Via Oh No They Didn't

Roman Polanski raped a 13 year-old girl more than 30 years ago. Roman Polanski, who was 43 years old at the time of the crime, has never denied he gave Quaaludes and alcohol to a minor so he could force her into sexual acts with him. On the contrary, he entered a plea bargain for the lesser crime of statutory rape or unlawful sexual acts with a minor. It was after the case was tried, the plea bargain negotiated and before he was to be sentenced that he fleed the country.

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About time Coleman v. Franken (PDF of case A09-697)was decided and in this case, unanimously:

1. Appellants did not establish that, by requiring proof that statutory absentee voting standards were satisfied before counting a rejected absentee ballot, the trial court's decision constituted a post-election change in standards that violates substantive due process.

2. Appellants did not prove that either the trial court or local election officials violated the constitutional guarantee of equal protection.

3. The trial court did not abuse its discretion when it excluded additional evidence.

4. Inspection of ballots under Minn. Stat. § 209.06 (2008) is available only on a showing that the requesting party cannot properly be prepared for trial without an inspection. Because appellants made no such showing here, the trial court did not err in denying inspection.

5. The trial court did not err when it included in the final election tally the election day returns of a precinct in which some ballots were lost before the manual recount.

Affirmed. Per Curiam.

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White supremacists come in all colors and Michelle Malkin absolutely proves it --along with Clarence Thomas, by the way.

Never mind that Judge Sotomayor was part of a unanimous appeal in the Second Circuit that wanted to uphold precedent. Never mind that Sotomayor and all the other judges felt for the firefighters and were sympathetic to their cause (aka, had empathy), yet they still were looking at the facts based on legal precedence. Never mind that Justice Ginsburg, in her dissent believes that "The Courts' order and opinion ... will have no staying power" (pages 55-56 of PDF of SOTUS decision)

In the eyes of race bater, white supremacist yet brown-skinned filipina like Michelle Malkin, Sonia Sotomayor is a racist.

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Thanks to Matt Ortega for putting this together:

Fellow Second Circuit Judge Guido Calabresi on Sotomayor: “She’s Always a Very Forceful and Powerful Judge. She Has, Not on a Insignificant Number of Occasions, Caused Me to Change My Mind.” “Judge Guido Calabresi, a fellow judge on the 2nd Circuit Court who taught the young Sotomayor torts at Yale, said she was the one who organized dinners for the judges on the court and their spouses. But he was also quick to praise her for her work on the bench. ‘She's always a very forceful and powerful judge,’ Calabresi said. ‘She has, not on an insignificant number of occasions, caused me to change my mind. I would read one of the memos she had written on a case and say, “I think she's got it and I don't.” [Los
Angeles Times, 5/27/09]

Former Chief Judge of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals and Carter Appointee Jon Newman Said Sotomayor Was “Everything One Would Want in a First-Rate Judge.” NPR reported that Judge Newman called Sotomayor a brilliant lawyer and a fair-minded pragmatist. “She is everything one would want in a first-rate judge,” he said. [NPR, 5/27/09]

Federal Judge And Former Appeals Lawyer Said Sotomayor Was Widely Regarded As An Excellent Judge Who Asked Questions That Were “Penetrating, But Fair.” “Some lawyers have described her courtroom manner as abrupt, but several others said in interviews that it represents nothing more than her direct, New York style. Judge Martin Glenn, who as a veteran appeals lawyer had appeared before her frequently, said that she was widely regarded as an excellent judge. Judge Glenn, now a federal bankruptcy judge, said that Judge Sotomayor always asked ‘questions that were penetrating but fair.’ ‘She was always respectful,’ he said. Judge Glenn said lawyers generally regard her as representative of what he said is called ‘a hot bench,’ meaning that questions come fast and furious and lawyers have to be fully prepared.” [New York Times, 5/27/09]

Sen. Olympia Snowe Called Sotomayor “Well-Qualified” And Said Her Selection Was “Historic.” "Indisputably, this is an historic selection, as Sonia Sotomayor is just the third woman to be nominated to The Court and the first Hispanic American. I commend President Obama for nominating a well-qualified woman, as I urged him to do during a one-on-one meeting on a variety of issues in the Oval Office earlier this month. I also appreciate that White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel called me personally this morning to inform me of the President's selection.” [Snowe Statement, 5/26/09]

Sen. Joe Lieberman: Sotomayor “An Impressive Choice.” “President Obama made an impressive choice by nominating Judge Sotomayor for the position of Associate Justice for the Supreme Court. Judge Sotomayor’s career represents the best of the American dream and she possesses distinguished and superior legal credentials. I look forward to the upcoming hearings and I hope that there is a bi-partisan effort to ensure a fair confirmation process.” [Lieberman
Statement, 5/26/09]
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There's an interesting debate going on in the backchannels of the POC blogosphere as to what to do in the wake of yet another Bush-like policy being embraced by the Obama administration. In U.S. to Expand Immigration Checks to All Local Jails, the Washington Post reports the following :

The Obama administration is expanding a program initiated by President George W. Bush aimed at checking the immigration status of virtually every person booked into local jails. In four years, the measure could result in a tenfold increase in illegal immigrants who have been convicted of crimes and identified for deportation, current and former U.S. officials said.

By matching inmates' fingerprints to federal immigration databases, authorities hope to pinpoint deportable illegal immigrants before they are released from custody. Inmates in federal and state prisons already are screened. But authorities generally lack the time and staff to do the same at local jails, which house up to twice as many illegal immigrants at any time and where inmates come and go more quickly.

The effort is likely to significantly reshape immigration enforcement, current and former executive branch officials said. It comes as the Obama administration and Democratic leaders in Congress vow to crack down on illegal immigrants who commit crimes, rather than those who otherwise abide by the law.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has made it "very clear" that her top priority is deporting illegal immigrants who have committed crimes, said David J. Venturella, program director at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

A lot of the discussion is centered on how to counter people's immediate reaction is to say, "well, if they're criminals, it makes sense to do this". I totally agree with many who have said that giving Obama a pass on this is yet another example of how the US government is looking for ways to thro away due process.

My point in the debate is that we need to lay yet again another anti-immigrant policy at the feet of the American people. Why? It signals the Obama Administration's eagerness to invest time and money in developing the kinds of surveillance systems government spooks want in order to use any and all technological innovations that would allow them to track and even strip-search every single person in the US without need of a warrant and regardless of that person's citizenship status.
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