(In case you missed these tidbits)

  In a split decision, the SCOTUS ruled that suspects must speak up in order to ensure the legality of their rights not to speak.  Anthony Kennedy wrote that a suspect who speaks after he invokes his right to silence, has waived the right to silence.  And that police can keep asking questions to a silent suspect.  Okay.

  Justice Sotomayor wrote the dissenting opinion; Elena Kagan had argued for the police when the case came before the court.

Kagan:

"An unambiguous-invocation requirement for the right to remain silent and terminate questioning strikes the appropriate balance between protecting the suspect's rights and permitting valuable police investigation," Kagan said in court papers.

  I didn't know this, but earlier in the term, the Supreme Court placed a limit of 14 days to secure an attorney after a suspect is released from custody, and also that police don't explicitly have to tell a suspect he/she has a right to an attorney during interrogation. 

  Where are all those suspect rights going?  Today's ruling I'm temporarily ambivalent about, not understanding the nuances, though the Justices dissenting can be pretty convincing; but the former one concerning notification of the right to an attorney is hideous.

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A Friday Dump-out-with-the-trash story concerns The Obama White House being advised by Counsel Harold Koh that the administration's long-awaited  Military Commission Manual in preparation for the Gitmo trials. 

The original manual had followed the Bush guidelines and:

"...defined the charge of "murder in violation of the laws of war" as a killing by someone who did not meet "the requirements for lawful combatancy" -- like being part of a regular army or otherwise wearing a uniform. Similar language was incorporated into a draft of the new manual."

  Koh had an Uh-oh moment, and realized that under those definitions, CIA drone-killers were war criminals.

   He rewrote the section so that:

"...that murder by an unprivileged combatant would instead be treated like espionage -- an offense under domestic law not considered a war crime.

  Please remember that Obama has increased the use of drone strikes, including against a targeted list of "Bad Guys" he holds, and also against "Drug Lords" who have been cited by two reliable witnesses as...drug lords, I guess.

Feel free to weigh in on either news.  I'd be especially interested in hearing from Liberals  who support the new definitions in the Military Commissions Manual.