THE OTHER SHOE DROPS: Updates To Previous Posts
† NY State Archivist Steals Irreplaceable Documents: Archivist Daniel Lorello, who was convicted of second-degree grand larceny for selling an original Currier & Ives lithograph and 1,600 items other items on eBay was to two to six years in prison, paid $129,500 in restitution and handed over his $80,000 personal collection of first-edition books and photographs of Civil War soldiers to the state, reports The Associated Press.
† The Dems’ Natural Constituency (second item): Groups like Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (better known by its acronym, Acorn) and the ACLU are waging a national campaign to restore the voting rights of felons, and register as many of them as possible to vote in the 2008 presidential election, reports The New York Times. The Associated Press puts the number of felons who have temporarily or permanently lost the right to vote at four million nationwide. While the Obama campaign is not publicizing outreach efforts targeting this group of potential supporters, AP reports that activists “agree the effort is broader this year than in previous elections” and that Barack Obama stands to benefit more than John McCain “given that the population of former felons is disproportionately black.” Both Dem and Repub lawmakers have passed laws restoring voting rights to felons in AL, FL, IN and MD, amongst other states, but according to University of Minnesota criminologist Christopher Uggen, about 70 percent of former convicts lean Democratic.
† Updates To Previous Posts (Though Ham-Handed, Hamdan Ruling Changes Nothing): Nearly four months after the Supreme Court ruling acknowledging detainees at the military prison at Guantánamo Bay have the right to challenge their detention in federal court, none of the habeas corpus lawsuits filed by their lawyers have been resolved in court, reports The New York Times:
[M]ost of those cases have been delayed by battles over issues like whether some court sessions will be held in secret, whether detainees can attend and what level of proof will justify detention. …
“The legal issues that are being raised by the administration are going to take longer than the remaining time of the administration” to resolve, said Vijay Padmanabhan, an assistant professor at Cardozo Law School who was until July a State Department lawyer with responsibility for detainee issues.
“It is part of a broader strategy,” Mr. Padmanabhan added, “which is not to make difficult decisions about Guantánamo and leave it to the next president.”
Detainees’ advocates say that the administration is using the legal battle to delay judicial review of its evidence, while government lawyers argue that the cases are moving rapidly considering that they are unprecedented.
The Supreme Court decision said the detainees were “entitled to a prompt” hearing, but did not set any timetables.
† Updates To Previous Posts (last item, Another Cockamamie Lib Idea Fails The Real World Test): Remember those five boys and four girls abandoned by their father, Gary Staton, at Creighton University Medical Center's emergency room under NE’s safe-haven law? The children’s grandparents, Jack and Joanne Manzer, have stepped forward and told NBC's “Today” show that they would have taken the children – aged 1 to 17 years old – in, and that they have helped their son-in-law in the past. The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services had temporarily placed the siblings with an aunt, but a Douglas County judge ordered them back to foster care because some of them were sharing beds while others slept on air mattresses, reports The Associated Press. Staton surrendered his children after becoming overwhelmed after his wife, the Manzer's daughter, died last year.
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