COURT RULES IT'S OKAY TO DENY COLLEGE AID TO STUDENTS WITH DRUG CONVICTIONS
PHIL LEGGIERE, DON'T TASE ME BRO' A federal appeals court has rejected a constitutional challenge to a federal law that restricts, and in some cases bars, students with drug convictions from participation in federal college aid programs.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit, in St. Louis, ruled in Students for Sensible Drug Policy Foundation v. Spellings that the controversial sanctions do not violate the double-jeopardy clause of the 5th Amendment.
The student group argued that the primary purpose of the law is deterrence of criminal action, so the secondary sanction on those convicted of drug crimes is form of double jeopardy. But the court noted that, under the law, a student may restore his or her eligibility for federal student aid by completing a drug-rehabilitation program.
PALFREY CASE CONT'D
DC EXAMINER When Deborah Jeane Palfrey. . . sat down in May 2007 for an interview with Carol Joynt, host of the Q&A Cafe interview series, most everything was up in the air: Palfrey faced a criminal indictment on prostitution charges and was fighting courts over how to handle thirteen years of phone records which contained the phone numbers of many clients of her escort service. But, for Palfrey, one thing was crystal clear during that interview: She would never end her life by hanging herself. Joynt brought up the subject of Brandy Britton, a Baltimore prostitute whom had occasionally worked for Palfrey and whom had hanged herself in January 2007, only days away from facing prostitution charges. Palfrey told Joynt in no uncertain terms: "I don't want to be like her. I don't want to end up like her."
SMOKING GUN Deborah Palfrey, the so-called D.C. Madam who today committed suicide at her mother's Florida home, once told a California judge that she "seriously considered" killing herself following her arrest in a felony pimping case in the early-1990s. The 52-year-old Palfrey, whose body was found hanging in a shed near her mother Blanche's Tarpon Springs home, was convicted last month of racketeering and money laundering in connection with her operation of an escort service that catered to Washington insiders, including Republican Senator David Vitter. Palfrey's federal collar came 16 years after she took her first pimping conviction in San Diego Superior Court. Before her sentencing in that case, Palfrey filed a court memorandum claiming that she had "thoughts of suicide" and experienced "Vietnam-like flashbacks" as a result of persecution at the hands of San Diego police. Suicide, she noted, was a "viable option." An excerpt from Palfrey's June 1992 court filing can be found below, while the entire document, which details her personal history, is here. In arguing that she deserved probation and not incarceration, Palfrey stated that she was "not a criminal" and "not prison material." She also promised, "I will not re-enter the escort business." Though she claimed to have "suffered enough," Palfrey was eventually sentenced to 18 months in state prison.
PHIL LEGGIERE, DON'T TASE ME BRO' A federal appeals court has rejected a constitutional challenge to a federal law that restricts, and in some cases bars, students with drug convictions from participation in federal college aid programs.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit, in St. Louis, ruled in Students for Sensible Drug Policy Foundation v. Spellings that the controversial sanctions do not violate the double-jeopardy clause of the 5th Amendment.
The student group argued that the primary purpose of the law is deterrence of criminal action, so the secondary sanction on those convicted of drug crimes is form of double jeopardy. But the court noted that, under the law, a student may restore his or her eligibility for federal student aid by completing a drug-rehabilitation program.
PALFREY CASE CONT'D
DC EXAMINER When Deborah Jeane Palfrey. . . sat down in May 2007 for an interview with Carol Joynt, host of the Q&A Cafe interview series, most everything was up in the air: Palfrey faced a criminal indictment on prostitution charges and was fighting courts over how to handle thirteen years of phone records which contained the phone numbers of many clients of her escort service. But, for Palfrey, one thing was crystal clear during that interview: She would never end her life by hanging herself. Joynt brought up the subject of Brandy Britton, a Baltimore prostitute whom had occasionally worked for Palfrey and whom had hanged herself in January 2007, only days away from facing prostitution charges. Palfrey told Joynt in no uncertain terms: "I don't want to be like her. I don't want to end up like her."
SMOKING GUN Deborah Palfrey, the so-called D.C. Madam who today committed suicide at her mother's Florida home, once told a California judge that she "seriously considered" killing herself following her arrest in a felony pimping case in the early-1990s. The 52-year-old Palfrey, whose body was found hanging in a shed near her mother Blanche's Tarpon Springs home, was convicted last month of racketeering and money laundering in connection with her operation of an escort service that catered to Washington insiders, including Republican Senator David Vitter. Palfrey's federal collar came 16 years after she took her first pimping conviction in San Diego Superior Court. Before her sentencing in that case, Palfrey filed a court memorandum claiming that she had "thoughts of suicide" and experienced "Vietnam-like flashbacks" as a result of persecution at the hands of San Diego police. Suicide, she noted, was a "viable option." An excerpt from Palfrey's June 1992 court filing can be found below, while the entire document, which details her personal history, is here. In arguing that she deserved probation and not incarceration, Palfrey stated that she was "not a criminal" and "not prison material." She also promised, "I will not re-enter the escort business." Though she claimed to have "suffered enough," Palfrey was eventually sentenced to 18 months in state prison.
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