With far too many things of interest for a Saturday, it seems like a brisk run around the blawgosphere is in order.

From Dan Solove at Co-Op, a small reminder that destroying pre-1985 children’s books won’t really improve the quantity of maggots in junior’s diet.

In its (falsely) reassuringly subtitled booklet “The Food Defect Action Levels: Levels of Natural or Unavoidable Defects in Foods That Present No Health Hazards for Humans,” the F.D.A.’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition establishes acceptable levels of such “defects” for a range of foods products, from allspice to peanut butter. . . .

Tomato juice, for example, may average “10 or more fly eggs per 100 grams [the equivalent of a small juice glass] or five or more fly eggs and one or more maggots.” Tomato paste and other pizza sauces are allowed a denser infestation — 30 or more fly eggs per 100 grams or 15 or more fly eggs and one or more maggots per 100 grams.

If this bothers you, wait until you read about what’s in your beer.  Hint: It isn’t “nubbly synthetic pretend-dinosaur-skin” that might interest a second-grader to learn to read.  We’re now protected from that danger.

From Doug Berman at Sentencing Law & Policy, the 7th Circuit in U.S. v. England has shielded us from the harshness of being sentenced for things you might have done.  With a caveat:

Interestingly (and somewhat disturbingly), though the Seventh Circuit reverses the sentence in this appeal, it hints that the real problem was just that the district court did not have enough evidentiary support for its conclusion that the defendant would have committed attempted murder. 

In arriving at our decision, we want to underscore that we do not pass judgment on the reasonableness of the 210-month sentence imposed by the district court. As noted above, the able and experienced district court judge conducted a thorough and meaningful § 3553(a) analysis and the sentence that he imposed very well may be reasonable. The district court need not repeat this analysis at resentencing; it can adopt the § 3553(a) findings arrived at during the June 2, 2008 hearing. We only require that the district court make its sentencing determination without reliance on a finding that England would have attempted murder if out on bond unless further evidence is adduced which would justify such a conclusion.

Exactly what evidence the circuit will find acceptable as proof of future occurrences remains to be seen. 

Perhaps some of those weird psychic precogs can come testify at the next sentencing hearing against the defendant to make sure he does not get away with his “precrime” of attempted murder.

We can’t have people getting away with crimes that have yet to happen, now can we.

From Radley Balko at The Agitator comes Rep. Floyd Flake’s twit:

“11 hours to review a 1000+ page spending bill that spends nearly a trillion dollars? This is not Congress’ finest hour.”

Which leads to Orin Kerr’s observation at Volokh that there are some notable similarities between the stimulus bill and the USA Patriot Act.

[A] new President has declared a crisis that demands immediate action. The old policies of the past have failed, he announces, and it is time for far-reaching action that will expand the government’s power to combat the serious threats against the Nation. Time is of the essence, he declares: We must act now.

The opposing party tries to stop the President’s plan. They complain that the President and his minions in Congress are acting too fast and going too far. Sure, some kind of change is needed. But the President and his allies are going too far, they complain, passing a “wish list” to capitalize on the public’s fear of the crisis continuing. 

Even worse, no one seems to know exactly what is in the massive bill. Senators and Representatives in the minority party complain that they never even had time read it! The bill is hundreds of pages long, and it was impossible for anyone to read all that legislation in time for the vote.

The President is dismissive about their complaints, however. The opponents are stuck in the old discredited way of thinking: Change is needed, and quickly.

Trick question:  What year does this describe, 2001 or 2009?  Yes, there are far more differences than similarities, but that doesn’t make the similarities disappear.

Norm Pattis posts about the waiting, waiting, waiting for the jury to return the verdict.  Every lawyer who ever tried a case to a jury knows exactly what Norm’s talking about.

Waiting for a verdict in a criminal case is the closest I expect to get to Hell. That is not because I hope to ascend to Heaven at death. I simply don’t believe in an afterlife.

Classic Norm.  Of course, as painful as the waiting is, the pain is forgotten when the jury foreperson says the words “not guilty,” ironically captured in Norm’s follow-up “…And The Gods Smiled.” 

My client was acquitted today of all counts relating to the state’s claim that she drove while intoxicated. She was convicted of one count arising from the jury’s conclusion that one child was not in a mandated booster seat for a child under 60 pounds in weight. It is a good day.

Also classic Norm, his religious ambiguity notwithstanding.

And finally, I close with another terrible jury decision.  Fortunately, the egregious error does little harm.  A jury of automobile designers claims to have decided, once and for all, the “most beautiful car ever.”  The verdict?



The Citroën DS?  So they say.  Quirky?  Absolutely.  Fascinating?  Okay.  Most beautiful?  Now where does one appeal?

And with this, I wish all a happy Valentine’s Day, brought to you by Hallmark Cards and Godiva Chocolates.