Monthly Archives: January 2004

Maj. Mori’s Australian TV Interview

Posted on January 24, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

Further to my earlier item on Major Michael Mori, a helpful Australian reader sent me a link to the transcripot of the Major's interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Hicks lawyer unimpressed with legal process. Sounds like a real good lawyer to me.

Posted in Guantanamo | Comments Off on Maj. Mori’s Australian TV Interview

Brad DeLong Asks a Tough But Important Question

Posted on January 23, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

Cheney: Underbriefed, Insane, or Senile?.

We are reduced to a world in which the nicest possible answer has become “mendacious, contemptuous of democracy, and very, very cyncial.”

Posted in Politics: US | Comments Off on Brad DeLong Asks a Tough But Important Question

Hunting Where the Ducks Are

Posted on January 23, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

Nice to see that a couple of US Senators know how to go hunting where the ducks are. Via my brother's White House Briefing I lern that Leahy And Lieberman Query High Court On Ethics Of Scalia Vacation With Cheney. And well they should.

In a letter dated January 22, 2004, the two ranking committee members inquired about Supreme Court “canons, procedures and rules” on whether justices should recuse themselves from cases in which “their impartiality might reasonably be questioned.”

“When a sitting judge, poised to hear a case involving a particular litigant, goes on vacation with that litigant, reasonable people will question whether that judge can be a fair and impartial adjudicator of that man’s case or his opponent’s claims,” the Senators wrote.

According to news reports, Scalia joined Cheney on a hunting trip for several days earlier this month just three weeks after the Supreme Court agreed to grant a petition of certiorari in a case involving the secrecy of the Vice President's energy task force and the formulation of Administration energy policy.

Posted in Politics: US | 2 Comments

Padilla Stays In the Brig (In Solitary Confinement)

Posted on January 23, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

No real surprise here—courts are often loath to take 'risks' with national security—but still a sad way for us to treat one of our fellow citizens who has not even been charged with, much less convicted of, any offense:

National Briefing: Domestic Security. RELEASE ORDER IS DELAYED A federal appeals court granted the government's request to delay an order to release an American citizen imprisoned as an enemy combatant. The stay, by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, gives the government time to pursue a Supreme Court appeal while the citizen, Jose Padilla, remains in a military jail. In December, the court ruled President Bush lacked the power to order an American citizen, seized on American soil, held as an enemy combatant.

Posted in Civil Liberties | Comments Off on Padilla Stays In the Brig (In Solitary Confinement)

‘Is That Legal’ is on a Roll

Posted on January 23, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

Back from hiatus, and just past its anniversary, three posts in a row at Is That Legal that made me go 'yup':

  • Eric Muller expresses surprise that the state of California allows peremptory challenges against judges. News to me. And not necessarily a good idea.
  • Remarks on the stilletto job the New York Times did on Dr. Steinberg and Dr. Dean in this morning's paper. To which I'd add only that you could make any politician look like a freak if you run one clip over and over again—let's try that on GWB please.
  • And Eric, like me, is excited about water on Mars (but what's up with the Rover?)
Posted in Readings | Comments Off on ‘Is That Legal’ is on a Roll

Zeitgeist Added

Posted on January 23, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

I've added a link in the “stats” section to the output from Jim Flanagan's MovableType Zeitgeist Plugin. It scans the server logs for today and yesterday, and displays referrers from search engines—what people have been searching for that brought them here, and which page they landed on when they arrived. The more common the search, the bigger the type. It's fun.

Update: I've set the script to update every two hours, at 20 minutes past the hour. Currently, the top search terms for this blog are…. self deprecation, personality quizzes, discourse, self-deprecation (with a hyphen), daily howler and 'how to pick up women'. I suspect I disappointed some of those searchers. But I do wish I'd written something more appropriate for “is a b in law school good?” Maybe next time.

Posted in Discourse.net | Comments Off on Zeitgeist Added