The United States Supreme Court is considering changing its laws for juvenile criminals. Right now the U.S. is one of the only countries where juveniles can be given a life sentence without the chance of parole if they're convicted of certain crimes. Many non-profit groups like the Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana say that conditions in juvenile detention centers in the U.S. are horrendous and don't help juvenile offenders get better. Louisiana has the highest number of kids getting locked up in the country, most are poor and black.The United States Supreme Court is considering changing its laws for juvenile... more
Newsweek has boiled down the the first decade of this millennium into a seven minute video, highlighting the good, the bad and the unforgettable. From Bush V. Gore, to 9/11, to the iPod, to Borat, to the Iraq war, to Twitter and much, much more. Watch and marvel at this busy decade.
It really makes you remember about all that has changed about that last 10 years around the worldNewsweek has boiled down the the first decade of this millennium into a seven minute... more
Unless Virginia Governor Tim Kaine steps in, the state will execute John Allen Muhammad the "Beltway sniper" tonight at 9pm. Yesterday the Supreme Court declined to hear Muhammad's appeal (clipped by LadybugLady).
Muhammad, along with his teenage accomplice Lee Boyd Malvo, was responsible for a 2002 killing spree in the DC area that left 10 people dead. The shootings targeted everyday people in everyday locations like gas stations. They were all the more frightening because they were unpredictable and without motive. It had just been a year since the September 11th attacks and for the period while the shootings were taking place, it was a a new wave of terror for Washington-area residents.
Muhammad has maintained his innocence. His accomplice, Malvo, is serving life in prison without parole. (Ironically, a case that the Supreme Court did hear yesterday was on whether life without parole was cruel and unusual punishment for teenagers.)
We've been looking at the death penalty a lot in the last few weeks, mostly because of the case of Cameron Todd Willingham in Texas - where the state may have executed an innocent man. With a case like that, opposition to the death penalty seems practical: let's prevent mistakes from occurring. The Muhammad case is a bit different. It falls along the line of retribution - why Obama says he's supports the death penalty, despite doubts about its efficacy: "the community is justified in expressing the full measure of its outrage."
What do you think? Is the community justified in this instance? In any instance?
Lawyers for two Florida men who were sentenced to life without parole as juveniles will argue to the U.S. Supreme Court Monday that the penalty is cruel and unusual.
With those words, a deeply divided U.S. Supreme Court in 2005 declared that the execution of adolescents was cruel and unusual punishment, and, hence, a violation of the U.S. Constitution. The ruling halted capital punishment for juveniles in 25 states.
On Monday, the lawyers for two Florida men who, as juveniles, were sentenced to life without parole for nonhomicides will ask the nation's highest court to declare the practice of incarcerating juveniles for the rest of their lives cruel and unusual, as well.
Life, the lawyers say, is different, too.
The Supreme Court will hold oral arguments on the two cases:. The case of Terrance Jamar Graham, convicted of armed robbery in Duval County, will be heard first at 10 a.m.; the appeal of Joe Sullivan, a convicted rapist from Pensacola, will be heard an hour later.
``What's at stake is that we have children who will die in prison because they have no right to parole, and there is no other option,'' said Paolo Annino, a Florida State University law professor who has been researching juvenile lifers for more than a decade. ``What's at stake is life and death.''
But for prosecutors, and some judges, the penultimate penalty of lifelong imprisonment is an important part of the nation's criminal justice tool box -- even for kids.
``Sentencing a juvenile to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole is a weighty matter. Prosecutors do not seek such punishment lightly, nor do courts impose it without careful consideration,'' the National District Attorneys Association wrote in a ``friend of the court'' brief.
``But youthful offenders sometimes commit heinous crimes -- rapes, kidnappings, and violent robberies and assaults that may leave the victim maimed for life, or worse.''
For almost two decades, lawmakers and state juvenile justice administrators have mounted an unprecedented assault on youthful offenders -- prosecuting teens in adult court, sending them to military-style boot camps and imposing long sentences as their weapons.
There are just over 100 people in the World serving life sentences without parole for crimes committed as juveniles in which no one was killed.
ALL of them are in the United States-- 77 of them are in Florida.There are just over 100 people in the World serving life sentences without parole for... more
the benson tea party
Smart people remember history's mistakes so as not to repeat them.
In the past, the King of England, wanting money and tired of hearing the Colonists complain about taxes and other abuses of their "inalienable rights," passed exorbitant taxes and a stamp tax on newspapers. If the King's man, the tax collector, didn't like the content of the newspaper regarding the King's taxation, no stamp would be issued. Censorship through government taxation could not be tolerated by our Founding Fathers. The tax stamp act gave rise to the Boston Tea Party and was the catalyst for the American Revolution.
Today the King's man is Nathan J. Hochman, the Assistant Attorney General of the Justice Department's Tax Division. He announced "TAXDEF" for the express purpose of "prosecuting those who take concrete action to deny the fundamental validity of the tax laws."
William J. Benson took concrete action to deny the fundamental validity of the tax laws. He uncovered the cover-up of the false and fraudulent ratification of the Sixteenth Amendment pertaining to income taxes, spoke about it on his website and urged people to exercise their FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS to require the government to obey the law. If the Sixteenth Amendment was not properly ratified, then the federal income tax is unconstitutional.
Here is how "TAXDEF" and today's tyranny works: In United States v. Benson, Case No. 1:04-cv-7403 (N.D.Ill., 2004), the government asked the court to issue an injunction to prevent Benson from making his research available over the Internet and to require him to give to the IRS a list of everyone who obtained his research, so those people could be investigated.
Benson attempted to defend by submitting evidence of the truth of what he was saying. That evidence consisted of official, certified government documents he personally obtained by visiting Washington, D.C. and the capitols of the forty-eight states that were in existence at the time. That evidence conclusively proves Benson's statements were correct. The government's declaration of ratification of the Sixteenth Amendment was fraudulent. Unable to contest the contents of the certified government documents, a federal district court judge became "TAX DEAF," threw out all of Bill's evidence and found him guilty. Every single judge in the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals thinks this is OK.
Such conduct, of course, is precluded by the First and Fifth Amendments, which our Founding Fathers decided were necessary to keep the King—and all the King's men—from:
No. 1 - Acting as invincible tyrants who can censor and punish speech because it proves wholesale government theft; andNo. 2 - Charging someone with illegal conduct and refusing him the ability to defend against those charges.Just as with King George in the 1700s, the king today believes it can once again censor speech through tax laws and use his henchmen judges to prevent a defense. Alexander Hamilton once put a stop to this atrocious conduct in the Peter Zenger seditious libel trial. We need to put a stop to it today.
The pleadings in the federal district court in Chicago and in the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals may be viewed at www.jeffdickstein.com. We have nothing to hide.
Another way in which "TAXDEF" is designed to work is the now pending criminal case of United States v. Hirmer, Case No. 3:08-cr-70 (N.D.Fla., Pensacola Div., 2009) wherein thirteen people have been charged with several felonies for promoting "anti-government" views on taxation, such as the Sixteenth Amendment was not ratified in accordance with the requirements of the Constitution. There too a "TAX DEAF" judge refused to address proof of the truth. See www.jeffdickstein.com/hirmer.aspx.
It's time for another tea party—the benson tea party
Benson has filed a petition for writ of certiorari in the Supreme Court of the United States. We need to let the King know we want the petition to be heard.
We've made it fast,the benson tea party
Smart people remember history's mistakes so as not to repeat... more
The Maine gay-marriage initiative went down to defeat Tuesday. But the real tragedy is that it should never have been put to a vote in the first place.
Judges at India's Supreme Court have made public details about their financial assets and published the information on the court's website.Judges at India's Supreme Court have made public details about their financial assets... more
CORRECTION: An item posted here -- reporting that Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said that if he were on the court in 1954, he would have dissented in the landmark Brown vs. Board of Education decision that ended school segregation based on race -- was incorrect.
The original report, in Phoenix's East Valley Tribune has been changed.
Yale Law School Professor and blogger Jack Balkin writes: "Here is the video of the event:
"At 23:45 Justice Scalia.... says that he stands with Justice Harlan, who dissented in Plessy v. Ferguson. He argues that the original meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment prohibits racial discrimination."
Scalia is apparently against the natural progress of societies...
"Right to abortion?'' he asked. "Come on. Nobody thought it violated anything in the Constitution for 200 years. It was criminal.''
The same, said Scalia, is true of homosexual sodomy. Yet the nation's high court has struck down state laws banning both.Scalia is apparently against the natural progress of societies...
"Right to... more
He's been on the United States Supreme Court for 18 years; rarely speaking a word during oral arguments. But Clarence Thomas has a message for his fellow justices that's loud and clear.He's been on the United States Supreme Court for 18 years; rarely speaking a word... more
The Supreme Court's decision Tuesday to weigh whether a federal judge has the power to release Guantanamo Bay prisoners into the United States continues a legal tug of war begun when the Bush administration opened the overseas detention camp.
While President Barack Obama is trying to close Guantanamo's detention facility, he largely shares Bush's views about the deference owed a president. The latest case could further clarify this wartime balance of power.
"It's really important that the Supreme Court step in now," said Elizabeth Goitein, the director of the Brennan Center for Justice's Liberty and National Security Project. "This is an issue that's likely to keep arising."
In the closely watched case involving 17 Muslim Uighurs detained starting in 2002, the high court once more will consider how far traditional U.S. constitutional protections extend to the Guantanamo detainees.
A narrowly divided court in the 2008 Boumediene v. Bush case previously determined that detainees could file habeas corpus petitions challenging their indefinite detention. This time, the court will take the next step, considering whether a judicial remedy might include setting them free within the United States.
More @ linkThe Supreme Court's decision Tuesday to weigh whether a federal judge has the power to... more
The Clean Water Act was signed into law on October 18, 1972. It survived and adapted as settled and well accepted law until the Bush Administration began subverting it. Now this most successful piece of environmental law, which has saved millions of lives and protected our water needs to be renewed, restored and re-established as the law of the land.The Clean Water Act was signed into law on October 18, 1972. It survived and adapted... more
NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor says her nomination process was so tightly scripted that even her clothes were chosen for her.
Sotomayor made the comments when she appeared at her 30th Yale Law School reunion on Saturday.
The New Haven Register reports that Sotomayor spoke to 1,800 alumni, students and faculty, describing her recent grueling nomination process.
State Sen. Ed Meyer was among those in attendance. He says Sotomayor became teary at times but kept the crowd laughing. He says Sotomayor talked about shopping for clothes to wear to her acceptance ceremony. Government officials, however, told her to bring five suits and they recommended which one she should wear.
Sotomayor, the first Hispanic on the Supreme Court, attended a luncheon, coffee reception and a 30th reunion dinner with about 50 guests.NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor says her nomination process... more
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was hospitalized overnight
for what appeared to be an adverse reaction to medication, but was released Thursday.Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was hospitalized overnight
for what... more
A "steel-eyed" look at how diversity, a hot-bed discussion before and after political events, can solve many cultural missteps and miscues if given the time to.A "steel-eyed" look at how diversity, a hot-bed discussion before and after political... more
A recast Supreme Court kicked off its new season Monday, with novice Justice Sonia Sotomayor immediately taking center stage.
In just an hour, the court's newest justice asked more questions than Justice Clarence Thomas has asked over the course of several years. Sotomayor's aggressive role in a Fifth Amendment case, in turn, underscored how she could put her own stamp on a court whose 2009-2010 docket is still taking shape.
"The Supreme Court is already off to a notable start, and there is so much more to come," Caroline Fredrickson, the executive director of the American Constitution Society, a liberal lawyers organization, said even before inaugural oral argument Monday.
The 55-plus cases already scheduled for the coming months cover everything from gun rights and patent protection to free speech and the punishment of juveniles. The court is likely to accept another 25 or so cases before the 2009-10 term ends next June.
As always, some cases are acutely technical; dry as dust pension disputes, for instance. Others carry constitutional significance, a compelling set of facts or sometimes both.
More @ linkA recast Supreme Court kicked off its new season Monday, with novice Justice Sonia... more
