Yes, I know I’m a law student, and I read cases all the time, but to those of you who are not law students, I’d like to encourage you to take a look at my hilights of this very important case. When’s the last time you read a Supreme Court opinion anyway?

The majority basically said that the First Amendment prohibits a ban on political advertisements funded by corporate money. The dissent claims that the major corrupting potential of such advertising subverts the very principles which the First Amendment seeks to protect. Make no mistake; this is a case about the very fundamental values of our political system.

I hope you will take a look at what I have hilighted. I’ve attempted to draw your attention to enough background so that you will have a deeper understanding of each side’s best arguments. If you are going to read the document in the embedded Google Docs viewer, I recommend that you click the full screen icon in the top right… the resulting reading experience is much better. You may also download the file and read it in your preferred PDF viewer.

Direct Download – [PDF]

Former:

Current:

From a design perspective, the new website has a much lighter background, and the main area has a white background. As if to escape the old name decisively, the webmaster sought to abolish the “black” from Blackwater. The new design makes me feel like I’m floating in some underwater mario world. I still find the new site sinister, however, thanks in large part to the surveillance blimp hovering above.

If you have read Jeremy Scahill’s book Blackwater, you are aware that the company’s founder, Erik Prince, is an extremely wealthy and powerful Dominionist. Taking this into account, I noticed two features of the new website that seem to be coded references to this fact. First, the logo of the new company, “XeServices LLC,” is itself very cross-like. If you can’t see that, just tilt your head 45⁰ to the left. Also, on the “About Us” page, one of the images used in that page is this:

Maybe I am reading too much in to things, but this latest story in The Nation makes me feel otherwise. It appears that Mr. Prince may have ordered killed individuals who had provided or were going to provide the federal government with information regarding Blackwater’s criminal activities. In sum, Blackwater operatives knowingly committed war crimes and were enabled by a complicit federal government.

Stay tuned…

Five years after the Abu Ghraib revelations, we must acknowledge that our government methodically authorized torture and lied about it. But we also must contemplate the possibility that it did so not just out of a sincere, if criminally misguided, desire to “protect” us but also to promote an unnecessary and catastrophic war. Instead of saving us from “another 9/11,” torture was a tool in the campaign to falsify and exploit 9/11 so that fearful Americans would be bamboozled into a mission that had nothing to do with Al Qaeda. The lying about Iraq remains the original sin from which flows much of the Bush White House’s illegality.

- Frank Rich, NYT, 4/25/09

Rich goes on to propose that the best way forward would be for the DOJ to appoint a panel of non-partisan outsiders, such as retired federal judges, to analyze all the information and set the wheels in motion for the correct prosecution. While I was not a fan of Obama’s initial response, I have come around to understanding that his relative lack of outrage is calculated to ensure that this investigation is handled in a non-partisan manner. The gravity of the information now available is strong enough to stand on its own, and I suspect that many Republicans will end up supporting such an investigative commission.

Then, take a look at this video from Philip Zelikow, a high level State Department lawyer during the Bush administration. He authored a memorandum expressing grave concerns with the legal reasoning underlying those torture memos. While a copy of Zelikow’s memorandum is not yet available, a FOIA request has been made and it is likely to surface soon:

At the research station we got an overview of the wetland ecology and then were taken on a pontoon boat tour through an old logging canal. While the land is currently largely denuded for miles, we learned that it used to be densely covered with cyprus trees; however, due to the value of of the cyprus, entrepreneurial individuals had basically clear cut large swaths of territory by forging canals and using ropes and barges to haul trees away for processing. While the area most certainly looks differently than it would have a century or two ago, much of its function is the same. Currently a key wetland habitat for fish, reptiles and birds, the area, as currently managed, provides protection against storm surges. Though we never caught sight of a large alligator, we did see a baby one (about three feet long.) The boat trip was exciting and most definitely a change of scenery from urban New Orleans.

As we arrived back at school late in the afternoon, I noticed some friends sitting at a table laden with food in the foyer. I had forgotten that yesterday was the last day of the week-long public interest/human rights film festival. Earlier in the week I had seen one of the films, a documentary on those first elections held in Iraq back in 2005. The documentary was brooding and somewhat incomplete, but provided some great footage from the country that like of which we do not get from our mainstream media. Friday’s film, obviously the capstone of the series, was a short documentary on the Jena 6. You may recall, the Jena 6 incident was a racially charged tale from a small Louisiana town. White students and black students had gotten into a series of fights over a de-facto whites-only congregation spot in the courtyard of the town’s high school. After some white students were severely beat by black students, six of the later were charged with attempted murder. The incident sparked national recognition and prompted tens of thousands to descend upon the sleepy town to protest what many saw as a racially charged miscarriage of justice.

Following the film, a speaker told of his organizing work in bringing a few busloads of concerned, mostly black students, from Texas to participate in the rally. Then, at one point in his talk, he called Michael Bell, one of the Jena 6, putting him on the phone over the room’s sound system for a live q+a. While the audience consisted of mostly law students, there were some other activists present who seemed to take great pleasure in hearing from Mr. Bell firsthand.

While I enjoyed the documentary and the ensuing talk, I did have some reservations. I was concerned with the film’s one sided presentation of incarceration statistics. Though I am aware that a disproportionate percentage of blacks are in prison, I am not convinced that such statistics lead to the conclusion that our justice system is inherently racist. While racism may play a role in sentencing disparities, the film was intellectually dishonest by not even attempting to examine the other factors leading to high incarceration rates within the black community. Furthermore, just because this kid found himself on the defensive of an overly-zealous prosecutor does not make him a hero; in fact, I was inclined to infer that he was a bit of a thug at the time this event happened. However, hearing from him on the the phone was exciting, and he mentioned that he was getting ready to apply for college and wished to move on and not allow the incident to define him. Many of the activists in the room, however, seemed content to have him remain a cause célèbre.

Following the film, I ran into my buddy who was heading over to the Chabad house. Chabad is a worldwide group of Orthodox Jews which attempts to help young Jews connect with their religion. While I am in no way interested in becoming Orthodox (I like my shellfish, pork and modern clothing too much, thank you,) the Chabad house sponsors some fantastic Shabbat dinners and holiday services. Figuring I was a bit overdue, I joined him for a delicious meal (salad, matzoh ball soup, chicken, desert, etc…) At the dinner we met a prospective law student who had been attending the first of three visiting weekends (from which the administration kept me far away.) She was a bright young Jew from Great Neck who was weighing Tulane against a few NYC schools. I also got to speak with her mother who was born in Romania. Foarte interesant, nu? The night continued with drinks at a new bar just a few blocks from my home, (verdict: a little trendy and overpriced, but great young-adult vibe,) and a ceremonial smoking of the hookah with new honey flavored tobacco.

Given the major ups and down of life as a law student, a day like yesterday comes as a great relief, reminding me that there is a larger universe beyond the reading room and that as I go about my daily activities, so too does the world. Welcome back.