Federal law enforcement routinely seeking real time cellphone data to track targets

The Washington Post reports:

Federal officials are routinely asking courts to order cellphone companies to furnish real-time tracking data so they can pinpoint the whereabouts of drug traffickers, fugitives and other criminal suspects, according to judges and industry lawyers.

In some cases, judges have granted the requests without requiring the government to demonstrate that there is probable cause to believe that a crime is taking place or that the inquiry will yield evidence of a crime. Privacy advocates fear such a practice may expose average Americans to a new level of government scrutiny of their daily lives.

Supreme Court to review constitutionality of lethal injections

AP News reports:

The US Supreme Court announced Tuesday it would consider the constitutionality of lethal injections, which is used in almost all executions in the United States.

The court agreed to consider the cases of two men condemned to death in the Southern state of Kentucky amid growing controvesy over exactly how lethal injections are administered.

Some argue the executions are often slow and painful and contradict the constitution’s ban on “cruel and unusual punishment.”

Federal terror prosecution may re-define “danger to community” standard for bail hearings

The Sacramento Bee reports:

Should a California man who poses little threat to his neighbors remain behind bars because of his alleged ties to a terrorist group that threatens lives halfway around the world?

Federal prosecutors say yes. They argue Rahmat Abdhir, accused of helping extremists associated with al-Qaida in the Philippines, represents a “danger to the community” – even though that community is 7,500 miles away. They’ve asked a judge to keep him in a San Jose jail pending trial.

Legal experts are watching the federal case, which could set precedent for other terrorism suspects being held without bail by greatly expanding the legal definition of community. U.S. courts have traditionally defined a community as people within close geographic proximity.

U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel said he would decide next week whether to release Abdhir on bail pending his trial. Abdhir, 43, is accused of sending more than $10,000 and military gear to his brother, thought to be a high-ranking member of al-Qaida affiliate Jemaah Islamiyah.

McTiernan seeks to avoid guilty plea in wiretaps case

The Sacramento Bee reports:

John McTiernan, director of such hit movies as “Die Hard” and “The Thomas Crown Affair,” requested a withdrawal Monday of his guilty plea in a Hollywood wiretaps case.McTiernan pleaded guilty in April 2006 to making “knowingly false” statements to an FBI agent about Anthony Pellicano, the celebrity private eye he admitted hiring to wiretap a business associate.

But before his expected sentencing before a federal judge Monday, McTiernan’s attorneys filed a motion to withdraw the plea, saying the filmmaker pleaded guilty because he didn’t receive adequate legal representation at the time.

7-Eleven clerk arrested for pocketing $550,000 winning lottery ticket

The Sacramento Bee reports:

Authorities arrested a 7-Eleven clerk after a man accused of her pocketing his winning lottery ticket worth $555,000, then handing him a $4 “prize” instead.

Rajinder Kaur, 40, was arrested this week on suspicion of grand theft, and the Mega Millions ticket was recovered, officials said.

The man who picked the winning numbers went to the convenience store in the Sacramento suburb to redeem his prize Aug. 16. He knew he had won something, but did know not how much.

The clerk told him it was worth $4 and kept his ticket.

Judge jails unprepared public defender for contempt

ABC News reports:

Portage County Judge John Plough had assistant public defender Brian Jones arrested for contempt of court last week after Jones refused to begin a misdemeanor assault trial because he said he was unprepared. Jones was assigned to the case one day earlier.

Jones, who started working as a public defender earlier this year, was held for five hours in the local jail before being released on bail, said Ian Friedman, a lawyer with the Ohio Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

A hearing on the contempt charge, to be held before Plough, is scheduled for Friday. Jones’ attorneys have asked Plough to remove himself from the case, saying he cannot be impartial.

Ninth Circuit rules that airline passengers may not object to searches after initial security screen

The Sacramento Bee reports:

Citing concerns about terrorism, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that airline passengers lose their right to object to a search after they go through initial security screenings.

The San Francisco-based court, ruling in a case involving a Hawaii man, said airline passengers couldn’t refuse searches once they place their belongings on an X-ray tray or walk through a metal detector.

It was the appeals court’s second decision in the case of Daniel Kuualoha Aukai because it wanted to clarify an earlier decision on the issue of consent. Last year, the court ruled Aukai couldn’t back out of additional searches even after he no longer wanted to board a flight.

You can read the opinion in United States v. Aukai here.

LA judge allows fraud and conspiracy charges to stand against Milberg Weiss

The Sacramento Bee reports:

A federal judge denied motions to dismiss charges against a New York-based law firm, one of its partners and two others accused of keeping a pool of people at the ready to take part in class-action lawsuits and paying them millions of dollars in kickbacks.

U.S. District Judge John F. Walter rejected the defendants’ arguments Monday that the fraud and conspiracy charges should be dropped because the payments made to some plaintiffs weren’t illegal.

The law firm, now known as Milberg Weiss, was indicted in May 2006 by a federal grand jury in Los Angeles.

FBI’s search of Jefferson’s Capitol Hill office ruled unconstitutional

The Washington Post reports:

The Justice Department trampled on congressional independence when raiding U.S. Rep. William Jefferson’s office last year, a federal appeals court ruled Friday, siding with Congress in a constitutional showdown.

In a rare textbook case involving all three branches of government, the court held that investigators violated the Constitution by reviewing legislative documents as part of a corruption investigation.

The court ordered the Justice Department to return any legislative documents it seized from the Louisiana Democrat’s office on Capitol Hill. Still undecided is whether prosecutors can use other records it confiscated as part of their bribery case against Jefferson.

You can read the full opinion here. A snippet from the opinion is below:

Bad Newz for Michael Vick: co-defendant pleads guilty and corrobarates indictment against Vick

The NY Times reports:

Tony Taylor, one of the men indicted with Michael Vick last week on federal charges stemming from a suspected dog-fighting ring, pleaded guilty Monday and agreed to help prosecutors in the case.

Taylor, 34, pleaded guilty during a 9 a.m. hearing in the United States District Court here to conspiring to travel in interstate commerce in aid of unlawful activities and to sponsoring “a dog in an animal fighting venture.” He faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Taylor signed a statement describing his involvement with Vick and the others in arranging numerous illegal dog fights over state lines and operating “Bad Newz Kennels.” The statement appears to confirm much of what the government accused Vick and the others of doing in an indictment last week, and Taylor would be expected to testify to its details if he were called as a witness.