Free Republic

A Hudson County trial judge has issued a very interesting decision recently regarding a litigant's claim that the Prevention of Domestic Violence Act, N.J.S.A. 2C:25-17 to 35, is violative of the NJ and US Constitutions. The argument was that because domestic violence proceedings may result in serious consequences by the issuance of a Final Restraining Order (i.e. possible jail sentence for future violations; removal of all weapons and inability to obtain weapons in the future; fines; registry on a list of offenders), the Chancery court with equity jurisdiction should not hear these matters. The decision should rest with a jury...

Saying "I divorce thee" three times, as men in Muslim countries have been able to do for centuries when leaving their wives, is not enough if you're a resident of Maryland, the state's highest court ruled yesterday. Yesterday, the Court of Appeals rejected a Pakistani man's argument that his invocation of the Islamic talaq, under which a marriage is dissolved simply by the husband's say-so, allowed him to part with his wife of more than 20 years and deny her a share of his $2 million estate. The justices affirmed a lower court's decision overturning a divorce decree obtained in...

GREENVILLE, S.C. - Republican presidential contender Fred Thompson said Monday that while Osama bin Laden needs to be caught and killed, the terrorist mastermind would get the due process of law.

A query for the FR legal eagles: DOES THERE EXIST a FEDERAL Statute or Public Law mandating grand and petit jury service? If yes, can you provide citations? ( I realize some state constitutions co so ) The reason I ask is that my 86 year-old mother passed me an AP article from the AJC relating how sheriff's deputies in NC literally went to a grocery store parking lot and presented random people with jury summons (with a 1 hour or else ultimatum from the judge) so that the county's jury pools could be filled. Is this due process? WHAT...

Parents and children of America have a grievance. Government compels us to pay into the public educational system, but will not allow us to choose the schools that best meet the needs of our children. This choice is left to government educrats who decide which schools our children attend and what they will be taught, including indoctrination conforming to their political and religious outlook. Parents who opt out of this system are penalized with the loss of educational funding. Clearly, this violates the First Amendment: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise...

The father of 24-year-old Beth Sprankle, who was shot to death in February at a Greenwood day care center by her estranged boyfriend, has started an effort to put more teeth into Blair County’s protection-from-abuse system. Jeffrey L. Sprankle, a Pennsylvania state constable known as “Spanky,” says a PFA order “has got to be more than a piece of paper.” He is recommending a 24-hour cooling-off period be instituted locally in emergency cases, which would mean the offending party would spend 24 hours behind bars. Sprankle says in some cases, individuals believed to be dangerous should have to wear ankle...

California Supreme Court Overturns Car Seizure Ordinance The California Supreme Court says cities may no longer seize automobiles from people merely accused of a crime. In a 4-3 opinion yesterday, the California Supreme Court ruled illegal the city of Stockton's program to seize automobiles from motorists not convicted of any crime. Under the city's ordinance, police could impound the vehicle of anyone accused of using it "to solicit an act of prostitution, or to acquire or attempt to acquire any controlled substance." The city could then hold the car for up to a year without hearing, trial or any finding...

Now, how would one disarm the American population? First of all, federal or state laws would need to make it a crime punishable by a $1,000 fine and one year in prison per weapon to possess a firearm...... The disarmament process would begin after the initial three-month amnesty...... Special squads of police would be formed and trained to carry out the work. Then, on a random basis to permit no advance warning, city blocks and stretches of suburban and rural areas would be cordoned off and searches carried out in every business, dwelling, and empty building. All firearms would be...

The Belmont (CA) City Council is considering drafting an ordinance that declares secondhand smoke “a public nuisance” and extends the city’s current ban on smoking in workplaces and most public areas to any residence except a single-family detached home. The proposal, aimed at multi-unit apartment buildings, is meant to address the health concerns of elderly apartment residents who complained of complications caused by second-hand smoke, according to The Associated Press. The City Council of this Silicon Valley suburb of San Francisco is expected to enforce the ordinance by relying on civil suits brought by citizens or the city, and by...

Man Beaten To Death In Low-Security O.C. Jail (CBS) SANTA ANA, Calif. A Mission Viejo man awaiting trial on suspicion of possessing child pornography for sale was beaten to death in a jail unit for low-security inmates, an Orange County sheriff's representative said Friday. John Derek Chamberlain, 41, was "murdered by an inmate or inmates while in the shower" at the Theo Lacy jail in Orange, the department's Jim Amormino said. Guards got a call of a "man down" about 6:30 p.m. Thursday, and Chamberlain was declared dead at a hospital about an hour later, Amormino said. Investigators were interviewing...

DETROIT - A federal judge threw out conspiracy and money laundering charges Tuesday against three Texas men once accused of plotting a terror attack on Michigan's iconic Mackinac Bridge. U.S. District Court Magistrate Charles Binder in Bay City ruled that federal prosecutors failed to present enough evidence to justify bringing them to trial on charges involving the buying and resale of prepaid cell phones. They were cleared earlier of the terror charges. Defense lawyers claimed the men — Louai Othman, 23, his brother Adham Othman, 21, and their cousin Maruan Muhareb, 18, all of Mesquite, Texas — were targeted because...

WASHINGTON - Rep. John Kline, R-Minn., apologized Monday to the Marines under investigation in the killings of two dozen civilians in Haditha, Iraq, last November, saying that statements he made about the case were taken out of context and that he did not mean to imply the Marines were guilty of wrongdoing. Kline issued the apology as part of an agreement with lawyers for Marine Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich, who alleged Kline had damaged Wuterich's reputation. Wuterich has denied any wrongdoing in the Haditha case. None of the Marines involved has been charged. Wuterich took the unusual step earlier this...

<p>"Was this My Lai?" Matthews interjected, referring to the slaughter of more than 300 civilians by American soldiers in Vietnam in 1968. "Was this a case of--when you say cold blood, Congressman, a lot of people think you're basically saying you have got some civilians sitting in a room [or] out in a field and they're executed."</p>

COMMENTARY ON THE RIGHT… “What we have here is (a) failure to communicate.” That famous line from the 1967 Paul Newman classic, “Cool Hand Luke,” might well apply to Iraq today, and specifically, to Haditha, where U.S. Marines are alleged to have massacred innocent Iraqi civilians last November. Not only do we not know what happened in Haditha, but we’ve failed to communicate effectively to the rest of the world what we do know: that our Marines always deserve the benefit of the doubt. And that if something did go terribly wrong in Haditha, it was a rare exception. The...

Jack Kelly: Rushing to judgment Shame on John Murtha for presuming Marines' guilt in Haditha Sunday, June 04, 2006 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Jesse Macbeth, a self-styled "special forces ranger," regaled moonbat audiences with tales of the atrocities he committed in Iraq: "Fallujah is where we slaughtered people in mosques," he said. "We would dig holes and leave mass graves of children, women and old men."           Unfortunately for Mr. Macbeth, he made a video which was seen by actual veterans. In it, he is wearing his beret improperly ("like a pastry chef," said an Army spokesman). He's...

Innocent Until Proven Guilty...Unless You're A Marine By Frank Salvato June 2, 2006 The US judicial system operates on the premise that when a crime has been committed the accused stands innocent until proven guilty. It's one of the things unique to the American system of justice that makes ours one of the best in the world. But over the past two decades opportunists have taken to trying court cases in the media. In the court of public opinion the rules of judicial "fair play" are not honored and rumor and innuendo stand as acceptable forms of evidence. If you're...

Yep, Judge John Murtha, one time war hero, Democratic activist, anti-war recidivist, former Marine, Kerry crony, and the latest golden boy in the liberal press, has pronounced that the activities in Haditha, Iraq, constitute a war crime and that all the participants are guilty of murder. Further, just to make sure that my father’s generation is riddled with war criminals as well as the Vietnam generation, whose veterans were so successfully sullied by the likes of John Kerry and Oliver Stone, with additional help from Ms. Jane Fonda nee Hanoi, Mr. Murtha also announced a bit ago that the Allies...

FORT LAUDERDALE — Marcie Wyrobeck graduated from the Philadelphia College of Art and worked in sales and for an arts and crafts store. She had no formal legal training. Yet, for nearly a decade, she was a state hearing officer who decided the appeals of people whose drivers licenses were suspended in drunken-driving cases. When a difficult legal question came up in one of those hearings, Wyrobeck said she and other Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles hearing officers — some with only high school educations — routinely asked the agency’s lawyers for advice about how to rule. “It...

Does the Fourteenth Amendment make the entire Bill of Rights a restriction against the States? If so, which amendments or clauses? What did both "due process of the law" and "equal protection" mean to the Congress who produced the Amendment? Does the Fourteenth Amendment guarantee State paid education to aliens? [snip] I hope everyone reads this because for me it was the most important reading of the year. One of the most wonderful discoveries you will find from reading is where equal protection of the laws came from and how it was defined to mean by the author of the...

The FBI came calling in Windsor, Conn., this summer with a document marked for delivery by hand. On Matianuk Avenue, across from the tennis courts, two special agents found their man. They gave George Christian the letter, which warned him to tell no one, ever, what it said. Under the shield and stars of the FBI crest, the letter directed Christian to surrender "all subscriber information, billing information and access logs of any person" who used a specific computer at a library branch some distance away. Christian, who manages digital records for three dozen Connecticut libraries, said in an affidavit...

A couple of weeks ago, Robert Blake was on CNN's 'Larry King Live' talking about his recent murder trial, and the manner in which he's been treated since his wife's death from gunshot wounds in 2001. "There's a whole litter of lunatics out there, pig-face bags of rat guts that are telling all kinds of lies, and the media's soaking it up," the 72-year-old actor said during the interview. I certainly can't argue with that, however, it has since occurred to me that Mr. Blake's rather colorful characterization better suits certain "civil rights" lawyers I've become aware of over the...

The battles in Congress over the appointment of even lower court federal judges reveal a recognition that federal judges are now, to a large extent, our real lawmakers. Proposals to amend the Constitution to remove lifetime tenure for Supreme Court justices, or to require that rulings of unconstitutionality be by more than a majority (5-4) vote, do not address the source of the problem. The Constitution is very difficult to amend--probably the most difficult of any supposedly democratic government. If opponents of rule by judges secure the political power to obtain an amendment, it should be one that addresses the...

Jonathan Bean is a popular professor at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale — even though his libertarian politics don’t always coincide with his students’ views. A historian, he was just named Teacher of the Year in the College of Liberal Arts. But in the last two weeks, he has found himself under attack in his department — with many of his history colleagues questioning his judgment for distributing an optional handout about the “Zebra Killings,” a series of murders of white people in San Francisco in the 1970s. His dean also told his teaching assistants that they didn’t need to...

Cecil Circuit Court Judge Dexter M. Thompson Jr. decried lawyers' arguments that a child custody hearing should be closed to the public Wednesday, saying such a move would be akin to creating atmospheres similar to historically totalitarian states. The heated exchange came at the start of a hearing in which the county's social services department attempted to retain custody of John Joseph Dougherty's three daughters. Dougherty, 53, faces a second-degree murder charge after police found his brain-damaged wife dead on a mattress, surrounded by moldy food and her own excrement. "Maybe we should be more like Germany or Russia," the...

A grand jury has indicted an Elkton man on a murder charge, six weeks after police found his emaciated wife dead in a bedroom amidst squalid conditions. John Joseph Dougherty, 53, faces a second-degree murder charge in the indictment, handed up last week after the grand jury heard new evidence against him. Dougherty already faced manslaughter and abuse charges in an indictment handed up March 17. The new indictment, unsealed yesterday, included those charges and added the murder charge. Dougherty is accused of causing his wife's death by keeping her locked in a bedroom for six years without access to...

An Elkton man accused of murdering his brain-damaged wife by keeping her locked in a bedroom regained custody of his three daughters Wednesday. Judge Dexter M. Thompson Jr. returned the children to John Joseph Dougherty, 53, after a hearing that lasted all afternoon in circuit court. The county's social services department took custody of the children Feb. 25, after police found their mother dead on a mattress amidst squalid conditions in their Chestnut Drive home.

ELKTON - New evidence against an Elkton man accused of locking up the mother of his children for six years until her death has prompted a Cecil County grand jury to increase the charges against him from manslaughter to second-degree murder. John Joseph Dougherty, 53, told authorities that he started keeping Mary Elizabeth Kilrain, 46, in a bedroom in 1999 after she suffered an aneurysm and became verbally aggressive toward their daughters, according to police. He told authorities that he wanted to keep her from wandering around the house. Kilrain did not have access to food, water and hygiene, prosecutors...

I asked this on a thread but got no response and would really like an answer if someone could help. How come Jack Kervorkian got jailed for helping people to die (who admittedly ASKED to die) yet Michael Schiavo is getting away with it? Could this be a legal avenue for Terri's parents to go down? I mean, until a bill is passed that makes euthanasia illegal, killing someone (EVEN IF THEY ASKED FOR IT) is still a crime, right? Terri was not dying so this is a deliberate act of killing - euthansia (this can be certified even by...

WHAT BETTER WAY TO SPEND EASTER WEEK??? Everyone GO and try to give Terri water in person. They've already arrested one Catholic worker. Four other Saturday or Sunday. Are there only five trying? Imagine if by tonight tens and hundreds of THOUSANDS are showing up being arrested as they try to give this innocent woman water. And tomorrow. And the next day.

Freedom For Life ... I Am A Human ... Let Me Live By Kevin Fobbs March 22, 2005 Terri Schiavo's fight to live is the new civil right's cause for our century that we must embrace. Her stand for life must be preserved. Justice demands that we initiate a nationwide petition drive in every home, every community and in every meeting hall. Every office and every religious institution and place of worship should circulate petitions that acknowledge, "Freedom For Life...I Am A Human...Let Me Live" as the new rallying cry for our nation. Why now? We need it now, because...

In response to the GOP-led congressional action intended to restore Terri Schiavo's feeding tube, those Democrats in opposition have attacked Republican hypocrisy in the case. Why suddenly, they ask, is the party of federalism and hostility to an overweening federal judiciary interfering in a state matter and handing the Schiavo case to a federal judge? If it is disorienting to see Republicans scrambling for federal intervention, at least they are acting on their deepest pro-life convictions — life is to be treasured in whatever form it takes, and preserving it is a paramount value. The starkest inconsistencies are on the...

If, what Michael Schiavo is saying, is true, and his claim is supported truthfully by his brother and sister-in-law, regarding the statements that they allege to be made by Terri, and the Florida probate court has "found as the fact" of the case, that: "she would not want to live this way," then please, to examine a calendar, for every day, of every week, of every month from February of 1990 on through all of 1991 on through all of 1992 on through all of 1993 on through all of 1994 on through all of 1995 on through all of...

Terri Schiavo has NEVER had her own attorney representation, but it has always been through her husband/guardian. She has not had due process because it gives everyone the "right of counsel," which she has NEVER had. This bill will confer on the middle district of Florida this review, so it still IS a state's issue. Terri's tube removal is not "a family decision" because the way Judge Greer worded the removal of her food and water is a command written in the same wording as done with criminal prosecutions. There was not an option. Judge Greer is also wrong in...

YADKINVILLE A district-court judge in Yadkin County ruled yesterday that 11-year-old Micheal Beam should remain in the group home where he was placed after he found an unloaded BB pistol in his book bag and reported it to school officials. After a 40-minute hearing, Judge David Byrd said that he did not have the authority to "reverse a fellow judge's decision" that ordered Micheal to stay at Yadkin County Group Home for possessing a weapon at the school he attended, Yadkin Success Academy. Although Micheal's parents said that he has been depressed since living at the group home, Byrd said...

Liberty and Justice for All A Few Who has the right to decide who lives and dies? Apparently, America's courts feel fit to take on the conundrum. This week, the United States Supreme Court vacated a stay that blocked the execution of serial killer Michael Ross. This effectively removes the obstacles between the convicted killer and his own date with death. Michael Ross, by his own acknowledgment, killed eight women in Connecticut and New York, and had been scheduled to die by lethal injection the previous Wednesday. Because of the ongoing legal battle, the Department of Corrections postponed the execution...

*Michael, HAVE A HEART !!!!!For Valentines Day give Terri back to her MOM & DAD, The Schindlers!!!!!!!!* The Terri Schindler Schiavo Daily Threads are created month to month as we watch local and national news regarding Terri and her family. Since Terri's supporters are in every time zone, you may see something FIRST. Please share news with us that you don't see here already. Now, why would you want to do that? Terri's Daily Thread for September/October of 2004 was viewed over 15,000 times. Terri's November Daily Thread was viewed over 6,000 times. December's thread is over 3,000 views. January...

The headline in the New York Sun reads like a bad joke but makes perfect sense: "Venezuela Outsources Intelligence Activities To Cuba." In a global society, where what economists call 'comparative advantage' rules, each country does the most of its specialty. And in Cuba, its only production of note is its repressive police state. This is the only product it can credibly export, and quite an economically damning fact. But the substance of its number one export is very disturbing. It has a buyer in Venezuela's Marxist dictator, Hugo Chavez. The details of this new law that Chavez has passed...

The Groningen Protocol is the proposal of doctors in the Netherlands for the establishment of an "independent committee" charged with selecting babies and other severely handicapped or disabled people for euthanasia. The original article provides some of the key details: Under the Groningen protocol, if doctors at the hospital think a child is suffering unbearably from a terminal condition, they have the authority to end the child's life. The protocol is likely to be used primarily for newborns, but it covers any child up to age 12. The hospital, beyond confirming the protocol in general terms, refused to discuss its...

Last week, in the first presidential debate, candidate John Kerry did what most expected him to do. He presented a polished argument. He seemed confident and knowledgeable. For sure, on style alone, John Kerry has the natural political talent to score points. In the debate, Kerry skillfully wove as many words as possible into every one of his 90-second responses. Do not for an instant, however, permit Kerry’s natural political skill – further refined over a lifetime in Washington D.C. – to fool you. It is easy to allow Kerry’s slick rhetoric to conceal his radical ideas. When it comes...

A federal appeals has tossed out a ruling issued last year by U.S. District Judge Arthur J. Schwab of Pittsburgh after ruling that the judge had copied his opinion, nearly word-for-word, from a memorandum written by one of the attorneys in a case. The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Schwab made only two substantive changes to the memo, other than minor changes for grammar and style, then signed it as his own opinion. In doing so, the court said, Schwab failed to show that he put the necessary thought and jurisprudence into the ruling. ~~~SNIP~~~ Schwab was appointed...

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed yesterday to decide whether the federal government can strip an American of his right to possess a firearm based on a felony conviction in a foreign court. Under federal law, no one "who has been convicted in any court" of a crime punishable by a year or more in prison can legally own a firearm. In 2000, Gary Sherwood Small was indicted for violating this law in 1998, when a search of his apartment turned up a pistol and 335 bullets. Small argues that the indictment should be dismissed because his only criminal conviction came...

American Constitutional Research Service Florida Judge, George Greer, orders Terri Schiavo to die without trial by jury! For background see Terri Schiavo wants to live It is a fundamental and constitutional right to have a trial by jury, the “opportunity” to defend one’s self and confront one’s accusers, before being sentenced to death. It is also a fundamental right to have an attorney at that trial, to be an advocate and speak for those accused, and then, it is up to a jury to make a decision based upon the evidence presented. The judge in Terri's case has bypassed a...

Iraqis and coalition forces provide legal due process to oil smugglers at seaby Journalist 2nd Class Denny Lester MANAMA, Bahrain - The chaos of war sometimes creates openings for opportunists in search of quick riches. In the case of Iraq, the opportunists are smugglers who are trying to illegally smuggle oil – oil that belongs to the Iraqi people. Coalition efforts since the end of major combat operations have been directed at intercepting the smugglers, then detaining them and the oil until Iraqi authorities can pass down judgement. Coalition naval forces have conducted maritime intercept operations in the Arabian...

A Glimmer of Hope Dear A-Letter Reader:In the April 17, 2002 A-Letter, I wrote about an obscure type of treaty called a "MLAT," or Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty. MLATs give governments the right to gather evidence and seize assets without a judicial hearing and in some cases, with no right of appeal to any court. The treaties essentially override all confidentiality laws that might otherwise apply. And their one-sidedness is an invitation to serious abuse.The US has more than 50 MLATs in effect, more than any other country. Since the first MLAT came into effect in 1977, they have been...

Court of Appeals upholds Oregon's photo radar law 11/21/02ASHBEL S. GREEN The Oregon Court of Appeals on Wednesday rejected a constitutional challenge to the state's photo radar law. Christine Dahl, who received a photo radar citation in the mail from the Portland Police Bureau in March 2000, argued that the law required her to demonstrate she was not driving, in effect forcing her to prove her innocence. Such a requirement would be unconstitutional in a criminal case, but the Court of Appeals said it was allowable under the photo radar law because traffic tickets do not result in incarceration....

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. courts lack jurisdiction to hear challenges by Afghan war detainees at the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to the lawfulness of their custody, a federal judge ruled on Wednesday. U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly dismissed two lawsuits brought on behalf of 12 Kuwaiti nationals, two British citizens and an Australian. They all are being held at the base after their capture during the war in Afghanistan. "The court concludes that the military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is outside the sovereign territory of the United States," she ruled, adding that writs of habeas corpus...

A Slippery Slopeby Fred Van Sickleacwacts238@yahoo.comApril 3, 2002KeepAndBearArms.com -- When imagining government actions in a tyrannical state, one nightmarish thought could be mind altering drugs being forced upon the populace. This very calamity has been realized. "The court used Dr. Sell's beliefs in conspiracy theories, about the government, to establish a basis for the required drugging." On March 7, 2002, the Federal Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit handed down a ruling which would allow the U.S. government to forcibly drug defendants, who according to the constitution are to be presumed innocent until proven guilty. The U.S. Constitution also...

On October 16, 2001 a three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals handed down its decision in United States v. Emerson. The majority ruled - Judge William Garwood (Reagan appointee) writing, Judge Harold DeMoss, Jr. (Bush I appointee) concurring - the Second Amendment's right to keep and bear firearms refers to a constitutionally protected individual right, not a right of the states to maintain militias. As expected Judge Robert Parker (Clinton appointee), in a minority opinion, basically reiterated the "collective right" interpretation of the Second Amendment (see below). Notwithstanding the wonderful news, this was a "mixed decision": the...