Miranda Overseas: The Law of Coerced Confessions Abroad

In recent years, Article III courts have become the preferred venue for the U.S. government to try terrorism suspects captured abroad. Many liberals have welcomed this development, characterizing it as a proper extension of American rule of law principles to the so-called “War on Terror.” But while many have celebrated the marginalization of the military tribunal system, few have directly acknowledged its potential costs. This Article examines one of those costs: Reduced procedural safeguards for Article III defendants against statements procured through coercive interrogation techniques. As courts have repeatedly recognized, the core purpose of the Fifth Amendment’s Self-Incrimination Clause is to ensure that the accused is not compelled to testify against himself in a criminal proceeding. More controversially, Miranda warnings give effect to that purpose by requiring that any statements admitted into evidence be the product of a suspect’s voluntary and informed choice. However, where matters of national security are implicated, there is a danger that prosecutions of extraterritorial crimes will cause our domestic courts to bend or abandon traditional rules of American criminal procedure. That is particularly true with respect to protections against self-incrimination. Through a comparison of current legal doctrine with the Supreme Court’s pre-incorporation jurisprudence, this Article argues that courts should be more, not less, vigilant in their review of confessions obtained abroad, especially by regimes that are known to engage in torture. In practice, however, the opposite has occurred. Foreign interrogation practices are subject to far fewer constraints than domestic ones. That realization ought to give some pause to those who tout the supposed virtues of our criminal justice system

The Difference a Day Makes: How Courts Circumvent Federal Immigration Law at Sentencing

Efforts in criminal courts to avoid deportation as a result of convictions are prevalent throughout the United States. Although defendants in Washington have a statutory right to be advised of the potential immigration consequences of a guilty plea, there is no statutory or constitutional requirement that a judge take immigration consequences into consideration in imposing sentence. Nonetheless, as was the case in the assault on Micah Painter, judges can and do make what are effectively policy judgments when sentencing defendants, with an eye toward helping them avoid deportation

The Interstellar N/O Abundance Ratio: Evidence for Local Infall?

Sensitive measurements of the interstellar gas-phase oxygen abundance have revealed a slight oxygen deficiency ($\sim$ 15%) toward stars within 500 pc of the Sun as compared to more distant sightlines. Recent $FUSE$ observations of the interstellar gas-phase nitrogen abundance indicate larger variations, but no trends with distance were reported due to the significant measurement uncertainties for many sightlines. By considering only the highest quality ($\geq$ 5 $\sigma$) N/O abundance measurements, we find an intriguing trend in the interstellar N/O ratio with distance. Toward the seven stars within $\sim$ 500 pc of the Sun, the weighted mean N/O ratio is 0.217 $\pm$ 0.011, while for the six stars further away the weighted mean value (N/O = 0.142 $\pm$ 0.008) is curiously consistent with the current Solar value (N/O = 0.138$^{+0.20}_{-0.18}$). It is difficult to imagine a scenario invoking environmental (e.g., dust depletion, ionization, etc.) variations alone that explains this abundance anomaly. Is the enhanced nitrogen abundance localized to the Solar neighborhood or evidence of a more widespread phenomenon? If it is localized, then recent infall of low metallicity gas in the Solar neighborhood may be the best explanation. Otherwise, the N/O variations may be best explained by large-scale differences in the interstellar mixing processes for AGB stars and Type II supernovae.Comment: accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Letter

Taking the Presumption Against Extraterritoriality Seriously in Criminal Cases after \u3ci\u3eMorrison\u3c/i\u3e and \u3ci\u3eKiobel\u3c/i\u3e

In two recent decisions, Morrison v. National Australia Bank, 130 S. Ct. 2869 (2010), and Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum, 133 S. Ct. 1659 (2013), the Supreme Court emphatically reaffirmed the longstanding presumption that federal statutes do not apply outside the territorial United States absent a “clear indication” to the contrary. Although Morrison and Kiobel involved civil suits under section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act and the Alien Tort Statute (“ATS”) respectively, this Article contends that the Court’s holdings ought to similarly restrict the extraterritorial application of federal criminal law. That is because Morrison and Kiobel instruct courts on how they should interpret the reach of statutes generally—not just civil ones like section 10(b) and the ATS. Consequently, a host of criminal laws that prosecutors have routinely applied extraterritorially in the past, but whose geographic scope is facially ambiguous, ought to be reinterpreted as reaching domestic conduct only. Such statutes encompass not just securities fraud, but conduct as varied and significant as antitrust violations, racketeering, drug trafficking, mail fraud, and weapons possession

Dexterous Operations on ISS and Future Applications

The Mobile Servicing System (MSS) is a complex robotics system used extensively in the assembly, inspection and maintenance of the International Space Station (ISS). Its external components are comprised of the Space Station Remote Manipulator System (SSRMS), the Mobile Base System (MBS), and the Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator (SPDM or "Dextre"). Dexterous robotic maintenance operations on the ISS are now enabled with the launch and deployment of "Dextre" in March 2008 and the recently completed commissioning to support nominal operations. These operations include allowing for maintenance of the MSS capability to be executed uniquely via robotic means. Examples are detailed inspection and the removal and replacement of On-orbit Replaceable Units (ORUs) located outside the pressurized volume of the ISS, alleviating astronauts from performing numerous risky and time-consuming extra-vehicular activities (EVAs). In light of the proposed extension of the ISS to 2020 and beyond, "Dextre" can also be seen as a resource for the support and conduct of external ISS experiments. "Dextre" can be utilized to move experiments around ISS, as test bed for more elaborate experiments outside the original design intent, and as a unique platform for external experiments. This paper summarizes the status of "Dextre", its planned use, and future potential for dexterous operations on the ISS. Lessons learned from the planning and execution of SPDM commissioning are first introduced, and significant differences between "Dextre" and SSRMS operations are discussed. The use of ground control as the predominant method for operating "Dextre" is highlighted, along with the benefits and challenges that this poses. Finally, the latest plans for dexterous operations on ISS are summarized including visiting vehicle unloading, nominal maintenance, and operations of a more experimental flavor

Charity Care, Risk Pooling, and the Decline in Private Health Insurance

Economic

Molecular Machines from Topological Linkages

Life is built upon amazingly sophisticated molecular machines whose behavior combines mechanical and chemical action. Engineering of similarly complex nanoscale devices from first principles remains an as yet unrealized goal of bioengineering. In this paper we formalize a simple model of mechanical motion (mechanical linkages) combined with chemical bonding. The model has a natural implementation using DNA with double-stranded rigid links, and single-stranded flexible joints and binding sites. Surprisingly, we show that much of the complex behavior is preserved in an idealized topological model which considers solely the graph connectivity of the linkages. We show a number of artifacts including Boolean logic, catalysts, a fueled motor, and chemo-mechanical coupling, all of which can be understood and reasoned about in the topological model. The variety of achieved behaviors supports the use of topological chemical linkages in understanding and engineering complex molecular behaviors