Overlawyered.com ARCHIVE -- JUNE 2000 - Giuliani's blatant forum-shopping (OUCH!!)

Overlawyered.com ^ | June 28, 2000 | staff

[pissant]

June 28 -- Giuliani's blatant forum-shopping. Time was when lawyers showed a guilty conscience about the practice of "shopping" for favorable judges, and were quick to deny that they'd attempted any such thing, lest people think their client's case so weak that other judges might have thrown it out of court. Now they openly boast about it, as in the case of New York City's recently announced plans to sue gun makers. The new legal action, reports Paul Barrett of the news-side Wall Street Journal, could "prove especially threatening to the industry because Mr. Hess (Michael Hess, NYC Corporation Counsel) said the city would file it in federal court in Brooklyn. The goal in doing so would be to steer the suit to the courtroom of U.S. District Judge Jack Weinstein, who is known for allowing creative liability theories. ... Mr. Hess said that New York will ask Judge Weinstein to preside over its suit because it is 'related' to the earlier gun-liability case [Hamilton v. Accu-Tek, now on appeal.]" (See also Nov. 1). ("New York City Intends to File Lawsuit Against Approximately 25 Gun Makers", June 20 (fee)).

[pissant]

I'm sure Rudy judge shopped for a strict constructionist!

[TommyDale]

At first I thought the headline referred to all the Rudybots here at FR.

[pissant]

High Caliber Justice

For more than 32 years, activist federal judge Jack Weinstein has used his Brooklyn courtroom as a cauldron for landmark cases, from Agent Orange to last month's trial finding manufacturers liable for illegal handgun sales. His justice may be blind, but it's not mute.

http://nymag.com/nymetro/news/crimelaw/features/893/

[flashbunny]

"At first I thought the headline referred to all the Rudybots here at FR."

I think that would be more like 'forum pimping'.

[pissant]

So we can add "judge shopper" to his list of qualifications.

[lormand]

• What he now says should matter
• He was Mayor of New York City, not Dallas, Texas
• But he is electable
• < enter more poor excuses for leadership and morals here >

[pissant]

And silly us, we thought the 2nd Amendment applied to Texans as well as NYers.

[Woodman]

You can't throw a stone without hitting an activist judge in NYC.

[pissant]

Probably true. But this was a federal judge, not a city guy.

[TommyDale]

So he was a "judge shopper" AND a ladies' garment shopper?

[TommyDale]

"What he now says should matter"

So was he lying then, or is he lying now?

[flashbunny]

A related and relevant blurb on the judge:

http://www.overlawyered.com/archives/99nov1.html#991101b

November 1 -- Not-so-Kool omen for NAACP suit. Apparently unconcerned about retaining the good will of Second Amendment advocates, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is suing gunmakers for having catered to strong demand for their product in inner cities (see Aug. 19 commentary). Its potential case, however, is widely regarded as weak -- so desperately weak that back on July 19 the National Law Journal reported the civil-rights group as angling to get the suit heard by Brooklyn's very liberal senior-status federal judge Jack Weinstein because the underlying theories "might not succeed in any other courtroom in America".

Now there's another omen that the much-publicized lawsuit is unlikely to prevail: in Philadelphia, federal judge John Padova has dismissed a proposed class action which charged cigarette makers with selling in unusually high volume to black customers and targeting them with menthol brands and billboard ads. To bring a civil rights claim, the judge wrote, "[p]laintiffs would have to contend that the tobacco products defendants offer for sale to African Americans were defective in a way that the products they offer for sale to whites were not." If a racial angle can't be grafted onto the legal jihad against cigarette makers, is the same tactic likely to be any more successful when directed at gun makers?

[pissant]

Cmon now, I'm sure he's really a strict constructionist in liberal activist clothing.

[SWAMPSNIPER]

But, HILARY WOULD BE WORSE !!

[Emmett McCarthy]

Well, he's in somebody else's clothing for sure.

[Emmett McCarthy]

Well, he's in somebody else's clothing for sure.

[pissant]

Feel the love PING

[SWAMPSNIPER]

"So was he lying then, or is he lying now?"

---

YES !!

[pissant]

I'm OK with his crossdressing. I'm not fine with his pretending to be a conservative.

[dmw]

"So was he lying then, or is he lying now?"

Lips moving=Lying (then and now)