Ashcroft's campaign to shut down Greenpeace using an obscure 19th century law against "ship-mongering" has thankfully been rejected by a more clear-headed federal judge: U.S. District Judge Adalberto Jordan acquitted the group at the end of the prosecution's case Wednesday, the third day of the jury trial, for protesting against a ship that carried 70 tons of illegally cut mahogany. He said the prosecution, which based the action on an obscure 1872 law, had failed to provide enough evidence for the case to go to the jury. "America's tradition of free speech won a victory today," said John Passacantando, Greenpeace executive director, "but our liberties are still not safe. The Bush administration and its allies seem bent on stifling our tradition of civil protest, a tradition that has made our country stronger throughout our history."