Constitutional Law

Torture But Not That Bad For Torture
Christopher Hitchens volunteered to be waterboarded so he could describe it. His main points are:(1) It counts as torture.(2) As torture goes, it's not that bad (see below)(3) We still shouldn't do it because it's tortureWhen contrasted to actual torture, waterboarding is more like foreplay...

Colb on Torture
Sherry F. Colb (Columbia Law School) has posted Why is Torture "Different" and How "Different" is it? on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Almost every serious commentator to address the moral and legal question of torture has taken for granted...

MI5 instigated torture of British citizens
MI5 instigated torture of British citizensMI5 arranged for British citizens to be arrested by Pakistani authorities, they were then softened up by torture, followed by questioning by the MI5...

Torture: What torture
Torture: What torture?If I was being generous this case may be an argument to support Jacqui Smith's call for the detention limit to be extended to 42 days. And even that might not be long enough...

Another one of Judge Bybees Torture Memos released
A lot of people ask me how you become an appellate judge. The answer is to write a torture memo. Or three. If you really torture, you write even more. I note that the blue-booking is impeccable, and therefore his...

Insulting spam messagesreally vitriolic ones!
Dinosaur Comics over at Quantz.com has been really good lately. This one struck a chord, though, because I noticed the same thing a little while ago. Now that we’re completely desensitized to the usual ultra-explicit subject lines in spam, spammers are getting personal...