We haven’t posted much here on the Supreme Court battle (although Point of Law has had a lot) but here’s a thread for regular readers who may wish to opine one way or the other on it. If you haven’t seen it already, by the way, check out our thread in which regular readers are invited to introduce themselves, currently at 24 comments.
Posts Tagged ‘politics’
NYC transit strike
Which New York elected official has the legal authority and responsibility to take action against the union’s lawbreaking, but almost certainly won’t? Ted has the answer. (Hint: initials are E.S.)
P.S. Thanks to our commenter for pointing out that our prediction above wasn’t accurate as worded, since reports are that Attorney General Spitzer is willing to go to court to enforce the injunction. Ted’s point, which I should have been more careful in conveying, is that it’s doubtful Spitzer will proceed to “seek the full measure of damages on behalf of New York citizenry, and criminal penalties for the criminal contempt of the union leadership”.
More (Dec. 21): The judge’s $1 million/day contempt fine against the union may sound high, but needs to be set against economic damage to the city and its residents amounting to hundreds of millions a day. As Ted points out in comments, it amounts to $30/day per union member; MTA bus drivers make $60,000 a year. In addition, unions frequently succeed in negotiating an amnesty for fines as part of an eventual strike settlement; Steve Malanga of the Manhattan Institute notes that in the TWU’s illegal eleven-day walkout in 1980, “when a judge imposed fines on workers, they simply upped their demands to cover the costs, winning 18% wage increases over two years.” (“What Would Reagan Do?”, WSJ (sub), Dec. 21; “Make the TWU Pay For the Harm It’s Done”, (editorial), New York Post, Dec. 21 (reg); “The transit strike” (editorial), New York Sun, Dec. 20; John P. Avlon, “Hostage for the Holidays”, New York Sun, Dec. 16).
Judge demands freeze on Boston Herald’s assets
Massachusetts Superior Court Judge Ernest B. Murphy, having won a libel judgment of more than $2 million against the Boston Herald, smaller of the city’s two big newspapers, is now demanding that a court order the paper’s assets frozen to guarantee payment of the judgment. (Jonathan Saltzman, “Court is asked to freeze Herald’s assets”, Boston Globe, Nov. 29). Dan Kennedy at Media Nation (Nov. 29) says that the Herald’s original article criticizing Murphy was anything but a model of good journalism.
But free-press advocates ought to be concerned that a sitting judge can have some influence over the Herald’s future — and possibly its very survival — because of reporting that amounted to criticism of how he performed his public duties. That, more than anything, is what the First Amendment was designed to protect.
(via Romenesko). For the chilling effects of libel awards won by judges in Pennsylvania, see Mar. 16, 2004, etc.
Riding on lawyer money into Congress?
Yes, it’s fairly common for trial lawyers to be a candidate’s major backers, but sometimes it gets ridiculous. In the race among seven candidates to succeed retiring Republican U.S. Rep. Jim Nussle in Iowa’s 1st Congressional District, the contender who leads by a healthy margin in fundraising is 48-year-old Waterloo lawyer Bruce Braley, a Democrat who is a former president of the Iowa Trial Lawyers Association and currently sits on the board of ATLA. He’s raised $305,629 through September:
Braley’s fundraising prowess has turned heads already. And so has the source of his money. Of the $253,000 in individual donations itemized on campaign finance reports, $227,000, or 90 percent, comes from lawyers. It’s a wide base, too. Donors from more than three dozen states have given money.
Of the $23,250 in political action committee money he’s received, half came from attorney-related committees, including $10,000 from the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, or ATLA….
“People who know me think I would make a very good representative,” he says….
One law firm that has been a prime target for conservatives also is a generous donor to Braley. Fifteen lawyers associated with the Baron & Budd firm in Dallas, one of the leaders in litigating asbestos and other toxic substance claims, gave $15,000 to the campaign.
In all, 85 percent of Braley’s donations have come from outside the district. (Ed Tibbetts, “In a seven-horse race, it’s all about the purse”, Quad City Times, Nov. 14).
Update: Feds raid Fieger’s office in campaign laundering probe
Getting wilder by the week: “Federal agents raided the law office of Geoffrey Fieger late Wednesday looking for evidence that he laundered $35,000 in campaign contributions to the John Edwards 2004 presidential campaign through his employees.” (David Ashenfelter and Joe Swickard, “Federal agents raid Fieger’s office”, Detroit Free Press, Dec. 1). “A former associate in trial attorney Geoffrey Fieger’s firm said Friday that he and his wife each gave $2,000 to Democrat John Edwards’ 2004 presidential campaign on the promise that they would be reimbursed by the firm.” Joseph Bird, an attorney later fired by Fieger’s firm, “said he had ‘no clue’ at the time that it was illegal for employers to instruct people to give to a campaign and then reimburse them.” (Sarah Karush, “Lawyer says firm demanded political contributions to Edwards”, AP/Winston-Salem Journal, Dec. 2; same story with more details at Detroit News site, Dec. 4). For earlier evidence suggesting the likelihood of laundering in trial lawyers’ donations to Edwards, see Apr. 28-29 and May 8, 2003. For more on Fieger, see Nov. 17, Nov. 10 and links from there.
Politically quotable
“Blogs appear far more influential in the Democratic than the Republican party. With the waning influence of the labor movement — the blogs and the trial lawyers are picking up the slack as influential institutions.” — Marshall Wittman, Bull Moose Blog, Nov. 28.
Illinois State Bar Association takes action
The Illinois State Bar Association has found that people in focus groups are upset about the miscarriages of justice that occur in Madison County and corruption in the system, and have been motivated to take action. So are they going to clean up the system and support reform? No! Rather, they hope to have a million-dollar advertising campaign to improve the image of attorneys and engage in more market research. (Gail Applebaum, “State Bar may advertise to help lawyers”, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Nov. 23). In the press account, ISBA official David Anderson disingenuously argues that Madison County isn’t a judicial hellhole because of the number of medical malpractice verdicts—ignoring that the number of med-mal verdicts has nothing to do with Madison County’s deservedly poor reputation.
Picking Texas judges
Tom Kirkendall has some thoughts on the state’s “utterly unsupportable system” of judicial selection (Nov. 14).
“People Over Profits”: ATLA Astroturf lobbying over vaccines
The trial lawyers’ lobby has a new technique for pressing its opposition to proposals that would reduce or eliminate liability for drug companies to manufacture vaccines.
Run a Google or Yahoo search for “bird flu” or “avian flu” and a sponsored link will pop up, leading to ads by a group called People Over Profits — which is actually a unit of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America. They bear such headlines as “Bird Flu and Viagra: What do they have in common?” and “President Bush and Bird Flu: What Bush is not telling you.” (The group also purchased the search term “Rafael Palmeiro,” not because he has anything to do with the issue but because the ballplayer gets Googled a lot in the steroids controversy.)
Now even Web searchers aren’t safe from lobbying! And since sponsors can monitor the traffic, says ATLA spokeswoman Chris Mather, “you can change your message during the day if it’s not working.”
(Howard Kurtz, “CIA Article Sidebar: A Story of Deja Vu”, Washington Post, Nov. 14). Of course, it’s more important for trial lawyers to have lawsuit opportunities than for manufacturers to be able to make vaccines. More: Apr. 11, Oct. 19, 2004, Dec. 24, 2003.
By the numbers
“At last count, Congress Assembled contains two physicists, two chemists, two biologists, one geologist, 234 lawyers and an astronaut. This puts the lawyers within striking distance of an absolute majority in the 538-member Congress.” (Russell Seitz, “Congressional Math”, Wall Street Journal, Nov. 11)(sub-only).