Free Republic

The House Ethics Committee secretly voted to release the findings of its investigation of sexual misconduct allegations against former Rep. Matt Gaetz, according to a new report. Gaetz (R-Fla.) resigned from Congress on Nov. 13 when President-elect Donald Trump announced him as his pick for attorney general — before Gaetz withdrew eight days later due to Senate Republican concerns about those allegations. The Republican-led Ethics Committee’s secret vote occurred sometime in December, CNN first reported Wednesday, and the document is expected to be released sometime before the end of the month. The panel’s spokespeople did not immediately respond to The...

Expressing a heavy dose of skepticism that crime lab reports are so reliable as to be beyond question, the Supreme Court on Thursday cleared the way for chemists and other scientists who prepare such reports to be summoned to the witness stand in criminal trials to defend their analyses.  The 5-4 ruling in Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts (07-591) resulted from some unusual alliances among the Justices, and continued the deep division within the Court over how to interpret the Constitution’s guarantee that an individual on trial for a crime has a right to face and challenge the witnesses for the prosecution.Justice...