Blogging about nothing.

 
The Sodomy Tour

Seattle-based writer David Schmader has penned a thoughtful and funny piece describing his recent tour through the four states with same-sex sodomy proscriptions that are at issue in Lawrence v. Texas. I especially enjoy this article because it is written by a non-lawyer and makes you think about the chasm between what people do in their real lives and what the Supreme Court may or may not decide. It's good. It's funny. Give it a read.
posted by mindse at 11:39 AM

 
How Are You Celebrating the One-Year Anniversary of How Appealing?

Here at The Academy, we are pleased to announce that we will be posting uber-blawgger Howard Bashman's answers to our 20 Questions on Tuesday, May 6, by noon EST. We have chosen May 6 because it marks the first birthday of How Appealing, the website that gives every law dork all the info we need to get through a day and to show others how incredibly in the know we are. Seriously, without Howard you would not be reading this right now. We are in his debt and we look forward to his answers to our piercing questions with eager anticipation. Although we agreed to 20 Questions, some of them are (admittedly) compound questions, so you can expect lots of info about Howard -- including (we hope) a detailed explanation of How He Does It. That, I'm sure my fellow demi-blawggers agree, is the most remarkable thing about How Appealing. Like my local TV news van always promises, he's there first, he's there live, and he brings you what you need to know. Plus, he's got interesting tastes in music for a 38 year old guy.

For those readers who think this is just a cheap ploy to get a bigger audience, we say: No Comment.
posted by mindse at 11:01 AM

 
Brooklyn Justice

Forget Brooklyn the school, Geraldo's alma mater. As this article describes, Brooklyn the borough is doing a good job of portraying our profession in a bad light, even without the substantial helping hand of reality television.
posted by mindse at 10:16 AM

 
I'd Beat My Chest, Jay, But....

frankly, I'm premenstrual and the boobs are a bit tender just now. I can't believe that article. That's one of those articles you pray is from The Onion, but you know in your heart is not.
posted by mindse at 10:04 AM

 
When We Last Saw Sarah Kozer....

....she had been dusted by celebrated meathead Evan Marriott in favor of the peculiarly shy Zora Andrich. We knew that the former bondage model would be heard from again, though. And now, her time has come. After twice rebuffing Playboy's offers to appear in a pictorial, Kozer has now agreed to appear in the June issue as long as it does not involve frontal nudity. By way of explaining her modesty, Kozer says that she was a women's studies major.

This modesty is late in coming, as anyone who listened in on the unzipping and slurping in the French woods can tell you.
posted by mindse at 3:53 PM

 
The Amber Alert Bill

On NPR today, you can hear a story recounting the reactions of some federal judges to the sentencing provision in the Amber Alert bill. (To hear the story online, click on "NPR News" in the right-hand column and then click on the story title about half-way down the page.) You can also hear the Montana U.S. Attorney explain that the purpose of the bill is not to undermine judicial independence, but is instead to ensure "compliance" with the Sentencing Guidelines. Congressman Tom Feeney, the amendment's author, also chimes in, using the word "liberal" about forty times by my count.
posted by mindse at 9:12 AM

 
Lawrence v. Texas

Frequent readers will remember that I wondered why Harris County District Attorney, Charles Rosenthal, argued for the state when the above-captioned case came before the United States Supreme Court. I had thought that the state's Attorney General would take on the task.

Turns out, as is often the case with Texas, there was some fussin' and-a feudin' about this sort of thing. John Cornyn, the former attorney general, took a position contrary to a local district attorney in a brief filed to the U.S. Supreme Court a few years ago. Then, when the DA squawked, the AG up and tried to get a law passed that gave him the sole authority to argue criminal cases from Texas heard up in Washington, D.C. But, that didn't work out, as this December 23, 2002 editorial from Texas Lawyer explains:

LOCAL CONTROL
by John Bradley

The single most significant development in criminal law in 2002 was an appellate decision that resolved a constitutional standoff involving a district attorney, the Texas Office of the Attorney General, the Texas Legislature, the Court of Criminal Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court. In Saldano v. State, the Court of Criminal Appeals on March 13 stopped the AG from encroaching on the constitutional duty of elected prosecutors to represent the state in criminal matters.

In 1999, the CCA affirmed, in an unpublished opinion, the death penalty verdict against Victor Saldano. His appellate attorney argued that the punishment hearing had been tainted by allegedly inadmissible evidence. The court did not reach that issue because Saldano's trial lawyer had not objected to the evidence and, instead, had vigorously attacked its reliability through cross-examination and the presentation of contradicting expert testimony.

Saldano then appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing admission of the evidence was fundamental error. To the surprise of the district attorney who had been defending the jury verdict, then-Texas Attorney General John Cornyn stepped in and disagreed. Cornyn notified the Supreme Court that Texas was confessing error, despite contrary rules of evidence and long-standing case law. Faced with the confession of error, the Supreme Court vacated the decision and remanded it for reconsideration by the Court of Criminal Appeals.

Meanwhile, the AG boldly went to the Legislature seeking passage of a law that expressly gave his office sole control over litigation of criminal matters in the U.S. Supreme Court. The Legislature heard strong testimony from elected prosecutors, explaining and defending their state constitutional duty to control such litigation, and no bill was passed.

Subsequently, in an opinion on remand written by Judge Paul Womack, the Court of Criminal Appeals skillfully traced the same Texas constitutional history presented in testimony to the Texas Legislature and noted the "deliberately 'fractured' nature of Texas government." With great authority, the court confirmed that local elected prosecutors control criminal actions; the AG's office never has had authority to institute a criminal action; and the attorney general may enter a criminal action and provide advice, including the appeal of a case to the U.S. Supreme Court, only upon request of a local elected prosecutor.

The decision in Saldano preserved our special local-control preference for criminal prosecution and restored the wise separation of powers that has existed since 1876 in our state constitution. Elected prosecutors and their assistants easily recognize the decision as the most significant development in criminal law for 2002.

******************

So, any conjecture on my part about the AG being too embarassed to argue the sodomy law was unfounded. Rosenthal, as the local elected prosecutor, had a constitutional duty to go up ther and get raked over the coals. I wonder if it was a violation of the Texas constitution to let Justice Scalia argue the case for him?




posted by mindse at 8:22 PM