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Catching Up
Ok, so I was in Germany last week for Oktoberfest (which truly is the best thing in the world ever), so I’m only just now catching up on a week’s worth of headlines and legal hoo-ha’s. Join me, won’t you.
First, there’s the latest bad things about our government. Of course there’s the well covered Mark Foley debacle, including our own call for Hastert’s resignation. But there’s been some other stuff lost in the ruckus. Like the way our Congress sneakily passed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 by attaching it as a rider ot the Safe Port Act of 2006. It’s an awful practice that’s woefully ignored - legislation that might need some discussion and debate (like one about what the true harms are in letting folks gamble online) gets railroaded through Congress by being attached to a bill that can’t possibly be voted down (like one about safe ports). Meanwhile, our Attorney General apparently has such little respect for the court system that he’s arguing that judges should simply defer to the president’s judgment during wartime. Could he be worried about situations like that facing his predecessor, former Attorney General John Ashcroft? An Idaho federal judge has denied immunity to Ashcroft, ruling that he can be sued, individually, with regard to the detention of a U.S. citizen who was allegedly a material witness in a terrorism-related case.
Meanwhile, things are picking up again with the top of the third branch of our federal government, those wacky Supremes. On Monday, they decided to sidestep a first amendment flap involving California attorney Gloria Allred and dinged cert on cases involving a Nazi guard, an ex-Kiss guitarist and Philly newspapers. And then yesterday was the first day of oral arguments for the new term, and the guys and gals heard arguments in interesting cases about deportation and the death penalty. The outcome of both cases should help provide further insight into the overall tone and direction of the new Roberts Court, and Justice Kennedy’s swing vote is going to be the real power play to watch (even though much of the focus so far has been on Scalia’s tequila comment).
Oh, and in response to Attorney General Gonzalez’s stance about judicial independence, Chief Justice Roberts says insulation from political pressure is everything and Justice Alito similarly worries about recent attacks against judicial independence.
We ain’t done catching up, by any stretch of the imagination, but this should be enough to keep you busy for now.
