Free Republic

9th CIRCUIT COWBOY is the story of Judge Harry Pregerson who, for almost half a century, served on California’s famously liberal 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and was known for placing his personal scruples over what he discounted as abstract legalities. “I looked upon being a judge,” he said, “as a chance to help as many people as I could through the law.” Growing up during the Depression in diverse East Los Angeles, Harry enlisted in the Marines in World War II and served in the Pacific. In the bloody Battle for Okinawa, he received a field commission to lieutenant...

In a bitterly ironic counterpoint to the Supreme Court decision upholding restrictions on political speech by U.S. citizens, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit last week overturned legal provisions that prohibited providing "personnel" and "training" to foreign terrorist organizations because, the court said, such acts could be construed as forms of free expression. Carter-appointed Judge Harry Pregerson (see "Nullify the Nutty Ninth") wrote the opinion striking down parts of the 1996 Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA), which forbids giving "material support" to groups listed as terrorist organizations, and which defines "material...

<p>Do you want to see the recall election campaign drag out for six more months? Are you eager to spend the next half-year of your life watching Gray and Cruz and Arnold and Tom and Arianna relentlessly pander, prevaricate, posture and pontificate?</p>