Georgia Senate Threatens Dismantling of the USA

http://blogs.ajc.com/jay-bookman-blog/2009/04/16/georgia-senate-threatens-dismantling-of-usa/?cxntfid=blogs_jay_bookman_blog

It wasn’t quite the firing on Fort Sumter that launched the Civil War. But on April 1, your Georgia Senate did threaten by a vote of 43-1 to secede from and even disband the United States.
It was not an April Fool’s joke.
In fact, Senate Resolution 632 did a lot more than merely threaten to end this country. It stated that under the Constitution, the only crimes the federal government could prosecute were treason, piracy and slavery.
“Therefore, all acts of Congress which assume to create, define or punish [other] crimes … are altogether void, and of no force,” the Georgia Senate declared.
In other words, in the infinite, almost unanimous wisdom of the Georgia Senate, Michael Vick is being imprisoned illegally, Bernie Madoff should serve no time for stealing $60 billion and the Unabomber must go free. In fact, the federal penitentiary in Atlanta should be emptied of its inmates.
But wait, there’s more.
The resolution goes on to endorse the theory that states have the right to abridge constitutional freedoms of religion, press and speech. According to the resolution, it is up to the states to decide “how far the licentiousness of speech and of the press may be abridged.”
The resolution even endorses “nullification,” the legal concept that states have the power to “nullify” or ignore federal laws that they believe exceed the powers granted under the Constitution. That concept has a particularly nasty legacy. It helped precipitate the Civil War, and in the 1950s and early ’60s it was cited by Southern states claiming the right to ignore Supreme Court rulings ordering the end of segregation.
Finally, the resolution states that if Congress, the president or federal courts take any action that exceeds their constitutional powers, the Constitution is rendered null and void and the United States of America is officially disbanded. As an example, the resolution specifically states that if the federal government enacts “prohibitions of type or quantity of arms or ammunition,” the country is disbanded.
In other words, if Congress votes to restore the ban on sale of assault rifles, the United States is deemed to no longer exist.
This, your Georgia state Senate voted 43-1 to endorse.
Now, to be fair, the resolution passed because it was snuck unnoticed onto the Senate resolution calendar on the 39th day of the 40-day legislative session, when senators were trying to handle dozens of bills and scores of amendments. Most did not have an opportunity to read the six-page resolution, which in its description claimed to merely affirm “states’ rights based on Jeffersonian principles.”
However, those who introduced and sponsored the measure have no such excuse. Presumably they read and understood what they asked their fellow senators to endorse. And those sponsors include some of the most prominent members of the Senate —- Senate Majority Leader Chip Rogers of Woodstock, Senate President Pro Tem Tommie Williams, Transportation Committee Chairman Jeff Mullis of Chickamauga, and Chief Deputy Whip John Wiles of Cobb County, among others.
The resolution they sponsored is part of a radical right-wing national movement —- a similar resolution was introduced in the Georgia House but not voted on. It has been introduced in legislatures all over the nation, and has passed in both chambers in Oklahoma and one in South Dakota.
And while the Georgia resolution is legally meaningless and was passed without debate or even knowledge of most senators, it has had an impact. It has been hailed by, among others, those fighting the conspiracy to create a single North American country, by the Confederate States Militia, by the John Birch Society, and the League of the South, which still pines for the cause of an “independent South” and believes that “Southern society is radically different from the society impressed upon it by an alien occupier.”
You have to question the judgment of those who would have any truck whatsoever with such nonsense, and who would jeopardize the reputation of the Georgia Senate to lend aid and comfort to such radical causes and fringe groups.

Vermont Allows Gay Marriage

Vermont legalizes gay marriage with veto override
MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) -- Vermont has become the fourth state to legalize gay marriage - and the first to do so with a legislature's vote.
The Legislature voted Tuesday to override Gov. Jim Douglas' veto of a bill allowing gays and lesbians to marry. The vote was 23-5 to override in the state Senate and 100-49 to override in the House. Under Vermont law, two-thirds of each chamber had to vote for override.
The vote came nine years after Vermont adopted its first-in-the-nation civil unions law.
It's now the fourth state to permit same-sex marriage. Massachusetts, Connecticut and Iowa are the others. Their approval of gay marriage came from the courts.

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) - As expected, the Vermont Senate has overridden the governor's veto of a bill that would allow same-sex marriage.
The House planned to take up the issue later Tuesday, but it's unclear whether there are enough votes to override the veto by Gov. Jim Douglas.
If there are, Vermont would become the fourth state to legalize marriages of gay and lesbian couples.
The others are Massachusetts, Connecticut and Iowa.

Iowa Allows Gay Marriage

"If gay people want to get married and be miserable like the rest of us, I say let 'em." Peter Griffin.

http://www.judicial.state.ia.us/Supreme_Court/Recent_Opinions/20090403/07-1499.pdf

Supreme Court to Decide if GOOD Lawyers get MORE money

Court to decide if good lawyers can get more money
Associated Press
Monday, April 06, 2009
Washington — The United States Supreme Court will decide whether a judge can award more money to winning lawyers because the judge thought they did a good job.
The high court on Monday agreed to hear an appeal from the state of Georgia over attorney fees for lawyers who sued to force dramatic changes in Georgia’s foster care system.
U.S. District Judge Marvin Shoob awarded them $10.5 million in attorney fees, a $4.5 million enhancement on top of a $6 million award. Shoob said he increased the award because of the exceptional results that children’s advocates achieved. The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refused to overturn his decision.
Lawyers for Georgia say appeal courts around the nation have split on whether a judge can give lawyers extra money based on their performance.
The case is Perdue v Kenny A., 08-970.

Quotes

“I may not be able to show by any legal precedent that the opinion was wrong, yet having an abiding faith in my own legal judgment that it is wrong...” Justice Logan

“The paramount destiny and mission of woman are to fulfill the noble and benign offices of wife and mother. This is the law of the Creator.... I am not prepared to say that it is one of her fundamental rights and privileges to be admitted into every office and position, including those which require highly special qualifications and demanding special responsibilities." Justice Bradley on why women are not, should not and cannot be attorneys.

In order to win a murder case you must show that the victim was a bad person who deserved to be killed, and tat you client was just the man for the job. Bobby Lee Cook, the real "Matlock" (he also quoted Shakespeare and said it was from Song of Solomon in the Bible. When called out on it he responded that he never said which version of the Bible he was quoting.)

"If you can prove the victim abused a dog or a horse, you can convince the jury that the guy deserved to be killed." Attorney Percy Foreman

"To the best of my recollection, I do not recollect." Jimmy Hoffa while on the witness stand in 1962.

"I would like to remind the doctor that while his professional ancestors were putting leeches on George Washington to bleed him, my ancestors were writing the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution." Attorney Joseph D. Jamail, Jr. during a debate over tort reform with a physician.

Bart: "You smell that, Ralph? That's the smell of justice."
Ralph: "It smells like hot dogs."

"See ya in court, Simpson. Oh, and bring that evidence with ya; otherwise, I got no case and you'll go scot-free." Chief Wiggum

"A lawyer in practice spends a considerable part of his life doing distasteful things for disagreeable people who must be satisfied against an impossible time limit in which there are hourly interruptions from other disagreeable people who want to derail the train; and for his blood, sweat, and tears, he receives in the end a few unkind words to the effect that it might have been done better, and a protest at the size of the fee." William L. Prossner

"In university they don't tell you that the greater part of the law is learning to tolerate fools." Doris Lessing

"The truth? I thought we were talking about a court of law. Come on, you've been around long enough to know that a courtroom isn't a place to look for the truth." Jerome Facher, A Civil Action

Illigitum non carborundum (roughly translated "Don't let the bastards keep you down")