Green Party activitsts beat the Venezuelan Embassy rap for now

A big congratulations to Green Party activists who have, for now via hung jury, beaten the rap for their Venezuelan Embassy occupation trial, despite Judge Beryl Howell acting almost in collusion with the prosecution by how much in the way of defense tactics she refused to admit.

That said, per her background, it's no surprise that this Obama nominee would make such rulings. Former Assistant USDA in Eastern District of New York. Then, top assistant to Pat Leahy and eventual general counsel on staff of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

She has some good points, like on FOIA expansion. But? The former prosecutor helped write the Patriot Act. And CALEA. And DMCA. And, despite a previous pro-First Amendment ruling? Not this time. (In 2004, the Society of Professional Journalists gave her a First Amendment award for her FOIA work. Can they take it back?)

And, for her work on the DMCA, she was rewarded, before heading to the federal bench, by being a lobbyist for Recording Industry Association of America. (One of her first big cases on the DC District was to reward the RIAA.)

In other words, pretty much a standard neoliberal Dem, and on the Patriot Act, despite some Dems later claiming "not me," a standard bipartisan foreign policy establishmentarian.

Judges like this are why, when Dems shout and/or moan "Oh the SCOTUS" every four years, I have a ready answer. The gamut of civil liberties issues carry far beyond reproductive rights (for which Congressional Dems have never restored Medicaid funding for the poor) or sexuality and sexual relationship rights.