This Day in History
1920 -- Prohibition begins.
Law.com/Legal Intelligencer
Pa. Breath-Test Ruling Could Affect Thousands of DUI Cases ("A recent trial court decision that calls into question the accuracy of evidential breath alcohol testing could potentially impact thousands of pending DUI cases across Pennsylvania, attorneys said. In fact, members of the Pennsylvania State Police have agreed to suspend breath testing in favor of blood testing across the state until the case is resolved.")
Law.com/National law Journal
Feds: Fired TSA Air Marshal Disclosed 'Sensitive' Information ("A federal air marshal says he was just venting when he posted information on a website dedicated to law enforcement issues. The information, he later told investigators, was 'fictitious,' but he was fired in 2011 for making unauthorized disclosures. Does it matter that he fabricated the content of the posts? That's the question the D.C. Circuit will confront at a hearing Thursday.")
Law.com/Am Law Daily
Law Firm Employees Charged With Massive Ink Theft, Mail Fraud ("A one-time Fried Frank worker who was hit Tuesday with charges of stealing more than $376,000 worth of copy machine toner over a two-year period is one of two former Am Law 100 employees indicted on felony counts within the last week. On Friday, Mayer Brown's former chief information officer was formally charged with 10 counts of mail fraud in connection with his alleged role in bilking the firm out of $4.2 million. The latter scheme allegedly began in 2004 and lasted through last year.")
Law.com/Daily Report
War of the Words: 'Pleaded' vs. 'Pled' ("There is a bitter, friend-splitting debate raging among lawyers about whether to use 'pleaded' or 'pled,' attorneys John Chandler and Brian Boone write. Both words get a lot of play in legal writing. Chandler and Boone say it's time for one usage to rule them all -- but they disagree about which word to send to the dustbin. Here are their competing views.")
Blog of LegalTimes
Judge Denies Motion to Dismiss Challenge to Inauguration Protest Regulations ("With less than a week until the presidential inauguration, a Washington federal judge handed a win yesterday to a group of activists challenging regulations that set aside certain spaces along the parade route exclusively for the Presidential Inaugural Committee. Although the ruling is a victory for the group, it's unlikely to affect this year's parade.")
ABA Journal
New York gun law would require therapists to report suspected danger; will it work? ("Critics say provisions of a New York gun control bill signed into law on Tuesday could discourage the mentally ill from seeking treatment. The law would require therapists, medical personnel and social workers to tell government authorities if they believe a person is “is likely to engage in conduct that would result in serious harm to self or others,” report the New York Times and the Associated Press.")
In ‘combative discussion,’ Supreme Court considers judicial fact-finding role in minimum sentences ("The U.S. Supreme Court considered in oral arguments on Monday whether judges, rather than jurors, may find facts that raise a mandatory minimum sentence. In a 'combative discussion,' the justices considered the reach of a case dealing with maximum sentences, Apprendi v. New Jersey, SCOTUSblog reports. The 2000 decision said the Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial bars judges from increasing prison sentences beyond the statutory maximum based on facts that aren’t submitted to a jury.")
Once-defiant research firm chief who nixed FBI wire gets 4 years in insider trading case ("The founder of a Portland, Ore.-based independent research firm, John Kinnucan, made headlines in 2010 when he publicly announced that he had refused an FBI request to wear a wire in a national insider-trading probe. On Tuesday, the 55-year-old former Broadband Research chief apologized in federal court in Manhattan for serving as a conduit transmitting confidential information between employees of public companies and hedge funds looking to invest. Then he was sentenced to 51 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Deborah Batts for conspiracy and securities fraud and required to forfeit $164,000, according to Bloomberg and Reuters.")
New York Times
Obama Gun Proposal to Look Beyond Mass Shootings ("Some of the proposals that President Obama is expected to make on Wednesday will be intended not only to prevent mass shootings, but also to curb everyday gun violence.")
Warning Signs of Violent Acts Are Often Unclear ("Forestalling violence by keeping closer track of people with mental illness is an appealing idea, but it poses more difficulties than are at first apparent.")
An Oil Town Where Men Are Many, and Women Are Hounded ("The authorities in Williston, N.D., say that crimes against women have increased in this area, where single men greatly outnumber single women.")
Missouri: Administrator, Gunman Wounded at School ("A part-time student strode into the office of a longtime administrator at Stevens Institute of Business and Arts in St. Louis on Tuesday and shot the man in the chest, before turning the gun on himself, the police said.")
Virginia: Man Vowing to Kill More Faces Execution ("The state plans to use its electric chair for the first time in nearly three years on Wednesday to execute a man who pleaded guilty to two prison murders and threatened to continue killing until he was executed.")
Harsher View of Bombing Suspect Is Revealed on Tapes ("Jurors who may have been studying the defendant in recent days at the federal terrorism trial here of a 21-year-old Somali-American named Mohamed Osman Mohamud have seen a thin, neatly dressed young man at the defense table who sometimes quietly confers with his lawyers.")
In Gun Debate, Even Language Can Be Loaded ("When the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence wanted to promote more restrictions on firearms after the Connecticut school shootings in December, it turned to a firm to help publicize its position. The firm’s name? Point Blank Public Affairs.")
Sweeping Limits on Guns Become Law in New York ("Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo signed into law a sweeping package of gun-control measures on Tuesday, significantly expanding a ban on assault weapons and making New York the first state to change its laws in response to the mass shooting at a Connecticut elementary school.")
Gunman Kills 2 at College in Eastern Kentucky ("A gunman firing into a vehicle killed two people and wounded a teenager on Tuesday as they sat in the parking lot of an eastern Kentucky community college.")
Legislature Restricts Access to Gun Permit Data ("New York State’s new gun law seeks to restrict ownership of certain weapons. But it also restricts something else: access to previously public information about gun permits.")
Cholula Journal: Fighting Back as Mexican Churches Are Looted ("A small, picturesque city 80 miles southeast of Mexico City, Cholula is said to have a church for every day of the year. There are, in reality, about 80 in all, many dating to the 17th century and filled with paintings and sculptures from that time. It is enough to draw hordes of worshipers — and thieves.")
Saudi Arabia: Egyptian Rights Lawyer Is Convicted on Smuggling Charges ("An Egyptian human rights lawyer was convicted Tuesday of smuggling drugs into Saudi Arabia and sentenced to five years in prison and 300 lashes, Egypt’s state news agency reported.")
Sri Lanka: New Chief Justice Sworn In ("President Mahinda Rajapaksa swore in a trusted aide on Tuesday to replace the chief justice he fired, a move that could lead to a judicial crisis if lawyers and judges who say the move was illegal refuse to cooperate.")
Sunni Lawmaker in Iraq Is Killed in a Suicide Bombing ("An Iraqi Parliament member who was also the leader of a local council of the Awakening movement, an American-backed group of Sunni militias that switched sides to fight against Al Qaeda in Iraq, was killed in a suicide bomb attack in Anbar Province on Tuesday, security and government officials said.")
Editorial: New York Leads on Gun Control ("The broad gun control bill approved Tuesday by the New York Legislature substantially strengthens the state’s gun control laws and, if vigorously enforced, could make New York one of the toughest places in the country to buy, sell or own dangerous weapons. But the bill also contains troubling provisions involving mental health and public access to important records that should be revisited and reworked.")
A Girl Held for 16 Days in a Dungeon, Now Looking Back as a Woman ("Two decades ago, Katie Beers was a household name, the neglected 9-year-old girl who had been abducted and abused in a dungeon on Long Island.")
Police to Use Fake Pill Bottles to Track Drugstore Thieves ("Seeking to catch and eventually deter addicts who steal painkillers, the New York Police Department will stock pharmacy shelves with decoy pill bottles that contain tracking devices.")
Judge Rejects Victim’s Plea and Sentences Teenager to 18 Years in Shooting ("A Harlem woman who was shot in the stomach by a teenager aiming at rival gang members asked a judge on Tuesday to show leniency in his sentencing.")
Man Pleads Not Guilty to Murder in Fatal Subway Pushing ("A suspect charged with pushing another man to his death in front of an oncoming subway train in Midtown Manhattan last month told the police that he knew the victim was too drunk to pose a deadly threat and acknowledged that he could have just 'walked away,' a prosecutor said Tuesday.")
Rights Group Reports on Abuses of Surveillance and Censorship Technology ("A Canadian human rights monitoring group has documented the use of American-made Internet surveillance and censorship technology by more than a dozen governments, some with harsh human rights policies like Syria, China and Saudi Arabia.")
DealBook: Analyst Sentenced to 4 Years in a Turbulent Insider Case ("For two years, John Kinnucan waged a nasty battle with the Justice Department, mocking F.B.I. agents and threatening prosecutors as they investigated him for insider trading.")
Washington Post
Va. inmate who fought for death penalty set to get his wish on Wednesday, die by electrocution ("When Robert Gleason Jr. walks into Virginia’s death chamber Wednesday night and is strapped into the rarely used electric chair, it will mark the end of a twisted quest to speed his own death.")
Obama to propose big steps on guns ("President Obama on Wednesday will formally announce the most aggressive and expansive national gun-control agenda in generations as he presses Congress to mandate background checks for all firearms buyers and prohibit assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition clips.")
What Armstrong can gain by his confession to doping ("From the moment Lance Armstrong radically reversed tactics — admitting that he used performance-enhancing drugs — he started banking that his confession will have value in two arenas that have nothing to do with Oprah Winfrey’s television ratings or his standing in the public eye. One is the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, which has the latitude to shorten his lifetime ban from competition. The other is the U.S. Justice Department, which is weighing whether to join a whistleblower suit that could cost him nearly $100 million.")
Leahy could slow Obama's efforts on gun control ("President Obama has promised quick action to get a series of gun-control proposals through Congress and has been moving purposefully to that end. But one of his key allies on Capitol Hill, Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), could prove to be an early obstacle to the president’s swift pace.")
Op-ed: Cutting the capacity to kill ("Shrinking gun magazines will save lives.")
Editorial: Toughening Md.’s gun laws ("HUSTLING TO keep pace with New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D), Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) is preparing to lay out his own package of tough new gun laws in the aftermath of December’s bloodbath at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn.")
In Anne Arundel, John Leopold’s misconduct trial about to start ("The county executive is accused of having his security detail ferry him to meetings with his mistress.")
NPR
Did Prosecutors Go Too Far In Swartz Case? ("Harvard Law professor Lawrence Lessig, a friend of Swartz, told NPR that making a big federal case over the computer hack was out of hand.")
Does Social Media Encourage Violent Teen Behavior? ("The recent rape allegations in Steubenville, Ohio raised concerns among parents about whether social media is encouraging bad and sometimes violent teen behavior. Host Michel Martin explores new media and teens' decisions about risk with a panel of parents.")
Self-Tracking: Becoming Your Own Big Brother ("How was your workout? Did you sleep well? How far are you in that book? These questions used to be general queries. New apps and gadgets allow us to keep track of every minute detail of our daily movements and activities — a practice known as self-tracking.")
Critics: Mentally Ill Patients' Confidentiality Compromised In New York's Gun Law ("Robert Siegel talks with Dr. Paul Appelbaum, director of the Division of Law, Ethics, and Psychiatry at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. They discuss the ethics behind — and possible consequences of — New York's legislation requiring mental health professionals to report patients they believe could harm themselves or others.")
Federal And State Efforts To Reduce Gun Violence (Diane Rehm Show, one hour, "New York lawmakers agree on tighter gun control laws. President Barack Obama is expected to announce broad action to curb gun violence later this week. An update on federal and state gun control efforts.")
Politico
New Obama gun plan already under attack ("President Barack Obama’s wide-ranging gun control plan to be unveiled midday Wednesday is already under attack by the National Rifle Association, which is hoping to keep Congress solidly opposed to any of what the White House is proposing.")
Bomb suspect nabbed at Wis. Capitol ("Authorities say he made threats via his Facebook page and then told Capitol police he had a device.")
W.H. mum on DOJ Armstrong action ("But Carney says Obama's stance on doping is clear.")
The Hill
Lofgren to introduce bill amending hacking law in honor of Swartz ("Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) posted a copy of a draft bill to social news website Reddit late Tuesday.")
Lawmakers slam DOJ prosecution of Swartz as 'ridiculous, absurd' ("Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) says his Oversight panel will look into whether federal prosecutors acted inappropriately.")
National Review
Over-criminalization and the Tragic Case of Aaron Swartz ("On Friday, 26-year-old internet activist Aaron Swartz—who was facing 13 federal charges, along with a potential $1 million fine and 35 years in prison—committed suicide. Federal prosecutors had charged Swartz with using an unlocked MIT computer closet to download, for free, articles from subscription-based academic service JSTOR. Unfortunately, this tragedy is one more example of the increasing problem of over-criminalization.")
Huffington Post
Bradley Manning Pretrial Hearing Focusing On Delays ("An Army private charged with sending U.S. secrets to WikiLeaks contends that lengthy delays have violated his right to a speedy trial. Pfc. Bradley Manning returns to Fort Meade for a pretrial hearing Wednesday. He is seeking dismissal of all charges.")
Bloomberg Businessweek
Constitution May Not Apply to Sept. 11 Defendants ("The military judge overseeing the prosecution of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other men accused of plotting the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks ruled that the U.S. Constitution may not always apply in the case, a lawyer for one of the defendants said.")
Reason
Manufacturing Terrorists ("Inside the FBI's terror sting operations....Imagine a country in which the government pays convicted con artists and criminals to scour minority religious communities for disgruntled, financially desperate, or mentally ill patsies who can be talked into joining fake terror plots, even if only for money. Imagine that the country's government then busts its patsies with great fanfare to justify ever-increasing authority and ever-increasing funding. According to journalist Trevor Aaronson's The Terror Factory, this isn't the premise for a Kafka novel; it's reality in the post-9/11 United States.")
The New Yorker
Catching Richard Chichakli ("For more than seven years after he fled his home in Texas, Richard Chichakli was safe. He was a fugitive, wanted in the United States, where authorities accused him of helping Viktor Bout—the Russian arms trafficker, sometimes called 'the merchant of death,' who is currently serving a twenty-five-year prison sentence in Illinois—purchase airplanes, evade sanctions, and move money. In Moscow, though, he didn’t have to worry about that; in Moscow, the Justice Department couldn’t get him.")
Baltimore Sun
Editorial: End Md.'s death penalty ("Our view: Lawmakers should not be deterred by a recent poll showing support for capital punishment and should enact a repeal this year.")
Op-ed: Obama's unpardonable neglect of clemency ("Robert Ehrlich, who knows something about the pardon process, questions President Obama's commitment to fairness.")
Miami Herald
Closing arguments on tap today in sergeant’s drug-corruption trial ("Closing arguments will cap the federal trial of a Miami police sergeant accused of planting dope on a suspect and stealing drugs and money from dealers — with jury deliberations to follow.")
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