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Academic

The Yin Blog

Random thoughts on law, politics, game theory, sports, books, television shows, and movies. - From Tung Yin, Associate Professor of Law at Iowa. \r\n

Post Frequency: 0.9/day

Last Entry: March 31, 2011 at 17:08:59

Portland bomb sting posts

Posted on December 22, 2010
For those of you who are interested mainly in my blogging on the Portland bomb sting case, bookmark this link to stay up to date. Some notable posts that you may be interested in: The defense's motion for a gag...

HuffPost on Muslim leaders and disaffected youth

Posted on December 21, 2010
Muslim Leaders Probe Problem Of Disaffected Youths (Huffington Post): Muslim leaders are admitting disaffected Muslim youth such as the alleged Oregon bomber arrested last month are ripe for online recruitment by extremists. "Why do we in Muslim communities not have...

Too much of a good thing in a pizza?

Posted on December 21, 2010
I like this local pizza chain, Flying Pie Pizzeria, because its pizzas are not very cheesy and come with loads and loads of toppings. But there can be too much of a good thing. The last pizza I ordered --...

Mohamud lawyers ask to gag AG Holder

Posted on December 21, 2010
I suppose this was totally expected: Mohamed Mohamud's defense team has asked a federal judge to put a muzzle on U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. The nation's top prosecutor has commented publicly at least twice in recent weeks about the...

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Muddled thinking about the Commerce Clause

Posted on December 20, 2010
A letter in today's Oregonian questions the legal challenge to the individual mandate in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act: A federal judge has ruled that the requirement that most Americans obtain health insurance would constitute a giant expansion...

OPB's "Think Out Loud" program on "Contrasting Coverage"

Posted on December 20, 2010
Tomorrow's "Think Out Loud" program on Oregon Public Broadcasting is titled "Contrasting Coverage" and will look at the difference in media coverage of the Woodburn bank bombing case and the Pioneer Square bomb sting plot. I'll be one of the...

Looking at Mohamud's confinement conditions, compared to Pvt. Manning's

Posted on December 19, 2010
Jailers hold Mohamed Mohamud, accused in plot to bomb Portland tree lighting, in 'protective custody' (Oregonian) According to this news story, Mohamud is being held in solitary confinement at the downtown Justice Center, which is run by the Multnomah County...

L.A. Times op-ed on the Mohamud case

Posted on December 16, 2010
The Los Angeles Times has a pretty sensible op-ed in today's paper on the Mohamud case and entrapment claims. Here's the key conclusion: If the government's recitation of facts in the Mohamud case is to be believed, [Attorney General Eric]...

More news headlines on entrapment

Posted on December 15, 2010
Some recent news stories referencing the Mohamed Mohamud case and entrapment: FBI's terror sting tactics questioned (USA Today) Attorney general tells civil liberties group FBI didn't entrap Portland bomb-plot suspect Mohamud (Oregonian) The Oregonian story includes the following statement from...

"You cannot be serious!"

Posted on December 15, 2010
Ann Althouse has been poking fun at Josh Marshall (and Nancy Pelosi) for what she calls "constitutional argument by laughter," the idea being that Marshall's disdain for constitutional arguments against healthcare reform's mandate could not have been serious...

The end of "24" -- a bonus Chloe scene

Posted on December 14, 2010

"He had many chances to walk away" does not disprove entrapment in the Mohamud case

Posted on December 13, 2010
One of the arguments that I've been reading and hearing is that Mohamed Mohamud was not entrapped because "he had many chances to walk away." Attorney General Eric Holder seems to have said something similar: ?There were, as I said,...

The Christmas tree dilemma

Posted on December 10, 2010
It's not easy finding the ecologically-appropriate way to have a Christmas tree. Ann Althouse pokes holes in the idea of renting the same potted tree every year: But ? hello! ? trucks have to drive around delivering and picking up...

A pro-defense view of the Mohamud case

Posted on December 09, 2010
Missing Links (Willamette Weekly). Here's the key reporting: But New York lawyer Martin Stolar says key aspects of Mohamud?s talks with the FBI may still be unknown. As he learned from his own work defending an accused terrorist, initial discussions....

The Baltimore sting and Dateline's "To Catch a Predator"

Posted on December 09, 2010
I had previously noted that maybe the FBI needed to have a Facebook page, given that the Baltimore sting suspect himself started by mouthing off on Facebook. Then I discovered that the FBI does indeed have a Facebook page. ....

A close look at 18 USC 2332a

Posted on December 09, 2010
I thought today I would take a closer look at 18 USC 2332a, the federal criminal statute that Mohamed Mohamud is being prosecuted under. The statute states in relevant part: (a) Offense against a national of the United States or...

The inappropriate question on the Marine Corps' reference form

Posted on December 09, 2010
The U.S. Marine Corp has a form questionnaire that it uses for gathering references on applicants. It asks for the evaluate to rate the applicant on a number of categories, using a scale ranging from "Superior" to "Inferior," with "Not...

Portland Merc on the two bombing cases

Posted on December 09, 2010
Don't Call Them Terrorists (Portland Mercury) This short article juxtaposes the Mohamud case with the Woodburn bank bombing case, which just resulted in convictions of both defendants of all counts, with the capital penalty phase about to start. The article...

HPR on "Obama's Blank Check"

Posted on December 09, 2010
The Harvard Political Review has a short article in the current issue titled "Obama's Blank Check," which examines the seeming continuity between the Bush and Obama administrations when it comes to national security. Here's the opening: In the 2004 Supreme...

Yet another FBI bomb sting operation, this time in Maryland

Posted on December 08, 2010
High-profile FBI sting operations in which allegedly would-be terrorists are snared by undercover operatives might have some marginal deterrent effect on other would-be terrorists, but that deterrent effect is obviously nowhere near absolute. From Maryland comes another story whose allegations...

Guardian column criticizing the FBI as "spying on American Muslims"

Posted on December 07, 2010
From the Guardian (UK), by an American Muslim attorney: Time for FBI to stop spying on American Muslims The opening two paragraphs read: The recent arrest of the potential Christmas tree bomber is reflective of the FBI's myopic strategy of...

Al-Aulaqi and standing

Posted on December 07, 2010
The district court in the al-Aulaqi case has dismissed the lawsuit brought by al-Aulaqi's father on standing, sovereign immunity, and political question grounds, as summarized by Bobby Chesney at Lawfare. In reading the part dealing with al-Aulaqi's dad's lack of...

Mocking the FBI, Portland Mercury style

Posted on December 07, 2010
I haven't seen it in a print, but I gather the Portland Mercury is an alternative weekly paper, with an edgy view of Portland matters. This "poster" -- titled "Solve All Your Problems with . . . THE FBI UNDERCOVER...

Recent Oregonian coverage of the bomb sting case

Posted on December 07, 2010
The Oregonian ran a bunch of stories related to the bomb sting case over the weekend: Family of Portland's bomb suspect, Mohamed Mohamud, fled chaos in Somalia for new life in America A pretty good profile of Mohamud and his...

A study in entrapment, or just shoddy investigative technique?

Posted on December 06, 2010
Yesterday's Washington Post has a story about a federal lawsuit by a former federal informant against the FBI, in which the informant alleges that he was trained to "entrap" Muslims by infiltrating a Southern California mosque. Perhaps the most telling...

The presumption of innocence, fair trials, and defendants who won't/can't argue "they didn't do it"

Posted on December 04, 2010
Over at the US News & World Report blog, Leslie Marshall asks "Can Mohamed Osman Mohamud Get a Fair Trial?": My problem with this is not the arrest. My problem with this is not the innocence or guilt of Mohamed....

The other Oregon bombing case

Posted on December 03, 2010
Although the Mohamed Mohamud case draws the front page treatment in the Oregonian and the lead time slot in the local TV news, there's another Oregon bombing case in the news right now: the 2008 Woodburn bank bombing. (Woodburn is...

Reactions to the alleged video clip of Mohamed Mohamud

Posted on December 03, 2010
KPTV News (the local Fox affiliate), which obtained the phone video clip of Mohamed Mohamud, has a couple of new stories: Muslims React to Terror Suspect Video Attorney Shares Take On Mohamud Phone Video The first story includes the following...

Laughing at Seattle?

Posted on November 24, 2010
I gather there's some kind of Portland-Seattle rivalry, so it shouldn't be surprising that our local CBS affiliate's 11 pm newscast has just spent the last few minutes showing us scenes of cars attempting . . . and failing ....

TSA, Trusted Traveler, and alternatives to scan/grope

Posted on November 24, 2010
I do feel bad for TSA agents; it can't be comfortable to be probing around people's private areas and to be accused regularly of sexual assault and the like. I'm still skeptical of the utility of the virtual strip searches/gropes,...

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