Freethought & Rationalism Archive

Toto · 04-02-2003, 12:48 PM

Judicial Nominee Distances Herself From Past Positions

Quote:

Judge Kuhl told the committee that she was wrong to have argued vigorously as a lawyer in the Reagan Justice Department that the administration reverse a longstanding policy and provide tax-exempt status to Bob Jones University, despite its racial discrimination.

The administration's efforts to help Bob Jones University ended in an 8-to-1 defeat in the Supreme Court and a political debacle. Some 200 Justice Department lawyers signed an extraordinary public petition opposing the position Ms. Kuhl advocated.

"I do want to say I regret taking that position," she told Senator Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, the committee's ranking Democrat.

She said that she was a young lawyer at the time and did not realize that it was the obligation of the Justice Department to defend rulings like the one made by the Internal Revenue Service on the tax-exempt status of Bob Jones University.

Judge Kuhl said that she was motivated by fear that the revenue service might decide to use the authority it used in the Bob Jones case to end tax-exempt status at women's colleges.

"I have no sympathy with Bob Jones's racially discriminatory policies or teaching with respect to other religions," she said. When she told Mr. Leahy that the fact that she was, like him, a Roman Catholic, demonstrated that she could not approve of the university's disdain of other religions, Mr. Leahy snapped that it was inappropriate to talk of her religion or his.

Under the restorative questioning of Senator Orrin G. Hatch, the Utah Republican who is the chairman of the committee, Judge Kuhl said that her position in the Bob Jones case was 21 years ago and that she had only been out of law school for about two years. "I was in way over my head," she said.

How believable is this? Young lawyer two years out of law school is let loose on Supreme Court with no supervision?

Stephen Maturin · 04-02-2003, 04:46 PM

From the Times article:

Quote:

She said that she was a young lawyer at the time and did not realize that it was the obligation of the Justice Department to defend rulings like the one made by the Internal Revenue Service on the tax-exempt status of Bob Jones University.

Lemme get this straight. Judge Kuhl graduated from Duke Law School, clerked for a Ninth District judge and worked as an associate in a large law firm for three years -- all before joining the Justice Department -- yet had no idea that the AG's office defends federal agencies? Bullshit.

This particular pile of excrement is all the more malodorous in light of the fact that the Justice Department actually did defend the IRS's ruling throughout the Bob Jones litigation until doing an abrupt about-face while the Supreme Court appeal was pending. The in-fighting within the Department fucked things up so royally that the Court had to appoint special counsel to argue the government's case.

The "I was in over my head" claim holds no water at all. According to the Justice Department's own write-up, Kuhl "argued cases before the United States Supreme Court and supervised other attorneys� work in cases before that Court." (Emphasis added.)

And what's this "I was only out of law school for about two years" nonsense? She graduated in 1977.

Anyone who's interested can download the Alliance for Justice report on Judge Kuhl in PDF, complete with a description of the whole sordid Bob Jones mess, by right-clicking here. Looks like we've got another Federalist Society zealot on our hands.

4th Generation Atheist · 04-02-2003, 05:07 PM

See, it's that she has the right ideology. Scroll down in that OP article to see her real qualifications: she passed her litmus test, so it doesn't matter if she's incompetent.

hezekiah jones · 04-02-2003, 08:18 PM

Good god. Where are Karl Rove and Ted Olson finding these people?

Toto · 04-02-2003, 11:07 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by hezekiah jones
Good god. Where are Karl Rove and Ted Olson finding these people?

Where indeed but the Federalist Society. And Olson's old law firm.

Quote:

. . . Kuhl returned to Munger, Tolles & Olson, where she became a partner and primarily represented corporate interests including gas and tobacco companies. In 1995, she was appointed by California Governor Pete Wilson to the Los Angeles County Superior Court, where she remains a judge today. Judge Kuhl is a member of the Los Angeles Chapters of both the Association of Business Trial Lawyers and the Federalist Society [1] and lives in Los Angeles with her husband, fellow Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge William Foster Highberger. . . .

[1]1 Judge Kuhl has been an active participant in both organizations, giving three presentations at the Association of Business Trial Lawyers and three others before the Los Angeles and Indiana University School of Law chapters of the Federalist Society.

She's been aiming at the Federal Bench for a while. The Federalist Society was formed to advance conservatives and conservative philosophy on the federal bench, and is rumored to be required for anyone who wants a judicial appointment.

And it is very hard for me to imagine a partner in a large corporate law firm stepping down to LA County Superior Court, unless there is a political motive behind it. (I imagine she took a big cut in pay.) As a Republican in a state with two Democratic Senators, that was probably the only judicial appointment she could get (from the last Republical governor.)

I need to go lie down. This is just too much.

hezekiah jones · 04-03-2003, 05:35 AM

Haha yes. And it appears she can kiss goodbye any designs she might have had on a position as research assistant to Professor Tribe.

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04-02-2003, 05:07 PM	#3
4th Generation Atheist Veteran Member Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Tower of Ecthelion...by the Starbuck's Posts: 1,815	See, it's that she has the right ideology. Scroll down in that OP article to see her real qualifications: she passed her litmus test, so it doesn't matter if she's incompetent.

04-02-2003, 08:18 PM	#4
hezekiah jones Veteran Member Join Date: Feb 2001 Location: WI Posts: 4,357	Good god. Where are Karl Rove and Ted Olson finding these people?

04-03-2003, 05:35 AM	#6
hezekiah jones Veteran Member Join Date: Feb 2001 Location: WI Posts: 4,357	Haha yes. And it appears she can kiss goodbye any designs she might have had on a position as research assistant to Professor Tribe.

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