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The roller coaster ride that is the Republican primary took a turn in Mitt Romney's favor Tuesday night. After a brief bump in the polls for Newt Gingrich, Mitt responded with a heavy ground game that turned out early and absentee voters en route to a lopsided victory.

At the end of a contentious week it was Romney at 46.4% to Gingrich's 31.9%. Rick Santorum (13%) and Ron Paul (7%) did not make a play for the state.

With the January sweeps over, this is where the candidates are today after 4 contests:

1 - Romney: 2 States Won, 2 Second Place Finishes; 41% of Total Vote; 85 Delegates*
2 - Gingrich: 1 State Won, 1 Second Place Finish; 31% of Total Vote; 27 Delegates
3 - Paul: 0 States Won, 1 Second Place Finish; 115 of Total Vote; 10 Delegates
4 - Santorum: 1 State Won; 14% of Total Vote; 8 Delegates

Up next for the candidates: A handful of contests in February are scattered across the country, included primaries and caucuses in Maine, Nevada, Arizona, and Minnesota. This well lead into "Super Tuesday" in March, where 10 states will hold nominating contests and possibly even narrow the field somewhat. Be sure to follow all of the action in the 2012 Elections Tracker.

*Delegate Counts are approximate

Romney Wins Florida GOP Primary originally appeared on About.com Conservative Politics: U.S. on Thursday, March 1st, 2012 at 14:48:14.

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Republican Newt Gingrich may have suffered from two things at last night's presidential debate. First, the audience was asked to remain quiet during the debate, and they obliged. Newt's South Carolina surge was kick started by Newt's ability to turn ridiculous questions that no one cares about (wives, schoolchildren as janitors) and take it as an opportunity to rip the media and receive a standing ovation. None of that happened, and Newt came off no better or worse than anyone else on stage.

His second problem is born out of his self-appointed status as the greatest debater since Abraham Lincoln. People tuning in to a debate for the first time last night did not see that. He was easily out-maneuvered by Mitt Romney, who is battling the consensus that he is the establishment candidate.

Throughout the debate Romney was on the offensive, attacking Newt from the right and giving solid answers up and down the board. Newt refused to answer any charges against him and instead just said anything negative said about him was a lie. For the first time in three debates Romney didn't stumble over the tax return question, and even managed to turn it into a talking point on taxes in general. He was probably the most solid candidate of the night, but struggled to come up with an answer as to what he has done for the conservative movement. He also came out strongly against sugar subsidies in the state of Florida.

Finally, Rick Santorum and Ron Paul offered up debate performance on par to the two frontrunners, but received very few questions throughout the night. Ron Paul has little to lose or gain in these debates as his audience is pretty much built in, and will neither grow nor shrink at any significant rates. Santorum is still angling as the conservative alternative to both Gingrich and Newt, but is losing steam quickly.

Overall, Romney did what he needed to regain his footing in the primary. Meanwhile, Newt's renewed frontrunner status seems to have forced him to revert to "run out the clock" mode, which does not help carry over the momentum from his South Carolina victory. Overall, all four remaining candidates gave equally compelling debate performance, but by virtue of Newt not winning, Romney gained the most.

Photo: The Four Remaining Republicans Debate in Florida. Source: New York Times

Florida GOP Primary Debate Recap originally appeared on About.com Conservative Politics: U.S. on Thursday, March 1st, 2012 at 14:48:13.

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Pioneering conservative author, blogger and polemicist Andrew Breitbart died suddenly of natural causes at the age of 43, his website Big Journalism confirmed in a posting this morning.

The Los Angeles coroner's office confirmed that Mr. Breitbart died shortly after midnight at UCLA Medical Center, ABC News Radio reported Thursday ...

HARRISBURG, Ill. — Jeff Rann had ample warning that terrible weather was approaching before dawn. A frantic call to his wife from his mother-in-law alerted them to reports that a tornado was barreling down, and Mr. Rann heard the deafening wail of storm sirens.

He was among those who survived ...

The person answering the door at a motel room said he’d been staying there two days. That was apparent authority for consent to the police to enter. Even if the actual fact was he stayed there one day, the officer still would have seen apparent authority, and that was not IAC for not developing that fact. United States v. Livingston, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 25558 (W.D. Okla. February 28, 2012).

Defendant concedes that the marijuana patch in this case was in open fields, but he contends the police entered his curtilage to get a photograph of it. Even if true, that would not have tainted the warrant here when it was excised from the lawfully obtained information. United States v. Simmons, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 25615 (D. Me. February 28, 2012).*

Regardless of whether the officer violated Miranda in defendant’s equivocal statement about marijuana in his car in a national park, the officer already had probable cause for a search of the car. United States v. Lehman, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 25754 (E.D. Cal. February 28, 2012).*

Defense counsel did, in fact, challenge the search so no IAC for failing to do so. United States v. Davis, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 24939 (D. Kan. February 28, 2012).*

WASHINGTON — A carbonated brew guzzled on college campuses is the focus of an intense write-in campaign urging federal regulators to take some buzz out of a sweet alcoholic drink sometimes referred to as "blackout in a can."

The Federal Trade Commission is looking at a wave of complaints about ...

The principals in a business subjected to a search warrant had “standing” (which the court notes was a word rejected by SCOTUS). Storing records there is still an expectation of privacy. A second place was a residence owned by the corporation that they kept business stuff in, and they came and went at will. They had “standing” there, too. United States v. Ferguson, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 24929 (E.D. Mich. February 27, 2012):

The government argues that the Ferguson defendants' bare assertion that they were permitted to store personal belongings at the 500 Griswold offices is insufficient to support a reasonable expectation of privacy. However, as discussed below, the rule in United States v. Jeffers, 342 U.S. 48, 52 (1951), indicates that if defendant Ferguson Enterprises were permitted to store business records in the search locations, they should be permitted to challenge the government's seizure of those records. In addition, in United States v. Waller, 426 F.3d 838 (6th Cir. 2005), the Sixth Circuit held that the owner of an apartment did not have authority to consent to a search of the defendant's luggage that was stored in the apartment because there was an understanding between the owner and the defendant that the luggage was private. Id. at 845-46. This holding implies that a defendant has a reasonable expectation of privacy in goods stored by permission at a third party's residence.

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March 6 may clarify much more than merely this year's Republican nomination campaign.

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Over the past few months, you have likely heard about proposals promulgated by the National Labor Relations Board...

Amine El Khalifi is living proof the people who run our government are not serious about enforcing our immigration laws.

The officer said he was going to patdown the defendant for a weapon after defendant said he had a gun on him which was a violation of Illinois law. It was valid as a search incident, not a patdown. United States v. Lyons, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 25408 (C.D. Ill. February 28, 2012).*

Plaintiff’s case was not attempting to invalidate a conviction in another state case, so there was no Heck bar. Plaintiff also barely satisfies a substantive due process claim. Plaintiff’s Fourth Amendment claim doesn’t survive. Andrews v. Bureau of Codes Admin. Office, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 23835 (M.D. Pa. February 24, 2012).*

Pro se motion to suppress that states no grounds is denied. United States v. Goodrich, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 25337 (W.D. Mo. February 10, 2012).*

2255 petitioner’s claim that defense counsel was ineffective for not moving to suppress his stop is wrong; defense counsel did. United States v. Davis, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 25314 (D. Kan. February 28, 2012).*

Use the comments of this post during this month if you have things you would like to bring to people’s attention and are not sure where else to post them. I’ll make a new Bulletin Board each month for free posting.

Have at it, communicate and keep up the good fight!

Cheers,

-WalterJ

NEW YORK — Federal appeals judges in New York appear supportive of a judge's decision to quadruple the prison sentence of a lawyer convicted of aiding a terrorist organization after she said she could serve the time "standing on my head."

Judges of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ...

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