2008-01-30T11:00:05Z tag:blog.washingtonpost.com,2008:/benchconference/127 Copyright (c) 2008, WashingtonPost.Newsweek Interactive 2008-01-30T11:00:05Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2008-01-30:/benchconference2008/01/goodbye_to_all_that.html

Alas, my friends, the time has come. After nearly two years of tumult (broken occasionally by brief periods of boredom), Bench Conference will end today with this post. It has been a fascinating experience, and I am truly grateful for the opportunity. As I mentioned in my very first post, when I was in college I corresponded briefly with Art Buchwald and told my mom that I would one day write for The Post. And...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Andrew Cohen 2008-01-22T17:01:10Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2008-01-22:/benchconference2008/01/post_90.html

Jose Padilla, the once-upon-a-time-but-not-really "dirty bomb" suspect, was sentenced today in federal court in Miami to 17 years and four months for his role in a terror conspiracy that barely got off the ground. The sentence is shorter by far than the 30-years-to-life sentence recommended under the federal sentencing guidelines. Why the break for the guy introduced to us in 2002 as the face of terror? Easy: U.S. District Court Judge Marcia G. Cooke, a...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Andrew Cohen 2008-01-18T19:48:59Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2008-01-18:/benchconference2008/01/dont_cry_for_john_yoo.html

Former Justice Department official John Yoo, author of our nation's most ill-conceived and damaging terror-law policies, wants your sympathy. He's being sued in civil court by former "dirty bomb" suspect Jose Padilla, who alleges that Yoo was behind his designation as an "enemy combatant" and the torture he endured while in military custody. The suit, Yoo wrote Wednesday in a touchy-feely op-ed in the Philadelphia Inquirer, is an example of how terrorists use law to...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Andrew Cohen 2008-01-16T13:04:33Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2008-01-16:/benchconference2008/01/safe_stall_sex_the_larry_craig.html

Taking a position that will delight horny, late-night bar patrons everywhere, the American Civil Liberties Union is arguing that people who have consensual sex in bathroom stalls in public places have a reasonable expectation of privacy and thus a 1st Amendment right to engage in a little sumpin'-sumpin'. Citing a 38-year-old case as precedent, the ACLU took this position in the Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) toe-tap case. The ACLU filed a brief yesterday on Craig's...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Andrew Cohen 2008-01-15T11:00:08Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2008-01-15:/benchconference2008/01/making_a_federal_case_out_of_i.html

Cody Miyler is a fellow with an abundance of gall. After being dismissed as police chief of East Galesburg, Ill., Miyler sued the town of 900, claiming a violation of his constitutional due process rights. Apparently East Galesburg has an ordinance decreeing that the town "president" must sign off on police chief firings, and Miyler claimed that the then-president - who happened to be his mother - hadn't given her consent. But gall only gets...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Andrew Cohen 2008-01-14T13:01:57Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2008-01-13:/benchconference2008/01/language_professors_decide_to.html

You know you've got a humdinger of a Supreme Court case when a covey of grammarians -- "scholars who teach, write and speak about English, linguistics and the principles of grammar" -- feels the need to chime in with a "friend of the court" brief. And, indeed, the Second Amendment fight District of Columbia v. Heller is just such a case. Hear ye, hear ye, the English departments have weighed in! Their verdict: The Second...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Andrew Cohen 2008-01-11T12:08:17Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2008-01-11:/benchconference2008/01/sleaze_and_sleazier_the_clemen.html

It's a good thing that accused steroids star Roger Clemens' public appearance before a House committee has been delayed for a month. If it had gone off as scheduled next week, it would have reduced the presidential election (never mind the CIA Tapegate fiasco) to a crawl on the bottom of the cable TV screens of America. I am grateful for the delay -- the Justice Department asked the House Committee of Government Oversight and...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Andrew Cohen 2008-01-10T12:26:44Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2008-01-09:/benchconference2008/01/post_91.html

Pretend for a second you are Jose Rodriguez, Jr., the former CIA official who, early on in the Tapegate scandal, has been fingered (rightly or wrongly) as a culprit behind the destruction of interrogation videotapes. You know the Justice Department has initiated a criminal proceeding on the matter. You know you have a date with a Congressional committee hot to make news at your expense. Wouldn't you, too, lawyer up and then exercise your constitutional...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Andrew Cohen 2008-01-09T10:00:05Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2008-01-09:/benchconference2008/01/bush_v_gore_ii.html

On this morning after the New Hampshire primary, the Supreme Court hears oral arguments in a voting rights case that presents the justices with the most starkly partisan choice they have faced since Dec. 12, 2000....Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Andrew Cohen 2008-01-07T20:08:53Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2008-01-07:/benchconference2008/01/uncomfortable_moments_of_zen.html

"This never ends," an audibly frustrated Justice Antonin Scalia said this morning during the middle of oral arguments in the lethal injection case before the Supreme Court. "There will always be another case." The justice's earnest lament is true. There always is another death penalty case at the Supreme Court, and there always will be. But you'll rarely find another oral argument as philosophical than the one just completed in Baze v. Rees. There weren't...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Andrew Cohen 2008-01-07T10:00:05Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2008-01-07:/benchconference2008/01/your_lethal_injection_case_cri.html

The Supreme Court this morning hears oral arguments in Baze v. Rees, which challenges Kentucky's lethal injection procedures -- and, by extension, similar protocols for the death penalty in 35 other states. I'll be at the court and will report back on what promises to be a lively review of the twists and turns that have marked the debate over lethal injection since it became the favored means of capital punishment. But here's a preview...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Andrew Cohen 2008-01-04T20:50:19Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2008-01-04:/benchconference2008/01/court_to_hear_childrape_death.html

The United States Supreme Court just announced that it will hear another six cases this term, including a case -- Kennedy v. Louisiana -- that will test that state's new law making child rape a capital offense. The announcement comes just days before Monday's oral argument in Baze v. Rees, a serious (and, in my view, long-overdue) challenge to lethal injection protocols. I'll have more next week. But, in the meantime, what do you think?...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Andrew Cohen 2008-01-04T13:38:23Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2008-01-03:/benchconference2008/01/justasking_jane_gets_a_spyguy.html

Drop by drop we learn more about Tapegate. Yesterday, Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.) released a telling declassified letter exchange between herself and the CIA about a plan to destroy an interrogation tape. What makes it telling is that the letter was written in 2003. CIA officials have said the tapes were destroyed in 2005. So that would mean the issue was discussed for at least two years. What makes it compelling is that the CIA...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Andrew Cohen 2008-01-03T13:29:07Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2008-01-03:/benchconference2008/01/tapegate_probe_will_outlast_bush_presidency.html

You can't make this stuff up. The federal prosecutor chosen to lead the criminal investigation into the Central Intelligence Agency's destruction of interrogation videotapes is the same guy who helped bust up the Boston mob. With his choice of veteran prosecutor John Durham to lead the investigation into Tapegate, Attorney General Michael Mukasey has shown that he takes this matter seriously. And by naming Durham, a bulldog who is more professional than partisan, Mukasey also...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Andrew Cohen 2007-12-29T05:00:05Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2007-12-29:/benchconference2007/12/2007_the_year_of_living_danger.html

In the legal world, this grim year ends as it began: With grave revelations about misconduct by executive branch officials. From the U.S. attorney scandal that sprouted in January to the CIA's illegal destruction of evidence disclosed this month, the year was dominated by stories highlighting the extent to which our government -- in our name if not entirely with our consent -- has deliberately and relentlessly undercut the rule of law and the separation...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Andrew Cohen