The current Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas is a savvy politician. He knows what red meat smells like and he knows his constituents’ feeding schedule. And he has skillfully used ballot propositions to position himself with voters and to shape the debate on crime and immigration. He created and sponsored a proposition in 1996 that … Read more
One of the most egregious violations of our constitutional traditions in the so-called PATRIOT Act is the power of issuing National Security Letters given to the FBI. These letters allow the FBI to harvest massive amounts of private and confidential information without a warrant, judicial review, any means to challenge the demands’ validity, or any … Read more
The US District Court for Arizona handed down an order of partial summary judgement in the big Prop200 election rights case, Gonzales v. Arizona, and Secretary of State Jan Brewer reacted as if she had just parted the Red Sea. Her press release crowed: “I am extremely happy to have earned this sweeping court victory … Read more
The excuse most often offered by the Bush Administration for many of its blatantly illegal acts, including torture, secret detention, extraordinary rendition, and the use of signing statements to refuse to enforce selected parts of Congressional legislation, is that these actions were justified as legally defensible, or simply legally non-controversial, by the Administration’s attorneys, including … Read more
The best guide for the citizen interested (as few are) in making an informed vote on judicial retention is the Arizona Commission on Judicial Performance Review. Unlike voting based on party affiliation like the ideologues over at Sonora Alliance are advocating, retention should be based on ability, not ideology. I’m not kidding myself that many … Read more