Daniel Nasaw | Washington | July 1

The Guardian - A US army panel has recommended an Arabic linguist and Iraq veteran be discharged from the military for declaring on television that he is gay.

The army accused Lieutenant Dan Choi, 28, of violating the "don't ask, don't tell" policy that bars homosexuals from serving openly in the military. Choi, a graduate of the elite West Point military academy, served a tour in Iraq as an infantry officer, translator and Arabic language instructor. He announced in March on a popular liberal television chat show that he is gay, setting up a confrontation.

The panel today recommended that the US army withdraw Choi's federal recognition as an officer, a move that would end his military career, said Lieutenant Colonel Paul Fanning, a spokesman for the New York army national guard, Choi's command.

"It is firing based on identity, purely discriminatory based on my identity," Choi said. "If I had said 'no, I'm sorry, I'm actually straight but those statements were a lie and I'm sorry,' then I had a good chance of being retained."

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave, my ass

David Stout | Washington | June 29

NYT - The Supreme Court ruled on Monday, in a case with enormous implications for workplaces across the country, that white firefighters in New Haven suffered unfair discrimination because of their race when the city scrapped the results of a promotional exam.

“The city’s action in discarding the tests violated Title VII,” the court held in a 5-to-4 decision, referring to a section of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The majority said the city’s fundamental arguments were “blatantly contradicted by the record.”

Monday’s decision in Ricci v. DeStefano, No. 07-1428, came on the last day of the court’s term and was one of the most closely watched discrimination cases in years. The ruling is sure to be closely studied by personnel departments and their lawyers for indications of how far employers can go, and under what circumstances, in considering race in decisions on hiring and promotion.

Charlie Savage | Washington | June 23

NYT - On Jan. 23, 1973, when the Supreme Court struck down state criminal abortion laws in Roe v. Wade, President Richard M. Nixon made no public statement. But privately, newly released tapes reveal, he expressed ambivalence.

Nixon worried that greater access to abortions would foster “permissiveness,” and said that “it breaks the family.” But he also saw a need for abortion in some cases, such as interracial pregnancies.

Josh Meyer | Washington | June 23

LA Times - The Bush administration plan to use satellites for domestic surveillance is reportedly axed after state and local officials say they have higher priorities.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has decided to kill a controversial Bush administration program to use U.S. spy satellites to collect domestic intelligence for counter-terrorism, law enforcement and security, a senior Homeland Security official said Monday evening.

The National Applications Office program was established in 2007 to provide up-to-the-minute electronic intelligence to local and state law enforcement. But it has been delayed due to concerns by privacy and civil liberties advocates -- and by some lawmakers -- that it would intrude on Americans' lives.

The senior Homeland Security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the program is classified, said Napolitano had decided to nix it after consulting with state and local law enforcement officials and learning that they had far more pressing priorities than using satellites to collect information and eavesdrop on people.

Jawbone at corrente:

Noting how the MCM* has gone ga-ga over the wonders of Iranians taking to the streets to protest the recent presidential election results, I kept thinking about how the press had covered --or mostly not covered-- Federal investigations of, spying on, and local police actions against protesters at both national political conventions. And, of course, those beatings at some protest marches.

Guess a few thousand miles, and a government not favored by US policy makers, make protesters against that government praiseworthy and admirable. Just don't think about doing it here.

snip

Just days ago, the ACLU of Northern California issued a press release announcing that it had filed a complaint over a Pentagon anti-terrorism training manual. That training manual, aimed at Pentagon personnel, describes domestic protests as "low-level terrorist activity." (Jawbone's emphasis)

Robert Barnes | June 19

WaPo - Prisoners do not have a constitutional right to DNA testing after their conviction, the Supreme Court ruled yesterday, even though the technology provides an “unparalleled ability both to exonerate the wrongly convicted and to identify the guilty.’’

In the court’s first examination of how to treat the rapidly evolving field of biological testing, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote for a majority that said it is up to the states and Congress to decide who has a right to testing that might prove innocence long after conviction.

James Risen & Eric Lichtblau | Washington, DC | June 16

NYT - The National Security Agency is facing renewed scrutiny over the extent of its domestic surveillance program, with critics in Congress saying its recent intercepts of the private telephone calls and e-mail messages of Americans are broader than previously acknowledged, current and former officials said.

The agency’s monitoring of domestic e-mail messages, in particular, has posed longstanding legal and logistical difficulties, the officials said.

John Schwartz | San Francisco | June 13

NYT - The decision issued late Friday by a judge in San Francisco allowing a civil lawsuit to go forward against a former Bush administration official, John C. Yoo, might seem like little more than the removal of a procedural roadblock.

But lawyers for the man suing Mr. Yoo, Jose Padilla, say it provides substantive interpretation of constitutional issues for all detainees and could have a broad impact.

Spencer S. Hsu | Washington, DC | June 14

WaPo - Yielding to a rebellion by states that refused to pay for it, the Obama administration is moving to scale back a federal law passed after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that was designed to tighten security requirements for driver's licenses, Homeland Security Department and congressional officials said.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano wants to repeal and replace the controversial, $4 billion domestic security initiative known as Real ID, which calls for placing more secure licenses in the hands of 245 million Americans by 2017. The new proposal, called Pass ID, would be cheaper, less rigorous and partly funded by federal grants, according to draft legislation that Napolitano's Senate allies plan to introduce as early as tomorrow.

Obama defends DOMA in federal court. Says banning gay marriage is good for the federal budget. Invokes incest and marrying children.

AmericaBlog, By John Aravosis, June 12

Joe and I have been trying since last night to get a copy of the government's brief just filed in this case. This is not the GLAD case that we've written about previously, it's another in California.

We just got the brief from reader Lavi Soloway. It's pretty despicable, and gratuitously homophobic. It reads as if it were written by one of George Bush's top political appointees. I cannot state strongly enough how damaging this brief is to us. Obama didn't just argue a technicality about the case, he argued that DOMA is reasonable. That DOMA is constitutional. That DOMA wasn't motivated by any anti-gay animus. He argued why our Supreme Court victories in Roemer and Lawrence shouldn't be interpreted to give us rights in any other area (which hurts us in countless other cases and battles). He argued that DOMA doesn't discriminate against us because it also discriminates about straight unmarried couples (ignoring the fact that they can get married and we can't).

Carol Rosenberg | Washington, DC | June 5

Miami Herald - Attorneys for 17 Muslims from China locked up inside a prison camp at Guantánamo asked the U.S. Supreme Court Friday to take on the case of the men whom a judge ordered set free eight months ago.

''The historic role of the Judicial Branch is to demand the release of prisoners precisely when the political branches find release inconvenient,'' the 16-page appeal said.

Eric Lichtblau | Washington | June 4

NYT - A federal judge on Wednesday threw out more than three dozen lawsuits claiming that the nation’s major telecommunications companies had illegally assisted in the wiretapping without warrants program approved by President George W. Bush after the 2001 terrorist attacks.

Chief Judge Vaughn R. Walker of Federal District Court in Northern California said that although consumer and privacy groups raised important constitutional issues in their claims, Congress had left no doubt about its “unequivocal intention” when it passed a measure last summer giving immunity to phone carriers in the wiretapping program.

The ruling represents a major victory not only for AT&T and other carriers, which faced potential damages of billions of dollars if they lost the cases, but also for intelligence officials in Washington who had fought assertively in their defense. Officials from both the Bush and the Obama administrations maintained that the cooperation of the phone companies has been vital to national security and that penalizing them for their participation would jeopardize important surveillance operations.

I'm surrounded by hills with olive groves running up the walls. Apricot orchards and orange groves are everywhere.

The water is a deep sapphire blue. There isn't a cloud in the sky. The local wine is wonderful.

I have a deep Aegean tan.

Ephesus was magnificent and the mountain village of Sirince was all too picturesque.

Who gets to live such a life?

Allyn Fisher-Ilan | Jerusalem | May 25

Reuters - Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman's party plans to propose legislation requiring residents to swear loyalty to the Jewish state, a move critics denounced as liable to hamper the rights of Arab citizens.

The ultranationalist Yisrael Beitenu party intends to seek cabinet approval for the bill before presenting it to parliament where it would have to pass three votes and a committee review before taking effect, a party spokesman said on Monday.

The chances of Parliament approving the measure seemed uncertain, though greater than in 2007 when a similar bill presented by Lieberman's deputies failed to pass.

Yisrael Beitenu grew to Israel's third largest political party in a February election, reflecting a shift to the right by the Israeli public.

Lieberman's party is junior partner in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing government, which is more likely to support the legislation.

Party spokesman Tal Nahum said the measure would require all Israelis to declare loyalty "to the state of Israel as a Jewish, Zionist and democratic state" before they can be issued a national identity document. The law requires all Israeli residents over 16 carry their identity cards at all times.

May 23

DPA -
The US government could build a new high security prison to house some of the detainees at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said Friday.

Gates defended President Barack Obama's decision to close Guantanamo and dismissed congressional opposition to bring some of the detainees to prisons on US soil as 'fear-mongering.'

Gates said that federal maximum security prisons - known as 'supermax' facilities - are capable of safely housing some of the 240 detainees currently locked up at Guantanamo.

'The truth is there's a lot of fear-mongering about this,' Gates said in an interview in NBC television. 'We've never had an escape from a super-max prison. And that's where these guys will go. And if not one of the existing ones, we'll create a new one.'

WaPo - President Obama acknowledged publicly for the first time yesterday that some detainees at Guantanamo Bay may have to be held without trial indefinitely, siding with conservative national security advocates on one of the most contentious issues raised by the closing of the military prison in Cuba.

Ian says it best:

In other words, people who have committed no crime which can be proved in a court of law, including the crime of conspiracy, will be held indefinitely without a trial. Note that Obama wants to use military commissions to try some detainees, which means that these detainees can’t be found guilty of anything even under military law.

This is punishment for a thought crime. It is also exactly the same rationale used by the Bush administration.

Obama also said something else which is a continuation of Bush administration excuses:

Transcript of Obama's speech can be read here

Laurie Goodstein | Milwaukee, WI | May 14

NYT - In spring 2002, as the scandal over sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests was escalating, the long career of Archbishop Rembert G. Weakland of Milwaukee, one of the church’s most venerable voices for change, went up in flames one May morning.

On the ABC program “Good Morning America,” the archbishop watched a man he had fallen in love with 23 years earlier say in an interview that the Milwaukee archdiocese had paid him $450,000 years before to keep quiet about his affair with the archbishop — an affair the man was now calling date rape.

The next day, the Vatican accepted Archbishop Weakland’s retirement.

R. Jeffrey Smith | Washington, DC | May 10

WaPo - Investigators Examining Interrogations, Legal Advice

When the Justice Department said seven years ago that CIA interrogators at a secret prison in Thailand could make a suspected al-Qaeda leader fear he was drowning, it prescribed precise limits: Water could be poured from a cup or small watering can onto a saturated cloth covering his mouth and nose, inhibiting breathing for up to 40 seconds. It could be repeated, after allowing three or four full breaths, for up to 20 minutes.

But when the technique was employed on Abu Zubaida and later on 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed and al-Qaeda planner Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the interrogators in several cases applied what the CIA's Office of Inspector General described in a secret 2004 report as "large volumes of water" to the cloths, explaining that their aim was to be more "poignant and convincing," according to a recently declassified Justice Department account.

Ryan J Foley | Madison | May 12

Chicago Tribune - Wisconsin police can attach GPS to cars to secretly track anybody's movements without obtaining search warrants, an appeals court ruled Thursday.

However, the District 4 Court of Appeals said it was "more than a little troubled" by that conclusion and asked Wisconsin lawmakers to regulate GPS use to protect against abuse by police and private individuals.

As the law currently stands, the court said police can mount GPS on cars to track people without violating their constitutional rights -- even if the drivers aren't suspects.

Officers do not need to get warrants beforehand because GPS tracking does not involve a search or a seizure, Judge Paul Lundsten wrote for the unanimous three-judge panel based in Madison.

That means "police are seemingly free to secretly track anyone's public movements with a GPS device," he wrote. (h/t The Daily Dish)

Philippe Naughton | Amman | May 8

The Times of London - Pope Benedict XVI expressed his hope that the Catholic Church could play a part in bringing peace to the Middle East as he arrived today on what he described as a pilgrimage to the Holy Land.

The pontiff started his week-long tour of the region in Jordan, where he is hoping to mend frayed ties with Muslims. He is also due to visit Israel - where he will be protected by 80,000 police and secret service officers - and the Palestinian territories.

Stephanie Condon | Washington | May 8

CBS - In spite of President Obama's declared stance against the "don't-ask-don't-tell" policy that keeps openly gay individuals out of the military, the U.S. Army on Thursday told Lt. Dan Choi he is being dismissed for publicly revealing his homosexuality.

Choi is not the first service member to be dismissed because of his sexuality under the Obama administration, but his dismissal stands out because of his noted skills. Choi is an infantry platoon leader in the New York National Guard who is fluent in Arabic. He graduated West Point and recently returned from Iraq.

Keith B. Richburg | New York | May 7

WaPo - Gay rights advocates celebrated swift and unexpected twin victories in New England on Wednesday when Maine became the fifth state to legalize same-sex marriage and New Hampshire's legislature shortly afterward sent a marriage equality bill to the governor.

If Gov. John Lynch (D) signs the New Hampshire bill or allows it to become law without his signature, New Hampshire will become the sixth state to legalize marriages of same-sex couples, leaving Rhode Island as the only New England holdout.

Hartford, CT | April 23

AP - A decade-long battle for same-sex marriage in Connecticut has ended with the governor's signature on a bill updating the state's laws.

Gov. M. Jodi Rell signed the legislation Thursday, one day after the state House and Senate both approved it.

The bill removes gender references from state marriage laws. It also transforms existing same-sex civil unions into legally recognized marriages as of Oct. 1, 2010.

I remember the day back in late 2001 or early 2002 when I watched Alan Dershowitz on CNN tell the audience that torture might be acceptable under some circumstances. I felt like Alice when she stepped through the looking glass. America was stepping across a bright red line, into the darkness. It broke my heart.

And still, we're asking the wrong questions about torture--meanwhile the newspapers still label it as 'harsh interrogation techniques, like this semantic bullshit means we didn't do something horrible, unspeakable and immoral. Alas, the question still being asked comes in the form of today's New York Times headline story: "At Core of Detainee Fight: Did Methods Stop Attacks?"

That's not the right question or even assumption to debating torture. Torture is immoral and unspeakable under any circumstances. It's efficacy shouldn't even be considered. Why am I such an absolutist about this? Because once we torture we lose our soul. There is nothing left to fight for after that, no brutality that will not be considered or implemented. We are either civilized, enlightened human beings or we are not. The world does not judge us by our intentions, it judges us by our actions.

David G. Savage | Apr 22

LA Times - The ruling limits searches to cases when there may be a weapon within the suspect's reach or evidence related to the arrest. The decision sets aside broader powers granted by the court in 1981.

The Supreme Court put a new limit on police searches of cars Tuesday, saying that "countless individuals guilty of nothing more serious than a traffic violation" have had their vehicles searched in violation of their rights.

In a 5-4 decision, the justices set aside a 1981 opinion that had given police broad authority to search cars whenever they made an arrest.

Instead, the justices said that an arresting officer could search a vehicle only if weapons were potentially in reach of the suspect or if there was reason to believe that the car contained evidence related to the arrest. For example, if the driver was arrested in a drug crime, the car could be searched for drugs.

Justice John Paul Stevens, speaking for the court, said that merely arresting a driver does not "provide a police entitlement" to search the vehicle without a warrant.