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Summary of Partial-Birth Ruling: Ginsburg’s Dissent [Ed Whelan] The press of business compels a very quick summary of Justice Ginsburg’s dissent (which is full of fiery rhetoric): The Court’s decision refuses to take Casey and Stenberg seriously. A health exception is necessary. The Court blurs the line between pre-viability and post-viability. Its holding regarding facial challenges is inconsistent with precedent. The only redemptive feature of the opinion is that as-applied challenges may proceed.

A Seattle man has been charged with a slew of crimes that involved an alleged shoplifting, assaults and a pet duck named Mr. Peepers. Snohomish County Deputy Prosecutor Paul Stern on Thursday charged Kenneth Blaine Quinlan, 35, with two counts of third-degree assault and one count each of vehicular assault and hit-and-run. Authorities say that on March 23, Quinlan and his 39-year-old girlfriend drove to a Lynnwood shopping center, where he entered a Linens 'n Things outlet and she went into a Petco store, taking the duck with her.

It has often times been stated that Thomas Jefferson was one of the three major architects of the US Constitution, the problem with that is that Jefferson was in Europe.

  Ze’ev Schiff—left-of-center, not a hawk, and considered by many to be Israel’s foremost military analyst—cites security sources as saying those Qassams that Islamic Jihad has been raining on Gaza-bordering communities during the “ceasefire” with Hamas are in fact supplied by Hamas.Hamas, the sources said, while “maintaining a front of abiding by the ceasefire,” is actually “emerging as the lynchpin of Palestinian terrorist activities against Israel.” That is believed to include providing Islamic Jihad with Russian-made 16-kilometer-range Grad rockets, already used last year to target the town of Ashkelon with its strategic facilities. An analysis last month already warned that...

John and Jennifer Shourds of Lovettsville, Va. demanded the immediate firings of University President Charles Steger and Virginia Tech Campus Police Chief W.R. Flinchum who he said "screwed up" the handling of separate shooting incidents that left 33 students dead, including the shooter. “My God, if someone shoots somebody there should be an immediate lockdown of the campus,” said John Shourds. “They totally blew it. The president blew it, campus police blew it.” The Shourds said they received a phone call from their daughter, Alexandra, a freshman at the college in Blacksburg, who was unsure of how to handle a...

Gun bill gets shot down by panel HB 1572, which would have allowed handguns on college campuses, died in subcommittee. By Greg Esposito 381-1675 A bill that would have given college students and employees the right to carry handguns on campus died with nary a shot being fired in the General Assembly. House Bill 1572 didn't get through the House Committee on Militia, Police and Public Safety. It died Monday in the subcommittee stage, the first of several hurdles bills must overcome before becoming laws. The bill was proposed by Del. Todd Gilbert, R-Shenandoah County, on behalf of the Virginia...

PRIVATE FIREARMS STOP CRIME 2.5 MILLION TIMES EACH YEAR, NEW UNIVERSITY SURVEY CONFIRMS By J. Neil Schulman Gary Kleck, Ph.D. is a professor in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Florida State University in Tallahassee and author of "Point Blank: Guns and Violence in America" (Aldine de Gruyter, 1991), a book widely cited in the national gun-control debate. In an exclusive interview, Dr. Kleck revealed some preliminary results of the National Self- Defense Survey which he and his colleague Dr. Marc Gertz conducted in Spring, 1993. Though he stresses that the results of the survey are preliminary and...

HER name is Crystal Gail Man gum. She is the woman who falsely accused three Duke University students of rape. Yesterday, the attorney general of North Carolina came forward and flatly declared the three young men "innocent of these charges." That means their accuser is a liar. Her name is Crystal Gail Mangum. It is the policy of the news media not to publish the names of rape accusers on the grounds that they should not have to fear public shame for coming forward with word of a horrifying personal violation. That is a noble policy. But it needs a...

Here is the email I received this morning from the Brady Bunch. I love walking out to my old-fashioned gunshop in the morning and checking the email for gems like this. The bullet points really expose their true intent. "Dear Dana, I'm simply aghast! In a 2-1 decision in Parker v. District of Columbia, right-wing activist judges on a Federal Appeals Court recently overturned Washington D.C.'s long-standing restrictions on handguns based on their twisted view of the 2nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution while ignoring more than 60 years of precedent — a decision that endangers America's gun laws coast-to-coast....

TENDO OTO SONG PERFORMED BY FREEPER MUSICMAN (it takes several seconds to start) On August 12, 2000 a man from Japan showed up with a camera crew and wanted entrance to the gala salute to Bill Clinton. He name was Tendo Oto, and he happened to be a business partner of Stan Lee Media. Without having a Social Security number, the Secret Service could not check out Oto. The Clintons intervened, the Secret Service was told to stand down, and Oto sat directly behind the president for the concert. He also attended the dinner.It is illegal for a foreigner...

A federal judge has dismissed Elektra v. Santangelo with prejudice, leaving the door open for defendant Patti Santangelo to recover attorneys' fees from the RIAA. Last month, Judge Colleen McMahon denied the RIAA's motion to dismiss the case without prejudice, ruling that the case should either be dismissed with prejudice or proceed to trial so that Santangelo could have a shot at being exonerated of the RIAA's accusations of file-sharing and copyright infringement. A stipulation of discontinuance with prejudice was entered yesterday by both the plaintiffs and defendants, which means that Santangelo is the prevailing party and therefore eligible to...

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson may have just ended his fledgling campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, shipwrecked on the rocky coast of North Korea. Although Richardson's trip to North Korea was authorized by the White House, how it played out must have come to a surprise to White House advisors, let alone to Richardson himself. The former energy secretary and popular New Mexico Democrat had gone to the hermit kingdom to claim the remains of six U.S. soldiers killed during the Korean War. He was also expected to deliver a tough message from Washington, that the United States expected...

Thirty-eight percent for Rudy; 16 percent for McCain. On the surface, the latest Gallup Poll of GOP voters is great news for the Giuliani campaign. Mitt Romney scored just 6 percent, less than Fred Thompson and Newt Gingrich (10 percent each) -- two guys who aren't even officially in the race. But the apparent collapse of the McCain candidacy (it's early yet) may end up being a problem for Rudy. Deep distrust of McCain as the designated GOP front-runner has to some extent shielded Rudy Giuliani from the focused opposition of social conservatives. Personally, I know I tried really hard...

China has expressed "great regret and strong dissatisfaction" at a US decision to bring a WTO case against it over complaints of widespread copyright piracy. The decision to take China before the World Trade Organisation comes amid US charges that levels of copyright piracy in the country remain "unacceptably high". Susan Schwab, the US Trade Representative, said the first stages of the case would begin on Tuesday.

As I sat down to listen to our president speak to the nation on the fourth anniversary of the official start of the Iraq war, I kept an open mind. I listened with respect as he asked us to be patient and reminded us that the troop surge in Baghdad "will take months, not days or weeks" to create stability. I watched his serious face and sad eyes as he admitted that there will continue to be "bad days ahead." And after his speech I honestly considered his ideas and how they will affect the current situation in Iraq and...

NAVAL STATION GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba, March 31, 2007 – The military commissions case of Australian detainee David Hicks, which concluded last night with a sentence of nine months imprisonment, was a fair proceeding that established a good basis for future commissions cases, the chief prosecutor for the Defense Department said here yesterday. Hicks, 31, was sentenced according to a plea agreement after pleading guilty to one charge of providing material support for terrorism. The commission recommended a seven-year sentence, which was the maximum allowed under the agreement, but another part of the agreement guaranteed a suspension for any portion...

For years, the RIAA has been bullying all sorts of people with lawsuits over file sharing -- but the evidence they use has always been weak, at best. In the early years, before most people recognized this, they were forced to settle. But, more recently, lawyers have realized that pointing out how weak the evidence is will often make the RIAA turn and drop the case. They usually try to get out of paying legal fees, but even that's becoming more difficult. In the latest case (as usual, pointed out by Ray Beckerman) a strong letter pointing out all the...

WASHINGTON - As a senior member of the House ethics committee, Rep. Jim McDermott (news, bio, voting record) had an obligation not to disclose the contents of an illegally taped telephone call involving House Republican leaders, a lawyer for one of the House Republicans said Thursday. Just as a federal judge should not reveal confidential information about a case, McDermott should not have given reporters access to the taped telephone call, regardless of how it was obtained, said lawyer Michael Carvin. "He had a duty not to disclose, therefore he can't claim First Amendment rights" allowing him to make the...

If nothing else, you gotta give the Consumer Alliance for a Strong Economy points for speed. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger had barely caught his breath after Tuesday's State of the State speech when a CASE commercial ripping his sweeping health care plan was airing on nine different channels in the Sacramento market. The spots, one of which ran on KCRA Channel 3 in the first break after the speech and which continued into a.m. news shows Wednesday, contend the plan "will raise taxes, increase premiums and put people out of work," and urge viewers to "call the governor and tell him...

Friction rises in Nigerian governmentJefferson case contributing to the tension Thursday, October 05, 2006 By Bruce Alpert WASHINGTON -- Imagine that President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney were accusing each other of improprieties so bad that they called for impeachment proceedings. That bizarre scenario is akin to what is playing out in Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, as President Olusegun Obasanjo and Vice President Atiku Abubakar engage in a monumental political battle that got its impetus, at least in part, from the lengthy U.S. Justice Department probe of U.S. Rep. William Jefferson, D-New Orleans. There is concern within Nigeria...

Clinton fraud case delayedBut ex-president, senator eventually will be put under oath Posted: September 26, 2006 1:00 a.m. Eastern By Art Moore © 2006 WorldNetDaily.com Sen. Hillary Clinton greets Peter Paul at the Hollywood gala he financed in exchange for her husband's role as a "rainmaker," or promoter of Paul's company (Courtesy Hillcap.org) A multi-million-dollar fraud suit against Bill Clinton faces further delay after a judge ruled yesterday the discovery process – which likely would require the former president and his wife Sen. Hillary Clinton to testify under oath – cannot proceed until a related appeal is resolved. As WND...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - American tennis star Andre Agassi, who retired from center court earlier this month, has wasted no time in building a new career -- in real estate. A company set up by Agassi and his wife Steffi Graf, a former world No. 1 tennis player, said on Monday it had partnered with privately owned Exclusive Resorts LLC, a time-share company headed by AOL co-founder Steve Case to develop "luxury resort communities." "As I begin the next chapter of my life, I am looking for ways to pursue a career in business, specifically in real estate," Agassi, 36,...

Timing in case against Jefferson trickyElection may affect when feds tip hand Sunday, September 24, 2006 By Bruce Alpert WASHINGTON -- With the selection last week of a technology expert to copy documents from computer hard drives taken from Rep. William Jefferson's office, the Justice Department might soon have the material it says it needs to wrap up its 18-month investigation of the New Orleans Democrat. That could leave the agency with a dilemma: Should the department decide whether to seek an indictment of Jefferson before the Nov. 7 primary or wait until after the race is decided? **SNIP** "The...

Fitzgerald given way out of Libby CIA leak case Judge says he can dismiss case if classified secrets will be revealed Haraz N. Ghanbari / AP file Former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, indicted on perjury and obstruction charges last year in the CIA leak scandal, will have closed hearing to determine if he may use classified material as part of his defense. Judge withholds classified docs from Libby • Closed hearings ordered in Libby CIA leak case • NBC: Libby to invoke memory defense • Ruling a potential break for Libby Most Popular • Most Viewed •...

Turkish novelist wins free speech case By David Rennie, Europe Correspondent (Filed: 22/09/2006) A best-selling novelist was yesterday cleared by a Turkish court of insulting her country in a case regarded as the latest test of free speech for a nation vying to join the European Union. Both the government in Ankara and the European Commission expressed relief when Elif Shafak was acquitted of the charge of "insulting Turkishness". A protester in Istanbul vents her anger on a poster of Elif Shafak Nationalists had brought the case after she wrote a novel in which fictional characters discussed the massacre of...

LANCASTER, Wis. - A judge on Friday dismissed charges of attempted sexual assault against three men accused of trying to dig up a woman's body to have sex with the corpse, noting that Wisconsin has no law against necrophilia. The men still face lesser charges. Twins Nicholas and Alexander Grunke, 20, and Dustin Radke, 20, were arrested after an alleged attempt to dig up the body of a 20-year-old woman who was killed Aug. 27 in a motorcycle crash. Officials said a caller reported suspicious activity in the cemetery Sept. 2, and deputies found someone had dug down to her...

Sentencing should be delayed for two Border Patrol agents facing 20 years apiece in jail for shooting a drug smuggler and violating his civil rights, 22 congressmen told the Department of Justice Wednesday. In an official letter, the congressmen asked U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to postpone sentencing and review the case against Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean. "Due to significant concerns over the circumstances surrounding the prosecution of agents Ramos and Compean, the House Judiciary Committee has already recognized the need for a thorough review of this case by calling for congressional hearings and an...

Jefferson case informant files complaint with policeShe says odd 'things' occurred after FBI tip Tuesday, August 29, 2006 By Bruce Alpert WASHINGTON -- A Virginia woman told police that "things have been happening" since she went to the FBI 17 months ago with a complaint that led to the continuing corruption probe against Rep. William Jefferson, D-New Orleans. Lori Mody, who wore a hidden microphone to tape conversations with Jefferson, said in her July 24 complaint to the Fairfax County (Va.) Police Department that the toilet in a McLean, Va., home she is getting ready to sell broke between July...

Hawaii Senate: September's Primary Shaping Up to be a Showdown Akaka (D) Leads Primary Challenger Case 47% to 45% August 11, 2006 Senator Daniel Akaka Hawaii’s Senate seat will be decided on September 23—Primary Day—rather than November 8. That’s when Democrats Daniel Akaka, the incumbent senator seeking his fourth full term, and U.S. Rep. Ed Case will square off for their party’s nomination in November. And with a little more than a month to go in the primary battle, the contest is either candidate’s to win. According to the most recent Rasmussen Reports election poll, Sen. Akaka leads Case 47%...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Steve Case, co-founder of the one-time biggest online service AOL, apologized for the company's merger with media conglomerate Time Warner Inc. in an interview with U.S. journalist Charlie Rose. In an interview broadcast on Friday, Case, who was shoved aside as chairman in 2003 and who left the board entirely in 2005, said, "Yes, I'm sorry I did it," referring to the 2001 merger of Time Warner and AOL. The deal, known as one of the worst corporate mergers in history, destroyed some $200 billion in shareholder value. Last October, Case argued in a Washington Post...

A former U.S. Navy intelligence officer who illegally exported military aircraft parts, including nozzles for the engine that powers the "Chinook" helicopter, was sentenced today to a year in federal prison. .....

"A British man was indicted Wednesday on charges he helped run terrorism fundraising websites, set up terrorists with temporary housing in England and possessed a classified U.S. navy document revealing troop movements. Syed Talha Ahsan, 26, was arrested at his home in London on a federal indictment in Connecticut charging him with conspiracy to support terrorists and conspiracy to kill or injure people abroad...."

SPRINGFIELD - A federal jury yesterday found Michael A. Crooker guilty of a firearms crime that will mean a 15-year mandatory prison sentence. The jury, made up of eight men and four women, delivered its verdict shortly after 2 p.m. yesterday after deliberating about 10 hours during two days. Crooker, 51, formerly of Agawam, had been charged with being a previously convicted felon "causing a firearm to travel in interstate commerce." Crooker was accused of trying to mail an air rifle and sound muffler to an Ohio man in 2004. Air rifles are not considered firearms under federal law, but...

DURHAM, N.C. -- A lawyer and county commissioner earned the official right Monday to challenge Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong in the November election after officials certified he had collected enough signatures to qualify for the ballot. Lewis Cheek began collecting signatures from registered voters after Nifong won the Democratic primary in May. With no Republican in the race, Cheek said voters deserved a choice in the November election, though he has yet to commit to a full campaign. Nifong has stirred emotions in the community for his handling of rape allegations against three members of the Duke University...

WASHINGTON, July 9, 2006 – Charges have been preferred against four U.S. soldiers accused of rape and murder in connection with the deaths of four Iraqi civilians in March. A fifth soldier has been accused of dereliction of duty for failing to report the offenses, U.S. officials announced today. The five soldiers were charged yesterday in connection with their alleged participation in the rape and murder of a young Iraqi woman and the murders of three members of her family. The fifth soldier was charged with dereliction of duty for his failure to report the rape and murder of these...

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A judge refused to declare a mistrial Tuesday in the case against a prominent University of Southern California geneticist accused of molesting the daughter of a colleague over a five-year period. Superior Court Judge Michael E. Pastor made the ruling after defense attorneys unsuccessfully argued against the introduction of e-mail exchanges between William French Anderson, known as the father of gene therapy, and his accuser. Anderson, 69, is charged with one count of continuous sexual abuse of a child under age 14 and three counts of committing a lewd act upon a child. He has pleaded not guilty. Prosecutors claim...

WASHINGTON -- A magistrate judge in the District Court of Washington, D.C. has dismissed a lawsuit by the survivors and families of victims of the June 25, 1996 Khobar Towers bombing in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, that sought millions of dollars in damages against the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran. In an opinion handed down June 6, 2006, Judge Deborah A. Robinson asserted that the plaintiffs "offered no evidence regarding the action of any official, employee or agent" or the Iranian regime, its intelligence ministry (MOIS), or the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, IRGC. The opinion comes at a delicate...

Duke Case Victim Target of Hateby Cash Michaels Special to the NNPA from the Wilmington Journal Thanks to unrelenting attacks on her character and credibility by defense attorneys, the alleged victim in the Duke lacrosse rape case is now the target of hate by many who believe the Black woman is a “false accuser” of three indicted white players. Looming doubts about the evidence in the minds of some of the public have generated hateful portrayals of the alleged victim in media reports, and particularly on the Internet. Several Web sites have revealed her name (something media organizations voluntarily do...

Federal prosecutors allege that a law enforcement official who was investigating a fake passport scheme was subjected to an illegal background check by indicted private eye Anthony Pellicano, who was representing the subject of the probe. Prosecutors claim Pellicano had checks run on George Mueller, an investigator with the Los Angeles County district attorney's office, and five other people connected to the probe of a Frenchman named Christopher Rocancourt. Mueller said that while he was investigating Rocancourt in the mid-1990s, Rocancourt called him to boast of a "contact" with access to confidential law-enforcement information. "Knowing that a suspect in a...

Jefferson case chills DemocratsWednesday, May 31, 2006 By MARIE COCCO Democrats, repeat after me. In his freezer. This is the retort that chills the Democrats' contention that Republicans in the House have nurtured a "culture of corruption" which can only be undone by electing Democrats and booting the GOP from control over Capitol Hill. And just think. Freezer jokes will keep their freshness only until we see the videotapes. That is, the videotapes of Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., allegedly taking a briefcase full of bills -- about $100,000 in all -- in what the FBI believes was a plot to...

Jefferson can find hope in past caseFriday, May 26, 2006 Lolis Eric Elie "There are two sides to every story," Congressman William Jefferson said Monday. I doubt anybody would disagree with that general sentiment. But unanimity may have been lost when the New Orleans Democrat tried to apply that platitude to the specifics of his own situation. We've heard only the FBI's side, but it's pretty compelling. The feds say they have a videotape showing Jefferson accepting a $100,000 bribe. They also say most of that money ended up in Jefferson's freezer. Two of Jefferson's former associates have pleaded guilty....

Capitol Police Frustrated By Slow McKinney CaseUpdated: May 23rd, 2006 04:54 PM PDT JOHN McARDLE Roll Call As another week ended without a decision from the grand jury reviewing Rep. Cynthia McKinney's (D-Ga.) alleged assault on a U.S. Capitol Police officer, police labor committee officials expressed frustration on Friday with how long the process is taking and how the U.S. Attorney's office has handled the case. More than a month and a half after the incident occurred, USCP Fraternal Order of Police Chairman Andy Maybo said Friday that "there is a large concern on behalf of the U.S. Capitol Police...

HONOLULU -- Rep. Ed Case's senatorial campaign released selected results of one of its polls on Tuesday, which show Case virtually tied with fellow Democrat Sen. Dan Akaka in the race for the U.S. Senate. It is the first poll to be made public since Case announced he was challenging Akaka in January. A research firm hired by Case's campaign carried out the poll, and he released only portions of the data. The poll taken by the Honolulu firm Q-Mark Research and Polling found the race between Akaka and Case is very close four months away from the primary election....

Pakistan nuclear case 'is closed' By Zaffar Abbas BBC correspondent, Islamabad Dr Khan is credited for developing Pakistan's nuclear deterrent Pakistan has announced an end to investigations surrounding the leaking of nuclear secrets by the disgraced nuclear scientist, Abdul Qadeer Khan. It says that the release of a key suspect linked to Dr Khan's network means that the inquiry into his operations has come to a close. A former national hero, he has been under virtual house arrest since February 2004. In 2004 he admitted leaking nuclear secrets to North Korea, Libya and Iran. 'Thorough' investigation A military spokesman said...

DOYLESTOWN, Pa. - A would-be home buyer with less than a dollar in her bank account pleaded guilty to fraud in what prosecutors said was an attempt to steal an entire house. Wendy Jean-Francois, 44, of Morrisville, pleaded guilty Monday in Bucks County Court to multiple counts of fraud, forgery and related charges. Prosecutors said Jean-Francois had 97 cents in her bank account when she sat down Oct. 5 at a settlement table at Rainbow Assurance, a mortgage title firm in Falls. She used two checks totaling $63,000 and a letter vouching for them, purportedly from a Wachovia Bank manager,...

NAVAL STATION GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba, April 25, 2006 – A Saudi man facing trial by military commission today followed the example of several detainees before him and rejected his detailed military defense counsel. Jabran Said Bin Al Qahtani, who is accused of constructing circuit boards to be used as timing devices in bombs, appeared in court wearing his tan detention uniform and sporting long, unkempt hair and a long beard. Qahtani was muttering to himself as he was lead into the room and took the first opportunity he had to decry the commissions process. "I don't want this court," Qahtani...

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - The ringleader of an underground network that shuttled illegal Hispanic immigrants from New Jersey to Tennessee to secure driver's certificates using fake residency documents was sentenced Wednesday to 46 months in federal prison. "I did not force anybody to come to this state to get a license," Zeneida Concepcion Rivera, 55, pleaded through a Spanish interpreter. "I was not doing business with these people, I was helping them." The Lakewood, N.J., resident insisted she was providing a service to hardworking undocumented workers who needed one of Tennessee's unique driver's certificates so they could legally drive to their...

So now we know who the two Duke lacrosse players are who are accused of raping an exotic dancer. Reade Seligmann of Essex Fells, New Jersey, and Collin Finnerty of Garden City, New York, have been indicted, arrested, made initial court appearances and paraded before the cameras. Here's the reality: They are halfway to ruin. They are done as athletes. Their academic career — if they had one — is probably toast, and they are for the foreseeable future accused rapists.

NAVAL STATION GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba, April 7, 2006 – Defense and prosecution attorneys in the military commissions case of an accused al Qaeda propagandist continued the argument here today about whether the detainee has the right to represent himself. Ali Hamza Ahmad Sulayman al Bahlul, a Yemeni believed to be a close associate of Osama bin Laden, did not appear at his commissions hearing today, leaving Army Maj. Thomas Fleener, his appointed military defender, alone at the table. Bahlul asked to represent himself in August 2004, but a ruling by John D. Altenburg Jr., the appointing authority for the Defense...