Category: Law Page 3 of 27

Glenn Greenwald assembles evidence in support of claims that state, local, and Federal law enforcement officials are helping BP intimidate reporters and shield the cleanup operations from public scrutiny:

She documented one incident which was particularly chilling of an activist who — after being told by a local police officer to stop filming a BP facility because “BP didn’t want him filming” — was then pulled over after he left by that officer so he could be interrogated by a BP security official.  McClelland also described how BP has virtually bought entire Police Departments which now do its bidding:  “One parish has 57 extra shifts per week that they are devoting entirely to, basically, BP security detail, and BP is paying the sheriff’s office.”

Even better, in a linked ProPublica article:

A photographer taking pictures for these articles, was detained Friday while shooting pictures in Texas City, Texas.

The photographer, Lance Rosenfield, said that shortly after arriving in town, he was confronted by a BP security officer, local police and a man who identified himself as an agent of the Department of Homeland Security. He was released after the police reviewed the pictures he had taken on Friday and recorded his date of birth, Social Security number and other personal information.

The police officer then turned that information over to the BP security guard under what he said was standard procedure, according to Rosenfield.

Further:

More evidence here (h/t bamage):

Journalists who come too close to oil spill clean-up efforts without permission could find themselves facing a $40,000 fine and even one to five years in prison under a new rule instituted by the Coast Guard late last week.

It’s a move that outraged observers have decried as an attack on First Amendment rights. And CNN’s Anderson Cooper describes the new rules as making it “very easy to hide incompetence or failure“. . . .

[S]ince “oil spill response operations” apparently covers much of the clean-up effort on the beaches, CNN’s [] Cooper describes the rule asbanning reporters from “anywhere we need to be” . . . .

The unfortunate part is that Anderson – who has the name and resources to fight this – won’t push the line.  In fairness to him, I suspect the line they draw for him would be much further in than for your standard issue investigative reporter.   Further, he can’t be everywhere.  But that’s what BP and its corrupt law enforcement officers are relying upon.  To the significant detriment of all of us.

Joe Biden states what I think is plain:

While serving as the school’s dean, Kagan blocked military recruiters from the campus because of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” — which Biden called “a very bad policy.”

Biden was asked, “She’s also raised some eyebrows, of course, well documented, when her time there at Harvard, the way that she banned military recruiters there on campus because of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” rule. I wanna ask you, not to get into that in particular, but I wanna ask you, was she right or wrong in doing that?”

“Well, she was right,” Biden said. “Let me put this quickly in perspective. For 20 years before she came there military recruiters were not allowed on the campus in the same way other recruiters were.”

In case halfwits like Sen. Sessions didn’t notice, that was the policy of nearly every law school of quality.  The kind of ignorant bigotry the GOP is trying to play to here isn’t, in fact, the norm everywhere.

I’ve long known that Joe Lieberman and I see the world very differently, but I had no idea that we live in fundamentally incompatible worlds.  His solution to those pesky Constitutional rights enjoyed by citizens?  Strip ’em of citizenship!  The man – after how many decades in public office? – doesn’t appear to understand even the basics, when it comes to the Constitution.  I’m honestly shocked.

Update: Greg Sargeant says that Lieberman may actually be able to find others to publicly support this.  That is a line that, if crossed, makes the supporter someone who is a literal threat to Americans.  It is a completely and utterly unacceptable proposal, and any Senator or Representative who supports it should be drummed out of office.

that this is you.  Or your mother or father:

Clay and his partner of 20 years, Harold, lived in California. Clay and Harold made diligent efforts to protect their legal rights, and had their legal paperwork in place–wills, powers of attorney, and medical directives, all naming each other. Harold was 88 years old and in frail medical condition, but still living at home with Clay, 77, who was in good health.

One evening, Harold fell down the front steps of their home and was taken to the hospital. Based on their medical directives alone, Clay should have been consulted in Harold’s care from the first moment. Tragically, county and health care workers instead refused to allow Clay to see Harold in the hospital. The county then ultimately went one step further by isolating the couple from each other, placing the men in separate nursing homes.

Ignoring Clay’s significant role in Harold’s life, the county continued to treat Harold like he had no family and went to court seeking the power to make financial decisions on his behalf. Outrageously, the county represented to the judge that Clay was merely Harold’s “roommate.” The court denied their efforts, but did grant the county limited access to one of Harold’s bank accounts to pay for his care.

What happened next is even more chilling.

Without authority, without determining the value of Clay and Harold’s possessions accumulated over the course of their 20 years together or making any effort to determine which items belonged to whom, the county took everything Harold and Clay owned and auctioned off all of their belongings. Adding further insult to grave injury, the county removed Clay from his home and confined him to a nursing home against his will. The county workers then terminated Clay and Harold’s lease and surrendered the home they had shared for many years to the landlord.

Three months after he was hospitalized, Harold died in the nursing home. Because of the county’s actions, Clay missed the final months he should have had with his partner of 20 years. Compounding this tragedy, Clay has literally nothing left of the home he had shared with Harold or the life he was living up until the day that Harold fell, because he has been unable to recover any of his property. The only memento Clay has is a photo album that Harold painstakingly put together for Clay during the last three months of his life.

I’ve quoted more than I should, here, but I wanted to make sure that you saw what happened.  This is what happens when you deny people the basic decency of equality.