By Jennifer Rubin September 5 Virginians are still reeling from former governor Robert F. McDonnell’s conviction on 11 corruption charges. If the indictment seemed unreal, the number of counts, the potential length of the sentence, the unseemly details about his marriage and the magnitude of the lapse in judgment are nearly incomprehensible. At times it has seemed as if there is some other governor, not the former Army officer and sober politician who has been a fixture in state politics for 20 years, at the center of the storm. When one considers the generous terms of a plea bargain (his wife, Maureen, walks and he pleads to a single non-corruption count) he rejected, McDonnell’s plunge from the political stratosphere is akin to a Shakespearean tragedy. Pure hubris has ruined a lifetime of achievement and sterling reputation.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2014/09/05/a-tragedy-for-robert-mcdonnell-a-nightmare-for-the-political-system/

The Supreme Court’s terrible—and dangerous—ruling this week on the Fifth Amendment.

By Brandon L. Garrett

On Monday, in a case called Salinas v. Texas that hasn’t gotten the attention it deserves, the Supreme Court held that you remain silent at your peril. The court said that this is true even before you’re arrested, when the police are just informally asking questions. The court’s move to cut off the right to remain silent is wrong and also dangerous—because it encourages the kind of high-pressure questioning that can elicit false confessions.

Here are the facts from Salinas: Two brothers were shot at home in Houston. There were no witnesses—only shotgun shell casings left at the scene. Genovevo Salinas had been at a party at that house the night before the shooting, and police invited him down to the station, where they talked for an hour. They did not arrest him or read him his Miranda warnings.  Salinas agreed to give the police his shotgun for testing. Then the cops asked whether the gun would match the shells from the scene of the murder. According to the police, Salinas stopped talking, shuffled his feet, bit his lip, and started to tighten up.

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http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2013/06/salinas_v_texas_right_to_remain_silent_supreme_court_right_to_remain_silent.html