John Yoo quoted in Los Angeles Times, May 3, 2012
“I am glad that the 9th Circuit agrees that Padilla and other convicted terrorists shouldn’t be allowed to use our own legal system to continue fighting against the United States.”
Ninth Circuit says Yoo is immune from torture claims
John Yoo quoted in The Wall Street Journal, May 2, 2012
Mr. Yoo, in an email to Law Blog, said the Ninth Circuit’s ruling “confirms that this litigation has been baseless from the outset.” “Padilla and his attorneys have been harassing the government officials he believes to have been responsible for his detention and ultimately conviction as a terrorist,” said Mr. Yoo.
461 pepper spray incidents documented in juvenile detention last year
Barry Krisberg quoted in San Diego CityBeat, May 2, 2012
“The key is you should not be using this as a routine behavior-management tool,” says Barry Krisberg….”Those numbers look way too high.”
Judge: Oakland must speed investigation of previous occupy complaints
Barry Krisberg interviewed on KQED-FM News May 2, 2012
“I take it as a given that most police officers are trying to be good public citizens, but if the expectations are vague and there’s not a clear culture of lawfulness, than we can see how this might drift. For too long, this police department, maybe going back 25 or 30 years, has been unaccountable to the public.”
Twitter has a savvy new patent strategy
Jason Schultz and Jennifer Urban write for Daily Journal, May 2, 2012 (registration required)
Silicon Valley companies invest heavily in recruiting, and engineers who care about patent policy and open innovation are likely to see this as a signal that Twitter thinks differently about patents than other companies. If the IPA starts a trend, the technology labor market could become a testing ground for what policies truly “promote the progress of the useful arts” in America.
Consumers leary mobile payments are being used to plunder personal information
Christopher Hoofnagle and Jennifer Urban survey cited in IntoMobile, May 2, 2012
According to a new survey by law professors at the University of California Berkeley, most Americans are uneasy with the idea that their phones could divulge behavioral and personal information like phone numbers and in-store browsing habits.
Habeas attorneys argue against sanctions in death penalty case
Elisabeth Semel quoted in Daily Journal, May 2, 2012 (registration required)
Elisabeth A. Semel watched from the gallery. She is director of the Death Penalty Clinic at UC Berkeley School of Law. She said Reno’s case is not unique. “It’s representative of dozens of other petitions filed in cases where lawyers have been directed by federal courts to exhaust their claims in state court,” she said.
Will Mitt claim he has been POTUS?
Jennifer Granholm writes for POLITICO, May 1, 2012
Now he wants it both ways: Appease the right by first saying that he would have “let Detroit go bankrupt” and now saying that it was all his idea to rescue the auto industry in the first place and Obama just followed his advice.
FCC cowed by Google
James Tuthill writes for San Francisco Chronicle, May 1, 2012
Google was opening and reading your mail without either your knowledge or your permission.
But the FCC says it can’t, or it won’t, do anything. The FCC has been cowed by Google and probably fears the wrath of a Republican House, which hasn’t forgiven the FCC for adopting Internet nondiscrimination rules.
A universal digital library is within reach
Pamela Samuelson writes for Los Angeles Times, May 1, 2012
Digital libraries containing millions of out-of-print and public domain works would vastly expand the scope of research and education worldwide, extending access to millions of people in undeveloped countries who don’t have it now. It would also open up amazing opportunities for discovery of new knowledge.