In the "your papers please" category this week, we have the Ohio Patriot Act that is sitting on Gov. Taft's desk waiting for his approval.

The lengthy piece of legislation would let police arrest people in public places who will not give their names, address and birth dates, even if they are not doing anything wrong.

[Via Altercation.]

Same-sex unions are now legal in Great Britain. Among those taking advantage of the new law was Elton John.

Sir Elton, 58, and the Canadian film-maker, 43, were among 700 gay couples to join in civil partnerships yesterday, the first day that same-sex unions became legal in England and Wales. The partnerships allow same-sex couples new rights in areas such as employment, pension and inheritance, although the ceremonies are still not officially classed as "marriages".

by TChris

Science, rationality, and the Constitution prevailed in Dover, where the school board tried to undermine the science underlying evolution by promoting a religious alternative, intelligent design. (TalkLeft coverage of the lawsuit is here.) Judge John Jones III decided that the board's policy violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment by endorsing a religious belief.

"In making this determination, we have addressed the seminal question of whether ID is science," Jones wrote. "We have concluded that it is not, and moreover that ID cannot uncouple itself from its creationist, and thus religious, antecedents."

The school board's policy required teachers to inform biology students of "gaps" in Darwin's theory of evolution while directing their attention to a book on intelligent design in the school library. Judge Jones was scathing in his criticism of the board members, who have since been voted off the school board.

by TChris

Here's how the Bush administration is protecting you from terrorism:

Counterterrorism agents at the Federal Bureau of Investigation have conducted numerous surveillance and intelligence-gathering operations that involved, at least indirectly, groups active in causes as diverse as the environment, animal cruelty and poverty relief, newly disclosed agency records show.

You may not have known that poverty relief activists were responsible for 9/11, but they must have been, or the Bush administration, which focuses on nothing but protecting us from the likes of Osama, wouldn't be wasting scarce resources snooping into their activities.

A TalkLeft reader I am not familiar with wrote the following. Read at your own risk, as it is not further sourced, but it has a certain logical appeal.

Let me ask why every smart blogger out there and every pundit on TV is talking about wiretapping when the obvious problem is that the U.S. government is now monitoring the entire U.S. Internet a la Echelon or Raptor.

Why do Gonzales and Condi Rice keep mentioning the "technical" aspects of the program as a dodge around FISA?

Why this seemingly inconsequential parsing by Bush of the difference between "monitoring and detection"? Bush says they use FISA if they're montioring, but this is about "detection."

Why, in his letter, does Rockefeller state that he's "not a technician."?
Why the mention of TIA in Rockefeller's letter?
And why the mention of "large batches of numbers all at once"?

Why?:

These are not phone numbers we're talking about...These are IP addresses, email addresses.

Update: Rep. Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS), leading Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee (press release):

'This Bill is so Ridiculous that, According to the Republicans, Santa Claus Himself Would be a Criminal for Trekking from The North Pole to Deliver Holiday Gifts Without a Visa.'

The bill passed the House today, by a vote of 239-to-182. See Sensenbrenner gloat.

************
Original Post

The National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights wrote to Congress yesterday asking it to defeat H.R. 4437, the Border Protection, Anti-Terrorism and Illegal Immigration Control Act sponsored by Rep. James Sensenbrenner. I detailed the worst provisions of the bill here. Here's NIRR's webpage on the bill. From today's letter, received by e-mail:

I wonder what former President Ronald Reagan, so famous for his "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall" statement at the Berlin wall, would think of his fellow Republicans in Congress last night passing a border bill that will result in five fences being built along 698 miles of the Mexico -United States border in an effort to block illegal immigration and drugs from entering the U.S.

The vote on the amendment was a victory for conservatives who had long sought to build such a fences along the Mexican border. But the vote was sharply assailed by Democrats, who compared the fences to the Berlin Wall in Germany. Twelve Republicans also voted against the amendment.

Bump and Update: Arianna says this news requires Congressional action.

...as is emblematic of this administration, these agencies now appear to be overreaching, moving away from identifying "possible terrorist pre-attack activities" and heading into the murky waters of spying on U.S. citizens doing nothing more than voicing their objections to U.S. policy.

*****
Original Post 12/13

NBC News has obtained a secret 400 page Defense Department document that shows how the Pentagon is spying on Americans:

by Last Night in Little Rock

You've seen it on CSI: NY: police use cellphones as tracking devices by a mere call to the cellphone provider. It's not that easy, at least not anymore.

Three recent cases have been reported on www.FourthAmendment.com where the government's request to use cellphones to track them real time have been denied. The NY Times has a comprehensive article about it today by Matt Richtel: Live Tracking of Mobile Phones Prompts Court Fights on Privacy.

It is quite real and tells us that, while Big Brother is not watching, Big Brother can try to get the information from your cellphone provider via the USA PATRIOT Act. An allegation of terrorism, however, is not required. Yet another abuse of the PATRIOT Act.

Judges, however, have stopped buying into it without a showing of probable cause or exigent circumstances. But, under the PATRIOT Act, a terrorism allegation is not required.

What a frightening story. A man and his 14 year old son disembark from public transit, the DART police arrest the father for jaywalking, rough him and his son up, take the father into custody, leave the kid alone to find his way wherever, and the father can't make bond and does 11 days in jail.

What's wrong with this picture? Everything it seems.

The 14th Amendment says:

"all persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States."

Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo now wants Congress to pass a bill denying citizenship to children of undocumented residents. He and like-minded Republicans want to tack the ban on to an immigration bill scheduled to be considered by the House next week.

Apparently, Tancredo believes that the Amendment doesn't apply to children with undocumented parents because although they are born in the U.S., they are not subject to its jurisdictions. Complete nonsense.

Democratic Congressman Charlie Gonzales has this appropriate response:

To change the way we establish citizenship is such an extreme measure, and it makes you really question what is motivating people to come up with those ideas.

Deborah Davis, the woman charged with a crime for refusing to show her identification to an officer while riding on a public bus in Denver, has a court appearance on Friday. There will be a rally at the federal courthouse in Denver to show support for her.

WHAT: Rally for Deb Davis' stand for the Freedom to Travel
WHEN: Friday, the 9th of December at 8:30 AM
WHERE: The steps of the Alfred A. Arraj U.S. Courthouse, 901 19th Street in Denver.

Information about her legal case is available here. Her side of the story is presented here. The statement of the Homeland Security Officer is here (pdf).