Officials who work on the Guantánamo issue say administration lawyers have become concerned that they would face significant obstacles to trying some terrorism suspects in federal courts. Judges might make it difficult to prosecute detainees who were subjected to brutal treatment or for prosecutors to use hearsay evidence gathered by intelligence agencies. U.S. May Revive Guantánamo Military Courts - NYTimes.comI'm sure the government’s lawyers trying to prosecute

I'd like to believe that torture doesn't work. If torture didn't work, that'd be sufficient reason to forbid it; sufficient but not necessary. Torture is malum in se; it's illegal—and should be—not because it's ineffective but because it's wrong. My opposition to torture is a matter of honor. It doesn't matter to me whether it works or not; we—Americans—shouldn't do it.I don't give much credence to the

When the streets are flooding and the rain is coming down (as happened last Tuesday) and there are people who feel a obligation to you to travel in to downtown from their homes, there's a right way to handle the situation and a wrong way. The right way: Some parts of town are underwater. It is still raining downtown. Make sure that you check with all the

America loves its mothers and its veterans and its administrative assistants, but America loves its victims more. Seven times as much, in fact, as any of these—this is National Crime Victims’ Rights Week. Nobody loves victims more than those who make their living off the Cult of the Victim. Take, for example, Andy Kahan of the Houston Mayor’s Crime Victims Office, who loves victims so much that

Soon to be ex-prosecutor George Weissfisch’s second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth ideas for improvement of the Harris County DA’s Office (here’s the first in the series):#2 INTAKEThere is no need to screen cases at intake by hand.Weissfisch Solution: We create a macro on the computer just like the macro for

The last time the Texas House of Representatives impeached a judge was 1975. O.P. Carrillo of Duval County was the respondent. Leon Jaworski prosecuted the impeachment in the Senate.I've been hanging around the Texas Capitol since midday waiting for the Texas House of Representatives Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence Committee to start hearing House Resolution 480, relating to the appointment of a committee to investigate the impeachment of

Please, would you toss a few bucks to M.D. Anderson Hospital's ovarian cancer research program on behalf of Ellen Alexander? Ellen is a U.S. District Court case manager and one of the world's nicest humans; she's joining U.S. Probation Officer Becky Pope in the Sprint for Life 5K Run & Walk. Don't worry if you can't give more than Mike Ramsey. Every little bit counts.

"It is important that the committee be made aware of the public's desire for impeachment," [Texas Representative Lon] Burnam said. "I encourage anyone who wishes to see justice done in this matter to come to room E2.010 in the capitol on Monday afternoon and register 'for' House Resolution 480."(Email press release, via Grits.)I'll be in Austin Monday afternoon. If you think Presiding Judge Sharon Keller should at

Talking about waterboarding and other torture. I'm allergic to listening to or watching myself.Would one of you please listen and tell me who it was that Judge Wise claims verified that "enhanced interrogation" led to an attack being foiled?Gracias.

I got in a furious 140-character-at-a-time argument on Twitter with Mark Jakubik, author of the Philadelphia Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog (and the Pennsylvania Estate Planning Blog, and the Philadelphia Litigation Blog, and the Pennsylvania Family Law Blog . . . hrm) yesterday about waterboarding and torture. Stepping back, I had to ask myself: Why am I so upset up about the torture memos?When we were recording a