Complaints from Rush Limbaugh tthat the ACLU is ignoring the intrusions into America’s civil liberties by the TSA are completely unfounded.

Radley Balko, as tough a critic of excesses by police officer as any journalist working, offers a plausible defense of former BART cop Johannes Mehserle.

Radley Balko writes about “a minor irritation” we both share. Over the last few weeks, I’ve noticed more and more retail outlets who instruct cashiers to ask me for donations to various causes when I’m making a purchase. I was hit up a couple of times two donate a dollar or two to breast cancer [...]

Columbia MO SWAT raids a residential house. They find a pipe with residue, a small amount of marijuana (enough for misdemeanor offense) and a grinder. In the process of conducting this raid these brave and fearless cops shot and killed a (possibly crated) pit bull dog, and shot and wounded a welsh corgi. These highly [...]

Radley Balko “got a little more libertarian” yesterday after a frustrating experience with his income taxes.  Essentially, his e-file was rejected because of an invalid Social Security number which wasn’t invalid at all, the Social Security office wouldn’t help him by phone, and the office was closed by the time he got there.  And he [...]

This February interview of Johannesburg mayor Amos Masondo by Chris Barron of The Times is making the rounds, thanks to Radley Balko, Andrew Sullivan, and many others.    The set-up is that Joburg is going to be hosting the World Cup and is being touted as a “world-class city.” Is Joburg ready for the World Cup? [...]

An offhand comment from a male friend that guys like to look at the Facebook profiles of their female friends creeped Amanda Marcotte out, to the amusement of Radley Balko.   But the substance of Marcotte’s piece is actually more interesting than the topline. But my friend told me guys aren’t looking for dirty pictures on [...]

If you only read one article today. Hell, if you only read one article this week or even this month, make it Radley Balko’s report on abusive asset forfeiture laws. It is both excellent and infuriating. I believe I’ve mentioned before that Radley is America’s greatest living journalist. This article is one of the many [...]

In a rather bizarre case, the District of Columbia is suing AT&T for the value of unused money on calling cards owned by someone else. The attorney general for Washington D.C. has filed a lawsuit against an AT&T Inc (T.N) unit, seeking to recover consumers’ unused balances on prepaid calling cards.  The suit claims that [...]

Not surprisingly, TSA is going to make flying even more aggravating in a stupid overreaction to the Detroit terror plot. In the wake of the terrorism attempt Friday on a Northwest Airlines flight, federal officials on Saturday imposed a new layer of restrictions on travelers that could lengthen lines at airports and limit the ability [...]

Via Radley Balko, an illustration of why men shouldn’t write advice columns: I dunno, this seems like very good advice to me.

Yesterday, Radley Balko passed on the story of Eric Williamson, the Springfield, Virginia man who has been charged with indecent exposure for being naked in his own house.    According to Williamson’s version of events, he was making coffee at 5:30 in the morning when a woman and her 7-year-old cut across his yard and spied [...]

It seems that some Orlando area sex offenders, unable to find housing elsewhere after being released from prison, wound up living at a trailer park. Said trailer park was near a school bus stop. Local parents, quite reasonably concerned, tried but failed to have the bus stop moved. Apparently, “According to the release conditions placed [...]

Radley Balko argues we are now seeing the fruition of Ayn Rand’s fear that government would eventually declare “so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws” in order to extend its power. Part of the drop can of course be explained by mass incarceration—America leads [...]

A posting at a blog called Classically Liberal, which apparently covers this topic with some regularity, draws attention to the criminalization of adolescent sex. Not long ago a curious adolescent or child, caught exploring, or playing doctor in the back yard, was given a talking-to, sent to bed early, and warned to not do it [...]

Radley Balko has an excellent article on how the Gates arrest last week demonstrates conservatives’ disturbing deference to government power when it comes to the police. Commenting on Gates’ arrest, National Review’s Jonah Goldberg wrote that he counts himself among those who are “deferential to police,” and willing to “give cops the benefit of the [...]

Alex Kozinski and Misha Tseytlin explain in a book chapter titled “You’re (Probably) a Federal Criminal” that “most Americans are criminals, and don’t know it, or suspect that they are but believe they’ll never get prosecuted.” Having experimented with recreational drugs is the most obvious way that people (including at least our three most recent [...]

And why they are bad as a general rule. Even if police always got the right house and every raid were performed flawlessly (and that’s obviously not the case), the image of police dressed as soldiers routinely breaking into private homes to serve warrants for non-violent crimes is one we ought to find disturbing. At [...]

Alex Massie and Radley Balko remind me that John Wayne died 30 years ago today. I recall it well, having just recently returned to the States from Germany and waiting to start 8th grade in El Paso.  I’ve seen most of his movies since and become a bigger fan. Someone (Robert Prather, perhaps) shared via [...]

Apparently, the Supreme Court is leaning towards letting school administrators do just that. The case in question is a about a girl who was strip searched by school officials when she was 13 years old in eighth grade. The school officials were acting on a tip from another girl who had been caught with prescription [...]

Not an April Fools’ joke: The police visited Radley Balko‘s house this morning and left without assaulting him or shooting his dog.

“It was easier for Obama to fire the CEO of a private company than it is to fire most federal employees.” – Radley Balko “I don’t know if you know this or not but starting today the United States government will stand behind your warranty on a newly purchased General Motors car.  Now, that’s going [...]

Radley Balko, responding to James Poulos, argues that criminalization of marijuana has been deadly: Det. Jarrod Shivers is dead and Ryan Frederick’s life is ruined over the prohibition of pot. Officer Ron Jones is dead, and Cory Maye, once sentenced to be executed, now faces a life sentence because of marijuana prohibition. Cheryl Lynn Noel [...]

Radley Balko: So we were told that the state of the economy is so dire that members of Congress could only have 11 hours to read the stimulus bill before voting on it. Now that it passed, Obama’s going to take a long weekend before signing it into law. Granted that none of the money [...]

Radley Balko has a new column at Fox on “Washington’s Wealth Boom.” The new top three [wealthiest counties in America according to per capita income] are now Loudon County, Virginia; Fairfax County, Virginia; and Howard County, Maryland. All three are suburbs or exurbs of Washington, D.C. In 2000, 14 of the 100 richest counties were [...]

The OTB gang has previously weighed in with their Electoral College projections. James Joyner: Obama 325, McCain 213 Dodd Harris: Obama 318, McCain 160, Tossup 60 Alex Knapp: Obama 350, McCain 188 Other bloggers’ predictions: Steven Taylor:  Obama 364, McCain 174 Radley Balko: Obama 322,  McCain 216 Nate Silver: Obama 349, McCain 189 John Hawkins: [...]

Radley Balko has the best substantive analysis: Obama’s answer on the “Obama Doctrine” sounded like it was written by Sarah Palin.  He clearly didn’t have an answer about what criteria he’d use in determining which humanitarian crises are worthy of U.S. military force.  He was all over the place.  What we’re left is, then, is, [...]

Congratulations to Radley Balko, whose dogged reporting on miscarriages of justice in Mississippi has led to the dismissal of the state’s most prolific medical examiner, Dr. Steven Hayne. Hayne’s bogus medical reports led to a capital murder conviction for Cory Maye, a man wrongly subjected to a no-knock drug raid by police, and quite possibly [...]

There’s quite a bit of thoughtful discussion–as opposed to knee jerk reactions–out there on the execution last night of Crips founder “Tookie” Williams. Conservative Ed Morrissey explains why he’s opposed to capital punishment even in case like Williams’ but publishes an interesting letter from a prosecutor explaining why the added deterrent is needed. A snippet: [...]