With a brand new home secretary, a Home Office already suffering from acute legislativedrafting fatigue and an election around the corner, the dangers of Number 10 rushing to meet the deadline of March 14th (when the existing detention powers expire) should have been obvious.
William Cronon, an American history professor at the University of Wisconsin, launched his new Scholar as Citizen blog with a lengthy post about the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a conservatively funded and fairly secretive group which is drafting reams of legislation for states across the country and has been since 1973.