Jackson judge censors landmark U.S. Supreme Court decisions

[Monkie]

http://www.sacbee.com/state_wire/story/12101348p-12971379c.html

"LOS ANGELES (AP) - Michael Jackson's judge blacked out the words "obscenity," "pornographic" and "sexual conduct" from the text of landmark U.S. Supreme Court decisions in releasing a legal motion filed by the pop star's lawyers.

The motion seeks to bar references to those words during Jackson's molestation trial in describing materials seized from the entertainer's Neverland ranch. The judge's action appeared designed to keep secret what the motion was all about, but the document filed by Jackson lawyer Brian Oxman cites some of the Supreme Court's most famous landmark decisions on obscenity."

"I thought we had seen it all in this case," commented Loyola University law professor Laurie Levenson. "But this is absurd. We have now begun censoring Supreme Court decisions. It is absolutely unprecedented."

[mdhunter]

1. Not undprecedented.

The Justice Department caught flack for redacting part of a memo that contained a Supreme Court decision earlier this year. I forget exactly what the context was, but I remember noting how asinine it was.

Leave it to the Bush Administration to break new ground in absurdity.

[charlie]

5. From the Memory Hole

It's mindbending. Shows just how much the stink of Ashcroft warped the Justice Dept.

http://www.thememoryhole.org/feds/justice_redaction.htm

[Retrograde]

2. oh, THAT Jackson - not the one in Mississippi

For some reason when I saw the headline Jackon MS came to mind. Sounded like the sort of thing a judge there would do....

[QC]

3. That's what you get for thinking in clichés. n/t

[paineinthearse]

4. Superior Court Judge Rodney Melville

I searched http://www.lasuperiorcourt.org - Superior Court of LA County (of which Santa Monica is a part) for biography of Superior Court Judge Rodney Melville. He's not listed anywhere and is not found by searching "Melville".

Can anyone get some factual information about him and possible reasons for censoring these documents?

[paineinthearse]

6. WTF??

http://members.calbar.ca.gov/search/member_search.aspx?ms=Melville

"Information about individual attorneys is only provided for those who are active, inactive..." Well, I guess that covers all!!??

Bar number: 42519
Information about individual attorneys is only provided for those who are active, inactive, disbarred, resigned, or not entitled. Limited information is provided for judges and deceased attorneys. See the member status definitions for more information.

Maybe this information is available only to members of the CA bar. Anyone???

[charlie]

7. Official bio

(Santa Barbara, not Santa Monica)

http://www.sbcourts.org/general_info/judicial_officers/melville.htm