excellent work by Radley Balko, who first brought this case to public attention. Wikipedia now has a pretty good entry on Cory Maye, and there is a website, www.mayeisinnocent.com.

In 2000, an article about “The Secret FISA Court: Rubber Stamping Our Rights” created outrage and prompted comments like this: This is beyond frightening. Thank you for this find. This does not bode well for continued freedom. Franz Kafka would have judged this too wild to fictionalize. But for us - it’s real. and this: Any chance of Bush rolling some of this back? It sounds amazing on its face.But today, when there’s warrantless NSA surveillance that makes the FISA Court look like significant judicial oversight, the comments are like this: Privacy is a false argument and has been for some time. Your insurance company and the credit bureaus have more on you than the feds do and you can do nothing about it. I would rather be secure knowing that the feds were looking over my shoulder and keeping me safe. I have nothing to hide, and in times of war, these steps are necessary.So when Clinton engages in eavesdropping (rubber stamped by the FISA Court), it’s a threat to the republic, but when Bush does it (without any judicial oversight), it’s no problem. Hat tip to Gene Healy at Cato, by way of The Agitator. ...