Morning Docket: 02.07.08
[Ed. note: As we recently mentioned, we're looking for someone to write Morning Docket, on an alternating-week schedule. To those of you who have already applied, thanks for your interest; we'll review the applications and pick a writer this weekend. If you'd like to apply, there's still time -- just follow the application instructions contained in this post (but please note that the gig now comes with pay -- a modest monthly stipend). Thanks.]
* It seems to get worse by the day. The CIA apparently destroyed interrogation tapes while a federal judge was still looking for information about the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah. [New York Times]
* So what exactly are the federal government's policies on border searches? Two groups sue to find out. [Washington Post]
* We like funny legal ads. But state regulators are not amused. [Wall Street Journal via How Appealing]
* Kibbles 'n bits 'n indictments. Two Chinese companies and an American importer are indicted in connection with tainted pet food. [New York Times]
* Professor Akhil Amar (our former con law prof; pictured) will be nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court in the administration of... Mike Gravel! Amar: "I’m not quitting my day job.” [Yale Daily News via How Appealing]
* The latest legal woes of Dickie Scruggs and friends. [WSJ Law Blog]
(7) Comments
'nuf said. also, he's very effeminate. my least favorite professor EVER. not sure why people like him.
Basically, Lat's getting lazy... farming out all the hard work, eh?
Lat has always "farmed out" Morning Docket. He's just trying to find a replacement for Billy Merck, who used to do MD.
Re: lawyer advertising; pretty soon all they're going to allow the solos to do is flash their business card on-screen for 30 seconds accompanied by the Brandenburg concertos for background music.
I hate to sound like a daily kos poster, but the CIA is clearly acting as a criminal enterprise here, and I expect to find out that the bush administration is complicit in this.
You can't be a good lawyer or a good human being and support this kind of cavalier lawlessness; the rule of law is paramount to our system of government.
"But we're at war against [ ]"
fill in the blank for whatever mythical and perpetual state of war we are in (i.e., "terror"(sic), turrur, terrorism, poverty, drugs, illegal immigration).
Re: Destroyed tapes:
Frank Quattrone, the former investment banker at Credit Suisse First Boston who helped bring dozens of companies public during the 1990s tech boom, including Netscape, Cisco, and Amazon.com, sent a SINGLE e-mail ENDORSING an email by another First Boston manager urging certain employees TO COMPLY WITH THE COMPANY DOCUMENT RETENTION POLICY by “cleaning out those files”.
No documents were under subpoena, but First Boston was under federal investigation.
Quattrone was charged, tried and convicted at enormous personal cost over several years before his conviction was reversed for improper jury instructions and the case dismissed.
If the destruction of the torture tapes was by a private citizen in the face of a federal investigation there would be criminal charges.
Lat’s constitutional law professor (pictured in post) has a doppelganger in John James "Jack" McCoy, the Law and Order character played by Sam Waterston since 1994—just add a beard!
Amazing resemblance!