Moussaoui update

Elaine Cassel is keeping an eye on the Moussaoui case, which now has two points on appeal.

The government is asking the 4th Circuit to make Judge Brinkema allow it to conduct its case in its own way, without having to abide by the troublesome pre-Ashcroft Constitution and Rules of Federal Criminal Procedure. The prosecutors say that they, not Judge Brinkema, should determine how the trial should be conducted and what evidence gets in. They would be prosecutor and judge. In their scheme, there would be no defense team at all.

The prosecutors say that all of these "technicalities" must be abandoned in a time of "war." But Moussaoui is not in a military tribunal; he is in a court that is subject to he Constitution. Ashcroft must be having regrets that he did not name Moussaoui an enemy combatant and consign him to a military prison (as Bush did with American citizens Yaser Hamdi and Jose Padilla). Ashcroft miscalculated. It was he who had insisted that Moussaoui be tried in federal court, a tough and death-happy jurisdiction, with plenty of tough judges. Moussaoui was intended to be the scapegoat for September 11. His conviction and execution was supposed to be a slam-dunk. But Ashcroft drew the wrong judge - the independent Judge Brinkema who has said all along that she would conduct the trial with the Constitution in one hand, and the Federal Rules in another.

And Judge Brinkema has had one hell of a job in what has turned out to be a three-ring circus. She's needed four hands, really. One for the Constitution, one for the Federal Rules, one for the DoJ and one for Moussaoui himself.

The woman is earning a crown somewhere.

Elaine thinks that the government will eventually win this case as the Constitution is pretty well trashed by the DoJ and BushCo already.

But kudos to Leonie Brinkema for not being a party to it.

...but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.