Appeals Court Orders Enemy Combatant Free by Military  —  In a stinging rejection of one of the Bush administration's central assertions about the scope of executive authority to combat terrorism, a federal appeals court ordered the Pentagon to release a man being held as an enemy combatant.

Majority of Republicans Doubt Theory of Evolution  —  More Americans accept theory of creationism than evolution  —  PRINCETON, NJ — The majority of Republicans in the United States do not believe the theory of evolution is true and do not believe that humans evolved over millions of years from less advanced forms of life.

Video: Dennis Miller goes nuclear on Harry Reid  —  The e-mails are flooding in.  You want it?  You got it.  —  If Rasmussen's right, this should resonate broadly.  —  Blowback

New L.A. Times/Bloomberg Poll  —  John McCain's presidential candidacy clearly is struggling, and a just-completed Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg Poll is not going to buoy his camp's spirits.  —  We won't reveal the exact numbers here; for that, you can check The Times website later today for all the numbers and analysis.

Standing by the Wrong Guy  —  Just when it seemed George W. Bush's sinking prestige with his Republican base had bottomed out, his stock hit new lows.  The president's seeming indifference to the sentencing of Scooter Libby was bad enough.  But it coincided with Bush's apparent determination …

THAAAT'S What We Were All Waiting For?  Angry 'Sopranos' Fans Crash HBO Website  —  The line to cancel HBO starts here.  What a ridiculously disappointing end lacking in creativity to The Sopranos saga.  But if you're one of those who found it perversely interesting, then don't bother to read on.

Poll: Rural Vote No Longer a Lock for Republicans  —  · A new national poll indicates rural Americans are no longer reliably Republican, and the Bush administration's conduct of the war in Iraq seems mainly to blame.  —  People from the nation's smallest places had the biggest impact in the last two presidential elections.

Huckabee: 'Most' Prisoners In The U.S. 'Would Love' To Be In Guantanamo  —  Former Secretary of State Colin Powell condemned the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay yesterday, calling it "a major problem for America's perception" and charging, "if it was up to me, I would close Guantanamo — not tomorrow, this afternoon."

Wealth gap grows across EU  —  From Antwerp to Milan, rich regions begin to resent continent's subsidy culture  —  A convinced "European" at ease in the globalised world of internet banking, Mark has just returned from Budapest and Bratislava and is preparing to travel to Prague.

Libby's Supporters Who Wrote to Judge Learn That Letters Take on New Life on the Web  —  In what may be a sign of things to come, the lawyers for I. Lewis Libby Jr. last month invoked the rarely used courtroom tactic: the "bloggers can be mean" defense.  —  The issue was whether to release …

CIA Plans Cutbacks, Limits on Contractor Staffing  —  Acting under pressure from Congress, the CIA has decided to trim its contractor staffing by 10 percent.  It is the agency's first effort since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to curb what critics have decried as the growing privatization …

Tribal Coalition in Anbar Said to Be Crumbling  —  U.S.-Backed Group Has Fought Al-Qaeda in Iraq  —  A tribal coalition formed to oppose the extremist group al-Qaeda in Iraq, a development that U.S. officials say has reduced violence in Iraq's troubled Anbar province, is beginning to splinter …

Georgia Judge Voids Sentence in Teen Sex Case  —  After Already Serving Twenty-Seven Months, Genarlow Wilson Waits in Prison As The State Appeals the Court's Decision to Overturn His Ten-Year Sentence.  —  A judge on Monday voided a 10-year sentence for a man accused of having consensual oral sex …

WHAT EXACTLY IS JUDGE WALTON'S BEEF HERE?  I too found it hard to see any sensible justification for Judge Walton's footnote.  Brief background:  —  Twelve current or former constitutional law professors — mostly conservatives, but also a libertarian (our own Randy Barnett) and two liberals …