Free Republic

Stung by a string of embarrassing personnel moves at the outset of the administration, President Obama has significantly beefed up the number of lawyers working in the White House compared to previous administrations. Administration officials insist the bulking up of the Office of White House Counsel is temporary, but some lawyers from the George W. Bush administration said they suspect one reason for the personnel shift may be a bid to centralize power.

This is good news:A federal judge in June threw out seizure of three fake passports from a traveler, saying that TSA screeners violated his Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable search and seizure. Congress authorizes TSA to search travelers for weapons and explosives; beyond that, the agency is overstepping its bounds, U.S. District Court Judge Algenon L. Marbley said. "The extent of the search went beyond the permissible purpose of detecting weapons and explosives and was instead motivated by a desire to uncover contraband evidencing ordinary criminal wrongdoing," Judge Marbley wrote. In the second case, Steven Bierfeldt, treasurer for the Campaign...

Any 'peace officer' can demand i.d. any time, doesn't say exactly who qualifies as a 'peace officer.' Papers please!! The Texas Senate has approved a bizarre measure which would require citizens to show some sort of identification to any police officer who demands it, at any time, for any reason, 1200 WOAI news reports. Currently, it is illegal for a person to give a false name to police, but there is no law rewiring a person to provide i.d. at an officer's whim. And State Sen. Tommy Williams (R-The Woodlands) doesn't like the sound of this bill. "We still live...

When they’re not raiding the homes of bloggers who are critical of them, Phoenix police are harassing photographers, telling them that it is illegal to take pictures of federal buildings, public transportation, stadiums, street lights and banks. William J. Nash-McAdam told the Downtown Phoenix Journal that he and a friend were detained by a Phoenix cop last weekend who took their identifications and informed them that they had violated some Homeland Security statute.When they asked him to cite the specific statute, the cop told them to “Google it,” according to the article. Sandra Day O'Connor Federal Building Somebody should tell...

JERUSALEM – Following the 9/11 attacks, President Obama's nominee for a top intelligence post advocated that to effectively combat terrorism, the U.S. government should implement a national identity system, "so we better know who is who." In testimony before the 9/11 commission, Charles "Chas" Freeman, the U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia during the first Gulf War, also recommended conducting the war on terrorism primary as a law enforcement effort. Freeman is slated to head the U.S. National Intelligence Council, or NIC, a crucial component of the U.S. intelligence apparatus. The NIC serves as the center for midterm and long-term strategic...

For CCSU student John Wahlberg, a class presentation on campus violence turned into a confrontation with the campus police due to a complaint by the professor. On October 3, 2008, Wahlberg and two other classmates prepared to give an oral presentation for a Communication 140 class that was required to discuss a “relevant issue in the media”. Wahlberg and his group chose to discuss school violence due to recent events such as the Virginia Tech shootings that occurred in 2007. Shortly after his professor, Paula Anderson, filed a complaint with the CCSU Police against her student. During the presentation Wahlberg...

Drunk driving checkpoints can save lives By Freeman Sawyer - Special to the Express-News My nephew was killed by a drunk driver on a Texas highway. My mother — his grandmother — was the obituary writer at the Express-News at the time. She wrote the obituary for her grandson and told me later it was the most agonizing obituary she had ever written. This tragedy devastated our family. Four other innocent people were killed in this same wreck. One drunk driver changed the lives of five families in one split second that late December night. In 2007, drunk drivers in...

Some lawmakers say stops would unfairly target illegal immigrants The state agency that imposed new rules barring illegal immigrants from obtaining driver's licenses is requesting authority to set up statewide driver's license checkpoints, part of what several lawmakers suspect is a plan to crack down on illegal immigrants. A number of state legislators argue the Department of Public Safety Commission overstepped its authority Aug. 25 by issuing new rules requiring applicants to prove they are here legally before they can obtain or renew a Texas driver's license. Their suspicions deepened when, two weeks later, the commission's chairman asked Texas Attorney...

Heard on the radio this morning, from the Chicago Police Department spokesman, that *2* forms of identification will be required to enter Barack Obama's election night soiree' - known in these parts as "Obamapalooza". Spokesman said bring your photo ID and a postmarked letter which has been mailed to you with your address - and it had better match your photo ID. You don't even need 2 forms of ID to vote in the election!

Liberal without even Trying From the times of the Great Depression through the 1950’s, some people were known as those who were just “passing through” town. During that time, one could pass through a town anonymously. Those days are gone. With fingerprint, information, a certifiable form of identification, a social security number, a speck of DNA or a face recognition photograph authorities have the ability to know everything there is to know about an individual. That individual had better have their legal ducks in a row before passing anywhere. This is but a tiny fragment of an example of those...

Agents test fire weapons to narrow leads in the June 8 killing of the girls near Weleetka. WELEETKA — More than three dozen guns from the Weleetka area were test fired over the weekend as authorities worked to narrow their leads into the June 8 slayings of two girls. Jessica Brown, spokeswoman for the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, said more than 60 letters were sent out to registered owners of .40-caliber handguns, asking them to voluntarily submit their weapons for testing on Saturday and Sunday at the Okfuskee County Courthouse at Okemah. Brown said about 40 of those owners...

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday that border control agents who found child porn on a traveler's laptop didn't violate the man's right to be free from unreasonable searches. "We are satisfied that reasonable suspicion is not needed for customs officials to search a laptop or other personal electronic storage devices at the border," Judge Diarmuid O'Scannlain wrote. O'Scannlain went on to say that the defendant "has failed to distinguish how the search of his laptop and its electronic contents is logically any different from the suspicionless border searches of travelers' luggage that the Supreme Court and...

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court affirmed Wednesday that police have the power to conduct searches and seize evidence, even when done during an arrest that turns out to have violated state law. The unanimous decision comes in a case from Portsmouth, Va., where city detectives seized crack cocaine from a motorist after arresting him for a traffic ticket offense. David Lee Moore was pulled over for driving on a suspended license. The violation is a minor crime in Virginia and calls for police to issue a court summons and let the driver go. Instead, city detectives arrested Moore and prosecutors...

Son got his first ticket. Policeman said he didn't stop at a stop sign. It was dark, not even street lights in this area, but he saw this difficult-to-tell action in the dark, when Nathan says he had come to a stop. He didn't argue though. But then he wanted to search the car. We've always told son not to agree to that, there is no reason. (actually, his former-cop dad told him don't agree to it) Dad is not in the picture, so I have to ask you all. This was his first traffic stop and he was nervous....

Once again, homeschoolers across the country are facing the threat of daytime curfews. Within the last year, city councils in California, Missouri, New Jersey, Ohio, and Texas have considered such curfews. Daytime curfews are unnecessary for good order. They are often touted as a way to reduce truancy and juvenile crime, but there is little or no evidence to support this. The impact on law-abiding youth, however, is undisputed: restricting a young person’s freedom to move about during the day creates an atmosphere of fear reminiscent of totalitarian states, and often leads to harassment of homeschoolers. Daytime curfews can be...

"There comes a point in time where all the discussion and analysis has to stop. We are now six years away from 9/11. Simply kicking this problem further down the road is a time-tested Washington way of smothering a proposal with process," said Chertoff. "The time has come to bite the bullet." Or, as Jack Bauer might say (while in the midst of breaking half a dozen laws in the name of stopping an impending attack), "We're running out of time!" Chertoff summarized the major features of the final rules as follows: People must provide documentation that proves who they...

The frustration of proving one's age to buy things like alcohol and tobacco does not end when you reach the appropriate legal age. Those of us who are fortunate enough to have a youthful appearance are forever burdened with having to carry a state-issued ID card to every place where we might want to buy alcohol or tobacco. Over the past few years, we've been gradually subjected to another, more intrusive ID-related hassle -- that of electronic drivers license scanning. It's one thing when a government representative scans your driver's license; it's another thing entirely when a restaurant does it,...

Federal officials are routinely asking courts to order cellphone companies to furnish real-time tracking data so they can pinpoint the whereabouts of drug traffickers, fugitives and other criminal suspects, according to judges and industry lawyers. In some cases, judges have granted the requests without requiring the government to demonstrate that there is probable cause to believe that a crime is taking place or that the inquiry will yield evidence of a crime. Privacy advocates fear such a practice may expose average Americans to a new level of government scrutiny of their daily lives...

While coming home from my son's friend's house I heard on the scanner that there was an accident 1 block past my house. I had my camera with me so I decided to stop and take pictures. I am a budding independent citizen journalist. While filming the accident scene I also film a gal on the sidewalk that claims she hurt her neck. Her friend is holding her neck and shoulders as some kind of c-spine protection. A MHP officer comes over and asks her questions and then asks me if I saw the accident. No, I answer I only...

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff visited Seattle on Friday to help Gov. Christine Gregoire kick off a pilot program that will allow Washington state residents to use a security-enhanced driver's license, rather than a passport, to travel to and from Canada. Chertoff predicted the new licenses will help meet the department's dual goals of enhancing security and reducing wait-times at the border. In a wide-ranging discussion with The Seattle Times editorial board after the event, Chertoff spoke repeatedly of his agency's efforts to balance competing demands. On issues ranging from port security to air travel to home-grown terrorism, Chertoff described...