Uppity Wisconsin

Incredible! Bush wants the US DOJ to look into the GOP's proposed Ohio vote suppression scheme using HAVA, seeking forced provisional voting that suppresses legal voters.

After being shot down by the US Supreme Court on using the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) for the purpose of declaring eligible voters to be tentatively ineligible because of database mismatches - a purpose that the text of HAVA expressively forbids - Bush and the Republicans will not give up.

As the Milwaukee Branch of NAACP and the Milwaukee Teachers Education Association write in their amicus brief in the Van Hollen v. GAB Wisconsin case, provisional voting is inherently suppressive, and many provisional voters will not be able to come back the next day to corroborate their legal voting status, and leave the voting process with questions about whether their votes counted.

Madison, Wisconsin — Navy Airman Keith Roberts (1969-71) sits in a federal penitentiary in Minnesota, serving a 48-month sentence since March, awaiting news from the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit of his appeal for his conviction on federal wire fraud.

The honorably discharged veteran’s criminal conviction is based upon the U.S. Dept of Justice’s assertions, made through the office of the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, Stephen Biskupic, that Roberts lied about his relationship with and his actions pertaining to a fellow Navy airman who was crushed to death by a C-54 transport aircraft in a Feb. 1969 accident at a Naval airbase in Naples, Italy.

Via Mal Contends - A U.S. Department of Justice memo (Prosecution Version of the Offense, Nov, 16, 2006) contradicts U.S. Attorney's Stephen's Biskupic's statements made at oral arguments in the case of the United States v. Keith A. Roberts ( 07-1546) before a three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit last week.

Via MAL Contends - The U.S. Dept of Veterans Affairs (VA) is infamous for its culture of claim denial (like a particularly mean health insurance company) and its systemic bureaucratic hostility to veterans.

But increasing numbers of civilian attorneys are stepping up to the plate to assist veterans.

"The need is staggering," said Gordon Erspamer, a Morrison and Foerster attorney in Walnut Creek, Calif., who has worked on veterans' cases since the 1970s. (Lynne Marek, The National Law Journal)

Morrison and Foerster is engaged in an unprecedented, class action, pro bono case on behalf of 100,000s of vets returning from Iraq and Afghanistan and suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

Updated: John Edwards fundraiser acquitted on all counts, DOJ political prosecution goes up in flames

Via Mal Contends - Even as the U.S. Justice Department arrogantly stonewalls requests by the House Committee on the Judiciary for documents pertaining to politically-charged prosecutions in Alabama, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin (the Georgia Thompson affair), Wisconsin’s U.S. Atty. Stephen Biskupic volunteered to offer transcribed testimony under oath before the Judiciary Committee.

From Dan Bice in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.

"If they (the House Judiciary Committee) want to hear from me, I'm happy to do it."
Even if the testimony is transcribed and under oath?
"It really doesn't matter to me," said Biskupic.

By Michael Leon at Mal Contends - Oral arguments in [U.S. v. Roberts, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, Docket 05-CR-118 ; U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit, docket number 07-1546.] are scheduled for:

Oct 25, Thursday, (fourth case heard that day) at approximate 9:30 AM
Dirksen Federal Building
Chicago, Illinois
219 South Dearborn
[Corner of Dearborn and Jackson]

The case will be heard by a three-judge panal composed of:
- the Hon. Terence T. Evans
- the Hon. Joel Martin Flaum
- the Hon. Daniel Anthony Manion

Update:

Via Michael Leon (MAL Contends) - As the politicalization of the DoJ and numerous other Bush administration agencies has become clear in the public mind, the House Committee on the Judiciary Chair, John Conyers, released a Justice Department internal e-mail on the discredited Georgia Thompson prosecution, tossed out of a Seventh Circuit's appellate panel.

The e-mail as recounted in Talking Points Memo reads:

The Hudson Star Observer reports that a Wisconsin native has been appointed interim attorney general.

Solicitor General Paul Clement is a Cedarburg, WI native.

As Wikipedia reports, Clement's professional life is solidly conservative, including stints with right-wingers such as Judge Laurence H. Silberman of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, SC Justice Antonin Scalia, and as an associate of Kirkland & Ellis, Kenneth Starr's firm.

Clement has also argued major cases for the Bush administration defending its power grabs for the executive branch, and an aggressive right-wing legal agenda.

Vietnam-era veteran Keith Roberts who is serving 48 months on trumped-up charges of federal wire fraud has filed his brief before the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.