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Latest Articles: U.S. Constitution
She called 911 because someone in her yard was on drugs. Police shot her service dog. (Another Innocent Drug War Victim) [Full Thread]
Post Date: 2017-04-20 11:09:45 by Deckard
41 Comments
A 2-year-old service dog in training named Crios is dead in Pueblo, Colorado, having been shot several times by police early Friday morning. That much is certain. But while the Pueblo Police Department maintains that its officer acted appropriately to defend himself from “serious injury,” the dog’s owner is accusing the officer of using excessive force and escalating the situation, according to local media reports. Leslie Hanson, who told the Colorado Springs Gazette that she suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, reportedly awoke Friday at around 5 a.m. to noise in her front yard. Thinking someone was trying to break in, she told the Gazette she had the gun she owns ...
Officer Feelgood, Meet the Constitution
Post Date: 2017-04-14 06:18:42 by Deckard
0 Comments
Cops who stop motorists to give them stuff are abusing their power.When Officer Cameron Burke pulled over Jenna Rodgers, a student at Warwick High School in Lititz, Pennsylvania, and told her she had exceeded the speed limit by 15 miles an hour, she was confused because she knew she hadn't. It turned out the traffic stop had been arranged by her boyfriend, Collin Kauffman, who approached her car holding a sign that said, "You're under arrest if you don't say yes. Prom?"Whether Kauffman's promposal strikes you as charming or alarming will depend on your attitude toward police and the restrictions imposed on them by the Constitution. Although everyone involved ...
Five Crucial Cases Gorsuch Will Help Decide
Post Date: 2017-04-10 12:33:03 by Tooconservative
0 Comments
Neil Gorsuch was sworn in as the Supreme Court’s long-awaited ninth justice at roughly 11 a.m. on Monday morning — now he will jump immediately into the legal fray on a slew of consequential upcoming cases. Here are several of the most important cases to be heard in the next year, in which his fifth vote could flip what could otherwise have been a 4-4 decision: Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia v. Comer Gorsuch will hear this case’s oral arguments on April 19, just a little over a week after he is sworn in. This is the last major case the court will consider before the 2016-2017 term ends. The Missouri Department of Natural Resources (DNR) awarded ...
Here’s The 10 Step Process to Engage The Senate’s ‘Nuclear Option’
Post Date: 2017-04-05 22:59:25 by Tooconservative
6 Comments
Unless something changes in the next few hours, it appears that at least 41 Democrats, according to The Washington Post and other media outlets, will attempt to block the nomination of Neil Gorsuch on the Senate floor. That could potentially cause Republicans to trigger the so-called "nuclear option" and vote to kill the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees. That number is key in Congress' 100-member upper chamber, where 60 votes are required to do pretty much anything (except appoint federal judges to courts other than the Supreme Court, but more on that in a minute). If Republicans can't get 60 votes to close off debate on Gorsuch's nomination, Democrats would be ...
DEA Seized $4 Billion From People Since 2007. Most Were Never Charged with a Crime
Post Date: 2017-03-30 05:34:37 by Deckard
1 Comments
A new government watchdog report finds the DEA grabs cash just for the sake of grabbing cash, raising civil liberties concerns.The Drug Enforcement Administration seized more than $4 billion in cash from people suspected of drug activity over the last decade, but $3.2 billion of those seizures were never connected to any criminal charges. A report by the Justice Department Inspector General released Wednesday found that the DEA's gargantuan amount of cash seizures often didn't relate to any ongoing criminal investigations, and 82 percent of seizures it reviewed ended up being settled administratively—that is, without any judicial review—raising civil liberties concerns. In ...
Robert Barnes: Can Trump Legally Stop Sanctuary Cities? Yes. Remember Brown v. Board of Education
Post Date: 2017-03-28 09:05:22 by cranky
3 Comments
Over 100 jurisdictions, from Manhattan to Malibu, refuse to assist federal law enforcement in their immigration law enforcement duties, especially as to criminal aliens arrested for crimes here in the United States but released before federal law enforcement can detain and deport. These governments labeled themselves “sanctuary” cities, but a better label would be secessionist cities. Two means of redress and remedy exist: first, the current path, of defunding sanctuary cities, a path much more legally perilous, but well-founded in the same doctrine that integrated American society; and second, an alternative, complimentary path of funding law-abiding cities with aid to enforce ...
Trump shifts blame to Freedom Caucus
Post Date: 2017-03-27 09:13:34 by Gatlin
18 Comments
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Sunday attacked conservative lawmakers for the failure of the Republican bill to replace former President Barack Obama's health care law, as aides signaled a greater willingness to work with moderate Democrats on upcoming legislative battles from the budget and tax cuts to health care. On Twitter, Trump complained: "Democrats are smiling in D.C. that the Freedom Caucus, with the help of Club For Growth and Heritage, have saved Planned Parenthood & Ocare!" The Freedom Caucus is a hard-right group of more than 30 GOP House members who were largely responsible for blocking the bill to undo the Affordable Care Act, or ...
Kansas Supreme Court Rules That a Reclined Car Seat Is Suspicious Behavior & Can Be Used by Police as a Justification for Warrantless Searches
Post Date: 2017-03-22 06:32:10 by Deckard
1 Comments
TOPEKA, Kan. — Declaring that motorists who recline their car seats are guilty of suspicious behavior, the Kansas Supreme Court has given police the green light to carry out warrantless searches of cars in which the seats are in a reclined position and plastic baggies are visible. The ruling in State v. Howard follows in the wake of other court rulings in recent years upholding warrantless searches and seizures by police for such “suspicious” behavior as having acne scars, driving with a stiff upright posture, having car windows that are too heavily tinted, driving too fast, driving too slow, failing to maintain speed, following too closely, improper lane changes, distracted ...
ADL announces plans for Silicon Valley center to combat hate online (“command center”)
Post Date: 2017-03-14 18:39:03 by Hondo68
3 Comments
Jonathan Greenblatt (Courtesy of the ADL) (JTA) — The Anti-Defamation League will build a Silicon Valley “command center” to combat online hate speech and harassment, the group’s CEO announced. Jonathan Greenblatt made the announcement Sunday at the South by Southwest music and media festival in Austin, Texas. He said the ADL secured seed funding for the project from Omidyar Network, a self-styled “philanthropic investment firm” started by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar. “Now more than ever as anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, racism, and other hatreds have exploded online, it’s critical that we are bringing best-in-class technology and resources to this ...
Do Apes Deserve ‘Personhood’ Rights? Lawyer Heads to N.Y. Supreme Court to Make Case
Post Date: 2017-03-12 20:23:11 by cranky
17 Comments
When Steve Wise first started out as an animal rights lawyer, people used to bark at him when he entered a courtroom. For more than 25 years, Wise has been arguing that animals who have cognitive complexities similar to humans should be legally endowed with basic rights of autonomy. Now when he enters a courtroom, no one is barking. On Thursday, Wise — who founded the Nonhuman Rights Project on behalf of the great apes, cetaceans and elephants — will go before the appellate division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York in Manhattan and argue that two of his clients, chimpanzees Kiko and Tommy, should be afforded the rights of "personhood." ...
US spies still won't tell Congress the number of Americans caught in dragnet
Post Date: 2017-03-11 18:18:00 by Hondo68
4 Comments
Electronic surveillance programs Prism, Upstream hang in the congressional balance.Enlarge / A page from a classified PowerPoint presentation highlighting two US surveillance programs disclosed by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.The Guardian In 2013, a National Security Agency contractor named Edward Snowden revealed US surveillance programs that involved the massive and warrantless gathering of Americans' electronic communications. Two of the programs, called Upstream and Prism, are allowed under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. That section expires at year's end, and President Donald Trump's administration, like his predecessor's administration, ...
Supreme Court Won't Hear Case, But Justice Thomas Questions Constitutionality Of Asset Forfeiture
Post Date: 2017-03-09 13:58:07 by Deckard
19 Comments
from the about-freaking-time dept We've been writing about the sheer insanity of asset forfeiture for many, many years. If you happen to have missed it, civil asset forfeiture is the process by which the government can just take your stuff by arguing that it must have been the proceeds of criminal activity. They literally file a lawsuit against your stuff, not you. And, here's the real kicker: in most places, they never have to file any lawsuits about the actual crime, let alone get a conviction. They just get to take your stuff, say that it must have been the proceeds of a crime, and unless you go through the insanely expensive and burdensome process of demanding it back, they ...
Confederate Couple will spend 28 years in prison for terrorizing family
Post Date: 2017-02-28 09:42:01 by Willie Green
13 Comments
DOUGLAS COUNTY, Ga. - A young couple was sentenced to prison for their part in a racially charged crime. Both wept as the sentences were handed down. "Their actions were motivated by racial hatred," said Superior Court Judge William McClain. A Douglas County judge sentenced the defendants to a year longer in prison than the state was seeking: 13 years for Jose Torres and 6 years for Kayla Norton. The couple, who have three children, was part of a larger group in July 2015 called Respect the Flag. Their convoy of trucks, flying the Confederate battle flag, pulled up to a birthday party for an 8-year-old black child. Channel 2 Action News spoke to a woman who was at the ...
Ginsburg offers praise for...Neil Gorsuch?
Post Date: 2017-02-24 11:56:44 by Tooconservative
0 Comments
If a few kind words about a passing encounter could be considered significant, then yeah, the doyenne of the liberal wing of the Supreme Court praised the next justice. In reality, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg offered nothing more than a few personal bon mots about Neil Gorsuch, Donald Trump’s nominee to join the panel. Despite the attempts late yesterday to spin this as something more significant, Ginsburg got a few laughs from how insubstantial her observations on Gorsuch are: As for the new Supreme Court nominee, Judge Neil Gorsuch, Ginsburg didn’t have much to say. “I know him I’ve worked with him. And I think he’s very easy to get along with. He ...
Supreme Court Hears Case on Fatal Border Shooting
Post Date: 2017-02-22 20:52:48 by cranky
11 Comments
How a U.S. Border Patrol argent’s use of lethal force at the U.S-Mexican border implicates constitutional rights and foreign affairs dominated arguments at the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday in Hernandez v. Mesa. The lawyer arguing that the agent should be held liable had a rough day in front of the justices. Both sides agree that while standing on American soil at the border on June 7, 2010, Border Patrol Agent Jesus Mesa fatally shot Sergio Hernandez, a 15-year-old Mexican national standing on the Mexican side. But then the factual accounts diverge. According to Hernandez’s family, the teenager was playing with his friends near the border opposite El Paso, Texas, where the ...
Pro-Pot Student Group Wins 1A Fight With Meddling School Admins, State GOP
Post Date: 2017-02-14 18:47:21 by Hondo68
7 Comments
Court says Iowa State University discriminated against student marijuana-policy group based on "political pushback." NORML ISU/Facebook A win for free-speech and marijuana-decriminalization advocates from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. On Monday, a three-judge panel ruled in favor the student chapter of National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) at Iowa State University (ISU), which had been banned from using ISU trademarks on much of its promotional material after drug prohibitionists in state politics complained. ISU generally grants student groups the right to use ISU insignia, logos, and other trademarks (such as the words "ISU" ...
Assaulting Police Officer Would Be A Federal Crime Under Trump Proposal
Post Date: 2017-02-14 04:41:11 by Gatlin
1 Comments
A proposal to categorize attacks on Chicago police officers as hate crimes has stalled in the City Council. CHICAGO — After calling out rising crime in Chicago six times since taking office, President Donald Trump moved to make assaulting a police officer a federal crime. In a series of executive orders signed by the president just after former Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions was sworn in as attorney general, Trump ordered his new top law enforcement officer to figure out how to use federal laws to "prosecute individuals who commit or attempt to commit crimes of violence against ... law enforcement officers." In Chicago, a similar proposal — known as the "Blue Lives ...
Jeff Sessions says if Americans don’t want him to enforce marijuana laws, they should change them [Full Thread]
Post Date: 2017-02-11 12:27:59 by misterwhite
80 Comments
If the American people are worried about freshly confirmed Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ approach to enforcing federal marijuana laws, he says they should get Congress to change them. During his Senate confirmation hearing back in January, Sessions answered questions on marijuana among other issues, but didn’t offer a definitive stance on what marijuana enforcement would look like under his justice department. “I won’t commit to never enforcing federal law, [Sen. Patrick Leahy], but absolutely it’s a problem of resources for the federal government,” Sessions said. “Good judgement on how to handle these cases will be a responsibility of mine, which ...
Ninth Circuit Court Now Demands It Be Protected From Itself…
Post Date: 2017-02-11 10:10:44 by Stoner
0 Comments
Oh, the winning… it’s often too funny. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals is now independently, on its own impetus, requesting an internal vote on a full panel en banc hearing to review its own decision. Additionally, the full ninth are asking the Trump administration to file an additional brief telling the court why the three member original appeals ruling authority was wrong. In essence, the smart judges know what wasn’t considered, and are now looking for an out. You just can’t make this stuff up. Prior to expanding the conversation, allow us to set the current stage with a few tweet optics: 9th-circuit-29th-circuit-3 Sorry, I could not get the pics of the ...
Judges Declare Judges Can Grant Immigration Visas, Even When Elected President Disagrees
Post Date: 2017-02-10 09:34:39 by cranky
6 Comments
Judges in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in California are opening a new immigration route for foreigners, which would bypass the federal agencies’ sole authority to approve or decline foreigners’ immigration or entry into the U.S. The new route is created by the Feb. 9 decision which blocks the White House’s very popular reform of immigration rules. If upheld by the Supreme Court later this year, the new declaration would allow overseas foreigners — including those hostile to the United States — to hire lawyers to persuade judges to grant them visas, residency permits and eventually citizenship. That courtroom route would bypass denials or approvals from the ...
Trump Must Break Judicial Power
Post Date: 2017-02-10 07:08:59 by Stoner
1 Comments
Friday - February 10, 2017 "Disheartening and demoralizing," wailed Judge Neil Gorsuch of President Trump's comments about the judges seeking to overturn his 90-day ban on travel to the U.S. from the Greater Middle East war zones. What a wimp. Did our future justice break down crying like Sen. Chuck Schumer? Sorry, this is not Antonin Scalia. And just what horrible thing had our president said? A "so-called judge" blocked the travel ban, said Trump. And the arguments in court, where 9th Circuit appellate judges were hearing the government's appeal, were "disgraceful." "A bad student in high school would have understood the arguments ...
Ninth Circuit Claims Unprecedented Power, Affirms Ban on Immigration EO
Post Date: 2017-02-09 23:09:08 by cranky
6 Comments
San Francisco’s federal appeals court asserted a novel theory on Thursday to claim jurisdiction over the legal challenge to Executive Order 13769, affirming the lower court’s order halting President Trump’s temporary travel-restriction policy. Federal appeals courts lack jurisdiction to review a district court’s temporary restraining order (TRO), which is a stop-gap measure that lasts for 14 days or less (unless extended) in extreme circumstances when a court does not even have the time to hold expedited hearings on the legal merits of a lawsuit. Judge James Robart from the Western District of Washington issued a TRO to block President Trump’s executive order. The ...
Neil Gorsuch Sympathizes With Drug Dealers
Post Date: 2017-02-07 07:30:44 by Deckard
12 Comments
The SCOTUS nominee plumbs the peculiarities of prohibition in cases involving imitation pot and medical marijuana.In his 2006 book about assisted suicide, Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch takes issue with the "libertarian principle" that requires legalization of the practice. The same principle, Gorsuch argues, would also require the government to allow "any act of consensual homicide," including "sadomasochist killings, mass suicide pacts...duels, and the sale of one's life (not to mention the use of now illicit drugs, prostitution, or the sale of one's organs)." That's right: If the government lets people kill themselves, it might also have to ...
Mythical inalienable rights.? [Full Thread]
Post Date: 2017-02-06 03:25:38 by tpaine
56 Comments
Nolu Chan has just posted another rather remarkable claim. (It is an) --- insufferable claim that RKBA is an inalienable right given by God Almighty hisself. The Constitution recognizes capital punishment which takes away all rights, including the mythical inalienable rights. nolu chan posted on 2017-02-06 Poster Comment:Any comments?
"Armed" is Same as "Armed and Dangerous" When it Comes to Police Searches, 4th Circuit Concludes
Post Date: 2017-02-03 23:51:12 by Hondo68
17 Comments
Opinion from 4th Circuit Court of Appeals implies that exercising your Second Amendment rights means you inherently lose some of your Fourth and First Amendment rights. A decision last week in U.S. v. Robinson from the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals declared that being armed, even legally, is the same as being "armed and dangerous" and leaves you open to police search. It also implies, according to a concurring opinion, that gun carriers lose significant First Amendment as well as Fourth Amendment rights. John Biehler/Foter Shaquille Robinson in March 2014 was a passenger in a car pulled over by police in Ranson, West Virginia. It was pulled over, ostensibly, because driver and ...
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