An unsuspecting mother was accused by hospital staff taking part in a security exercise of stealing a baby from a ward as she left the building with her new daughter.

Clare Bowker, 37, was confronted by staff as she got into her car outside Good Hope Hospital in Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands [U.K.]. She was asked to accompany them to the maternity unit with Hannah, her seven-week-old baby, and her other daughter Holly, then four, where she was told a baby had been snatched. Mrs Bowker was questioned by police and her bag searched to verify her identity.
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A distressed Mrs Bowker was allowed to leave the hospital after 40 minutes, still believing the situation was real.
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The Good Hope Hospital Trust has agreed to pay her undisclosed compensation, believed to be a five-figure sum, to cover her suffering and loss of earnings.

To claim that Guantanamo, with all its military accoutrements -- its guns, cells, guns, barbed-wire fences, guns, guard dogs, guns, etc. -- is not "United States territory" is such a joke as to bring into doubt the competence of the judges concluding as much. It boggles the mind.

The United States has maintained complete and uninterrupted control of the bay for over 100 years. ... Yet the Government's view is that the Constitution had no effect there, at least as to noncitizens, because the United States disclaimed sovereignty in the formal sense of the term. The necessary implication of the argument is that by surrendering formal sovereignty over any unincorporated territory to a third party, while at the same time entering into a lease that grants total control over the territory back to the United States, it would be possible for the political branches to govern without legal constraint. Our basic charter cannot be contracted away like this.

If you are a textualist (like me), then the [MCA's] revocation of habeas corpus is patently unconstitutional[.] No amount of sophistry can change the fact that we do not currently face "rebellion or invasion." Even 9/11 was not an "invasion." The Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are not "invasions." This is not a difficult concept.

Historically, Congress has taken care to avoid suspensions of the writ. ... In contrast, Congress intended the DTA and the MCA to circumscribe habeas review, as is evident from the unequivocal nature of MCA §7's jurisdiction-stripping language, from the DTA's text limiting the Court of Appeals' jurisdiction to assessing whether the CSRT complied with the "standards and procedures specified by the Secretary of Defense," ... and from the absence of a saving clause in either Act.

It immunizes government officials for past war crimes; it cuts the United States off from its obligations under the Geneva Conventions; and it all but eliminates access to civilian courts for non-citizens -- including permanent residents whose children are citizens -- that the government, in its nearly unreviewable discretion, determines to be unlawful enemy combatants.

• the availability to parents of built-in content filters


• the fact that U.S. law cannot reach online porn posted overseas anyway


• the fact that COPA "does not cover chat rooms, You Tube and other interactive sites that emerged in the last decade"

In the short walk across stage, Joseph Bryan Shore, 18, elicited more than boos when he allegedly cursed out his family and flipped the bird to the crowd, according to authorities. Immediately after the [high school graduation] ceremony, two police officers took him into custody and charged him with disorderly conduct.
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The principal of Arab City High School, Patrick Crowder, said he regretted the incident but that he had no choice other than to have Shore arrested.

Newark Public Schools has settled a lawsuit filed by a former student who claimed he couldn't attend his graduation from West Side High School because it was held in the sanctuary of a local Baptist Church.

Bilal Shareef, a Muslim student, said his religious faith prohibited him from entering a building with religious icons, such as pictures of God or images of the cross. He skipped the ceremony held at New Hope Baptist Church in June 2006.
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The district also agreed not to sponsor or promote religious events, not to hold student events in places of worship and not to hold student events in other religious buildings unless religious images are covered.

A high school newspaper in Northern California has been disbanded after it published a front-page photo of a student burning an American flag, triggering criticism that the administration was stifling free expression.
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The Redding controversy is the latest example in recent years of high school and college administrators in California attempting to censure [sic] student-run newspapers or punish those who oversee them.

New York City police detectives and Secret Service agents briefly detained and questioned an artist on Wednesday morning as he installed an exhibition with the title, "The Assassination of Hillary Clinton / The Assassination of Barack Obama."

The artist, Yazmany Arboleda, tried to set up the exhibition in a vacant storefront at 264 West 40th Street in Midtown Manhattan, and had finished stenciling letters of the title on the plate glass windows at street level.
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"I'm renting that space; the space was allocated for an exhibition, and it's my right to put those words up," he said. "They said it could incite someone to do something crazy, like break the window. It's terrible, because they’re violating my rights. If someone breaks a window, they're committing a crime."

He added: "The exhibition is supposed to be about character assassination. It's philosophical and metaphorical."

Speaking to reporters around noon, Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said Mr. Arboleda had been questioned because the police wanted to determine his motives. "Obviously, they could be interpreted as advocating harm to protectees," Mr. Kelly said.

[T]he constitutional guarantees of free speech and free press do not permit a State to forbid or proscribe advocacy of the use of force or of law violation except where such advocacy is directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action and is likely to incite or produce such action.

This isn't shouting "Fire!" in a crowded theater — this is yelling "Theater!" in a crowded fire.

D.C. police will seal off entire neighborhoods, set up checkpoints and kick out strangers under a new program that D.C. officials hope will help them rescue the city from its out-of-control violence.

Under an executive order expected to be announced today, police Chief Cathy L. Lanier will have the authority to designate "Neighborhood Safety Zones." At least six officers will man cordons around those zones and demand identification from people coming in and out of them. Anyone who doesn't live there, work there or have "legitimate reason" to be there will be sent away or face arrest, documents obtained by The Examiner show.

A college student whose friend was being questioned in a hit and run found himself charged with assaulting an officer with a curious choice of weapons: M&Ms.

Sean McGuire was arrested early Sunday at a convenience store after Drake University security guards noticed the colored candies falling on the ground around the officer. When the officer turned around, an M&M hit his shoulder, according to a police report.

McGuire claimed he threw the candy because he was "sticking up for his friend," who apparently was the man suspected in the accident, the report states.

Okay, throwing M&Ms at anyone is uncalled for. Throwing them at a cop is just stupid. But, this college student winding up in jail, and having to post a $1,000 bond for throwing candy? What was this all about? Was it really about "assault," or was it a case of "you must respect my authoritah!"

Why does it have to be a question of "respect my authoritah" rather than one of not being a law-breaking jerk by throwing stuff at people?

Last time I checked, respecting people's space and bodily integrity was one of the higher-ranking libertarian tenets. If that's changed, then I didn't get the memo.

I know many libertarians like to pretend that all police are unstable maniacs just waiting for an excuse to don their jackboots and charge up their tasers. And a few are.

But sometimes people simply break the law — sometimes quite stupidly, immaturely or obnoxiously — and if they get caught, they get caught.

Sympathy is a scarce resource, and I don't squander it on fools.

The dean fails to address the underlying question: Do Yoo's memos prove, or even suggest, that he is fundamentally unfit to teach law?

Reasonable minds may disagree on that question, but no reasonable person is entitled to assert that "tenure," "due process" or "the First Amendment" have anything to do with the answer.

I agree with Dean Edley on two key points. First, John Yoo is entitled to his legal views, however eccentric, radical and harmful to our democracy. The academic community benefits from the presence of the philosophical outlier. It sharpens debate, and can furnish us with a reminder of the fundamental values which the outlier disparages.

Only yesterday, I learned from one prominent figure that he had seen repeated drafts of the March 2003 Yoo opinion, had cautioned Yoo on serious errors in judgment and interpretation in the memo, and had strongly urged modification of the memo at least to reflect the contrary viewpoint, even if only to distinguish it. Yoo insisted that he wanted it to be "clean." He declined to make any of the changes requested.

Similarly, Yoo was warned repeatedly that his views could not be squared with the overwhelming majority viewpoint in the community of law of war scholarship, and that the risk of criminal prosecution of those implementing his policies was severe.

[I]f, through no subterfuge of my own (i.e., I did not lie my way onto the jury), I suddenly found myself serving as a juror and witnessing a manifestly unjust prosecution (which would more likely involve wrongful conduct by the prosecutor or judge than a "bad law"), then I might very well vote to nullify the trial. But that is an altogether different question from traditional jury nullification of a law.

Maverick Brooklyn federal Judge Jack Weinstein issued the ruling in a child-porn case over which he presided -- chastising himself for not telling the jury that the defendant faced a minimum five-year sentence before it found him guilty.

The drastic ruling says juries should be told what sentences certain criminals face, especially if the prison terms are particularly long.

It attempts to reverse the long-standing rule that jurors not be given sentencing information so they can decide guilt or innocence, without letting the potential punishment color their thinking.

In a legal victory for the tobacco industry, a federal appeals court on Thursday threw out an $800 billion class-action lawsuit on behalf of smokers who said they were misled that light cigarettes were safer than regular ones.

Plaintiffs' lawyers had wanted to represent potentially millions of people across the country who had smoked light cigarettes, but the court found that it was impossible to tell why smokers chose light cigarettes, so the group could not be treated as a class. Instead, smokers will have to sue individually.

"Individualized proof is needed to overcome the possibility that a member of the purported class purchased lights for some other reason than the belief that lights were a healthier alternative," the ruling said.

The court decision was a setback for lawyers who thought that the ruling approving the class, issued by Federal District Judge Jack B. Weinstein in Brooklyn in September 2006, could have opened a new avenue for litigation against the tobacco industry, exposing cigarette companies to potentially large damages.

At around 2 p.m. yesterday, a Zimbabwean police unit raided the York Lodge, a Harare hotel being used by several foreign reporters covering the elections. Five journalists were arrested. Three of them were later released, but two are still being held at Harare police headquarters. One of them is New York Times correspondent Barry Bearak.

Their lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa, said they would be charged ... with working without accreditation in violation of a 2002 press law known as the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, under which journalists can be sentenced to up to two years in prison for working without a permit from Media and Information Commission (MIC).

The inner circle of President Robert G. Mugabe of Zimbabwe met Friday to decide how to handle the outcome of elections that the opposition contends the president lost.

The options that confront the senior leadership of the ruling party include having the president step down, holding a runoff vote later this month or prolonging their control over the country, regardless of the outcome national elections last Saturday.
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Before the election, Mr. Mugabe repeatedly said he would not allow the opposition to take power, and since then his aides have said that he "is going to fight to the last."

The orderly transfer of authority as called for in the Constitution routinely takes place as it has for almost two centuries and few of us stop to think how unique we really are. In the eyes of many in the world, this every-4-year ceremony we accept as normal is nothing less than a miracle.

Mr. President, I want our fellow citizens to know how much you did to carry on this tradition. By your gracious cooperation in the transition process, you have shown a watching world that we are a united people pledged to maintaining a political system which guarantees individual liberty to a greater degree than any other, and I thank you and your people for all your help in maintaining the continuity which is the bulwark of our Republic.

Put succinctly, the president cannot be the commander-in-chief of an army if Congress doesn't give him that army in the first place.

The memo cites numerous other, as-yet-unreleased memos that appear to contain equally outrageous legal analysis. (Recall Jack Goldsmith writing about Pat Philbin presenting him with a "short stack" of egregious memos.) Those memos should be released immediately. More importantly, I think Congress should strongly consider NOT CONSIDERING ANY ADMINISTRATION LEGISLATIVE PROPOSALS UNTIL ALL OF THE MEMOS HAVE BEEN DISCLOSED AND (APPROPRIATELY) REPUDIATED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE. There is simply no excuse for Congress to have allowed itself to be manipulated like this, and to be kept in the dark about the extent to which the Administration has ignored legislative statutes and treaties. They must use some of the leverage at their disposal.

In wartime, it is for the president alone to decide what methods to use to best prevail against the enemy. (Page 5)

After verifying the tire was not in fact defective, the officer detained the driver, because among other things, the driver had a religious statue on his dashboard. The officer stated that in his experience and opinion, religious symbols are used to dispel suspicion of wrongdoing and are usually indicative of drug activity.

The Court finds that religious symbols cannot be used to generate reasonable suspicion of drug dealing or criminality. To do so, violates religious rights secured by the First Amendment and consequently, the Fourth Amendment. After removing the impermissible element of the religious symbol from the officer's reasonable suspicion calculation, the Court finds the remaining factors do not rise to the level of warranting extending the detention.

Because reasonable suspicion did not exist to extend the stop, once the officer realized a violation had not been committed, the purpose of the stop was fulfilled, and anything thereafter controverted Defendant's Fourth Amendment rights. Therefore, the Court grants Defendant's Motion to Suppress.

--Arrive late at night?

--Arrive early in the morning?

--One of first to deplane?

--One of last to deplane?

--Deplane in the middle?

--Use a one-way ticket?

--Use a round-trip ticket?

--Carry brand-new luggage?

--Carry a small gym bag?

--Travel alone?

--Travel with a companion?

--Act too nervous?

--Act too calm?

--Wear expensive clothing and gold jewelry?

--Wear black corduroys, white pullover shirt, loafers without socks?

--Wear dark slacks, work shirt, and hat?

--Wear brown leather aviator jacket, gold chain, hair down to shoulders?

--Wear loose-fitting sweatshirt and denim jacket?

--Walk rapidly through airport?

--Walk aimlessly through airport?

--Fly in to Washington National Airport on the LaGuardia Shuttle?

--Have a white handkerchief in your hand?

Unless you are truly devoid of moral reasoning, there must be some level of unjustness at which you will abandon the law to avoid complicity in unconscionable evil.

These events offer a window into a much larger phenomenon, the National Surveillance State, in which the state increasingly identifies and solves problems of governance through the collection, collation and analysis of information. Governments have always used information, but today's techniques are made more powerful and more prevalent by lower costs of computing and data storage.
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If computing power increases enough, there is no reason why governments might not lower the threshold for reporting of suspicious transactions, or, indeed, require that every transaction over 100 dollars be reported. All this information could later be sifted through by data mining programs, in order to spot patterns of suspicious activity. The only limit is the technology and the manpower that law enforcement is willing to devote to analysis of financial transactions.

A Cole County deputy tasered an angry parent twice Thursday morning when he refused to leave a middle school, Sheriff Greg White said.

Ricky Campbell, 43, was arrested on suspicion of trespassing, peace disturbance and resisting arrest.

At about 8:10 a.m., Cole County School Resource Officer Joe Essen received a call regarding an angry parent at Russellville Middle School.

Essen attempted to arrest Campbell when he refused to leave, but he resisted, White said.

The deputy then deployed his Taser.

Lawyer Scott Agulnick said Jaden Diaz and Christopher Brito -- both then 4 and students at CS 211, The Bilingual School -- told their parents that a substitute teacher took them and another boy to an empty classroom on Nov. 17, 2006, and left them there alone.

Soon, the lawyer said, the school-safety officer entered the room, cuffed the boys' wrists -- and further terrified them by telling they that they would never see their parents again.
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"He was police," Jaden said. "He said, 'You know what happens when you don't go to sleep in there? ... 'When you go to jail, you're not going to have no fun, no TV, no toys.'"

According to current and former intelligence officials, the [NSA] now monitors huge volumes of records of domestic emails and Internet searches as well as bank transfers, credit-card transactions, travel and telephone records. The NSA receives this so called "transactional" data from other agencies or private companies, and its sophisticated software programs analyze the various transactions for suspicious patterns. Then they spit out leads to be explored by counterterrorism programs across the U.S. government, such as the NSA's own Terrorist Surveillance Program, formed to intercept phone calls and emails between the U.S. and overseas without a judge's approval when a link to al Qaeda is suspected.
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A number of NSA employees have expressed concerns that the agency may be overstepping its authority by veering into domestic surveillance. And the constitutional question of whether the government can examine such a large array of information without violating an individual's reasonable expectation of privacy "has never really been resolved," said Suzanne Spaulding, a national-security lawyer who has worked for both parties on Capitol Hill.

The effect of our Court's rulings is that every local robbery of a business in the United States is a federal crime. I acknowledge that the Supreme Court has held that Congress intended to include within the scope of the Hobbs Act* conduct that was already punishable under the state robbery and extortion statutes. However, I cannot believe that this is what the Founding Fathers intended. Moreover, I have harbored the hope that the Supreme Court in Lopez was seeking to restore a proper state-federal balance that gives actual meaning to the term federalism. I also hope that the Supreme Court will consider the issue[.]

At the time of the search, Gant was handcuffed, seated in the back of a locked patrol car, and under the supervision of a police officer. The other two arrestees at the scene were also handcuffed and detained in the back of patrol cars, and the record reflects no unsecured civilians in the vicinity. At least four officers were on the scene. At that point, the police had no reason to believe that anyone at the scene could have gained access to Gant's vehicle or that the officers' safety was at risk. Indeed, one of the officers who searched Gant's car acknowledged at the evidentiary hearing that the scene was secure at the time of the search. Therefore neither a concern for officer safety nor the preservation of evidence justified the warrantless search of Gant's car. Absent either of these Chimel* rationales, the search cannot be upheld as a lawful search incident to arrest.

When the occupant of an automobile is subjected to a lawful custodial arrest, does the constitutionally permissible scope of a search incident to his arrest include the passenger compartment of the automobile in which he was riding? That is the question at issue in the present case.