Legal Commentary

Saturday Night Open Thread

By Jeralyn

A survey of more than 100 retired NY police officials say they were pressured into fudging stats to make it appear crime was going down.

The totals for those seven so-called major index crimes are provided to the F.B.I., whose reports on crime trends have been used by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and his predecessor, Rudolph W. Giuliani, to favorably compare New York to other cities and to portray it as a profoundly safer place, an assessment that the summary does not contradict.

In Georgia, criminal defense attorney Mark Shelnutt, who was acquitted of 40 counts of money laundering, aiding a drug conspiracy, bribery and false statements, is suing the Government, using the Hyde Act, to recover his attorneys fees. What a nightmare the feds put this lawyer through, the article is just chilling.

The Third Circuit, which will be the first in the country to decide whether the Government must show probable cause before getting an order to obtain cell-site locator records, is finally going to hear oral arguments on Thursday. This is a really big deal, and not just for criminal defendants. Among those in the case: the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Center for Democracy & Technology and the American Civil Liberties Union.[More...]

The data, which are recorded about once every seven seconds whenever a cell phone is turned on, effectively track the whereabouts and the comings and goings of every cell phone user.

Justice Department lawyers argue that, by statute, they need only show "reasonable grounds" to believe that such records are "relevant and material to an ongoing criminal investigation."

From the Magistrate Judge's ruling which is being appealed:

"This court believes that citizens continue to hold a reasonable expectation of privacy in the information the government seeks regarding their physical movements/locations -- even now that such information is routinely produced by their cell phones -- and that, therefore, the government's investigatory search of such information continues to be protected by the Fourth Amendment's warrant requirement."

Michael Irvin has filed a $100 million lawsuit against a woman accusing him of rape.

The snow storm on the east coast seems to be abating. Maybe they can send some to Vancouver in time for the Olympics, where there is a serious shortage. In other Olympics news, there is an official blogging and tweeting policy for participants. It's allowed so long as they just write about their own experiences.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on February 06, 2010 (boomark / email).