The Grass is Always Greener

Right now, I'm wishing I lived in South Carolina. It's been at least a decade since I enjoyed CLE.

{H/T David Hardy}

Quote of the day

"The Pope is not a pedicurist" from Volokh Conspiracy

Fueling the Recovery

No one can accuse the U S Supreme Court of ducking their responsibilities. As expected, McDonald vs City of Chicago came out today. The opinion and dissents weigh in at 216 pages, give or take.

I ran out of paper. I ran out of toner. Office Max now has some of my hard earned money. I'm sure the economy is better for it.

What do I think of the case? I dunno. I haven't read it for myself. The news articles don't have any real surprises, although the Justice Thomas concurrence sounds interesting and Steven's dissent sounds like he's retiring a little later than he should have.

Good Citizenship

Absolutely Brilliant!

Her Own Private Idaho

An interesting tale of trespassing and free speech from the spud state.

Of course the whole reason for the post is the plaintiff's name.

Virginia and the Prediction Biz

Judge Bellows has handed down yet another decision in the Episcopal vs Anglican suit over in Virginia. The Episcopalians got their clock cleaned yet again and all that remains is a sixth decision in October. That means that its that time of year when losing litigants thoughts turn to appeals.

Some Virginia based gurus have indicated that the case would likely go straight to the Virginia Supreme Court. From there the only possible appeal would be to the US Supreme Court. Either court could send the case back down for more hearings, review or revision.

As far as predicting the future, my crystal ball has been wonky of late. I can say that the burden of persuasion is on the appellant when a decision is appealed. But appellants do win from time to time. Regardless of what Judge Bellows decides in October, the smart money is on the case being appealed. So it seems entirely likely the Virginia Supremes will get this case. Regardless of what they decide, both sides have the wherewithall to appeal to the US Supreme Court. But that is where it gets tricky.

There are only a few cases that the US Supreme Court must hear. The vast majority of cases they do hear are ones they decide to hear, that is they are discretionary. As near as I can tell this suit presents no issues that would require a hearing by the Supremes. Further, as far as discretionary suits go, they generally only like to select cases where the US Circuit Courts of Appeals have split. That is where the lower federal courts disagree.

This case concerns an obscure and unique Virginia law. Unless there is a gross miscarriage of justice, I do not see the Supremes picking it up. Virginia just doesn't have the reputation for shameless injustice that state supreme courts like Florida, New Jersey and California have. The Supremes have already had their big constitutional law case with Heller, so they are guaranteed legal immortality.

That means, unless something goes horribly wrong, one appeal and it's all over.

Of course I may be wrong....

Monday A Capella Madness

Theological Joy

There is a very good (and civilized discussion) of Church authority, morality and church history over at An Examined Life. Scott Carson and Tobias Haller have been going at it hammer and tongs. Well worth reading.

Of course, the whole debate has put me in mind of redoing a philosophical discussion in professional wrestling terms.

"Wittgenstein is arguing with the moderator over an illegal use of the word 'red'. Oh no, Plato has pulled out a logical fallacy and hits Aquinas over the head with it. The moderator is completely distracted. Aquinas looks dazed as both Plato and Hume taunt him..."

Wiki Proposal

In the comments to my Abandonment post, Cathy Lou proposed that a Web page of all Episcopal litigation be created. I'm game to try. I've never set up a wiki before, but the scant reading I've done on it suggests that that might be the way to go. To get things rolling, I'm just going to list the Episcopal church lawsuits that I know of:

1. Rochester NY, currently in appeal
2. Pawley's Island, SC, currently being appealed
3. Peachtree City, GA. Decided. No appeal as yet.
4. San Diego, CA. Three suits, all on appeal.
5. Virginia. One consolidated suit, litigation pending.
6. Connecticut. No information
7. Pittsburgh, PA. I believe the trial is over. I don't know if it has been appealed.
8. Florida. I've heard rumours of litigation, but have no knowledge.
9. Savannah, GA. Suit has been filed. I have no other information.

If anyone has any information about these or other lawsuits, please post in the comments here or email me at mousestalker {at} gmail.com (replace the '{at}' with '@').

Assuming all this can get fleshed out, I'll consolidate the information into a wiki so that everyone can contribute.

What inquiring minds would like to know is who are the parties, who are their attorneys, what is the status of the litigation, where is the suit being brought and how much is it costing everyone?

Show Me the Money (Part 1)

This is part of an intermittent series about the cost of Episcopal litigation.

Who is David Booth Beers? He's currently the chancellor of teh Episcopal Church. He served at that post under the previous Presiding Bishop as well, so he's been doing it for a while. But who is he? Here are the facts:

He graduated from Trinity College in Connecticut in 1957. Trinity is a school with a long Episcopalian connection, although it is a non-denominational school. He graduated from Berkeley (University of California) Law School in 1960. He also earned an MA from there at the same time.

He was a partner in the Washington based law firm of Shea and Gardner until the firm was acquired by Goodwin Procter in 2002. Shea and Gardner was an establishment litigation firm. Mr. Beers was a litigator for them in the area of products liability. Shea and Gardner was acquired by the very large tony Boston law firm of Goodwin Procter in 2004. Mr Beers became a partner in Goodwin Procter after the acquisition. He became 'of counsel' to the firm in this year.

He is an active layman within the Episcopal Church and serves (or has served) on several charitable boards.

Here are some points that may or may not be obvious:

Mr. Beers is no longer a partner at the firm. "Of Counsel" is a term law firms use to cover a variety of relationships with the firm. In this instance, it likely means semi-retired. That would fit with the upsurge in litigation at 815 and Mr. Beers' age. I'm afraid it means he wishes to concentrate his formidable legal skills on serving this one particular client. His going 'of counsel' means that he has cleared his decks.

Also, Goodwin Procter has an unofficial goal of 1850 billing hours per year. This is usually applied to associates at a law firm, but partners who let their billing slip can expect to hear about it at firm meetings. For non-lawyers, 1850 hours billing per year means 2200 hours worked, or a 44 hours billed per week (66+ hours worked per week), with two weeks off for vacation. If Mr. Beers is giving the Episcopal Church a discount on his $600/hour fee, and I will explain why I believe that in a later essay, then he would have to step down as partner, given how much of his time the church is using.

Mr. Beers' legal experience is vast. But his area of practice was products liability for large corporations. In other words he defended equipment manufacturers and such when people were injured by their equipment. His accustomed roles are preventative and reactive. Under Bishop Griswold, I think we saw him being preventative. The constant use of the talking point about how "People leave the Episcopal Church, property does not" is likely as a result of his advice.

Bishop Schori has thrust him into a new role as a plaintiff's attorney. This time he is doing the suing. I'm certain he's up to it, but it is not a role he can be much used to.

A side note: Mr Beers is a very formidable opponent. He has had a distinguished legal career. But that does not mean he can not be beaten. Back in the day when I was in general practice in South Georgia we used to make mincemeat of white shoe lawyers at trial. Good litigators are rarely the top of their class in law school. Being raging egomaniacs, they tend to be with very small firms. Also, a local attorney almost always has an advantage over a large firm attorney from out of town. The big guy may have great resources behind him, but he will never know the lay of the land, and that advantage is a huge one.

Correction made to sentence about hours billed per week.

Sometimes

I'm proud to be an American. A really nifty First Amendment opinion is here.

Hat tip: Volokh Conspiracy