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The story of the financial debacle will end the way it began, with the super-hustlers from Goldman Sachs at the center of the action and profiting wildly. Never in U.S. history has one company wielded such destructive power over our political economy, irrespective of whether a Republican or a Democrat happened to be president.

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The story of the financial debacle will end the way it began, with the super-hustlers from Goldman Sachs at the center of the action and profiting wildly. Never in U.S. history has one company wielded such destructive power over our political economy, irrespective of whether a Republican or a Democrat happened to be president.

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Here's the link to Wednesday's live blog.

5:26 pm PDT: We couldn't leave for the day without first reporting on this development.

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Here's the link to Wednesday's live blog.

10:15 am PDT: President Obama said Thursday morning that he has earmarked $100 million to support recovery and relief efforts in Haiti following Tuesday's 7.0 magnitude earthquake that has left the country in ruins.

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Defendant was riding an interstate bus which stopped at the MSP airport, and officers boarded the bus to talk to passengers. Defendant talked with the officers and refused to consent to a search of his bag. The officer asked: “May I see your driver's license or your ID?” This was a request in a friendly tone and not a command, and a reasonable person would have felt free to not provide it. United States v. Richards, 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 15650 (8th Cir. July 29, 2010):

This was not a case of multiple officers coercing a bus passenger into submission by assailing him with multiple requests for the same thing until he complied. Nor was it a case in which police crafted an environment so coercive that Richards' will was overborne and he had no choice but to produce his identification. Richards was free to decline to present identification at the time that he was asked for it, regardless of Askerooth's hindsight reflection that, in light of his suspicious behavior, she would have likely detained Richards had he refused to cooperate. We conclude that, when viewed in the light of the totality of the circumstances, a reasonable person would have felt at liberty to decline Askerooth's request for identification, and thus it did not constitute a seizure for the purposes of the Fourth Amendment.

[I don't agree that any person feels free to refuse a request for ID when multiple police officers are on an interstate bus asking questions.]

Defendant ATF agent had qualified immunity for a search of plaintiff’s gun store at the request of local police. Having an FFL means you are in a highly regulated industry and have a reduced expectation of privacy in your records. Giragosian v. Bettencourt, 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 15670 (1st Cir. July 29, 2010):

Pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 923(g)(1)(B)(ii), the government may conduct compliance inspections of gun shop premises without either a warrant or reasonable cause, as long as it does not do so more than once in any twelve-month period. The Supreme Court has explicitly upheld the constitutionality of this provision under the Fourth Amendment. Biswell, 406 U.S. at 317 (holding that the “urgent federal interest” in regulating firearms traffic outweighs any threat to gun dealers' privacy). Bettencourt's 2007 compliance inspection of Giragosian's gun shop was the first in twelve months -- indeed, in ten years. It thus met all of the requirements of § 923(g)(1)(B)(ii).

The stop and subsequent search were valid, and any appeal would be frivolous (Anders brief). United States v. Pedraza-Bucio, 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 15725 (10th Cir. July 28, 2010) (unpublished).*

Defendant was found to have consented to seizure of the portable hard drive to his computer after police asked him about child pornography on it, based on reports from another having seen it when he showed him. The “preview search” of the computer without a warrant violated the Fourth Amendment, but the search was permissible by inevitable discovery because of defendant’s admissions there was child pornography on the hard drive. The full forensic examination of the computer was with a warrant, and, excluding the preview search from the affidavit, the warrant would have been granted anyway. State v. Nadeau, 2010 ME 71, 2010 Me. LEXIS 74 (July 29, 2010)* (This case has a helpful analysis of applying the exclusionary rule or not under inevitable discovery, and the court finds that applying the exclusionary rule here would not advance Fourth Amendment interests.)

The search of defendant’s briefcase at the time of his arrest would have violated Gant, but it was valid as inevitable discovery because it would have been searched at book-in. United States v. Miles, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 76725 (E.D. Pa. July 29, 2010).*

One defendant consented to the officers entering the house to look for an alleged runaway, and the court of appeals did not properly consider the audio of the occurrence from one officer’s body recorder where he asked “may I.” Valtierra v. State, 2010 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 828 (May 5, 2010), revg Eduardo Valtierra v. State, 293 S.W.3d 725 (Tex. App.-San Antonio 2009); Heriberto Valtierra v. State, 293 S.W.3d 697 (Tex. App.-San Antonio 2009).

Defendant’s stop led to questions simultaneous with the paperwork which lead to consent. “Although the results of the questioning led to a police-citizen encounter that was longer than it would have been without the questioning, that fact is not relevant.” State v. Gomes, 2010 Ore. App. LEXIS 890 (July 28, 2010).*

Spirit Airlines passengers may want to get to the airport a little earlier than normal Sunday as a new charge for carry-on bags takes effect.

The low-fare airline sparked controversy in April when it announced plans to charge for carry-on items. Passengers who pay in advance, either online or ...

HAGERSTOWN, Md. (AP) — An Army private charged with leaking classified material to the whistleblower website WikiLeaks had civilian help, a key figure in the case said Saturday.

The development, first reported in the New York Times, suggests an expansion of the government's investigation into leaks including more than 76,900 ...

United Nations - Thirty-eight countries will start observing the Convention on Cluster Munitions this Sunday, Aug. 1, after a rapid entry into force since the treaty was announced two years ago in Oslo.

"This new instrument is a major advance for the global disarmament and humanitarian agendas, and will help us to counter the widespread insecurity and suffering caused by these terrible weapons, particularly among civilians and children," noted U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

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I've been trying to wrap my mind around the dispiriting sense of failure that seems to have enveloped the Obama administration on the eve of the November midterms. The right hates him because he won, because he's Black, and because he won. Their utter intransigence has completely upended Obama's knee-jerk instinct for compromise and bipartisanship, making it appear that he's not getting anything done, and so the middle of the electorate feels a deep sense of disappointment exacerbated by

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La Macarena, Colombia - When Colombian military units receive an increase in U.S. aid, they allegedly kill more civilians and frame the deaths as combat kills, according to a new report.

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Defendant solicited an underage girl to come to his house for potentially nude picture taking, and this was sufficient probable case for issuance of a search warrant for the house for evidence of attempted production of child pornography. United States v. Davies, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 76778 (M.D. Pa. July 29, 2010)*:

This case is more like Vosburgh than Zimmerman. As in Vosburgh, the affidavit of probable cause set forth facts that would make it fairly probable, considering the totality of the circumstances, that evidence of attempted possession of child pornography in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2252 would be found in Defendant's home. Defendant engaged in explicit online discussions with the agent, said he wanted to take pictures of her on his pool table, asked her to take off her hoodie and shirt in subsequent photographs, and then gave her his address. Therefore, there was sufficient evidence to give rise to probable cause to believe that Defendant attempted to produce and/or possess child pornography. This case is distinguishable from Zimmerman, where there was no evidence that the defendant had ever possessed or attempted to possess child pornography at any time. Thus, the warrant was issued on probable cause.

The search of defendant’s car for a weapon was justified by seeing the butt of the gun with a flashlight. Defendant’s car was stopped in a high-crime area, and a woman was leaning in the window, and that led the officer to conclude a hand-to-hand drug deal was happening. Defendant fled the vehicle when the officer approached. His handcuffing when he was caught was for safety reasons. He was a felon. State v. Williams, 2010 La. App. LEXIS 1073 (La.App. 5th Cir. July 27, 2010).*

Defense counsel filed an Anders brief after defendant’s plea, and he raised his search issue pro se, which was held waived by the guilty plea. State v. Turner, 2010 La. App. LEXIS 1071 (La.App. 5th Cir. July 27, 2010).*

In a civil rights/false arrest case, the officer had probable cause, or at least qualified immunity, for plaintiff’s arrest as a felon in possession without having to further investigate the status of the conviction which he was told on a records check. Dickson v. City of Clovis, 2010 NMCA 58, 2010 N.M. App. LEXIS 81 (April 1, 2010), Filed, Certiorari Denied, No. 32,370, June 2, 2010.*

The defendant got in an argument with his girlfriend over his looking at underage nudity on his computer, and he hit her. She called the police, and they came. She told them the reason for the argument, and she consented to a search of the computer. She had apparent authority. He told her to get out of the house, but she hadn’t left yet, and she had unrestricted use of the premises and the computer. Therefore, she could consent to a search of his computer as a user. People v. Bell, 2010 Ill. App. LEXIS 744 (July 9, 2010).

Defendant’s vehicle stop was in an area known for stolen vehicles, and that was the basis for his stop and the car looked suspicious in the area, although it turned out it wasn’t stolen. There was, at least, reasonable suspicion for the stop. People v. Letner, 2010 Cal. LEXIS 7290 (July 29, 2010).*

The defendant had no expectation of privacy in observations of a car (assuming he even had standing in that car in the first place) parked in a ten unit parking space in an apartment building. State v. Collanzo, 2009 N.H. LEXIS 152 (February 23, 2009).*

The search of defendant’s car incident to his arrest on a failure to appear warrant, where he was already hooked up and in the police car, violated Gant, decided a year later. Gant is retroactive, and, noting the conflict in the courts, the good faith exception should not apply to case law. Here, the officer offered no reason why the car was searched, so it is assumed it as a search incident. State v. Frederick, 2010 Ida. LEXIS 144 (July 27, 2010):

Predictably, this tension has led to sharply divergent results from the courts that have considered this question. A number of courts have applied the exception, recognizing that there is a distinction between recognizing the constitutional violation and providing an appropriate remedy for the violation and concluding that the deterrent purpose underlying the exclusionary rule is not advanced when officers have relied on existing case law. See People v. Henry, Cal. Rptr. 3d , 184 Cal. App.4th 1313 (Cal. App. 1 Dist. 2010); United States v. Davis, 598 F.3d 1259 (11th Cir. 2010); State v. Baker, 2010 UT 18, 229 P.3d 650 (Utah 2010); State v. Riley, 154 Wn. App. 433, 225 P.3d 462 (Wash. App. Div. 1 2010); United States v. McCane, 573 F.3d 1037 (10th Cir. 2009); United States v. Gray, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 113436, 2009 WL 4739740 (D. Neb. Dec. 7, 2009) (noting the Ninth, Seventh, and Sixth Circuits have refused to apply the good faith exception while the Fifth and Tenth Circuits have held Leon's good-faith exception applies to warrantless searches considered lawful under the case law existing when the search was performed); Brown v. State, 24 So.3d 671, 680-82 (Fla. App. 5th Dist. 2009).

Other courts have found the tension resulting from application of the good faith exception to be “untenable” and accordingly declined to apply the exception. People v. McCarty, 229 P.3d 1041 (Colo. 2010); State v. Harris, 154 Wn. App. 87, 224 P.3d 830 (Wash. App. Div. 2 2010); United States v. Gonzalez, 578 F.3d 1130 (9th Cir. 2009) rehearing and rehearing en banc denied, 598 F.3d 1095 (9th Cir. 2010).

Yet other courts have recognized that retroactivity rules do not automatically exclude application of the good faith exception, yet have declined to apply the exception because the scope of Belton was not sufficiently defined as to warrant a finding of objective good faith by the law enforcement officials conducting the search. The Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia concluded that the scope of permissible searches of automobiles was not “settled law” and therefore declined to apply Leon. United States v. Debruhl, 993 A.2d 571 (D.C. 2010). Similarly, the Michigan Court of Appeals declined to apply the exception in the context of the search of an automobile pursuant to the arrest of a passenger in the vehicle, finding the question of extension of Belton to such circumstances to be a question of first impression. People v. Mungo, 2010 Mich. App. LEXIS 610, 2010 WL 1461620 (Mich. App. Apr. 13, 2010).

It is our view that retroactivity rules do not preclude application of the good faith exception when an officer relies on case law. We note, however, that the Supreme Court has emphasized that the good faith described in United States v. Leon “must be objectively reasonable.” 468 U.S. at 922. The burden of proving that such objectively reasonable good faith reliance existed is on the State. State v. Smith, 144 Idaho 482, 485, 163 P.3d 1194, 1197 (2007) (holding that “[t]he burden of proof is on the state to show that the search ... fell within one of the well-recognized exceptions to the warrant requirement.”) In this case, the State has failed to meet that burden.

One of the many effects of poverty in Haiti is that desperate parents regularly give away their children in the hope that the new family will feed and educate the children better than they themselves can. Instead, the children usually end up as child slaves, or restavèk. In a country which overthrew slavery in 1804, today anywhere from 225,000 to 300,000 children live in forced servitude.[1] They work from before sunup to after sundown, are often sexually and physically abused and usually go underfed and uneducated.

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NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Tropical Storm Bonnie left crews working to plug the Gulf oil gusher a little memento that is expected to push their work back about a day.

Crews found debris in the bottom of the relief well that ultimately will be used to plug the leak for ...

Over the past two months, many Republican pundits and members of Congress have been calling for the end of unemployment benefit extensions for the millions of Americans who can’t find work.

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