By the skin of our teeth, luckily, mirabile dictu, Florida prevailed on a procedural issue, allowing the Attorney General to continue our State's decades-long efforts to protect our rivers from Georgia water hogs. Lucky day.
The Supreme Court held this morning that its Special Master erred by failing to consider remedies. Justice Stephen Breyer wrote for the 5-4 Supreme Court majority for himself and Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Kennedy, Ginsburg and Sotomayor. Dissenting were Justices Thomas, Kagan, Gorsuch and Alito.
This water rights litigation has taken tens of millions of dollars, doled out to private law firms hired by Florida Attorney General PAMELA JO BONDI.
Footnote: Justice Stephen Breyer is a 1995 Bill Clinton appointee, a wit, a scholar, an administrative law expert, former chief counsel to the Judiciary6 Committee chaired by Sen. Ted Kennedy (my first boss), former Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals in Boston, a longtime member of the Administrative Conference of the United States, and friend of my mentor, former U.S. Department of Labor Administrative Law Judge Nahum Litt. I shall always remember the private talk between Chief Judge Nahum Litt and then Appeals Court Chief Judge Stephen Breyer at a 1992 ACUS meeting.
This was three years before Congress heeded our concerns, which I first expressed in a 1989 Common Cause Magazine article, "Business As Usual."
Congress rightly abolished ACUS for some fifteen years, 1995-2010.
Under President Reagan, ACUS was converted into an abominable basket of deplorables, a bunch of bullies, corporate lawyers and government lawyers allied against the public interest.
From 1986-1995, Judge Litt and I exposed ACUS noted for being:
In 1995, after Congress took its money away -- "zeroed it out" over protests of two Supreme Court Justices -- ACUS had a giveaway of surplus books as it dissolved. I stopped by ACUS's office on L Street in Washington, D.C. while Brian waited in the car, stocking up on paperback administrative law materials from the once-formidable agency. Great souvenirs of a battle won.
Procedure matters.
As U.S. Rep. John Dingell once said, "if I write the procedure and you write the law, I will win every time."
Florida's procedural rights were violated by the Special Master, who applied a too-narrow standard on remedy.
In the Florida v. Georgia case, Justice Breyer's liberal procedural ruling promises justice for our Florida oystermen and protection of our Florida water.
Thank God for Article III federal courts and judicial independence.
Three cheers for Justice Stephen Breyer!
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Huge procedural victory for the State of Florida and oystermen protecting our state from the greedy water depredations of Georgia and Atlanta developers.
What's next: remedies phase before Court's Special Master.
Here's the Court's decision:
The Supreme Court held this morning that its Special Master erred by failing to consider remedies. Justice Stephen Breyer wrote for the 5-4 Supreme Court majority for himself and Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Kennedy, Ginsburg and Sotomayor. Dissenting were Justices Thomas, Kagan, Gorsuch and Alito.
This water rights litigation has taken tens of millions of dollars, doled out to private law firms hired by Florida Attorney General PAMELA JO BONDI.
Footnote: Justice Stephen Breyer is a 1995 Bill Clinton appointee, a wit, a scholar, an administrative law expert, former chief counsel to the Judiciary6 Committee chaired by Sen. Ted Kennedy (my first boss), former Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals in Boston, a longtime member of the Administrative Conference of the United States, and friend of my mentor, former U.S. Department of Labor Administrative Law Judge Nahum Litt. I shall always remember the private talk between Chief Judge Nahum Litt and then Appeals Court Chief Judge Stephen Breyer at a 1992 ACUS meeting.
This was three years before Congress heeded our concerns, which I first expressed in a 1989 Common Cause Magazine article, "Business As Usual."
Congress rightly abolished ACUS for some fifteen years, 1995-2010.
Under President Reagan, ACUS was converted into an abominable basket of deplorables, a bunch of bullies, corporate lawyers and government lawyers allied against the public interest.
From 1986-1995, Judge Litt and I exposed ACUS noted for being:
- Unaccountable,
- Unproductive, producing dubious "studies" by academics,
- Dominated by government and corporate lawyers,
- A lapdog and not a watchdog,
- Repeatedly violating the Federal Advisory Committee,
- Infested with an unbalanced membership a/k/a "The Swamp,
- Wasteful of government funds on misguided advocacy of altering or abolishing laws protecting administrative law judge independence,
- Supportive of efforts to narrow Freedom of Information Act,
- A cheerleader for "alternative dispute resolution," including inflicting mandatory arbitration on unsuspecting workers and consumers, violating Seventh Amendment rights to jury trial.
In 1995, after Congress took its money away -- "zeroed it out" over protests of two Supreme Court Justices -- ACUS had a giveaway of surplus books as it dissolved. I stopped by ACUS's office on L Street in Washington, D.C. while Brian waited in the car, stocking up on paperback administrative law materials from the once-formidable agency. Great souvenirs of a battle won.
Procedure matters.
As U.S. Rep. John Dingell once said, "if I write the procedure and you write the law, I will win every time."
Florida's procedural rights were violated by the Special Master, who applied a too-narrow standard on remedy.
In the Florida v. Georgia case, Justice Breyer's liberal procedural ruling promises justice for our Florida oystermen and protection of our Florida water.
Thank God for Article III federal courts and judicial independence.
Three cheers for Justice Stephen Breyer!
Huge procedural victory for the State of Florida and oystermen protecting our state from the greedy water depredations of Georgia and Atlanta developers.
What's next: remedies phase before Court's Special Master.
Here's the Court's decision: