Minor Wisdom

Good cause for a continuance

Courts normally require good cause before agreeing to postpone or continue a trial. The lawyers who signed this motion are seeking a two-day postponement of a trial scheduled to start on Monday, January 22, in Orleans Parish Civil District Court. Why?

As this Court knows, the New Orleans Saints will play in the [NFC] Championship game — the first such game in the franchise's forty-year history — against the Chicago Bears in Chicago, Illinois on January 21, 2007 at 2:30 p.m. In order to accommodate all fans, including the great majority of the jury pool, the parties involved in this case, and counsel involved in this case, and in order to ensure that a full jury pool appears on the first day of trial, Defendants request that the beginning of trial be pushed back two days to January 24, 2007....

[Emphasis added.]

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p.s. A colleague in the office tells me that the motion has been granted.

p.s. (1/18/07): To read the Times-Picayune's story about the granting of this motion, click here.

p.s. (1/18/07): The Wall Street Journal's Law Blog has picked up this story and done a nice job of it. To read their post (including an interview with attorney Jim Garner), click here. (Please note though that MW scooped both the TP and the WSJ Law Blog.)

A heroic Orleanian

The anonymous public-defender blogger whose handle is "Skelly" writes today about his blog's patron saint, Judge J. Skelly Wright. Among Judge Wright's heroic decisions was a judgment ordering the desegregation of LSU Law School. The year: 1951. Imagine how that must have gone over with Judge Wright's peers in New Orleans' society and legal community in 1951, and you'll have an inkling about this man's fortitude.

Letter from a Birmingham jail

If you've never read Martin Luther King Jr.'s letter from a Birmingham jail, today would be a good day to do so.

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p.s.: More MLK posts:

• Public Defender Stuff is hosting this week's Blawg Review under an MLK theme.
• Hootsbuddy has posted a video of Dr. King's "I have a dream" speech.

"If Katrina couldn't stop us, what are the Bears going to do?"

As this song says, there is indeed a change in the weather. Not a full-blown freeze yet, but a noticeable cool Brees.

Credits:

• Song written and performed by Johnny Earthquake and the Moondogs.
• Hat tip to Ashley Morris.

Administration official dislikes the Sixth Amendment

"In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence."

U.S. Const. amend. VI.

Some guy named Cully Stimson would apparently like to repeal that last infinitive phrase, if not the entire amendment. That wouldn't matter if Stimson were just some wingnut. But he's not just a wingnut. He's a lawyer, which means he ought to be familiar with the Sixth Amendment. Worse, he's the deputy assistant secretary of defense in charge of detainee affairs. In this case, "detainee" is a euphemism for someone being imprisoned on suspicion of terrorism.

Why do I say that this guy is hostile to the Sixth Amendment? Here's what he said in a radio interview the other day, as quoted by the Washington Post:

Actually you know I think the news story that you're really going to start seeing in the next couple of weeks is this: As a result of a FOIA [Freedom of Information Act] request through a major news organization, somebody asked, "Who are the lawyers around this country representing detainees down there," and you know what, it's shocking...

... I think, quite honestly, when corporate CEOs see that those firms are representing the very terrorists who hit their bottom line back in 2001, those CEOs are going to make those law firms choose between representing terrorists or representing reputable firms, and I think that is going to have major play in the next few weeks. And we want to watch that play out.

Who are these firms with the audacity to provide assistance of counsel to prisoners under Stimson's thumb? According to the WSJ Law Blog, Stimson identified the following (whom I'm happy to salute with a mention and a link):

• Pillsbury Winthrop
• Jenner & Block
• WilmerHale
• Covington & Burling
• Sutherland Asbill & Brennan
• Mayer Brown
• Paul Weiss
• Weil Gotshal
• Pepper Hamilton
• Venable
• Perkins Coie
• Alston & Bird
• Hunton & Williams
• Fulbright & Jaworski

The Washington Post described Stimson's words as "repellant," and says that "it's shocking — though perhaps not surprising — that this is the person the administration has chosen to oversee detainee policy at Guantanamo."

Some inspiration for tonight's playoff game

Whatever happens tonight, this season will be unforgettable.

Blawg Review #90

Welcome to Minor Wisdom, the latest stop of the Blawg Review, the blog carnival for everyone interested in the law.

When recruiting me for this project, the anonymous Blawg Review Editor suggested a religious theme. BRE noted that January 8 is the feast day of Our Lady of Prompt Succor. OLPS is the patroness of New Orleans; her name is invoked in New Orleans' Catholic churches during hurricane season to protect us against those storms. Accordingly, BRE thought it would be appropriate on this day for the Blawg Review to be hosted by a New Orleans-based blog.

Indeed, it seems that in 2006, those prayers to OLPS worked. Take a look at the storm tracks for the 2006 Atlantic hurricane season. It appears that Someone was steering those storms away from New Orleans and, later in the season, the entire southeastern United States. I guess He decided we'd had enough in 2005.

But I thought that a slightly different theme was in order. Two nights ago, January 6, was the Twelfth Night of Christmas and feast of the Epiphany, commemorating the Magi and their three gifts to the Christ child. In New Orleans, Twelfth Night is the traditional start of the Carnival season, which culminates on Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras.

My first idea for a theme was the gifts of the Magi: gold (which we all love), frankincense (spirituality plus anything that smells good), and myrrh (including a citation to Monty Python's Life of Brian: "And thanks a lot for the gold and frankincense, ahm, but don't worry too much about the myrrh the next time, all right?"). But then BRE reminded me that an Ephiphany theme has already been done. Okay; scratch the gifts-of-the-Magi theme.

My next idea was to focus on Carnival. BRE liked that idea, seeing as how Blawg Review is a blog carnival. BRE also thought that carnival would be a "colorful" theme, which got me thinking about  New Orleans' carnival colors: purple (representing justice), green (representing faith), and gold (representing power — and of course, gold). Justice, power, and gold should dovetail nicely with lawyers' blog writings, I thought. (Faith I'll work in somehow.) So that's the theme, folks: purple, green, and gold; or justice, faith, and power.

Forecast for Feb. 4: Freezing

If Peter Finney is correct, then the weather forecast for this place on February 4 will be freezing cold, maybe even a blizzard. (Hat tip to Electronic Ephemera.)

The lone mummer

"What's a lone mummer?" you ask? The answer is in Blawg Review # 89, where the anonymous Blawg Review editor also surveys recent writings of legal bloggers.

Speaking of Blawg Review, I will be hosting the next week's installment. You can help by doing two things. First: If you're the praying kind, pray for the hard drive on my computer. It's been acting funny lately, and this week of all weeks, I don't need it to crash. Second: If you know of a Blawg Review-worthy post, written either by you or by someone else, send it in. Just click here and follow the instructions.

The original version of The Saints Are Coming

The Saints Are Coming, performed by U2 and Green Day at the reopening of the Superdome, has become both a New Orleans anthem and the best fight song in the NFL. Yesterday's Times-Picayune carried a story by Dave Walker about the origins of this song. It was originally recorded in 1977 by The Skids. Here's a video of The Skids' performance:

Happy New Year.