Click on this ball for a brief overview of our sites. The little frog logo that is on the ball is a coqui, which like Soto is 100 per cent Puerto Rican. Like the Southern Bob White, it screams its name. Soto adapted this design from an aboriginal engraving found at the Taino ceremonial mounds in Utuado, the birthplace of the Mendez side of his family.JUSTICE MUST BE WON

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Arthur J. Madden, III
Domingo Soto
 

Click on this ball for a brief overview of our sites. The little frog logo that is on the ball is a coqui, which like Soto is 100 per cent Puerto Rican. Like the Southern Bob White, it screams its name. Soto adapted this design from an aboriginal engraving found at the Taino ceremonial mounds in Utuado, the birthplace of the Mendez side of his family.Map of Mobile Justice System

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Click on this ball for a brief overview of our sites. The little frog logo that is on the ball is a coqui, which like Soto is 100 per cent Puerto Rican. Like the Southern Bob White, it screams its name. Soto adapted this design from an aboriginal engraving found at the Taino ceremonial mounds in Utuado, the birthplace of the Mendez side of his family.Mobile FAQs

Click on this ball for a brief overview of our sites. The little frog logo that is on the ball is a coqui, which like Soto is 100 per cent Puerto Rican. Like the Southern Bob White, it screams its name. Soto adapted this design from an aboriginal engraving found at the Taino ceremonial mounds in Utuado, the birthplace of the Mendez side of his family.Press Clippings

Click on this ball for a brief overview of our sites. The little frog logo that is on the ball is a coqui, which like Soto is 100 per cent Puerto Rican. Like the Southern Bob White, it screams its name. Soto adapted this design from an aboriginal engraving found at the Taino ceremonial mounds in Utuado, the birthplace of the Mendez side of his family.Irizarry Oral Argument

Click on this ball for a brief overview of our sites. The little frog logo that is on the ball is a coqui, which like Soto is 100 per cent Puerto Rican. Like the Southern Bob White, it screams its name. Soto adapted this design from an aboriginal engraving found at the Taino ceremonial mounds in Utuado, the birthplace of the Mendez side of his family.Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia's Lawyers

Click on this ball for a brief overview of our sites. The little frog logo that is on the ball is a coqui, which like Soto is 100 per cent Puerto Rican. Like the Southern Bob White, it screams its name. Soto adapted this design from an aboriginal engraving found at the Taino ceremonial mounds in Utuado, the birthplace of the Mendez side of his family.Operation Skymaster

 

 

Click on this ball for a brief overview of our sites. The little frog logo that is on the ball is a coqui, which like Soto is 100 per cent Puerto Rican. Like the Southern Bob White, it screams its name. Soto adapted this design from an aboriginal engraving found at the Taino ceremonial mounds in Utuado, the birthplace of the Mendez side of his family.

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Click on this ball for a brief overview of our sites. The little frog logo that is on the ball is a coqui, which like Soto is 100 per cent Puerto Rican. Like the Southern Bob White, it screams its name. Soto adapted this design from an aboriginal engraving found at the Taino ceremonial mounds in Utuado, the birthplace of the Mendez side of his family.

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Click on this ball for a brief overview of our sites. The little frog logo that is on the ball is a coqui, which like Soto is 100 per cent Puerto Rican. Like the Southern Bob White, it screams its name. Soto adapted this design from an aboriginal engraving found at the Taino ceremonial mounds in Utuado, the birthplace of the Mendez side of his family.Mapa del Sistema Juridico

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Click on this ball for a brief overview of our sites. The little frog logo that is on the ball is a coqui, which like Soto is 100 per cent Puerto Rican. Like the Southern Bob White, it screams its name. Soto adapted this design from an aboriginal engraving found at the Taino ceremonial mounds in Utuado, the birthplace of the Mendez side of his family.Informacion Sobre Mobile

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Click on this ball for a brief overview of our sites. The little frog logo that is on the ball is a coqui, which like Soto is 100 per cent Puerto Rican. Like the Southern Bob White, it screams its name. Soto adapted this design from an aboriginal engraving found at the Taino ceremonial mounds in Utuado, the birthplace of the Mendez side of his family.

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CLICK ON RED LINKS


 "ACTIVIST"?
The term is generally a shorthand for decisions with which the accuser disagrees.
(NATIONAL LAW JOURNAL, suggested by LAW.COM)

CHECK OUT


JUDGE RELEASES GITMO PRISONER
A District Judge has issued an order releasing a Guantánamo prisoner. Prior to Abdul Rahim Abdul Razak al-Janko's detention, an al Qaeda group tortured him for three months and accused him of spying for the United States, a charge he confessed to following his brutal treatment. Janko was then imprisoned for 18 months by the Taliban, who fled the prison in late 2001 and left him behind. U.S. forces found Janko and sent him to Guantánamo. The U.S. government alleges Janko, a native of Syria, traveled to Afghanistan in 2000 to join the Taliban or al Qaeda and that, regardless of his treatment, he maintained allegiance to the groups.
(WASHINGTON POST, suggested by HUMAN RIGHTS FIRST)


UN WEIGHS IN ON GITMO
There should be no half-measures, or new creative ways to treat people as criminals when they have not been found guilty of any crime. Guantánamo showed that torture and unlawful forms of detention can all too easily creep back in to practice during times of stress, and there is still a long way to go before the moral high ground lost since 9/11 can be fully reclaimed.
(WASHINGTON POST, suggested by HUMAN RIGHTS FIRST)


BLOWING SMOKE
Sean Reilly does a pretty good job in explaining in today's paper Jeff Sessions' claim that Maloney v. Cuomo, 554 F.3d 56 (2nd Cir. 2009) is "a very significant case" and that somehow Sonia Sotomayor is the culprit. Some really salient points, however, are lost in the reportage about "her" "position" on "gun ownership rights". Sessions warns, according to the article, that one of her recent rulings would "eviscerate" constitutional protections in much of the country if it were to become law.

First of all, this is not a GUN case. It is a Second Amendment case (right to bear arms), in this case nunchakus, those fighting sticks wielded by kung fu adherents. Can states regulate their use and possession even in a person's home?
Secondly, this is a per curiam (unsigned, cursory) opinion. It was not important enough to have had an author. But most importantly, it upholds the decision by a district court judge who was not "making new law" but applying Supreme Court precedent. (That judge was appointed by George Bush. All three judges on the Circuit panel were Clinton appointees, for those who place importance on that.)
There might have been a time when the court would have accepted Maloney's First Amendment argument - a la Roe v. Wade - that as a martial artist he was being kept from practicing his craft in the privacy of his home. That time has passed. And, as one pundit has noted, there are no jurists joining a Second Amendment "originalist" revolution.

From the offending "Sotomayor decision":

Where a Supreme Court precedent has direct application in a case, yet appears to rest on reasons rejected in some other line of decisions, the Court of Appeals should follow the case which directly controls, leaving to the Supreme Court the prerogative of overruling its own decisions.

Isn't that what Sessions says he wants from judges?
The conservative jurist cited by Reilly is Judge Easterbrook, a Reagan appointee. Like Maloney, the court in NRA v City of Chicago, F.3d ,2009 WL 15154437 (7th Cir 2009) appears to disagree with the Supreme Court but feels contrained by stare decisis. Unlike Maloney, NRA is a real GUN case which makes Sessions' concentration on the nunchuk case appear disingenuous. The NRA panel rejected the gun control lobby's argument that the court either overturn controlling precedent or invoke a "selective incorporation" approach to the Second Amendment.

In relying on Maloney (Sotomayor?), Easterbrook wrote:

If a court of appeals could disregard a decision of the Supreme Court by identifying, and accepting, one or another contention not expressly addressed by the Justices, the Court's decisions could be circumvented with ease. They would bind only judges too dim-witted to come up with a novel argument.
(PRESS REGISTER)


STARR FOR SOTOMAYOR
Kenneth Starr, the prosecutor who chased after President Bill Clinton and his wife, said that he supports President Barack Obama's first Supreme Court nominee, federal appeals court Judge Sonia Sotomayor.
(MOTHER JONES)


CYBERCRIMINAL EBAY
A renegade site called "Golden Cash" is doing a bustling business in the buying and selling of infected computers. The site infects the PCs with their own Golden Cash malware, which allows the purchaser to control the PCs remotely. The seller is also paid to collect the FTP credentials of as many legit sites as possible. Other items for sale on the site include rootkits and malicious websites. It's being called an eBay for cybercrime.
(GADGETELL)


BEHIND THE CURTAIN
When the curtain goes up on Sonia Sotomayor's Supreme Court confirmation hearing next month, the stars of the show will be the nominee and the 19 members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. But this production is scripted mostly by a handful of lawyers who are currently digging through documents and drafting questions. And while the theme of an almost certain confirmation remains, one or two discoveries could alter that story line before hearings begin on July 13.
(LAW.COM)


GOLDEN FLEECE
One firm's application for employment as General Motors' Chapter 11 counsel shows that the company has paid more than $80 million in fees to three firms over the past six months. Weil Gotshal, Jenner & Block and Honigman Miller has the lion's share of the billings at more than $54 million accrued in that period - roughly equivalent to the $55 million Weil billed bankrupt Lehman Brothers between September 2008 and January 2009.
(LAW.COM)


ALABAMA SECOND IN GUN DEATHS
Alabama is ranked second in the nation for the number of gun deaths per capita, and a majority of households in the state have guns, according to a study by the Violence Policy Center.
(TUSCALOOSA NEWS)


FREE THE 13
An array of new circumstances support the growing public support for legalization of pot. A majority of Americans, say it "makes sense to tax and regulate" marijuana, a recent poll shows. It found 52 percent in favor of legalization, only 37 percent opposed. Another poll found 46 percent in support. In California, yet another poll found 56 percent backing legalization and as a result California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger called for an open debate on legalization, all which suggest that American society may be reaching a tipping point when it comes to legal pot.
(ALTERNET)


DEA AND DISPARITY
In cases where the DEA is the lead investigative agency, there are significant geographic variations in the rates at which individuals convicted of criminal offenses get sent to prison. In nine districts fully 100% of all convictions in such cases resulted in prison terms. These were: Alabama Middle (Montgomery), Illinois South (East St. Louis), Illinois Central (Springfield), Michigan West (Grand Rapids), Nebraska (Omaha), North Dakota (Fargo), Oklahoma East (Muskogee), Rhode Island (Providence) and Wisconsin West (Madison).
(TRAC)


WHAT IS JUDICIAL ACTIVISM?
Just what the hell those the term "judicial activist" mean? Two University of Texas School of Law professors have recently authored "Measuring Judicial Activism." The top five most activist justices were, as you might expect, William Douglas, Hugo Black, Earl Warren, William Brennan and Thurgood Marshall.
But coming in sixth behind Marshall was conservative Clarence Thomas. At the low end of their activism scale were justices not necessarily predictably there; for example, Warren Burger is relatively restraintist. On the activism end, there are justices who talk a lot about restraint but aren't restrained. One of those is Justice Thomas, and Scalia is not far behind.
(LAW.COM)


IN HER OWN WORDS
Judge Sotomayor gave a speech in 2000 to the Litigators Club in New York that stands out as an interesting appraisal of the differences between her then-new job on the 2nd Circuit and her prior position as a U.S. District Court judge.
(LAW.COM)


JUST WHAT DID SHE SAY?
Oh, the hypocrisy! The same people who wielded the hot blade of racial divisiveness for years are now calling Sonia Sotomayor a racist. (It is especially ironic to hear these complaints from some locals.)

CHECK OUT THIS OP-ED PIECE

But does Sotomayor believe that Latina judges are wiser than "white" judges? You've heard the quote. Here's the rest of it:

Personal experiences affect the facts that judges choose to see. My hope is that I will take the good from my experiences and extrapolate them further into areas with which I am unfamiliar. I simply do not know exactly what the difference will be in my judging. But I accept there will be some based on my gender and my Latina heritage. I am reminded each day that I render decisions that affect people concretely and that I owe them constant and complete vigilance in checking my assumptions, presumptions and perspectives and ensuring that to the extent that my limited abilities and capabilities permit me, that I reevaluate them and change as circumstances and cases before me requires. I can and do aspire to be greater than the sum total of my experiences but I accept my limitations. I willingly accept that we who judge must not deny the differences resulting from experience and heritage but attempt, as the Supreme Court suggests, continuously to judge when those opinions, sympathies and prejudices are appropriate.
(FAIR)


SOTOMAYOR'S BATTING AVERAGE
Just what is Judge Sotomayor's appellate record? SCOTUS Blog focuses on cases in which the question before the court was (or subsequently became) the basis for a circuit split or was later overruled by either the Second Circuit or the Supreme Court.
(SCOTUS BLOG)


PROSECUTIONS RISE
While immigration cases still account for more than half (53%) of all new federal prosecutions, new filings rose in nearly every other category as well, including drugs (up 49%), weapons (up 19%), white collar crime (up 24%) and government regulation (up 42%). Overall, new criminal cases are at the second-highest level recorded, up 27% from January and up 39% from a year ago.
(TRAC)


LABELS FOR THE COURT
The Warren Court's "liberals" saw the Constitution as defined primarily by courts. "Minimalists" like Breyer see judges as cautious followers of political movements. The "Democratic Constitutionalists" see courts and political movements as partners, influencing each other and society as a whole, Constitutional change ultimately flowing from the bottom up, not the top down, and the courts playing an important, if subsidiary, role in codifying and extending values that the people themselves have come to embrace as fundamental.
(NEW YORK TIMES, suggested by JOHN FURMAN)


PAINTING HER RED
All of the conservatives directing outrage Sonia Sotomayor's way don't really seem to have tons of representation in Congress. Aside from the occasional backdoor insult from conservative senators like our own Jeff Sessions, the response from the GOP has ranged from modest skepticism to lukewarm congratulations. There are a lot of reasons for that, but, breaking it down to its simplest components, Sotomayor is a qualified and politically sympathetic figure; there's no clear precedent for killing her nomination, and there's just about nothing to gain and much to lose by attacking her. So, why do it?
(TALKING POINTS MEMO)

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PRISON REFORM SPEAKER SCHEDULED AT USA
Ron McAndrew, an internationally-known corrections consultant and prison reform advocate, will deliver two lectures at USA on Thursday, May 28. As a prison warden for the state of Florida, McAndrew presided over the application of the death penalty in numerous cases. Now retired from that position, McAndrew notes that he will never be able to leave behind the experience of putting people to death, a story that he has shared with numerous audiences internationally and throughout the U.S.. The title of his talk is "My Life as a Pro-Death Penalty Prison Warden...And Why I Became an Abolitionist." His first presentation will be at 3:30pm in Humanities Building 150; in the evening he will speak at 7pm in the Library Auditorium. Both events are free and open to the public.

Click on this ball for a brief overview of our sites. The little frog logo that is on the ball is a coqui, which like Soto is 100 per cent Puerto Rican. Like the Southern Bob White, it screams its name. Soto adapted this design from an aboriginal engraving found at the Taino ceremonial mounds in Utuado, the birthplace of the Mendez side of his family.Email Us 

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