When admitted to practice law in Oregon, attorneys take an oath to support the Constitution. Many of us shirked those obligations when we failed to protest the Bush administration’s breathtaking assault on the U.S. Constitution.

That’s not hyperbole. This is the administration that suspended habeas corpus, that expanded the use of warrantless wiretapping, that groundlessly asserted executive privilege, and that re-defined “torture” to make it legal.

The early revelations of the use of torture were accompanied by profound understatement as to whether, when and how often CIA interrogators used waterboarding. We’ve now learned otherwise.

This is not really surprising, I suppose.  Still, it’s a stark reminder of how bad things were and how much we abdicated to the lawlessness of the Gonzales Department of Justice. There are those who want to keep this in the past.

At the very least, we must chronicle the revelations. This is likely a naive effort, but at least writing it down creates one more data point as a caution for those who may look backwards next time around.

David Sugerman

Gosh, why am I so not surprised by this report that disgraced former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’ top aid broke hiring laws when she worked for the Department of Justice. Media reports indicate that the U.S. Dept. of Justice released a report finding that Monica Goodling broke federal law and Department of Justice rules by discriminating against applicants who weren’t Republicans or loyal conservatives.

This is something of a re-run, as the Gonzales DOJ also fired US Attorneys based upon loyalist considerations.  At least they’re consistent, as they illegally discriminated in both the hiring and the firing.

Sad to see what I’ve long suspected and that is that the Bush DOJ chose doctrine over talent. But then again, I think we’ve seen this elsewhere from this administration.

Heckuva job, Brownie.

David Sugerman

For any of us who have had to place a child in daycare, there’s that haunting fear in the background about whether our children will be safe. Unfortunately, it’s easy for unregistered childcare providers to operate in Oregon. Under the applicable rules, small operators do not need to be licensed. But even those care centers that should have a license can apparently operate without getting licensed.

This is one more example of the frightening effects of deregulation. We’re told that regulation is bad and that taxes and government services are worse. And so there is no one watching to make sure that daycare providers comply with the law. While it might seem like apples and oranges, I can’t help but think about the link between this sad story and the FAA inspectors who faced retaliation for blowing the whistle on safety problems at Southwest Airlines.

I suppose that if I were looking after my own self-interest, I would welcome this era in silence. After all, I’m the guy that gets the call to represent the profoundly injured child or the whistle-blowing airline employee. So deregulation, which means more injuries, is good for the trial lawyers. Ain’t that a great irony?

David Sugerman

{Edited 4/1208}

Driving in this morning, I caught NPR news fragments on the Spitzer scandal, complete with an interview of Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz. Prof. Dershowitz was going on and on about how our public figures’ private sex lives should be of no account, and many great leaders from Thomas Jefferson to John Kennedy proved that their busy private sexual lives did not affect their abilities in office.

To paraphrase Aretha Franklin, I ain’t no Harvard law professor; I ain’t no doctor with degrees. But it don’t take too much IQ to see that you, sir, are a freaking idiot.

If this were a simple case of private sexual infidelity, then I think your point would be well taken. But it’s not.

This is the guy who was using prostitutes while prosecuting prostitution rings. This is the guy who spent his time in office traveling out of state for his little buddy’s pleasure. This is the guy who may have been moving money around illegally.

Now to be fair, there is a certain amount of righteous indignation because Gov. Spitzer portrayed himself as the highest and best. And it probably gets worse because his modern-day public official perv-walk was taken with his wife glued dutifully to his side during the press conference that broke it all.

The other thing is that it’s not clear to me that criminalizing the world’s oldest profession is wise. I’ve heard good arguments on both sides of this issue, and I think fair minded and thoughtful people disagree. Even so, that’s not the issue either.

Let’s be clear. This isn’t about private sexual conduct. It’s about a public official who put himself above the law and got caught.

No doubt Prof. Dershowitz can draw this distinction. If he cannot, I’ll stop believing that Harvard law grads have a leg up on their young lawyer peers by dint of the reputation of their school.

As a kid, I was always a little heartbroken when some athlete, musician or star who I idolized turned out to be a heel. I imagine my adult feelings of disappointment are linked to that heartbroken kid. But this is also something of a reminder about celebrity. We confuse celebrity with intimacy at our own peril. I guess those of us who previously held a high opinion of Governor Spitzer now realize that we didn’t know Jack about the guy.

David F. Sugerman

Revised: 12 Mar. 2008 11:25 a.m:

Addendum: Oh, now I get it. According to this report Mr. Spitzer was one of Prof. Dershowitz’s star students at Harvard law and even worked for the professor. But I’m sure that’s coincidence.