Bob Barr and I agree!

Here's an op-ed he just wrote on the over-criminalization problem in America. From the piece:

[F]ailure to address the overcriminalization of America is turning us into a society in which the average citizen is at the mercy of the federal government for fear of running afoul of some criminal law or regulation on any given day, despite having no intention whatsover of doing so.

The explosive growth in the number of federal crimes in recent decades has been nothing short of phenomenal. Three crimes — three — were considered of sufficient importance and of a unique federal nature, to be included specifically in the Constitution. Those three uniquely federal crimes are treason, piracy and counterfeiting. Over the decades, of course, other crimes were added, usually pegged to the infamous “commerce clause.” By 1980, the federal criminal code had mushroomed to about 3,000 separate criminal offenses. What has happened since 1980, however, has been nothing short of phenomenal — the list of federal criminal offenses has exploded to nearly 4,500 offenses; as noted most recently by Gary Fields and John Emshwiller in the Wall Street Journal. This figure does not even include the many more thousands of federal regulations that can be enforced by the government as criminal offenses.

***

The list of such unfair and outrageous instances of abusive federal prosecutions is depressingly long; with many the result of the explosive growth of “environmental crimes” since the birth of the EPA four decades ago. Yet Congress after Congress continues to add crime after crime to the burgeoning federal criminal code, based often on pressure from interest groups and federal agencies themselves.

Finalists for U.S. Marshal

They are: James S. Higgins, Eben Morales and Amos Rojas Jr..

Many of you will remember Jaime Higgins, who is an ATF agent, currently on assignment in Vancouver, Canada. His wife is Celeste Higgins, a former AFPD in Miami.

Florida drug laws ruled unconstitutional

Today Judge Mary Scriven from the Middle District granted a writ of habeas corpus and declared Florida’s drug law unconstitutional. The case is Shelton v. Dept. of Corrections. NACDL filed this amicus brief . Here's the intro to the order:

On May 13, 2002, the Florida Legislature enacted changes to Florida’s Drug Abuse Prevention and Control law, FLA. STAT. § 893.13, as amended by FLA. STAT. § 893.101. By this enactment, Florida became the only state in the nation expressly to eliminate mens rea as an element of a drug offense. This case, challenging the constitutionality of that law, was filed following Plaintiff’s conviction for delivery of cocaine without the jury being required to consider his intent in any respect and the subsequent imposition of an eighteen year sentence following his conviction. Upon consideration of all relevant filings, case law, and being otherwise fully advised, the Court GRANTS Petitioner’s request for habeas relief (Dkt. 1), and finds that FLA. STAT. § 893.13 is unconstitutional on its face.

Full disclosure: I was one of the co-signors of the amicus brief for NACDL, authored by Todd Foster.

BREAKING -- JNC sends 4 names to Senators

Your next federal judge will be one of these four people:

Jerald Bagley
John O'Sullivan
Robin Rosenbaum
John Thornton

Two State Circuit judges and two Federal Magistrates. I'm picturing a cage match -- Bagley and Thornton vs. O'Sullivan and Rosenbaum. Who wins that one?

Update-- happy to report that Judge Moreno's letters were cited yesterday in the Senate. Hopefully they will have some impact. Here's the link: http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CREC-2011-07-25/pdf/CREC-2011-07-25-pt1-PgS4860.pdf#page=1

HT: SFL

"Characterizing a government as a pimp is far from advocating violence."

That was Irfan Khan's lawyer Sowmya Bharathi, challenging the strength of the evidence against her client who is accused of helping to finance part of the Pakistani Taliban terror group. Love the quote! Plus it gave me some inspiration for the morning:



More on the case from Curt Anderson's article:

The son of a Muslim cleric in South Florida was a key part of his father's alleged finance network for the Pakistani Taliban terror group and shared the older man's support for violent attacks, an FBI agent testified Tuesday.
Agent Michael Ferlazzo said at a bail hearing that 37-year-old Irfan Khan appears to advocate violence repeatedly on some of the more than 1,000 phone calls the FBI recorded between him and his father, brother and other alleged conspirators.

On one call, Ferlazzo said, Irfan Khan referred to Pakistan's government as “big pimps.”

“They're talking about violent opposition to the government,” Ferlazzo said. On another call, the agent said, Irfan Khan seemed pleased that people feared the Pakistani Taliban “because of how lethal they had become.”
***
But Irfan Khan's attorney, Sowmaya Bharathi, said most of his comments could be chalked up to passionate political talk about Pakistan's government and its troubles, not evidence of support for terrorism.

“There is absolutely nothing wrong with people exchanging information about horrible events in a part of the world they have a connection to,” Bharathi said. “Characterizing a government as a pimp is far from advocating violence.”

She said nearly two dozen people, including members of Irfan Khan's cricket team, were willing to put up cash and property to secure his release on bail. She noted that he has a wife and two young children in Florida and would be able to get a job driving a taxi if released.

“He is going to stay here and fight the charges,” Bharathi said.
Jordan has not said when he will rule on bail for Izhar Khan, who is imam at a mosque in suburban Margate. Hafiz Khan is imam at Miami's oldest mosque.