FLE

How a Young Lawyer Saved the Second Amendment For decades the Second Amendment might as well have been called the Second-Class Amendment. The U.S. Supreme Court spent the late 20th century expansively interpreting the First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Eighth amendments, not to mention unenumerated rights ranging from travel to sexual privacy. But not until last month did the court hold that the Second Amendment means what it says: that "the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed." What took so long? I put the question to Alan Gura, the 37-year-old wunderkind lawyer who represented the plaintiffs in District of Columbia v. Heller. The meaning of the Second Amendment had long been disputed because of its prefatory clause, "A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state . . ." Opponents of gun rights argued that the Founders meant to establish only a "collective right" -- authorization for states to raise militias. The Supreme Court had not addressed the question since 1939, when it held, in U.S. v. Miller, that sawed-off shotguns were not appropriate for use in a militia and therefore could be banned. The Miller decision "was agreed by everybody to be somewhat murky and inconclusive," Mr. Gura says. "We read the case, like a lot of people, to mean that it's an individual right." But firearm foes claimed that the court had endorsed the collective-rights theory....
After court ruling, towns rush to repeal gun bans In 1981, this quiet northern Chicago suburb made history by becoming the first municipality in the nation to ban the possession of handguns. Twenty-seven years later, Morton Grove has repealed its law, bowing to a U.S. Supreme Court decision in June that affirmed homeowners' right to keep guns for self-defense. It's one of several Illinois communities - reluctant to spend money on legal fights - rushing to repeal their gun bans after the court struck down a Washington, D.C., ban, even as cities such as Chicago and San Francisco stand firm. Mayor Richard Krier acknowledges Morton Grove's place in history, but said that didn't affect the village board's 5-1 decision Monday to amend its ordinance to allow the possession of handguns. The village still bans the sale of guns. The National Rifle Association and others carried their enthusiasm straight to federal court, suing the city of Chicago and Mayor Richard Daley, a vocal supporter of gun control, and the Chicago suburbs of Morton Grove, Evanston and Oak Park. Wilmette, another northern Chicago suburb, voted to repeal its ban. Officials there said they believe they weren't sued by the NRA because the village stopped enforcing its 1989 ban after the high court ruling....
Research Raises Questions About ‘Policing for Profit’ If a police officer stops a motorist and discovers cash and narcotics during the stop, the officer may have the authority to confiscate the car as an instrument of crime and the money as probable proceeds of criminal activity. Asset forfeiture laws allow governments to seize citizens’ private property, including real estate, vehicles and currency, if they are tied to illegal conduct. Although the laws dictating who will receive the proceeds vary from state to state, critics have long contended that these laws lead to “policing for profit.” UT Dallas criminologists John Worrall and Tom Kovandzic have completed one of the only studies that looks at the application of asset forfeiture laws and whether the laws affect the goals and actions of police departments. The study titled, “Is Policing for Profit? Answers from Asset Forfeiture” is published in the most recent issue of Criminology and Public Policy. Worrall and Kovandzic, both criminology professors in the School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences, analyzed 572 police departments around the country to look at the big picture of how asset forfeiture laws might influence policing. Their data came from the Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics survey and the U.S. Justice Department Asset Forfeiture Program. Worrall and Kovandzic found that money does matter. The prospect of receiving money may drive forfeiture activities. This finding was consistent, regardless of the varying state regulations regarding the division of the proceeds. Even in the most restrictive states, police departments can get back up to 80 percent of the proceeds by working with the federal government in a process called equitable sharing. These findings are timely as rising gas prices and a changing economy leave police departments faced with growing budget constraints. “As agencies become more desperate, there’s the potential for the situation to worsen. We could see a lot more interest in creative sources of funding,” said Worrall....
Deputizing Company Counsel as Agents of the Federal Government Policymakers must reexamine the manner in which corporations and other organizations that are suspected of wrongdoing are investigated. In the aftermath of the Enron scandal, laws like Sarbanes-Oxley, combined with recent changes to the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, have substantially increased the penalties on companies and individuals for white-collar offenses. The combination of draconian sentences, lack of meaningful judicial control over the imposition of sanctions, and the impossible burdens on company officers have jeopardized the very nature of our adversary system of justice. To avoid the potential catastrophe of a federal indictment, business firms are taking extraordinary steps to placate federal prosecutors. And those prosecutors now regularly insist on the following: * That business firms surrender or "waive" their attorney-client privilege, * That firms must pressure their employees to waive their constitutional right against self-incrimination, * That firms facing indictment refuse to advance legal fees to employees under investigation — even if a firm concludes that an employee was just following directions or is otherwise innocent of any wrongdoing, and * That embattled firms must discharge certain employees at the direction of the government — even if a firm concludes that an employee was just following directions or is otherwise innocent of any wrongdoing. Any organization that balks at the government's demands risks months of negative publicity as prosecutors characterize a legal defense as "impeding" or "obstructing" the investigation. It is no overstatement to say that the enforcement of the criminal law, at least insofar as it applies to investigations of organizations, amounts to a state-sponsored shakedown scheme in which business firms are extorted to pay penalties that are grossly out of proportion to any actual misconduct....
Flint seeks sponsors for police surveillance cameras Willing to spend $30,000 to put your name on a camera? The City of Flint is looking for sponsors for surveillance cameras that will be mounted around the city to keep a watch out for crooks. In exchange for cash, the city will plaster business names next to police logos on the pole-mounted camera boxes that sport a blue police light that flashes 24 hours a day. Don't have $30,000? Depending on the size of the check, smaller logos and even people's names can be placed on the boxes similar to those found on a NASCAR racer. The "Adopt-A-PODSS" program is part of an unique partnership between the city and Asset Protection Specialists, a private security firm in Flint....
Failing to Pardon Border Agents Called ‘Worst Black Mark’ on Bush Three Republican congressmen on Tuesday urged President Bush to grant pardons to two former Border Patrol agents, both of whom face more than 10 years in prison for shooting an illegal immigrant as he fled towards the U.S.-Mexico border. One of the congressman said if Bush failed to pardon the agents it would represent “the worst black mark” on his presidency. “We are calling on President Bush to take this opportunity to show this Christian charity that he always talks about,” said Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) during a news conference in his Washington, D.C., office. Rohrabacher joined Reps. Ed Royce (R-Calif.) and Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) in decrying a federal appeals court decision Monday that uphold the prison terms for former Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean. The appeals court vacated Ramos’ and Compean’s convictions on obstruction charges and sent the case back for re-sentencing. The sentences are unlikely to be reduced, however, because the court did not reverse the Border Patrol agents’ convictions for discharging a firearm during the commission of a crime. This charge has a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years....
New immigration strategy — Deport yourself Rather than risk getting caught, turn yourselves in. That's the latest government strategy in its ongoing effort to dramatically reduce the nation's ballooning population of illegal immigrants. Scheduled to be unveiled next week, it was announced Sunday by Julie Myers, director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, in an interview with a Spanish-language television network. Myers told the network that "Operation Scheduled Departure" will allow illegal immigrants without criminal records a chance to literally "self-deport" by turning themselves in to her agents. She said the idea derived from a common complaint voiced by immigrant detainees: If given the opportunity, they'd rather just go home than be holed up in immigration prisons. Under the new program, those still walking free will have the chance to walk into ICE offices, be processed and get a few weeks to arrange their affairs, pack their belongings and ship out of the country without being detained....
Mexico's Drug Cartels Take Barbarous Turn: Targeting Bystanders The three teenagers started their big weekend singing "Happy Birthday" to the parish priest. The next day, they prayed for hours with their church youth group, then went on to a quinceañera, Mexico's archetypal 15th-birthday celebration. As the party wound down, they talked their parents into letting them go for a late-night cruise down the main drag in Guamuchil, a Saturday night ritual in this sleepy market town, friends and family say. During that cruise, investigators believe the teens inadvertently blocked drug cartel assassins in hot pursuit of their enemies. Once police arrived in the wee hours of July 13, the assassins were gone but the three teens and a 12-year-old girl who was riding with them lay dead in their cars. Four others -- another teenager and three adults -- were dead in nearby cars. There were 539 bullet casings on the ground. The killings here -- a massacre of eight people who were not suspected of drug-trafficking ties -- punctuated a vicious turn in Mexico's drug war, a savage conflict between rival cartels and the federal government that has taken more than 7,000 lives in the past 2 1/2 years....Prohibition didn't work in the past and it ain't working now.