Good job being three days late. Hey, I heard something happened to the World Trade Center. You should check it out and report back.

Sullivan and Cromwell is such a TTT.

Guys in my high school had marijuana charges against them dropped all the time, it was no big deal.

This is OUTRAGEOUS.

My understanding is that such charges are routinely dismissed when there are collateral consequences (like immigration issues).

I think Sullivan is getting a raw deal BECAUSE he is prominent. A random Joe Schmo defendant wouldn't have his dismissal called out by the judge.

6 - Read the judge's opinion, pp. 3-5.

1. Marijuana should be legal.

2. Our immigration laws should be liberalized - minor drug charges should not have such severe consequences for immigration applications.

So I am not upset about the outcome here, even if some similarly-situated defendants don't get as good a deal as Sullivan.

If you're a lawyer at a big firm, it is in your interest to have UNEQUAL administration of justice.

This is why people hire Robert Delahunt and Mintz Levin - so they can get a better deal than what the other guy got.

People don't pay $800 an hour to get the same result as they would have gotten going pro se.

8 - You smell like patchouli you hippie.

@6 -- my experience is quite different. I have seen immigration applications of all kinds derailed over petty misdemeanors for possessing weed. The Third, Fifth and Eleventh Circuits' dockets are full of futile petitions for review of agency decisions like this.

I think this judge did the right thing. In the end, there's little he can or should do to thwart the prosecutor's exercise of his discretion, however abusive. But the judge still has his soapbox, and there's no law saying he can't use it to embarrass the prosecutor for that abuse. And it was an abuse, for the reasons given in the opinion.

7: What about pages 3-5 of the opinion? That the attorneys could not explain the basis of the immigration lawyer's opinion? It's a misdeameanor. I doubt they cared much beyond that an immigration expert made that call. Not much of a reason to waste time digging into it.

He shouldn’t be prosecuted for being a slow-witted pothead. He should be prosecuted for his stupid obsession about the parentage of Trigg Palin.

In light of comment #11, methinks that comment #9 has a very good point.

The magistrate must not care about being reappointed, you don't make waves and enemies if you want another term.

The laws are stupid and should be changed. That said, exempting the wealthy or connected from the impact of stupid laws only serves to perpetuate them. The Magistrate was correct to register his displeasure at the action of the AUSA, and also correct to note it ultimately is not his call.

If Sullivan isn't embarrassed by every word he wrote in the runup to the Iraq pigfuck, why would he be embarrassed by a judge calling him out for pulling strings to get his pot charged dismissed?

"The magistrate must not care about being reappointed, you don't make waves and enemies if you want another term."

Or, I don't know, maybe he cares about equal treatment under the law? You know, that and the oath he took before becoming a judge?

Whoa.

@15: Bob Collings is a MJ for life - he'll have no trouble being reappointed.

@9: Exactly so.

I'd have thought the line AUSA was cowed by Delahunt (who's full of bluster but still pretty good) & caved in. But I can't figure out Lang's involvement. I'd have not thought the US Atty's office would get star-struck.

I voted:

C. I couldn't give less of a fuck about this story.

Just more evidence of affirmative action for right-wing gay males. Right, Lat?

6 is correct.

This judge is over-doing it. Having practiced immigration law, it is correct that a conviction could have had fatal consequences to Sullivan's immigration status. Prosecutors routinely dismiss cases in the interests of justice under such circumstances. The difference here may simply be that Sullivan had counsel that could advise and advocated with the prosecutor over the matter.

I am not the least bit convinced the prosecutor would not have done the same for an unknown immigrant with the same issues.

eventually this judge should be called out for making these assumptions.

Why should immigrants be getting special treatment? If you don't like a law that requires the government to take into account criminal activity in evaluating immigration applications, then the onus is on you to change the law. This kind of prosecutorial discretion is a subversion of the law and the will of the American people.

My girl is presenting at the MTV Music Awards tonite! Did you know she has a new album dropping soon? Alito says he can't concentrate when I blast my CDs, but I'm sure he won't mind a little J.Lo!

First, I think that its just retarded that marijuana is illegal.
It just should not be. I think its just a matter of time before we emerge from this prohibition-like era.
------------
Second, I think that this is simply unjust. It doesn't matter that it was a Marijuana bust- the guy broke the law. The guy broke the law and got off only because of his US attorney pal. This is just unfair!!

Next we'll have soon-to-be attorneys that are getting busted for Marijuana possession asking for a dismissal because it would adversely impact their character and fitness portion of the bar, right?
Why the fuck not? Whats the difference?!?!

This is a travesty and a spit in the face to all of us who are not buddy buddy with US Attorneys or prominent gay bloggers. Give me a fucking break.

I don't care about the pot.

Sullivan should be deported for horrible, horrible writing and logic.

Imagine a dapper version of Elie, with spell check and a disarming accent, who was 12x dumber than Elie. There you have Sullivan.

To my knowledge, Sullivan is playing turtle so far on all of this. I'll bet all-comers that he blames George W. Bush when he finally discusses it.

We don't need ANY more immigration.

End it.

Problem solved.

10 just made my day!

Not even a prominent gay blogger is Above the Law. I got a chuckle out of that.

i know this court very well. and i don't appreciate a little piss-pot mini judge like bob collings sitting on his article i pony and wasting time writing an opinion on an issue as mundane as this. he disagrees with the prosecutor's decision. so what? then don't dismiss the charge and, in that specific instance, i would understand him writing on the issue. but here is is just thinly veiling his personal, hippie views in the form of a written decision on such lofty issues as separation of powers and whether it should be illegal to smoke a joint. are you kidding?

mag. collings should get back to doing what the big boy judges hired him to do -- extend discovery deadlines and write report-recommendations in civil cases, and preside over misdemeanor issues in an efficient manner.

Absurd - when friends of those in power are not prosecuted, it is just one more example showing that our system of government has become fundamentally, unrecoverably corrupt.

Our president has given hundreds of billions of dollars, a substantial percentage of our entire nation's gross national product, to banks that contributed heavily to his campaign.

He and the Congress furthermore continue to try to artificially inflate the price of real estate in order to benefit both the banks and groups behind two other of the top 10 political action committees - the Realtors and the home builders. Free market? Nonsense. Equal justice under law? See above. The system has gone off the rails.

this topic sucks. just legalize it already

While I agree that marijuana should be legal, I also agree that the annoying Andrew Sullivan should be deported. He hasn't been relevant since he Exxon Valdezed the New Republic, and it's been even longer since he's been cute.

-- Lawyer Gay

"i know this court very well. and i don't appreciate a little piss-pot mini judge like bob collings sitting on his article i pony and wasting time writing an opinion on an issue as mundane as this."

Yeah, I guess the only thing more annoying than commoners expecting the same treatment as connected people are those damn piss-pots judges acting too uppity! Know your place, plebeians!

Lat, how is Kash's swine flu?

god knows he'd have shit himself if Cedar Palin got pot charges against her dismissed.

Unacceptable that a non-citizen immigrant is afforded preferential treatment, while citizens face the full force of the law.

Why does the United States need more immigration?

So he's a pothead? That explains a lot of his writing.

We should all blame that fucking idiot Nixon and the reprehensible "drug war" he started. As a lawyer in Boston, however, I am glad I discovered that the recent decriminalization of marijuana in the state does not apply on federal lands within the state. Gotta smoke that doobie back at your b&b and not on the beach.

Preference for foreigners over U.S. citizens is not a new phenomenon in this country, sad to say.

27-agreed. Sullivan is a disagrace. I am sure if Bristol Palin (who is a citizen) was arrested for pot, he would be screaming bloody murder.

first to say, who the hell is this andrew sullivan?

#44 smoking marijuana in your own house isn't legal either and as a lawyer in Boston, you probably should know that. the decriminalization applies only to possession, not use.

Also, I think both possession and use should be decriminalized...except for Andrew Sullivan. God knows if it'll get him sent back to England, I'm all for that law being upheld.

So Lat comes in at 5:40 PM on a SUNDAY to post this? Why?

#45 - Lat must be stoned as usual with nothing better to do.

here's to hoping that colling's opinion will force the ausa to stop prosecuting everyone caught with pot. i think that was the real message he was trying to convey.

George Bush hates black people and Kanye West hates white people. Are we even now? Can we go back to being a meritocracy?

43- Do you mean THAT Andrew Sullivan?

Kanye West and Barack Obama hate white people.

Although only marginally amusing, 48 and 50 bring up good points.

Doesn't it seem like things have gotten worse since BO became president? Rather than initiating a post-racial culture (or whatever they called it), why does everyone hate everyone else now? If you disagree with anything that any branch of government does, you are automatically a racist asshole? And if you support the government, you are automatically a pansy socialist with no sense of the value of culture and individual responsibility?

This sucks. I want America back.

8 - Ok, so marijuana isn't legal - deal with it. You're right, I mean, why should we object to giving citizenship to someone who is already breaking laws for drug use. Surely they'll be a brilliantly beneficial member of our society.

I'm pretty sure it's legal is SoCal.

51: You're right about the second part, that a gov't lover is a pansy socialist with no sense of the value of culture and individual responsibility.

I rule.

-DOJ Secure

bummer

Do we really need another middle aged citizen who still smokes pot? Send this Peter Pan tool back to the West End.

the american elite (like sullivan) live by this rules: laws are for thee, not for me.

And the American establishment backs them up

Vlad the impaler comments as follows: I thought park rangers were supposed to guard picnic baskets from pesky bears like Yogi and not bust potheads.

Vlad the impaler comments as follows: I thought park rangers were supposed to guard picnic baskets from pesky bears like Yogi and not bust potheads.

58 - Indeed, and to clarify your status, the laws are for you.

32:

You are retarded. Sullivan has little connection to Obama. Sullivan is hardly a liberal. He is a libertarian conservative, who at some point realized that the current people labeling themselves as Republicans are in fact wacko, weirdo, off-the-reservation, scary freakshows like you.

51:

Careful with your "I want America back" comment. You are aligning yourselves with the bizarre, mentally ill assholes who arassed people at town hall meetings. What the fuck does that "I want America back" mean? Did you have "America" with those disgusting pigs GW Bush and D. Cheney running the country, incurring huge deficits, starting wars for no reason? And, I'm sorry, but unless you can explain yourself better, I have to draw the conclusion that "I want America back" or "I want my country back" is a blatantly racist statement. This is a statement being made by ignorant, white pricks who have always assumed that this is essentially a white country and that people with darker skin than them are a necessary fringe annoyance. All of a sudden, these fuckers look around them, see people of color getting more power in this country, becoming president, etc, and their little white view of the country is damaged, and so they, like you, freak out and utter that stupi-assed expression.

I'm glad that the MJ said this. Hope Sullivan gets p'wned.

Sullivan claims to be unable to comment on the matter due to "binding legal advice". Can someone please tell me how that works? It sounds a lot better than the crappy non-binding kind I've been giving to clients.

What does Pepin have to say about this?

What does Pepin have to say about this?

What does Pepin have to say about this?