Morning Docket 04.14.09
* Former AG Alberto Gonzales might want to consult with Henry Kissinger (on planning vacations abroad when the world wants to put you on trial for war crimes). Spanish prosecutors are expected to indict him along with the rest of the “Bush Six” today. Columbia adjunct law professor Scott Horton gives a rundown of the political dimensions of the torture case. [Daily Beast]
* Music producer Phil Spector found guilty of hurting our eyes with his hair. And second-degree murder. He’ll be sentenced to at least 18 years. [Los Angeles Times]
* SCOTUS Justice Clarence Thomas took questions from a small group of high school students in Washington, D.C. recently. He admitted that when he gets depressed, he goes online. We were hoping he would say he surfed over to Above The Law, but instead, he likes to look up Douglas MacArthur speeches. [New York Times]
* Student loans suck, but you gotta pay them. Or risk losing your law license, like this Houston attorney. No Lexus and 3500 sq ft for him. [National Law Journal] … Update 6:57 p.m.: A tipster wrote in to clarify the details of this story:
After reading the opinion and the briefs, it’s clear that he was not disbarred for failure to pay off the debt. He was disbarred for his failure to meet deadlines given by the bar. The bar gave him a deadline by which he was to either start making payments or discharge the debt through bankruptcy. He failed to do either. In light of the fact that this was a deadline that they had previously extended, they concluded his cavalier attitude towards their deadline was evidence of his irresponsibility and thus his lack of fitness for the practice of law.
* The New York Times praises President Obama’s decision to reinstate the American Bar Association as reviewers of judicial nominations and defends the ABA against charges of liberal bias when vetting. [New York Times]
* Wisconsin parents made up a fake law firm to mail goods to their imprisoned son without having them screened, thanks to attorney-client privilege. Diabolical… but very creative. [Daily Citizen]
* Weil wants to collect $55 million for its work as bankruptcy counsel to Lehman Brothers. Partners, associates, and paralegals combined billed over 100,000 to the matter over four months, with about a third of those hours coming just from partners and senior counsel. [Bloomberg]
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Figgiti FIRST!
Captain FIRST!
Kash, I believe you made a typo -- the accoutrement of the Texas high life is the LEXIS. Beyond that, a typically well-done Kash morning docket.
Why would a newspaper write about the fake law firm idea? Now, everyone is going to do it and the DOC will have to institute costly procedures to confirm the lawyer-client mailings are legitimate.
I think she also missed the bit about the 3500 sq ft WIFE.
I wouldn't miss a 3500 sq ft wife from Texis or a Lexis.
DC Giggity
I'm sure that's not the speech those kids and their parents were expecting:
"Kids, you know what you get when you work hard? A thankless job where a bunch of know-nothings constantly tell you that you're doing it all wrong. Now where are the damn cookies and punch I was promised?"
The NY Times doesn't think the ABA has liberal bias? That's like being complimented on your pick-up skills by a pederast.
ahh, Ft. Worth. 3500 sq ft, wife, Lexis
Report on Legal Times article about W&C compensation, please.
Justice Thomas talked about his own school days, reminiscing fondly about seeing “a flag and a crucifix in each classroom.”
And though the dinner was sponsored by the Bill of Rights Institute, he admitted to an uneasy relationship with the whole idea of rights.
“Or how can you not reminisce about a childhood where you began each day with the Pledge of Allegiance as little kids lined up in the schoolyard and then marched in two by two with a flag and a crucifix in each classroom?”
“Today there is much focus on our rights,” Justice Thomas said. “Indeed, I think there is a proliferation of rights.”
“I am often surprised by the virtual nobility that seems to be accorded those with grievances,” he said. “Shouldn’t there at least be equal time for our Bill of Obligations and our Bill of Responsibilities?”
“I have to admit,” he said, “that I’m one of those people that still thinks the dishwasher is a miracle. What a device! And I have to admit that because I think that way, I like to load it. I like to look in and see how the dishes were magically cleaned.”
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This man is a fucking moron. But maybe I'm being too harsh. Let's give him another chance.
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“Since the Civil War, what has changed the way Americans view the Constitution the most and why?” an unidentified student asked.
Justice Thomas gave a rambling response, touching on the Fourteenth Amendment, the rights of freed slaves, the application of parts of the Bill of Rights to the states and Justice John Marshall Harlan’s dissent in Plessy v. Ferguson, the 1896 Supreme Court decision that endorsed the doctrine of “separate but equal.”
“I’m sure there are other things that have happened,” he said, wrapping up his answer. “So I would have to say just off the top of my head the Fourteenth Amendment. And I bet you someone’s going to hear that and say, well, no, it’s the dormant commerce clause or something.”
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The man is a fucking moron.
Why bother? Nothing matters anymore anyway. Who even cares?
not so skadden secure
“I am often surprised by the virtual nobility that seems to be accorded those with grievances,” he said. “Shouldn’t there at least be equal time for our Bill of Obligations and our Bill of Responsibilities?”
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Well, no, because there are no such things.
#10 = fascist
#12: Just like there is no such thing as a right of privacy in the Constitution.
Spain's actions = declaration of war on American sovereignty
The Department of Education needs to investigate whether it should revoke the ABA's accrediating privileges. I don't care what anyone says, a third tier school should not cost the same as Stanford. Fuckers.
14 -- True, but I do remember reading something somewhere about the ennumeration of certain rights not being interpreted to mean the disparagement of other rights. Hmm . . . if only I could remember what document that is codified in . . . .
--not 12
SCROTUS. Heh.
Wait, is that "SCOTUS"? My bad.
you guys are blind retards if you think thomas is an idiot for saying those things. its a criticism of western civ in general, as hobbes and machiavelli had us break from the old philosophy where virtue was the goal (which is what he means by bill of obligations and responsiblity), whereas now the goal all there is nihilistic liberty and virtue is merely absence of harm to others. thomas is pointing out to virtues that make greatness. and if you read where he came from and the work he did to achieve (even if he didnt get to the s.ct) you'll realize why looks down on those who cherish and honor victimhood.
Justice Thomas hates dishwashers.
12 = DOUCHE
17, see Doe v. Bolton (1973) ("The Ninth Amendment obviously does not create federally enforceable rights."). Of course, you are free to disagree with that ultraconservative anti-abortion justice William O. Douglas.
Or let's cite Laurence Tribe's treatise: "It is a common error, but an error nonetheless, to talk of 'ninth amendment rights.' The ninth amendment is not a source of rights as such; it is simply a rule about how to read the Constitution."
22 -- Who said the Ninth Amendment confers rights? It simply recognizes the existance of rights not ennumerated in the Constitution. That doesn't itself mean there is a right to privacy (for that, see the common law right of Englismen "to be let alone," of which the Fourth Amendment is one manifestation), but it does mean the "it's not listed!" argument set forth by 14 is bogus.
--17
huh. Last I saw, there was no explicit recognition in the Constitution of any right for the existence of dishwashers. Therefore, they shouldn't exist. Why is Justice Thomas happy that they do?
Spector is a BIG Obama supporter. So is O.J.
Why do the murderous types always vote liberal?
Also, I'm aware it's "enumerated," sometimes my nns (unlike these colors) run when my biscuits gets in the baskets.
-17
huh. Last I saw Justice Thomas was not being asked whether a dishwasher as a CONSTITUTIONAL right to exist.
I held a meeting in my living room with my twin pugs this morning and we decided to indict the entire Obama administration. Arrest warrants are pending.
28 = Alberto Gonzalez.