NATION/WORLD
Tuesday, March 1, 2016
East Oregonian
Justice Thomas asks questions
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Justice
Clarence Thomas broke 10 years of
courtroom silence Monday and posed
questions during a Supreme Court oral
argument, provoking gasps from the
audience.
And it wasn’t just one question; it
was a string of them in an exchange
that lasted several minutes.
It was only the second week the court
has heard arguments since the death of
Justice Antonin Scalia, Thomas’ friend
and fellow conservative, whom he’d
sat next to for seven years. Scalia was
famous for aggressive and sometimes
combative questions from the bench.
His chair is now draped in black in
observance of his Feb. 13 death.
Thomas’ gravelly voice unexpect-
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an otherwise sleepy argument about
gun rights. He peppered Justice Depart-
ment lawyer Ilana Eisenstein, who was
trying to wind up her argument, with
10 or so questions that seemed to be a
vigorous defense of the constitutional
right to own a gun.
“Ms. Eisenstein, one question,”
Thomas said. “This is a misdemeanor
violation. It suspends a constitutional
right. Can you give me another area
where a misdemeanor violation
suspends a constitutional right?”
Until then, it had been business as
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hourlong session in Voisine v. United
States. The court was considering the
reach of a federal law that bans people
convicted of domestic violence from
owning guns.
None of the other justices visibly
reacted to Thomas’ remarks.
Eisenstein noted that violating
other laws can, in some cases, limit a
person’s free-speech rights under the
AP Photo/Michael Dwyer, File)
In this 2012 file photo Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas speaks at
College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass.
First Amendment.
“OK,” Thomas said. “So can you
think of a First Amendment suspension
or a suspension of a First Amendment
right that is permanent?”
It was a topic no other justice had
asked about. And his comments came
after several of the other justices
seemed to favor the government’s
position that the law applies whether
the abuse is intentional or reckless.
Thomas last asked a question in
court on Feb. 22, 2006, and his unusual
silence over the years has become a
curiosity. Every other justice regularly
poses questions from the bench.
Thomas has come under criticism
for his silence from some who say he
is neglecting his duties as a justice. He
has said he relies on the written briefs
in a case and doesn’t need to ask ques-
tions of the lawyers appearing in court.
Carrie Severino, a former clerk to
Thomas who now heads a conserva-
tive advocacy group, said the justice
had kept his silence “because he felt
that oral arguments have become less
civil and respectful of the attorneys
and their arguments over the past two
decades, often becoming little more
than rhetorical jousting among the
justices.”
Like Scalia, Thomas has long
championed Second Amendment gun
rights. In December, he and Scalia
objected when the high court refused
to hear a challenge to a Chicago
suburb’s assault weapons ban that was
upheld by lower courts. Thomas said
the justices should not stand by while
lower courts relegate “the Second
Amendment to a second-class right.”
Thomas did not speak during the
court’s second argument on Monday.
North Korea puts detained American before cameras
PYONGYANG,
North
Korea (AP) — North Korea
presented a detained Amer-
ican student before the media
on Monday in Pyongyang,
where he tearfully apolo-
gized for attempting to steal
a political banner — at the
behest, he said, of a member
of a church back home who
wanted it as a “trophy” —
from a staff-only section of
the hotel where he had been
staying.
North Korea announced
in late January it had arrested
Otto Warmbier, a 21-year-old
University of Virginia under-
graduate student. It said that
after entering the country as
a tourist he committed an
anti-state crime with “the
tacit connivance of the U.S.
government and under its
manipulation.”
No details of what kind
of charges or punishment
Warmbier faces were imme-
diately released.
According to Warmbier’s
statement Monday, he wanted
the banner with a political
slogan on it as a trophy for
the church member, who was
the mother of a friend.
In previous cases, people
who have been detained
in North Korea and made
a public confession often
recant those statements after
AP Photo/Kim Kwang Hyon
American student Otto Warmbier speaks during a press
conference on Monday in Pyongyang, North Korea.
their release.
He was arrested while
visiting the country with
Young Pioneer Tours, an
agency specializing in travel
to North Korea, which is
strongly discouraged by the
U.S. State Department. He
had been staying at the Yang-
gakdo International Hotel,
which is located on an island
in a river that runs through
Pyongyang, the capital.
It is common for sections
of tourist hotels to be reserved
for North Korean staff and
off-limits to foreigners.
In Washington, State
Department
spokesman
John Kirby said that as a
general practice, it was not
uncommon for North Korea
to detain and imprison people
on false or “trumped-up”
charges, and use detentions
for propaganda purposes.
But Kirby said he could
not comment on Warmbier’s
case because of privacy
considerations,
nor
on
whether Sweden, which
handles consular affairs for
the U.S. in North Korea, has
had access to him.
In his comments, Warm-
bier said he was offered a
used car worth $10,000 by
a member of the church. He
said the church member told
him the slogan would be
hung on its wall as a trophy.
He also said he was told that
if he was detained and didn’t
return, $200,000 would be
paid to his mother in the form
of a charitable donation.
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church as the Friendship
United Methodist Church,
which is in his hometown,
Wyoming, Ohio.
Meshach Kanyion, pastor
of the church, would not
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Warmbier or if he is a church
member.
“I don’t have any
comment at this time,” he
told The Associated Press.
Warmbier’s parents said
they had not heard from their
son since his arrest and were
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a picture of him.
“You can imagine how
deeply worried we were and
what a traumatic experience
this has been for us,” Warm-
bier’s father, Fred Warmbier,
said in a statement provided
by the University of Virginia.
“I hope the fact that he has
conveyed his sincere apology
for anything that he may have
done wrong will now make
it possible for the (North
Korean) authorities to allow
him to return home,” he said.
Page 9A
Federal judge: U.S.
cannot make Apple
provide iPhone data
NEW YORK (AP)
— A federal judge ruled
Monday that the U.S.
Justice Department cannot
use a 227-year-old law to
force Apple to provide the
FBI with access to locked
iPhone data, dealing a blow
to the government in its
battle with the company
over privacy and public
safety.
The ruling, by U.S.
Magistrate Judge James
Orenstein, applied narrowly
to one Brooklyn drug case,
but it gives support to the
company’s position in its
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judge’s order that it create
specialized software to help
the FBI hack into an iPhone
linked to the San Bernardino
terrorism investigation.
Orenstein belittled some
government
arguments,
saying attorneys were
stretching an old law “to
produce
impermissibly
absurd results.”
He rejected government
claims Apple was only
concerned with public
relations. He said he
found no limit on how far
the government would
go to require a person or
company to violate the
most deeply-rooted values.
And he said claims
that Apple must assist
the government because
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of being an American
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on a government that exists
in part to safeguard the
freedom of its citizens.”
Both cases hinge partly
on whether a law written
long before the computer
age, the 1789 All Writs Act,
could be used to compel
Apple to cooperate with
efforts to retrieve data from
encrypted phones.
“Ultimately, the ques-
tion to be answered in this
matter, and in others like it
across the country, is not
whether the government
should be able to force
Apple to help it unlock a
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whether the All Writs Act
resolves that issue and
many others like it yet to
come,” Orenstein wrote. “I
conclude that it does not.”
Apple’s opposition to the
government’s tactics has
evoked a national debate
over digital privacy rights
and national security. On
Thursday, the Cupertino,
California-based company
formally objected to the
California order, accusing
the federal government of
seeking “dangerous power”
through the courts and of
trampling on the company’s
constitutional rights.
The separate California
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owned by San Bernardino
County and used by Syed
Farook, who was a health
inspector. He and his wife
Tashfeen Malik killed
14 people during a Dec.
2 attack that was at least
partly inspired by the
Islamic State group. The
couple died later in a gun
battle with police.
Orenstein, ruling with an
eye to the California case,
referenced it multiple times
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noted that the government
request there was far more
“intrusive.”
The New York case
features a government
request far less onerous for
Apple and its cellphone
technology; the extraction
technique exists for that
older operating system and
it’s been used before some
70 times before to assist
investigators.
Since
late
2014,
that physical extraction
technique hasn’t existed
on newer iPhones. In
California, U.S. Magistrate
Judge Sheri Pym ordered
investigators to create
specialized software to help
the FBI bypass security
protocols on the encrypted
phone so investigators
can test random passcode
combinations in rapid
sequence to access its data.
The court ruling comes
one day before a Tuesday
congressional hearing that
will include testimony from
FBI Director James Comey
and Apple General Counsel
Bruce Sewell on encryption
and “balancing Americans’
security and privacy.”
Orenstein said he was
offering no opinion on
whether in the instance of
this case or others, “the
government’s
legitimate
interest in ensuring that
no door is too strong to
resist lawful entry should
prevail against the equally
legitimate societal interests
arrayed against it here.”
He noted Congress has
not adopted legislation that
would achieve the result
sought by the government
and said it must be discussed
by “legislators who are
equipped to consider the
technological and cultural
realities of a world their
predecessors could not
begin to conceive.”
The Justice Department
said in a statement that it’s
disappointed in the ruling
and plans to appeal in
coming days. It said Apple
had previously agreed
many times prior to assist
the government and “only
changed course when the
government’s application
for assistance was made
public by the court.”
BRIEFLY
Europe’s crisis
worsens: Migrants
face razor wire,
tear gas
IDOMENI, Greece (AP)
— Pressed against coils
of razor wire and shouting
“Help us!,” refugees and
migrants at Greece’s
northern border were pushed
back by Macedonian police
using tear gas and stun
grenades, as authorities here
raced to build more camps
to shield the escalating
number of stranded people
from winter.
A top European Union
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the region Tuesday to try
and ease the crisis that
produced more scenes of
chaos: Syrian and Iraqi
refugees and others forced
their way through part of a
Macedonian border fence,
some clutching infants or
struggling to free duffel
bags caught in the razor-
wire. They were met by
Macedonian riot police.
Volunteer doctors said at
least 22 migrants, including
12 children, were treated
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and cuts. Authorities
in Macedonia said one
policeman was injured and
that dozens of special forces
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helicopter to help quell a
refugee protest.
“Tragically, there seems
to be more willingness
among European countries
to coordinate blocking
borders than to provide
refugees and asylum-seekers
with protection and basic
services,” said Giorgos
Kosmopoulos, head of
Amnesty International in
Greece.
Some 7,000 migrants,
mostly from Syria, Iraq and
Afghanistan, are crammed
into a tiny camp at the
Greek border village of
Idomeni, and hundreds more
are arriving daily.
KKK leader:
Request for police
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LOS ANGELES (AP) —
A Ku Klux Klan leader who
was injured when his small
group of demonstrators
brawled with counter-
protesters in a Southern
California park this weekend
said Monday that he called
police beforehand asking for
security and was told, “We
don’t do that.”
Jacob Tyler Jones
Will Quigg said in
an interview with The
Associated Press that he
contacted the Anaheim
Police Department but
that the agency denied
his requests for a police
presence. The KKK then
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would hire an outside
security company.
“They said, ‘No, you
can’t do that either,’” Quigg
said.
The Police Department
is facing scrutiny for its
response after three people
were stabbed and several
others were injured in the
melee Saturday involving
several dozen people and
spanning a city block.
Investigators determined
that Klan members acted
in self-defense after the
counter-protesters attacked.
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the public that the KKK
planned to hold an anti-
immigration protest at a
park about 3 miles from
Disneyland, but at least
one witness said he saw no
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attack began.
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