Judge in Oregon rules limiting inmates' mail unconstitutional

PORTLAND, Ore. –  A federal judge in Oregon has determined limiting inmates' mail to only postcards is unconstitutional, throwing into question the legality of a practice used for years in jails across the country.

For two years, the Columbia County Jail north of Portland restricted inmates' personal mail to the sending and receiving of postcards until U.S. District Court Judge Michael Simon issued an injunction that stopped the practice in May 2012.

In a ruling made public Thursday, Simon said the practice by the St. Helens jail is unconstitutional because it violates the First Amendment rights of inmates, the people who write to them, and the plaintiff, a monthly national law journal published by the Vermont-based Human Rights Defense Center.

It's the first legal precedent opponents can use in their opposition to a policy that stretches from Florida to the Arizona desert, where Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is credited with first implementing it in 2007.

The primary reasons cited for the postcard-only mail policy are that it prevents contraband from entering the jail and it saves time for increasingly cash-strapped sheriff's offices.

In Arizona, officials said the policy was rooted in the number of drugs applied to stamps or laced into other products flowing through the jail's mail system.

"We went to postcards on incoming mail (only), and it's cut down on contraband dramatically," said Maricopa County Sheriff's Office spokesman Brandon Jones. Inmates in Maricopa County can still send regular mail.

But Simon said Oregon's Columbia County Jail had no such reasoning. The prohibited mail included legal documents sent by family members, children's report cards and bills that needed to be paid.

Columbia County Sheriff Jeff Dickerson "agreed that the postcard-only policy was not adopted in response to a known contraband problem," Simon wrote. "Defendants' postcard-only policy was a solution in search of a problem."

Simon's finding of fact in the trial -- damages will be assessed either in a settlement or by a jury -- applies exclusively to Columbia County. But Alex Friedmann of the Human Rights Defense Center said challenges to the policy in other districts that long languished from the lack of available case law can point to the Portland decision as a victory.

"This is the first time to our knowledge, and we're pretty much the go-to people on this, that this policy has gone to trial on the merits and the court has struck it down," said Friedmann, whose group is the parent company of the plaintiff, Prison Legal News.

In court documents, Columbia County said it was acting in concert with other Oregon counties, including the larger and wealthier Washington County, which includes the Nike Inc. worldwide headquarters. Washington County officials said in presentations to other sheriff's offices that the issue had been tested in courts and found to be constitutional.

"Like anything else, when you're going forward with something new, and Oregon certainly was in 2010, you go on what the court decisions are thus far," Dickerson said. The sheriff said Thursday he was unsure whether the county would appeal.

But Friedmann said the only other challenges to the policy have been from inmates representing themselves. In federal court, he said, "that's like doing brain surgery on yourself when you're not a brain surgeon."

Friedmann said that in 2010, 13 of 36 Oregon counties had the policy in place. By 2012, a survey found most counties in the state had a postcard-only policy, Yamhill County Sheriff's Office Capt. Ron Huber said.

That ended, Huber said, with Simon's injunction.

"A majority of counties were doing the postcard-only (mail), and as soon as Yamhill County got word that there were issues, it kind of just spread," said Huber, who also is the Oregon State Sheriff's Association's chairman on jail issues. "It ended pretty quick."

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Lighting up for Passover: Israel gets kosher cigarettes for Jews observing holiday rules

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  March. 25, 2013: Cigarettes are for sale with a stamp of approval reading in Hebrew, "kosher for Passover" at a kiosk in the Jewish ultra-Orthodox town of Bnei Brak, near Tel Aviv.AP

JERUSALEM –  Observant Jews in Israel craving a smoke during the week-long Passover holiday that starts at sundown Monday can now enjoy a rabbi-approved puff.

It's the first time cigarettes have joined the long list of goods stringently checked to ensure they comply with Passover rules on what items are allowed, or kosher for the holiday — meaning they have not come in contact with grains or other forbidden ingredients.

The stamp of approval came from the Beit Yosef private rabbinic group, which certifies foods as compliant with Jewish dietary restrictions. Last month, Beit Yosef approved three local cigarette brands for smoking during Passover. The chief rabbinate in Israel, however, disapproved of the measure, saying cigarettes are life-threatening and should not be approved by rabbis.

"Poison is not kosher. For all days of the year, not just Passover," said the chief rabbinate's spokesman Ziv Maor.

But Rabbi Igal Ben Ezra, Beit Yosef's chief supervisor, said the certification was meant for Israeli smokers who only buy products marked as "kosher for Passover" and who might be concerned about buying cigarettes without such a label. It's "mostly for people who have doubts on this subject," said Ben Ezra.

The Jewish holiday of Passover celebrates the biblical Exodus story of the Israelites' escape from slavery in Egypt to the Promised Land. According to tradition, the Israelites were in a rush and had no time to let their bread rise as they fled. To commemorate the hasty Exodus, Jews eat matzo, or flat wheat crackers that symbolize unleavened bread, and refrain from foods containing leavening such pasta during Passover.

During the holiday, Jewish law forbids chametz — anything consisting of grains that may have come in contact with water, starting the process of fermentation.

Jews, including many who are not religiously observant the rest of the year, spend weeks ahead of Passover cleaning their homes and belongings to rid them of any morsel of food considered to be chametz.

The week-long Passover diet is in addition to the year-round kosher regulations that ban pork and shellfish, require meat to be ritually slaughtered and forbid the mixing of meat and dairy.

And even though only about 20 percent of Israeli Jews identify themselves as Orthodox, statistics suggest almost everyone attends the traditional Passover meal and most Israeli Jews refrain from eating foods that contain forbidden grains throughout the holiday.

To accommodate them, the Israeli food industry transforms ahead of Passover.

Manufacturers of popular snacks substitute their regular recipes with ingredients approved for Passover. Cows eat corn and alfalfa instead of grain-based hay so that observant Jews can drink their milk because religious practice forbids deriving benefit from an animal that has eaten banned grains. Kosher restaurants, including kosher branches of McDonalds, serve buns made of alternative ingredients, such as potato flour.

Determining what exactly is permitted during Passover has become more complicated in the modern age, as rabbis have pondered what to do with products like pet food and pills. Many industries have adapted and as a result, there are now pet products and medicines that are labeled kosher-for-Passover.

This is the first time, however, that cigarettes in Israel are carrying such a label for the holiday.

Ben Ezra, the Kosher supervisor, said the local cigarette company, Dubek contacted him to help settle the kosher debate.

After an inspection of the company's factory a month ago, he concluded that Noblesse, Time and Golf cigarettes could be deemed kosher for smoking on Passover — as long as the factory used ingredients that had not come in contact with leavened products. He would not specify those ingredients, saying he was sworn to secrecy.

Ben Ezra said he himself quit smoking eight months ago but used to smoke during Passover even without such a thing as "kosher cigarettes."

Maor, the spokesman for Israel's chief rabbis who oversee kosher supervision of foods, said they do not approve of labeling cigarettes as kosher and permitted for Passover, but were unable to prevent it because they only regulate the food market.

"There are some communities who consider it important that everything they bring home has a kosher stamp on it," said Maor.

Cigarettes have not been alone in the debate over what's kosher for Passover.

In the 1990s, some particularly devout officials asked the national water authority to stop pumping water on Passover from the country's sole freshwater lake, the Sea of Galilee. They were concerned that Jews could break Passover rules by drinking tap water possibly "contaminated" by fishermen who may have thrown grain-based fish food into the lake or picnicking Israelis who may have tossed breadcrumbs into it.

As a result, Israel's water authority began plugging the pipe from the Sea of Galilee three days before Passover and pumping water from underground aquifers and water reservoirs instead — though most rabbis, even from the strictest streams of ultra-Orthodox Judaism, say this is unnecessary.

"No one feels the difference," said Uri Schor, spokesman of the water authority. "Whenever you open the faucet, you have water."

Hours ahead of Passover, many Israelis were finishing cleaning their homes Monday of every last bread crumb, feverishly cooking and swarming supermarkets to stock up on food for the Seder, the traditional Passover meal.

In Jerusalem, smoke filled the air as some religious Jews burned the last of their bread crumbs while others dunked their plates in large vats of hot water set up around the city, so their dishes would be completely free of bread products.

The airport was busier than usual with travelers taking advantage of the holiday to travel abroad, and local TV stations gave Israelis advice on avoiding traffic jams when driving to their relatives for the Seder.

The military announced a two-day closure on the West Bank to keep Palestinians out of Israel at the start of the holiday, with exemptions for medical emergencies and other humanitarian reasons. The army imposes such security closures during Jewish and Israeli holidays.

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Traffic law 'turning point'? Ohio judge rules speed cameras violate rights

Highway speed cameras just got ticketed. 

An Ohio judge ruled Thursday that a Cincinnati-area community's speed cameras violate drivers' rights under the state constitution, in what attorneys on the case called a first-ever ruling against the ubiquitous enforcement tool. 

"To the best of my knowledge this is the first time in the country that this has happened," attorney Mike Allen, whose firm brought the case, told FoxNews.com. "This could be a major turning point for people that are aggrieved by these kind of things." 

There have been a handful of rulings in recent years against red-light cameras, but Allen said he believes this is a first for speed cameras. 

Hamilton County Judge Robert Ruehlman's emphatic and colorful decision was adorned with capital letters, bold print and exclamation points. In it, he said two speed cameras in the village of Elmwood Place, which were installed last year and caused considerable controversy in the community, violated drivers' "due process guarantees" under the Ohio Constitution. 

"Elmwood Place is engaged in nothing more than a high-tech game of 3 CARD MONTY," Ruehlman wrote. "It is a scam that the motorists can't win." 

He wrote in his opinion that even when drivers request a hearing to contest the $105 fines, "the hearing is nothing more than a sham!" The judge said any driver who comes in for a hearing will effectively have to argue against a written report "produced by the company that owns the speed monitoring unit." There is no ability to cross examine, Ruehlman wrote, while stressing the financial stake the company has in the tickets. 

A call to the main office for Elmwood Place was not returned, but Allen said he expects the village to appeal. 

Village officials first approved the speed cameras last July, and they were installed in September. The system has since issued thousands of $105 tickets -- the company controlling the cameras gets 40 percent of the revenue, while the rest goes to the village. 

As with speed cameras in towns and cities across the country, residents complained that they were just a money-making scheme for the local government. Further, businesses complained that people were avoiding the area -- and they were losing customers -- because the drivers didn't want to be ticketed. 

Interviewed last year, Elmwood Place Police Chief William Peskin told FOX19 that the cameras were installed for public safety. 

"I don't have the manpower to do that. I simply don't," Peskin said of traffic enforcement. "These cameras allow me to address other public safety needs." 

The decision comes as other jurisdictions weigh whether to keep enforcement cameras. In Florida, lawmakers are considering whether to scrap the state's red-light cameras, just two years after they were legalized.

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Regulation Nation: New federal rules for school food will cost millions, group says

Newly proposed federal regulations aimed at the snack foods and drinks served in the nation's schools could come with a hefty price tag.

The American Action Forum estimates the regulations, which include caps on serving sizes and calorie counts, will cost schools $127 million and require more than 926,000 hours of paperwork. 

Sam Batkins, director of regulatory policy at the institute, says the proposals amount to yet another unfunded federal mandate for state and local governments, "at a time when many of their budgets are still struggling."

The Food and Nutrition Service regulations would be administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which says schools in at least 39 states already have some kind of snack food standards in place. Thousands of schools "have already taken voluntary steps towards meeting the proposed standards," the department said, adding that many of the schools have started making the changes with little or no impact to their revenue.

The new proposals come as a part of a second wave of regulations stemming from the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010. Administrators are still working to comply with a number of other mandates that have significantly changed school food options in recent years. They include a requirement that each student take a serving of fruit or vegetable as part of their lunch or the federal government may not reimburse the cost -- driving up prices for both students and school districts.

But getting the healthier fare onto kids’ lunch trays doesn't necessarily mean that they'll actually consume the food. One West Philadelphia High School student told a local reporter that kids use the servings to play "food basketball," simply tossing away the fruit placed on their tray.

"Like, if you have an orange or an apple, you take it, and you have a trash can, shoot it in the trash can and see if you can make it," the student said.

That's the very thing first lady Michelle Obama urged kids not to do Monday, speaking in a Google Fireside Hangout marking the third anniversary of the creation of her Let's Move! initiative. Obama urged kids to give fruits and veggies a try, saying, "I want every kid to commit to not throwing out anything."

The USDA will be taking public comments on the newest school food and drink proposals through April 9 at www.regulations.gov.

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