Martial law has been imposed in New Orleans:

New Orleans CBS affiliate WWL-TV is reporting that martial law has been declared in New Orleans and Jefferson Parish after levee breaks caused major flooding in the city Tuesday morning, sending waves of water through the downtown and French Quarter. Mayor Ray Nagin is estimating that 80% of the city has been flooded. WWL-TV provides continuing updates on its Katrina Blog.

12:02 PM ET - WWL-TV says that a break in 17th Street Canal Levee is 200 feet wide and water from it is gradually inundating the city.

12:16 PM ET - WWL-TV reports that martial law is now in effect in Plaquemines Parish southwest of New Orleans, where 60% of homes are said to be flooded; persons found on the streets there will be arrested. WWL-TV is broadcasting live video via KHOU in Houston. Some looting has begun in New Orleans, according to AP.

[hat tip Patriot Daily] More on martial law here.

Update: New Orleans has been spared a direct hit by the most damaging part of the hurricane. There was still plenty of damage though.

Red Cross Online Donation Form or call 1-800-HELP-Now. Use the Red Cross, they know what they're doing.

I've been writing about Katrina and New Orleans since yesterday. I'm glued to the tv. Part of it is that New Orleans is one of my favorite cities in America. I'm there at least two times a year, usually for legal meetings - it's a favorite of just about every organization I belong to - but also because for more than 20 years I have gone there just for weekend jaunts and it never disappoints. I have stayed with friends on Lake Ponchetrain as well as in the hotels. The restaurants, art galleries, shopping, local historical sites, the beignets, the bars, the music venues, Mardi Gras, the Jazz Festival, even the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals where I've argued cases, are an indelible part of my memories.

Here's a place for your thoughts on New Orleans, your memories and your best wishes for those imperiled by this disaster.

Kudos to:

• Office Depot (my favorite office supply store) which has already pledged $1 million to help victims of Hurricane Katrina.

• Anheiser-Busch is shipping 300,000 cans of water.

If you want to help, do so through the Red Cross. Send money, not goods. Here's the donation link, or call 1-800-HELP-NOW

Official description of possible damage:

Most of the area will be uninhabitable for weeks...perhaps longer. At least one half of well constructed homes will have roof and wall failure. All gabled roofs will fail...leaving those homes severely damaged or destroyed.

The majority of industrial buildings will become non functional. Partial to complete wall and roof failure is expected. All wood framed low rising apartment buildings will be destroyed. Concrete block low rise apartments will sustain major damage...including some wall and roof failure.

High rise office and apartment buildings will sway dangerously...a few to the point of total collapse. All windows will blow out.

Three nursing home patients in New Orleans died while being evacuated:

Three residents of a New Orleans nursing home fleeing Hurricane Katrina aboard a school bus died during an evacuation to a Baton Rouge church Sunday, authorities said.

The Times Picayune is running a news blog here. The paper will be reporting throughout the storm from a hurricane bunker on the third floor of the building:

Update: Katrina may be our "Asian Tsunami." One other point: we need to stop destroying the Louisiana wetland which serves as a buffer. More on that here.

"While the many are concerned with how the hurricane will effect the price and production the oil and gas - we are also concerned about the people and the precious habitat that could be destroyed as Hurricane Katrina makes land fall." said Sidney Coffee, Executive Assistant to the Governor for Coastal Activities. "The country depends on the resources provided by coastal Louisiana - the cargo and shipping industries, and the millions of barrels of oil and gas that flow through the terminals and pipelines found throughout America's WETLAND," continued Coffee "A direct hit from a storm like Hurricane Katrina could be devastating, and this danger is increased by the continued loss of our wetlands."

Katrina will cut oil production in the gulf coast of Mexico area by one-third.

U.S. energy companies said U.S. Gulf of Mexico crude oil output was cut by more than one-third on Saturday as Hurricane Katrina appeared poised to charge through central production areas toward New Orleans. The Gulf of Mexico is home to roughly a quarter of U.S. domestic oil and gas output, with a capacity to produce about 1.5 million barrels per day of crude and 12.3 billion cubic feet per day of gas.

Accuweather says where Katrina crosses the coast, it will resemble a war zone:

Update 7pm: Experts predict New Orleans will turn into an Atlantis and more than 1 million people will be homeless.

When Hurricane Katrina hits New Orleans on Monday, it could turn one of America's most charming cities into a vast cesspool tainted with toxic chemicals, human waste and even coffins released by floodwaters from the city's legendary cemeteries.

Crude oil prices have already shot up due to Katrina.

Crude oil soared to a record above $70 a barrel in New York after Hurricane Katrina forced companies including Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp. to shut operations in the Gulf of Mexico.

So far, there's no word about banning sex offenders from hurricane shelters as planned in Flordia.

Live local NOLA tv video coverage here. Also, as mentioned below, Truth Laid Bear has a Katrina blogging aggregator page. More links with webcams from New Orleans here. Newsblog is here. Also check out the NOLA Hurricane Center.

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Original Post 12:30 pm

This hurricane is serious. The eye is now less than 200 miles away. It may be a category five. Here is the projected path. The Mayor has ordered mandatory evacuation of the city.

Stay safe, New Orleans. Katrina is a now a category 3. Here's the Nola Hurricane guide. And a great song, Come On Sheila, with a Nola hurricane reference, by my favorite Louisiana artist, Zachary Richard, from the album Snake Bite Love. (very catchy audio clip here.)

I’ve been waiting here since this morning,
I’ll wait as long as it will take.
Down in the old town of the city of New Orleans,
With my heart so heavy it might break.

Last night they put up a hurricane warning,
Last night you came into my room.
Around midnight the rain started falling,
I was holding on to you.

by TChris

After the Supreme Court's Booker decision, federal judges have discretion to impose the sentence that they believe best advances the goals of sentencing, even if that sentence is less than the sentencing guidelines advise. But just how much discretion do they have? We may soon find out, as the government appeals the 22 year sentence imposed on Ahmed Ressam for conspiracy to commit a terrorist act, among other crimes. (TalkLeft background here.)

Ressam had struck a deal with federal prosecutors to provide information against other terror suspects in exchange for a shorter sentence. But at his sentencing on July 27, prosecutors asked for [a 35 year] term on the grounds that he had failed to work with them and jeopardized cases they were building against other terror suspects.

In a surprise move, Coughenour sentenced Ressam to 22 years, saying that he believed the sentence reflected "the fairness and transparency of the U.S. justice system."

If it sounds to you like the government is sucking on sour grapes, you're probably right. The court of appeals will review the sentence to decide whether it's "reasonable," a standard of review that should be highly deferential to the sentencing judge, who was in the best position to evaluate Ressam.

The real question in this case is whether federal sentencing should be controlled by district court judges or (as has long been the case) by prosecutors. The answer should come in several months.

Yale Law Prof and blogger Jack Balkin explains why the Administration should turn over memos from Judge John Roberts to then-Reagan aide Patrick J. Buchanan in March 1986 on the subject of aid to Nicaraguans who were fighting the leftist Sandinista government. Background from the Washington Post is here. Balkin writes:

....during his time in the Reagan Administration John Roberts offered advice on the establishment of the Nicaraguan Humanitarian Assistance Office (NHAO), an organization used by the Reagan Administration to circumvent the Boland Amendment. For those of you who don't remember, the Boland Amendment made it illegal for U.S. intelligence agencies to provide covert funding to the contras in Nicaragua.

Balkin says that to get around the amendment, Reagan approved a plan by John Poindexter and Oliver North to sell anti-tank and anti-aircraft missles to Iran, the funds from which were then provided to the contras.

by TChris

Senators Charles Schumer and Russ Feingold would like John Roberts to explain his decision to sit on the panel considering the Hamdan appeal. The United States, after all, was a party to that appeal, and Judge Roberts was being interviewed for a presidential appointment to the Supreme Court while the appeal was pending. In fact, his nomination was announced just a few days after the Hamdan decision was released.

“Why did you believe it was appropriate to continue participating in the Hamdan case while being interviewed for a vacancy on the Supreme Court?” the Democratic senators asked in the letter. The senators said Roberts' answers will determine whether they bring the issue up at his confirmation hearings beginning Sept. 6.

Pointing out that Judge Roberts recused himself from a case involving the American Bar Association, which rated his fitness for a position on the Supreme Court, the senators thought it was “clear that you have long understood the ethical issues raised by continuing to work on a case in which a party is considering you for another position.”

I have a new edition of "Scoring Scotus" up on Judge John Roberts over at Eric Alterman's Altercation today. And definitely check out PFAW's new report on the nominee here.