Robinson Everett

One of my favorite people in the world, my criminal procedure professor, Judge Robinson Everett passed away Friday morning. And one of my few remaining reasons for visiting my old law school on a whim goes with him.

Why is Judge Everett one of my favorite people in the world? It has nothing to do with his politics or his view of the law. I get the impression that he was much more conservative than me, but that never really came up in the time I knew him.

It's because of the kind of person he was. Judge Everett cheerfully and patiently mentored 5 decades' worth of Duke Law students. (He was both the youngest and oldest professor in Duke Law's history.)

Above all, Judge Everett was to me a model of grace. I mean that in the Biblical sense of undeserved favor. I'm aware of one of his friends and students who made some pretty terrible decisions, including embezzlement. Judge Everett stuck by him, defended him in his criminal case, and helped rehabilitate him after he served his sentence. I observed how he insisted on honest and upright behavior, and yet refused to abandon those who fell short. He didn't excuse wrong or criminal behavior, but he looked past it to see the fallen and hurting human beings.

I remember thinking "I want to be like Judge Everett when I grow up." I hope and pray that someday I can be half the man he was.

You Want to Draw Your Own Opinion on Judge Sotomayor?

Then you should look at her opinions.

The ever-useful, and relatively unbiased, SCOTUS blog has summaries of her decisions here, here, here, here, and here.

That's a lot to read and, frankly, I haven't had the time to go through it all. But, from what I've read, I get the impression that she's a relatively unflashy left-of-center justice. Pretty much in the mold of the justice she'd be replacing.

The Law Has Seen Better Days

In the news:

Supreme Court Encourages Police to Make An End Run Around A Suspect's Lawyer

President Claims Power to Detain People Indefinitely.....and is criticized for not being lawless enough.


On the other hand, the law's seen worse days. This new Supreme Court nominee looks promising.

Southern Baptist Convention Condemns Torture

I haven't considered myself a Southern Baptist for some time, partly because of the pronouncements of their national political spokesman, Richard Land. Normally, he can be counted on to say whatever annoys me most about the Religious Right and whatever confirms popular misconceptions of Evangelicals as a tool of the Republican party.

This makes me all the more thrilled that Land, speaking on behalf of the Southern Baptist Convention, has come out against torture and, specifically, waterboarding under any circumstances. Given that Land is right smack in the Religious Right, that's a courageous thing to say. He's going to be harshly attacked. Maybe this is a sign that a consensus is building against torture.

The money quote: "It does cost us something to play by different rules than our enemies, but it would cost us far more if we played by their rules."

A Quick Thought On The Torture Memos

I've quickly glanced over the Torture Memos, the not-very-objective-but-still-accurate title given to the legal analyses by certain Bush Administration lawyers (i.e. John Yoo, Jay Bybee, Steven Bradbury) which were used to provide a legal cover for "enhanced interrogation techniques." Things like making someone stand in a stressful position for hours, sleep deprivation, extreme temperatures, putting someone in a tiny box with an insect (with the implication that the prisoner thinks it is poisonous) and waterboarding. No matter how much the memos try to dance around it, these things are torture.

I've glanced over the memos, but haven't analyzed them in detail. The thing about the memos that truly chills me to the core is the detached, clinical way they describe heinous acts and analyze whether they violate the law. This is the kind of language I use to analyze whether some company has committed an OSHA violation. This is the kind of language lawyers use to debate whether there has been a breach of contract.

This is not the language used to describe torture. I have to wonder what part of their soul these lawyers had to shut down to think and write like this.

An Actual Conversation I Had At Work Today

My co-workers and I were discussing the anti-tax "Tea Parties" taking place around the nation. (The main effect on me being such nasty traffic in Atlanta that I worked from home for the afternoon.)

Me: "So should I go down to the protest and thank them for paying my salary?"

Co-Worker # 1: "I think they'd probably stone you."

Me: "Death by stoning. Not a great way to go. Think I'll get back to work instead."

Co-Worker # 2: "Actually, they'd probably stone you with tea bags."

Me: "So instead of death by stoning, it would be death by t......On second thought, I'm not finishing that sentence."

Laughter ensues. Then work ensues. Lots of drafting of legal documents. The day gets more boring from there.

Good Friday Post

Instead of saying anything profound on my own, I'm just going to link to an interesting analysis from Slate. It's about the reasons put forth by scholars as to why Jesus was crucified....and why the Crucifixion was kind of an embarassing stumbling block for early Christians. The same author, a divinity school professor in Scotland, wrote an interesting article last year about the difficulty early Christians had with the concept of the Resurrection.


Also, my friend Mike (formerly Christian, now....I dunno, something other than Christian) poses questions about the role of Judas that are worth considering. Last year, he posted a self-proclaimed "over-the-top rant" on why the heck Christians like me call it "Good" Friday.