The Inquiring Manatee

Bush v. Gore Rivals Team Up Against Proposition 8

      I never thought I'd see Ted Olson and David Boies, who opposed each other in arguing Bush v. Gore to the U.S. Supreme Court in those tense Florida-recount weeks of 2000, join legal forces.

      The conservative, Republican Olson and the liberal Boies -- two of the finest appeals lawyers in America -- went at it tooth and nail on behalf of their parties' competing presidential candidates. I was observing them from Tallahassee, where I spent five post-election weeks covering the high-quality legal maneuvering in the state courts of Florida for USA TODAY.

       Boies had a hard time of it before the nine U.S. Supreme Court justices. He was brought in after my old Harvard Law School friend and classmate, Laurence Tribe, had lost a first round before the court. Neither Tribe nor Boies ever had a chance. Clearly, the partisan and ideological fix was in. As the ultimate Bush v. Gore 5-4 opinion showed, there was no way the Republican majority was going to let Al Gore get his recount continued. The various opinions adding up to a bare majority were all over the lot. In its poorly reasoned, result-oriented writings, the majority opinion reflects a low in Supreme Court jurisprudence that hadn't been seen since Dred Scott v. Sandford in 1857.

       Before Boies went north from Florida to argue in Washington, I met him outside the Florida Supreme Court and elsewhere in Tallahassee. He was extremely impressive -- one of the busiest people in the U.S. at that time, but still always taking the time to answer news media inquiries and explain his legal strategy. I was floored by his combination of intellect and sheer niceness. 

       Also outside the state Supreme Court, I met Olson at a time before he became officially involved in the case. Introducing myself to him and to his wife, Barbara Olson, I noted that I formerly worked for his law firm, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, as an associate attorney in Los Angeles and New York. Olson was distant, less outgoing than Boies but pleasant enough.

       Ten months later, on Sept. 11, 2001, Barbara Olson was killed when the al-Qaeda skyjackers slammed American Airlines Flight 175, on which she was a passenger riding from Dulles Airport to Los Angeles, into the Pentagon. I was saddened. 

 

       The Boies-Olson agreement to work together against the mean-spirited Proposition 8 shows once again that lawyers can be professional adversaries one day but can be personally friendly and can work together on another case the next day. The best lawyers learn to not take their courthouse animus home. 

       I don't think that the federal lawsuit that Boies and Olson filed in San Francisco U.S. District Court has much of a chance, certainly not if it ever gets to the Roberts-Alito-Scalia Supreme Court. But it's heartening that both lawyers, especially Olson with all he has to lose in goodwill within the conservative camp, are on the same side in perceiving the deep injustice of a majority voting to strip a minority of the fundamental civil right of marriage. They are not likely to prevail, but you can count on them to make the most cogent arguments possible.  As a lawyer, I'm proud of them. For Ted Olson, after all he's done for the right-wing Federalist Society, the Prop 8 case may prove to be his finest hour in the law.

      

Looks Good for Judge Sotomayor

   

It ain't Pin Point, Ga., but the tough and teeming South Bronx makes an inspiring setting for the rags-to-riches tale of an underprivileged minority kid fated to become an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court.
     Clarence Thomas was a poor black child in Georgia. Sonia Sotomayor, President Barack Obama's choice to succeed the estimable David Souter on the high court, has an equally inspiring personal story. Her Puerto Rico-born father died when she was 9. Her mother worked two jobs to provide for Sonia and her brother Juan. Sonia was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes.
     She overcame her many obstacles to graduate summa cum laude from Princeton, to edit the Yale Law Review and to go on to a sterling career as a prosecutor, federal district judge and judge on the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in New York.
     A few right-wing voices may carp, but there is little doubt that Sotomayor will be confirmed as the first Hispanic justice on the Supreme Court. (Oh, there are some who say that the great Benjamin Cardozo, who was of distant Portuguese-Spanish Jewish, or Sephardic, ancestry, would count as a Hispanic, but not by modern reasoning and common sense.)
     Obama, showing himself every day to be essentially a centrist and far from a liberal (but that's OK with me), has followed the Bill Clinton route of choosing a court nominee who will not rouse a bitter confirmation battle with the far right -- even though, in this case, Obama probably could have gotten away with someone quite a bit more liberal than Sotomayor. The right may still be loud and mouthy, but its clout in the Senate is far diminished.
      The slavering dogs will bark to raise money for their interest groups, but the Sotomayor caravan will pass on. And that's a good thing for America, its system of justice and its ability to show the world once more that a scholarly and ambitious person of color can achieve any dream.
    

A Modest Proposal on Guantanamo

    

As Republicans run wild on the issue of closing the Guantanamo Bay military prison and moving the 240 inmates to facilities on U.S. soil, even Senate Democrats can't be blamed for shying from President Obama's plan to remove this symbol of Bush administration high-handedness and torture.
      The NIMBY fears so easily stirred up by the entirely emotional issue, even though the detainees would be secured in Supermax federal lockups from which no one has ever escaped, have potentially vulnerable politicians running scared of a future opponent's simplistic 30-second commercials.
      But before Congress prevents the administration from moving anyone to the U.S. mainland from Guantanamo -- thereby making it virtually impossible to convince any other country to accept a detainee -- policymakers should consider an alternative that could be a win-win choice for everybody, except perhaps for the terror suspects.
      Want to gratify the rest of the world and frustrate jihadist propagandists by closing Guantanamo? Fine, go right ahead. Want to keep any Guantanamo prisoner out of any U.S. states? You can do that, too.
      The strategy: Relocate the prisoners to a high-security facility that would be newly built and opened in Guam, American Samoa or -- just a short flight from Guantanamo -- the U.S. Virgin Islands. (Quiet St. Croix, somewhat off the tourist track, has the most land. Just don't put the Muslims in Christiansted, the island's chief city.)
      All these potential prison sites have these advantages:
      -- They're on U.S. soil, so Obama won't have to back down on that point.
      -- Residents there have no votes in Congress, only nonvoting delegates.
      -- Building and operating the new prison would create local jobs, a prospect that could mute opposition from NIMPT (Not in My Palm Tree) forces. Some of those giant Samoans would make great prison guards after their careers as NFL linemen end.
      -- The locations are in tropical settings that beat the bleakness of tropical but barren and ugly Guantanamo. How could jihadists or European moralists object to housing prisoners in the balmy South Pacific, the North Pacific paradise of Guam or especially the lovely Virgin Islands? (There, the alleged terrorists would be getting a symbolic downpayment on the 78 virgins, or whatever the number is, that jihadi "martyrs" are promised in heaven.) Or the inmates could learn the Argentine tago in Pago Pago.* 
      The president's executive order to close Guantanamo by the end of 2010 would not be blocked. The detainees, whether tried by Obama's tweaked military commissions or detained Cheney-style without charges, at least would have more pleasant quarters under the American flag.
       So how about it, Mr. President and members of Congress? Try the American Territorial Solution to the Guantanamo dilemma.
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* That's a rhyme. Pago Pago, capital of American Samoa, is pronounced "Pango Pango."      
      

Yeah, but What About Us Democrat Socialists?

    

In a sudden onset of temporary sanity, the Republican National Committee, meeting in the nation's capital, has decided not to vote on a proposed resolution urging the Democratic Party to change its name to the "Democrat Socialist Party."
     The resolution -- the brainstorm of activist Republican Jeff Kent of Washington state -- marked a new low in petty, divisive, idea-free name-calling in American politics. That the schoolyard, nyaah-nyaah-nyaah proposal was even on the RNC agenda signals how far out of the mainstream the defeated Republicans have drifted.
     Once, the GOP was proud to engage the Democrats as intellectual equals, competing for votes on the basis of philosophy, policy and the virtues of candidates. Now, the Republican party, captured by intolerant ideological and religious extremists intent on driving out moderates, has become little more than a Southern regional cult.
      Aside from its other flaws, the renaming of the Democrats by the Republicans would have stood as a big, fat target for retaliation by the other side. The Democratic National Committee could have staged a national contest to pick a new name for the Republican party.
       How about: "Flabby White Neanderthal Party"?
       Or "RepubicCan't Party"?
       "So's Your Old Man Party"?
      "Fat, Fat the Water Rat Party"?
      "Anti-Science Fascist Pig Party"?
      "Evangelical Country Club Party"?

      "Seventh-Century Insubstantial Party"?

   
      Your submissions are invited.

Obama's Bipartisan Coup in Utah

    

President Obama could not have made a shrewder move in tapping Gov. Jon Huntsman of red-state Utah to be U.S. ambassador to China. Huntsman was equally shrewd in accepting the prestigious, challenging diplomatic post in Beijing.
     I met Huntsman in Salt Lake City in 2006. He was three years younger than his present age of 49, and his temples hadn't yet grayed so picturesquely. He was good-looking, charming and popular in his deep-dyed Republican state. I liked him instantly.
     What I soon learned about Huntsman: like Mitt Romney, he's incredibly rich, a Mormon -- what else would he be in Utah? -- and the father of a brood of kids, seven children in Huntsman's case. The Utah governor's full name is Jon Huntsman Jr. His father, Jon Sr., controls Huntsman Chemical, the nation's largest privately owned chemical company. The son has been the company's CEO in the past.
     I wondered then whether Huntsman could ever become president. Naaah, I thought. No governor from a small state like Utah is ever going to make it in big-time politics all the way to the White House, even with a resume that includes jobs under both Presidents Bush, including the post of W's trade representative.
     Huntsman is an ideal pick for China. He speaks fluent Mandarin, the result of missionary work in Taiwan. He is diplomatically experienced. And becoming ambassador to China -- a post once held by George H. W. Bush -- is one good way for Huntsman to raise his national profile. But is he doing this with a run for the Republican presidential nomination in mind? If he is, he might as well forget any presidential hopes, at least as a Republican.
      In the past week, Huntsman's name began to be floated for the GOP presidential race in 2012. That's one reason the China announcement was surprising. But Huntsman never really had a chance in 2012 in the bitter, narrow party of Dick Cheney and Rush Limbaugh. He's been carving out a record as a moderate, amazing for Utah. He's something of an environmentalist, and, much like Obama, favors same-sex civil unions with rights equal to those of marriage.
      The extremely conservative GOP base -- suspicious of Mormons, anyhow, as we witnessed in Romney's 2007-2008 campaigning -- would never accept Huntsman as the party nominee; they couldn't even stomach John McCain until he threw Sarah Palin their way.
      Now, tainted by his agreement to (gasp!) work for a Democratic administration, Huntsman will be shunned by his national party.
      Huntsman is too good for the Republicans. If I were he, I'd start thinking about emulating Arlen Specter and switching parties. He could easily go back into Utah politics as a Democrat and be elected to the Senate one of these days, springboarding from there to the White House. The Democrats would be lucky to have him.
      Thank you, President Obama, for making this bold bipartisan move -- one that should set Republicans back on their heels while setting in motion what could be an intriguing, long-range political process: the metamorphosis of Jon Huntsman.
    
    

I'm Going to Death Row World!

  

Sorry for not having posted in the last couple of days. Busy making a home video and training for the San Diego Rock 'n Roll Marathon on May 31.
   OK, what have we got in today's Los Angeles Times? A peek at an upcoming proposal by California's Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to close what looms as a $21.4 billion budget gap by selling off some high-profile state property. If this trial balloon flies and the Legislature agrees, on the sales block will be such real estate as San Quentin prison, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, the Del Mar racetrack near San Diego, the state fairgrounds in Sacramento and the Orange County fairgrounds.
    Here's my counterproposal. Instead of getting rid of the aging San Quentin, with its spectacular setting beside San Francisco Bay (if there were a zoning change from "P-1 -- Prison" to "R-1," residential," the property could fetch $1 billion), California should move the Death Row wretches and other convicts out and operate the place as an amusement park.
     Think of it. The feds make money from boat tours out to nearby Alcatraz, which closed in 1963, but the bay currents are rough and tours are restricted. California could do much better by redubbing San Quentin as Death Row World or Gaschamberland.
     The world will beat a path to those famed, weathered yellow walls and iron gates. Wouldn't you pay a Disney-style $65 to see the old octagonal, glass-windowed death chamber? Or a hallway full of gurneys and needles used in today's execution method of lethal injection?
      Strap yourself into the old death chair. Watch as officials fill the room with a mysterious mist. No worries, it's Old Spice spray deodorant. It's an E-ticket to forever.
     See the cells formerly occupied by Charlie Manson and "red light bandit" Caryl Chessman. Admire the great sunset views they enjoyed at public expense. Sit behind old Warden Duffy's desk and try to sound gruff yet fatherly, like Spencer Tracy.
     Arnold's San Quentin Adventure: Good for California, good for San Francisco, good for America.

   

Pet Pronunciation Peeve: "Cregg," "Creggslist"

   

My teeth were on edge this morning as I heard KPCC-FM's superb talk show host, Larry Mantle, presiding over a discussion of the controversy over the "erotic services" offerings on Craigslist, which apparently have led to one or two murders of people who advertised their availability for hanky-panky. About half the time, Mantle properly pronounced the web site as "CRAYGSlist," but he also followed the nails-on-a-blackboard trend of pronouncing "Craig" as "Cregg" and, therefore, calling the site "Creggslist."
    When did CRAYG turn into CREGG? The bizarre habit seems to have started about 25 years ago and to have embedded itself in American culture. I can't see any reason for it. It's jarring and silly. "Craig," properly pronounced, is a perfectly fine and honorable name, and easy enough to say.
     If somebody wants to call himself Cregg, he can jolly well spell it "Cregg." (There's an affable, veteran Washington, D.C., journalist named Cragg Hines who works for a Texas newspaper. I don't know any Creggs.) If you see the name spelled "Craig," pronounce it in the traditional way as "Crayg." That goes for Craigslist.
   Whew! Feels good to get that off my chest at last.
    

Hurray for Roxana Saberi

    Aside from being an Iranian-Japanese-American babe, young Roxana Saberi is a hard-working journalist -- and now a very lucky ex-Iranian prisoner.
    It was no doubt international pressure that helped free Ms Saberi by the action of an appeals court (closed to the public and to her parents) today. The suspension of her trumped-up espionage conviction must have been approved at the highest official levels, perhaps even by the Ayatollah Khameini. In part the reversal was a gesture of goodwill to President Barack Obama, who weighed in mightily on behalf of Ms Saberi.
    The case points up how many power centers there are in the fissiparous, post-revolutionary Iran. Saberi was done in by hardliners and the super-religious, but they can be counteracted by saner and more moderate, international-minded elements.
    How much this all means for Iran's nuclear program remains to be seen. The Saberi outcome demonstrates that Iran can act reasonably and as a conscientious member of the international community. This gives some hope for the future of us all.

Score One for the Mountain Lion, Zero for the Dog

     

   

Cats and cat people appear to have won a victory over dogs and dog people. This gratifies me.
      According to the Los Angeles Times, an Orange County, Calif., man named William Morse told game wardens that his dog Hoagie valiantly saved his life during a hike in the Cleveland National Forest by intercepting an attacking mountain lion, taking a life-threatening mauling from the cougar in the process.
      "I went toward the bathroom and a mountain lion came out and attacked us," Morse told reporters the day of the alleged incident. "It got to my dog first and chewed him up. He's a hero, man. I love him to death. Man's best friend prevailed."
      Rangers set out to find and kill the mountain lion.
      What made this original version of Morse's tale sound doubly poignant was that Morse had saved the life of Hoagie, a black shepherd mix, by rescuing him from a pound.
       Well.
       Good story from a dog lover's point of view, but after state wildlife officials investigated further, they told the Times that it appears from the evidence that the dog ran off from Morse and his wife on the hike, chased and attacked the mountain lion and got a good comeuppance from the self-defending cat.
        Said Harry Morse (presumably no relation), California Department of Fish and Game spokesman: "The report we got was that the dog went up to amountain lion and the mountain lion ran away and the dog chased it and was mauled. We went out there and didn't find any evidence of a mountain lion. They didn't find any tracks or hair. that's not to say it wasn't there."
        Moreover, in the opinion of Fish and Game wildlife biologist Kevin Brennan, William Morse was never really in danger because he was with his wife and lions usually attack solitary individuals.
        The officials spared the mountain lion from a death sentence. They called off the hunt.  
        I'd hate for it to be the case that this guy explained his bloodied dog (who is recovering) by putting it all on the cat and portraying his dog as a hero. If Morse's story was false, it could have resulted in needless death for a blameless cougar.
        Message for hikers: If signs on hiking trails prohibit dogs, leave your dog at home or in the car. Rangers bar dogs from many trails because the slavering curs do just what Hoagie may have done: chase and harass wildlife. They can't help being dogs, but the wildlife deserves a break. The wilderness is their home. It's bad enough that people invade their world.
        Happy that the cougar in question is off the hook, I told my wife this morning: "I will always side with the pussycat!" Her equally emphatic response was: "I will always side with the doggie!"
        Sounds like a draw. But for now, the kitties have the last word.
       

This Website's Privacy Policy

   This website does not collect, use, store or disclose in any manner its viewers' personally identifiable data (such as a visitor's name, mailing address or e-mail address), except to the extent that a viewer placing a comment on the website voluntarily provides any such personally identifiable data to be disclosed on this website and only on this website.
   Disclosure: Third Party Advertiser Cookies and Web Beacons
   This website participates in Six Apart Media, a comprehensive advertising program provided by Six Apart Ltd. for publishers all across the Web. This section of our privacy policy describes how Six Apart Ltd. and the third party advertising networks and advertisers that display advertisements through Six Apart Media (collectively, "Advertisers") collect, use, store and disclose data from visitors to this website.
    A "cookie" is a small amount of data, which often includes an anonymous unique identifier that is sent to your browser from a website's computers and stored on your computer's hard drive. Cookies can be used to target advertisements relevant to your interests, based on your visits to different websites, to provide traffic measurement and other analytics and to conduct research.
    A "Web beacon" is an electronic file on a Web page that allows a website to count users who have visited that page, to access certain cookies and to provide auditing, research and reporting for advertisers.
    When your browser requests a page that displays advertising from one of the Advertisers, the Advertiser may view, edit or set its own cookie through your browser. In addition, the Advertiser may place its own Web beacon in the page, which may be triggered by your browser's request.
     Advertiser Privacy Policies
     If you would like to contact the Advertisers to learn more about their privacy policies and what options (if any) they offer to opt out of their data collection and use, please follow these links to their websites:
     Six Apart Ltd.: http://www.sixapart.com/privacy
     Six Apart Media third party advertising networks and advertisers: http://www.sixapart.com/advertising-solutions-for-bloggers/privacy/3rd-party-list/index.html
     Some of these third party advertising networks are participants in the Network Advertising Initiative ("NAI"), a cooperative of online marketing and analytics companies committed to building consumer awareness and establishing responsible business and data management practices and standards. you can learn more about NAI and you may "opt out" of targeted advertising delivered by NAI member advertising networks here: http://www.networkadvertising.org