The California Supreme Court is holding oral arguments on Prop 8 and gay marriage today.

You can watch the hearings live on the web here.

The court will hear three hours of arguments and have 90 days to issue an opinion. If it overturns the ban, gay couples would again be permitted to marry in California.

The New York Times asks, Who's Running Immigration? saying President Obama and Janet Napolitano should put an end to the reign of terror Sheriff Joe Arpaio has instilled in Maricopa County (Phoenix), AZ.

[Arpaio] has terrorized Latino neighborhoods with relentless sweeps and has paraded shackled immigrants through the streets.

When she was the Arizona governor, Ms. Napolitano was an outspoken supporter of delegating neglected federal immigration duties to local authorities. Sheriff Arpaio is an example of that concept run amok.

The Times also asks, how did a workplace raid in Bellingham, WA take place without Obama or Napolitano knowing about it? [More...]

The GAO report is out on the program that deputizes state and local cops to work with feds to find and deport undocumented residents.

The report, prepared by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, says the government has failed to determine how many of the thousands of people deported under the program were the kind of violent felons it was devised to root out.

Some law enforcement agencies had used the program to deport immigrants “who have committed minor crimes, such as carrying an open container of alcohol,” the report said, and at least four agencies referred minor traffic offenders for deportation.

The program received $54 million from Congress last year. Among the findings[More...]

Via Greenwald, the Obama Justice Department signals it will go to the Supreme Court to defend the Bush Administration's invocation of the "state secrets" privilege in the Al Haramain warrantless wiretapping case. The AP reports:

The Obama administration has lost its argument that a potential threat to national security should stop a lawsuit challenging the government's warrantless wiretapping program. A federal appeals court in San Francisco on Friday rejected the Justice Department's request for an emergency stay in a case involving a defunct Islamic charity.

Yet government lawyers signaled they would continue fighting to keep the information secret, setting up a new showdown between the courts and the White House over national security.

(Emphasis supplied.) Greenwald writes:

I could leave his name out of the article, but by now you'd all know who he is: AZ most reprehensible Sheriff, Joe Arpaio. Here's what he's up to now:

Months ago, Arpaio and his deputies began scouring Hispanic neighborhoods in the Phoenix area looking for illegal immigrants. So far, hundreds have been hauled away.

Often in these types of operations, "probable cause" gets defined as brown skin and Spanish accents. So, there is no telling how many U.S.-born Hispanics were detained and harassed in the process.

All of which sets the stage for the stunt. The man who put inmates in pink underwear and fed them green bologna has some people in Arizona seeing red after he recently paraded about 200 illegal immigrants in shackles and prison stripes to his notorious "Tent City." Of course, Arpaio did this after alerting the media.

The inmates are to stay in the tents until sentenced and deported. That's right. They haven't been convicted or sentenced yet. But in Maricopa County, the little things need not interfere with punishment.

Is former AZ top cop, now Homeland Security Chief Janet Napolitano going to rein him in? I wouldn't put money on it.

From the Center For Constitutional Rights:

Documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit confirm Department of Defense involvement in the CIA’s ghost detention program, revealed three prominent human rights groups today. The groups—Amnesty International USA (AIUSA), the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), and the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice (CHRGJ)—today released documents obtained from the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) and U.S. Department of State (DOS), resulting from their lawsuit seeking the disclosure of government documents that relate to secret detention, extraordinary rendition, and torture. At a public press conference, the groups revealed that these documents confirm the existence of secret prisons at Bagram and in Iraq; affirm the DOD’s cooperation with the CIA’s ghost detention program; and show one case where the DOD sought to delay the release of Guantánamo prisoners who were scheduled to be sent home by a month and a half in order to avoid bad press.

More . .

The Center for Constitutional Rights has conducted a study of stop and frisks in New York for 2008. The findings: 531,000 New Yorkers were stopped and frisked and the numbers show "shocking racial disparities." 80% of those stopped were Black and Latino New Yorkers.

The NYPD is required to keep a database of its stop-and-frisks as a result of CCR’s 1999 racial profiling lawsuit filed in the wake of the Amadou Diallo shooting, Daniels v. City of New York.

Police stops-and-frisks without reasonable suspicion violate the Fourth Amendment, and racial profiling is a violation of fundamental rights and protections of the Fourteenth Amendment and the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The full study is here.

That is the damning reply delivered by an Obama Justice Department official today in the oral argument in the Jeppesen extraordinary renditions flights case. The NYTimes reports this exchange:

“Is there anything material that has happened” that might have caused the Justice Department to shift its views, asked Judge Mary M. Schroeder, an appointee of President Jimmy Carter, coyly referring to the recent election.

“No, your honor,” Mr. Letter replied. “The change in administration has no bearing?” she asked.

“No, your honor,” he said once more.

The Obama Administration, trying to deflect the stain of this exchange, stated that:

Religious conservatives never tire of declaring themselves the victims of war. Having found little sympathy for the perceived War Against Christmas (a war in which "Happy Holidays" is the weapon of choice), they now complain that the stimulus bill has launched a War Against Prayer.

According to the bill, which the Democratic-controlled House passed despite unanimous Republican opposition, funds are prohibited from being used for the "modernization, renovation, or repair" of facilities that allow "sectarian instruction, religious worship or a school or department of divinity."

The limitation applies to $6 billion of infrastructure spending designated for public institutions of higher education. [more ...]

What country would do this?

For the first time, TSA Behavior Detection Officers, who are trained to observe characteristics indicating a person is about to engage in wrongdoing, will patrol the Super Bowl. TSA will also deploy their Visible Intermodal Protection and Response (VIPER) teams and additional National TSA resources.

In plain English:

For the first time Sunday, federal behavior-detection officers will team with local police to use a controversial technique on people heading to a major event, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) says. The officers usually work in airports.

A flagged person gets a casual interview from an officer who determines if he or she should be formally questioned or arrested.

Welcome to the New America.

While I usually refrain from commenting upon lawsuits when I know the participants, I thought TalkLeft readers would be interested in this article about an excessive force suit that TL reader, commenter, and occasional diarist Ben Masel brought against the University of Wisconsin Police Department. His trial ended this week with a jury that hung after only four hours of deliberation. Knowing the profound interest that Ben and his able attorney have in protecting our freedom to exercise our civil rights, I'm sure the second trial (and possible appeal) will be pursued with gusto fueled by good will.

In 2004, in response to recommendations by the 911 Commission, the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board was created by Congress as part of the The Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004. It was part of the White House and went nowhere. In 2007, Congress passed a new law establishing an independent board. There are currently no members and there have been no meetings. Bush did little with it after the terms expired in Jan. 2008. (He did nominate at least one person).

But, as part of the law, 8 departments were ordered to appoint a civil liberties director. Among the agencies that have failed to comply: The Departments of Defense, State, and Health and Human Services.

All three departments have failed to comply with a 2007 law directing them to appoint civil liberties protection officers and report regularly to Congress on the safeguards they use to make sure their programs don't undermine the public's rights and privacy, a USA TODAY review of congressional filings shows.

Ramifications?