TChris wrote about the proposed South Dakota bill, introduced in the wake of the Supreme Court decision to rehear a case involving the legality of a partial-term abortion law, that would ban all abortions, except for those in which the life of the mother was in danger.

Jane at Firedoglake Lake devoted Thursday to abortion law posts. You should read them all. Markos of Daily Kos picked up on one of Jane's posts and ran with it.

With the news out of South Dakota, it's obvious that a woman's right to choose is in graver danger today than it has been in decades. (SD has passed an outright ban on abortion, as opposed to the "partial birth" case which the court will hear in the next session.) And one of those reasons is the replacement of pro-choice Justice Sandra Day O'Connor by Samuel Alito.

Joe Lieberman had the chance to take a stand on behalf of critical privacy issues, but abdicated.

by TChris

The South Dakota legislature is poised to pass "the most sweeping [abortion] ban approved by any state in more than a decade." The law would plainly be unconstitutional in light of Roe v. Wade, but the law's supporters hope to provoke a court fight that would give the Supreme Court an opportunity to overturn Roe.

State Rep. Roger Hunt is already counting Justice Alito as a vote against the right to choose abortion, and he seems hopeful that Justice Stevens, now 85, will soon be off the bench, giving the president another appointment opportunity.

Drink a toast tonight to the good health of Justice Stevens.

by TChris

The LA Times calls attention to another of the Bush administration's unkept promises.

Initially proposed by the bipartisan commission that investigated the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board was created by the intelligence overhaul that President Bush signed into law in December 2004.

More than a year later, it exists only on paper.

Foot-dragging, debate over its budget and powers, and concern over the qualifications of some of its members -- one was treasurer of Bush's first campaign for Texas governor -- has kept the board from doing a single day of work.

What's taking so long?

by TChris

The ACLU of Virginia wants George Mason University to make amends for its disgraceful interference with Tariq Khan's right to free expression.

Khan, a Pakistani-American and a U.S. Air Force veteran, was arrested on September 29, 2005 at a GMU student center after positioning himself several feet from a military recruiting table. He wore a small sign reading "Recruiters Tell Lies" taped to his chest and held leaflets to give to individuals who requested them.

Despite harassment from fellow students, Khan remained quiet. When told by a GMU official that he needed a permit to "table" in the area, Khan responded that he was not using a table, but merely standing quietly and expressing his opinion.

After refusing to move, Khan was handcuffed by campus police, dragged to a police vehicle, and transported to a Fairfax County police facility where he was booked for trespass and disorderly conduct.

Not surprisingly, the charges were dropped. Khan, after all, was engaging in constitutionally protected activity.

by TChris

Republicans continue to back away from Sen. Roberts' suggestion that FISA be "fixed" to better allow court review of NSA's domestic wiretaps.

"I'm not sure that's exactly what Pat meant,'' said Chambliss, a Georgia Republican, on CNN's "Late Edition.''

Fixing the law would be an admission that the president acted beyond the law in authorizing domestic surveillance without following FISA procedures. Sen. Frist, who has given the public reason to question his competence to render medical opinions, has even less basis to advance a legal opinion that the president doesn't need court approval to spy on Americans. Frist seems to think judicial oversight is a bad idea:

by TChris

This is a sad anniversary:

On this day - Feb. 19 - in 1942, two months after Pearl Harbor, President Franklin Roosevelt signed an executive order clearing the way for some 120,000 U.S. residents of Japanese descent to be evicted from their homes and imprisoned.

The linked story tells how a librarian, Clara Breed, did what she could to help.

by TChris

Will we allow fear to turn the United States into a nation of spies? Tens of thousands of school bus drivers around the country have been "trained to watch for potential terrorists, in a program financed by the Homeland Security Department." The School Bus Watch program is intended "to turn 600,000 bus drivers into an army of observers."

But what are they observing? It's fine to teach bus drivers how to inspect their busses for signs of tampering, but the notion that "a bus driver, going down the same streets and going into the same neighborhoods every day," will "know when there's a car that shouldn't be there" is silly. Does an out-of-town friend who drops in for a visit become a suspected terrorist because a bus driver doesn't think her Toyota should be there?

At weekly crime meetings in Nashville, neighborhood residents are told that it's crucial to report anyone "who doesn't belong here." That advice, according to this story, is taken to mean: "If you see more than two young black males ages 12-18 wearing hooded sweat shirts and moving by foot, quickly, run to the phone and call the police."

Apparently young white males wearing hooded sweatshirts are not suspect. This was articulated by a East Nashville Police Department representative who confirmed the fears and suspicions of the residents and assured them (more than five times) that 100% of the recent crimes committed in East Nashville were indeed committed by black males. In other words, "Your fears are completely justified."

In a diverse society that values freedom of movement, it's dangerous to assume that bus drivers, neighbors, or anyone else can reliably decide who "doesn't belong" or who "shouldn't be there."

by TChris

San Francisco cartoonist Mark Fiore pokes animated fun at Alberto Gonzalez, Dick Cheney, and domestic spying with Gonzalez, Watchu and Howe (Flash required).

by TChris

Rather than investigating the scope and targets of the NSA's domestic surveillance program, Senate Republicans seem inclined to amend the law to give the president broader power to spy on Americans.

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kan., said the committee decided not to vote on whether to open an investigation after the White House agreed to give lawmakers more information on the program and agreed to changes to the current law, according to Roberts and White House deputy press secretary Dana Perino.

In December, two Intelligence Committee Republicans -- Olympia Snowe of Maine and Chuck Hagel of Nebraska -- joined Democrats in calling for a congressional investigation of the NSA program. Thursday, they voted to forestall hearings in favor of developing White House-backed legislation establishing clearer rules for the controversial program. Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, is drafting legislation that would exempt the NSA program from the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act but limit eavesdropping to international calls.

The NY Times asks: "Is there any aspect of President Bush's miserable record on intelligence that Senator Pat Roberts, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, is not willing to excuse and help to cover up?"

by TChris

Justice Sunday and Justice Sunday II received widespread media attention. If a day dedicated to ridding the courts of "activist judges" who refuse to advance a narrow religious agenda deserves coverage, shouldn't the news media also publicize a day dedicated to the reconciliation of religion and science?

Tomorrow is Evolution Sunday:

On 12 February 2006 hundreds of Christian churches from all portions of the country and a host of denominations will come together to discuss the compatibility of religion and science. For far too long, strident voices, in the name of Christianity, have been claiming that people must choose between religion and modern science. More than 10,000 Christian clergy have already signed The Clergy Letter demonstrating that this is a false dichotomy. Now, on the 197th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, many of these leaders will bring this message to their congregations through sermons and/or discussion groups. Together, participating religious leaders will be making the statement that religion and science are not adversaries. And, together, they will be elevating the quality of the national debate on this topic.

I would hope this is a joke, but it doesn't seem so.

Two employees have been injected with RFID chips this week as part of a new requirement to access their company's datacenter.

Cincinnati based surveillance company CityWatcher.com created the policy with the hopes of increasing security in the datacenter where video surveillance tapes are stored. In the past, employees accessed the room with an RFID tag which hung from their keychains, however under the new regulations an implantable, glass encapsulated RFID tag from VeriChip must be injected into the bicep to gain access, a release from spychips.com said on Thursday.

by TChris

As reported here, here, and here, the Air Force Academy took some well deserved heat for allowing religious extremists to proselytize while expressing intolerance of other religious views held by cadets. The controversy sprouted a lawsuit, and the Academy rescinded a code of ethics for chaplains that endorsed their right to evangelize those who weren't already affiliated with a religious body.

The evangelical right reacted with outrage to a perceived attack on Christianity. In response, the Air Force caved, "dropping a requirement for chaplains to respect others' rights to their own beliefs and no longer cautioning top officers about promoting their personal religious views." The new rules permit superior officers to lecture cadets about religion so long as it is "reasonably clear" that they are speaking personally, not officially. The new rules emphasize the vitality of the free exercise clause while undermining the protections afforded by the establishment clause of the First Amendment.