All the judges and magistrates are here. And there are over 500 lawyers here. Pretty unbelievable.
The morning panels were interesting. I was only at the criminal law panels, which were lively and engaging. I hear the civil panels were also good.
Judge Fay is about to do the lunchtime talk. More soon.
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Judge Fay gave a very angry and partisan speech complaining about congressional corruption in Washington, greedy unions, and, at the end, the paltry pay of federal judges. The diatribe against congressional corruption and greedy unions really undercut the efficacy of his plea for a pay raise. More than one of the lawyers in the audience wondered aloud about the propriety of the first two parts of his speech being given by a sitting federal judge.
ReplyDeleteReally? I hardly noticed.
ReplyDeleteThere has been a task force created to root out corruption in Washington. The leader of this task force? Barack Obama.
ReplyDeleteAnd by the way, the corrupt Republicans not mentioned by Judge Fay:
Randy "Duke" Cunningham (resigned from Congress after pleading guilty to taking more than $2 million in bribes in a criminal conspiracy involving at least three defense contractors)
Bob Ney (pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit fraud by taking money, gifts and favors in return for official actions on behalf of convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his clients.
Lewis "Scooter" Libby (former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney found guilty of obstruction of justice and perjury)
Tom Delay (currently defending money laundering charges)
Former Deputy Interior Secretary J. Steven Griles (an oil and gas lobbyist who became an architect of George W. Bush's energy policies, pleads guilty to obstructing justice by lying to a Senate committee)
Robert E. Coughlin II(DOJ official who did favors for clients of lobbyist Jack Abramoff while accepting free meals at upscale Washington restaurants and luxury-suite tickets to sports games paid for by Abramoff's former firm.)
And the list goes on