Justice Department Moves to Further Delay in Bringing Detainees into U.S.: Wednesday, Lyle Denniston reported at SCOTUSblog that the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals had temporarily blocked the entry of the 17 Chinese Muslims that Federal Judge Urbina had ordered into the United States by 10am today. The Circuit Court action delayed entry of the detainees for at least eight days. Today, Denniston reports that the Justice Department has moved for a "longer postponement of any move of Guantanamo Bay detainees to the U.S. mainland." The Justice Department fears movement of any detainees into the United States “could pose a danger to the public at large." In its motion for a stay the Justice Department asked the D.C. Circuit Court to prevent any transfer until the Supreme Court had reviewed the delay issue. Attorneys for the detainees have until 4pm next Tuesday to respond.

ACORN Again: At Volokh Conspiracy, Jonathan Adler has a post on ACORN's activities in Ohio. Apparently, ACORN told Cleveland's Plain Dealer, that "it cannot eliminate fraud from its operation." Adler suggests some commonsense tactics for preventing voter fraud, such as "not paying canvassers based upon how many people they register," or offering bribes in return for registration. He also reports that a federal Ohio court has ordered Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner to implement a system to verify voter registration information when it fails to match up in database checks. Adler later updated his post to include part of a report from the New York Post on a Cleveland man who had registered 72 times.

New Report on Racial Disparity and the Death Penalty: At Sentencing Law and Policy, Doug Berman provides a link to a new report from the American Constitution Society on racial disparities in the modern implementation of the death penalty. The full article can be found here. The article, "Racial Disparities in Capital Punishment: Blind Justice Requires a Blindfold," authored by Scott Phillips, reports on research conducted by the author "on race and capital punishment in Harris County, Texas." According to the ACS description, the author found "that the death penalty is more likely to be imposed against black defendants than white defendants, and death is more likely to be imposed on behalf of white victims than black victims. Professor Phillips explains that his research indicates that the racial disparities arise in the District Attorney’s decision to seek the death penalty, rather than with the jury."

Unfortunately, Phillips' explanation is as thin as tissue paper. Controlling for the relevant variables in studies of this kind is a very difficult proposition. One must identify the variables, explain how they are measured, explain how they are weighted, and explain how the control was done. The paper's description is extremely cursory, leaving the reader unable to make any judgment as to how carefully or correctly this was done. As discussed in this article, most studies in this area show no discernible bias on either the race of the defendant or the race of the victim when all legitimate variables are properly controlled.