Free Republic

The current projectile-sweat-the-Republic-is-in-danger-of-collapse issue is whether the President will respond to subpoenas issued by the House and Senate Judiciary committees which would require (at a minimum) Karl Rove and former White House Counsel Harriet Miers to testify under oath about the firing of those eight previously unknown US Attorneys. SIDEBAR Let's be clear about this. The Democrats will spend some portion of their day, every day until 12:01 pm on January 20, 2009 trying to get Karl Rove to testify under oath about something so they can ask him about everything. As far as the Democrats are concerned, Karl Rove...

HASBROUCK HEIGHTS, NJ -- Library Director Michele Reutty is under fire for refusing to give police library circulation records without a subpoena. Reutty says she was only doing her job and maintaining the privacy of library patrons. But the mayor called it "a blatant disregard for the Police Department," which needed her help to identify a man who allegedly threatened a child. Reutty, the director for 17 years, now faces possible discipline by the library board. Members of the Borough Council have suggested she receive punishment ranging from a letter of reprimand in her personnel file to a 30-day unpaid...

U.S. gets access to worldwide banking data By JEANNINE AVERSA and KATHERINE SHRADER, Associated Press Writers 1 hour, 52 minutes ago The U.S. government gained sweeping access to international banking records as part of a secret program to choke off financial support for terrorism, officials said Thursday. Treasury Department officials said they used broad subpoenas to collect the financial records from an international system known as Swift. Stuart Levey, Treasury's undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, called the subpoenas "a legal and proper use of our authorities." "Since immediately following 9-11, the American government has taken every legal measure to...

The Potemkin Prosecution (Part One) March 27th, 2006 The Scooter Libby case is back in the public eye, with the news that subpoenas have been issued to the New York Times, NBC News and Time Magazine, and the likelihood that reporters’ notes, emails, and testimony of celebrities like Tim Russert may become public. But the embarrassment which may be experienced by the antique media pales before what awaits Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, whose reputation may never recover from what lies ahead. As the Libby cases progresses, it has underscored the pattern seen in other recent cases Patrick Fitzgerald has supervised....

WASHINGTON - The Securities and Exchange Commission will adopt a new policy on subpoenaing journalists, SEC Chairman Christopher Cox said Thursday in a move to resolve a controversy over the agency's recent demands for reporters' records. Cox and the other four SEC commissioners decided unanimously at a closed-door meeting to issue "clear principles" to guide agency attorneys on media subpoenas within the next week or so, he told reporters in a meeting. On Monday, after news reports had appeared on the matter, Cox took the unusual step of halting the agency's pursuit of subpoenas previously served on columnists for...

A regulatory investigation into allegations of collusion between short-sellers and a stock-research firm has led to the serving of subpoenas on TheStreet.com and its co-founder and major shareholder, James J. Cramer. Both TheStreet.com, which publishes this Web site, and Cramer, who writes a column on its RealMoney subscription site, have objected to the government's demands for communications between journalists and their sources. The subpoenas are related to a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into allegations that Gradient Analytics, an Arizona stock-research firm, published bearish research reports at the behest of a group of short-sellers, including Rocker Partners, a minority...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Right-to-privacy groups said on Friday an attempt by the Bush administration to force Google Inc. to turn over a broad range of materials from its databases set a dangerous precedent that should worry all Americans. "This is the camel's nose under the tent for using search engines and all kinds of data aggregators as surveillance tools," said Jim Harper of the libertarian Cato Institute who also runs Privacilla.org, an Internet privacy database. The Bush administration is already under fire from a number of rights groups over security measures it has taken since the September 11, 2001 attacks...

ALBANY, N.Y. - State investigators have subpoenaed several major music companies as part of a preliminary inquiry into whether the digital music services have engaged in any illegal price-fixing activity. Darren Dopp, a spokesman for state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, said the office was seeking information on wholesale prices the music labels charge for digital music files that can be downloaded. Dopp said Tuesday that it would take months for the office to launch a full investigation, if one is warranted. Warner Music Group Corp. said in a regulatory filing Friday that the subpoena it received is part of "an...

THIS WEEK, Congress considers legislation extending the implementation of the U.S.A. Patriot Act. Understandably, the debate surrounding the bill is fraught with emotion.At issue, however, is whether the proposed changes take appropriate steps to protect the civil liberties of innocent Americans. I believe they do not. Given the importance of these individual freedoms, I cannot support the bill in its current form.Ultimately, this debate is about police powers — powers granted by the people to government — and the balance we strike between these forceful tools and the rights of individuals.Provisions written into the Constitution and in laws are designed...

BRISTOW, Okla. - Jurors hearing the case against a former judge accused of exposing himself in his Creek County courtroom will be allowed to see the sex toy at the center of the state's allegations, a judge ruled Tuesday in rejecting a defense motion. They also can hear testimony that a second "penis pump" was seen under former District Judge Donald Thompson's bench, among other evidence Thompson's attorneys sought to have barred from next week's scheduled trial. "It's so fantastic and so unconnected to factual support, and so prejudicial," attorney Clark Brewster complained in trying to convince Judge C. Allen...

LET TERRI CHOOSE if SHE WANTS to drink!!! ALLOWING Terri to CHOOSE whether to sip water from a straw plced UP TO her lips is NOT "ARTIFICIAL Life Support!!!"

Crux of Eberheart's piece is that Congress enforce subpoenas issued last week demanding to interview Terry during its scheduled 25 March hearing to investigate for itself whether she is incapacitated. The subpoenas are being ignored by Judge Greer. Greer should be cited for contempt and US Marshalls dispatched by the Justice Department to secure Terry to a safe place until her appearance.

Bush can and must save Schiavo. He has the legal power to do so and his oath of office requires him to do so. Congress has legally subpoenaed Schiavo to appear before the US Congress. Judge Greer and others have conspired to prevent her appearance. Bush must send US Marshals to enforce the subpoena. To protect this witness, the Marshals would, of course, put an end to all efforts to interfere with her drinking and eating. It doesn't matter what ANY court says about such a procedure. Bush would be clearly within his Constitutional rights and would be acting pursuant...

PINELLAS PARK, Fla. - With a furious legal and political battle raging outside her hospice room, doctors removed Terri Schiavo's feeding tube Friday after a judge rebuffed an unprecedented attempt by Congress to keep the brain-damaged woman alive. Schiavo, 41, could linger one to two weeks without the tube, provided no one intercedes and gets it reinserted — as happened twice before. Late Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court (news - web sites), without comment, denied an emergency request from the House committee that issued the subpoenas to reinsert Schiavo's feeding tube while the committee files appeals in the lower courts...

Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi said Wednesday he issued nine subpoenas to six companies -- including KB Home -- as part of a probe into illegal kickbacks in the title insurance industryGaramendi's office said the subpoenas come after four others were issued in February to LandAmerica companies and Fidelity National Title, two of the nation's largest title insurers. The nine subpoenas were issued last week. Other companies beside Los Angeles-based KB Home (NYSE: KBH) include William Lyon Homes (NYSE: WLS) of Newport Beach, Re/Max, United Home Mortgage Corp., Shea Financial Services of Aliso Viejo and Wells Fargo Home Mortgage. Garamendi...

NEWARK, N.J. -- The Federal Aviation Administration has grounded the company that hired the flight crew for the corporate jet that crashed last month while attempting to take off from Teterboro Airport, and claims it may be unqualified to fly passengers. The company, Platinum Jet Management, has also refused to fully comply with an FAA subpoena for documents, withholding training records, duty time records and pay records for pilots and mechanics, according to court papers the agency filed late Wednesday. The court documents were disclosed Thursday after a federal judge in Newark ordered Platinum Jet to attend a hearing Monday...

The federal prosecutor who has served at least four reporters with grand jury subpoenas in his investigation into the disclosure of an undercover CIA officer's identity is now pursuing a second leak case in which he has obtained a subpoena for New York Times reporters' telephone records.

"People have a right to be heard politically, and the names of a lot of these delegates are already public anyway," said Matt Toups, 22, a system administrator for the Web site under federal investigation. "This is just part of the government's campaign to intimidate people into not saying things."

Media Subpoenas in U.S. Terror Case Raise ConcernsFri Jun 4, 2004 11:48 AM ET By Caroline Drees, Security Correspondent WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government has subpoenaed four journalists from major media to testify in the trial of a lawyer facing terrorism charges in a case which has raised fears for the freedom of the press. The subpoenas are in the trial of Lynne Stewart, who is charged with helping her client Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, convicted of encouraging bombings in the United States, communicate from prison with what prosecutors say are his terrorist followers. The New York Times, Reuters and...

Reporters Tim Russert, Matthew Cooper [TIME] Subpoenaed in CIA Leak... Developing...