"A miscarriage of justice" for Senator Ted Stevens

By Michael Ruhl, University of New Mexico – Talk Radio News Service

Ken Boehm believes that justice has been miscarried in the case of former Alaska Senator Ted Stevens. Today the Department of Justice dropped charges of wrongdoing against the Stevens, after a drawn out legal battle concerning financial disclosure. Boehm, chairman of the watchdog group the National Legal and Policy Center, said that because the Justice Department failed in its handling of the case, an elected official is not going to be brought to justice after violating the public trust.

Boehm, a former prosecutor, stated how the Department of Justice sould have done it differently.

(03:38)
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FBI's new investigation standard is lower than standard used by police for investigations

Congressman and former assistant United States Attorney Artur Davis (D-Va.) asks FBI Director Robert Mueller about the standard that the FBI will use as a threshold for opening investigations. Since the activities undertaken by the FBI are similar to those used by police in an initial investigation, Davis asked if the standard needed to undertake an FBI investigation will be lower than the standard set out by police in the 1968 Supreme Court decision in Terry v. Ohio. Mueller initially resists the question, but eventually says the standard is lower. (0:51)
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Congressman Green: Diversity needs 'affirmative action'

Congressman Al Green (D-Tex.) discusses the two aspect of diversity, namely the legal and moral components. Green says that affirmative action is a key to the moral component for diversity initiatives.(1:09)
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DOJ says legal opinions should not be public until made into policy

John Elwood, Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Counsel, Department of Justice, testifying at a hearing of the Constitution, Civil Rights and Property Rights Subcommittee on "Secret Law and the Threat to Democratic and Accountable Government," says that legal justifications for implemented policies are available to Congress, since operative policy is "law." However, he says there is a confidentiality interest in the legal opinions written by the OLC while they are advising among policy choices. (0:54)
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