I don’t have a source for this (I’m excerpting the quote from Justoneminute), but Judge Walton apparently made a footnote on the request by these guys to submit their briefing. His footnote reads as follows:
“It is an impressive show of public service when twelve prominent and distinguished current and former law professors of well-respected schools are able to amass their collective wisdom in the course of only several days to provide their legal expertise to the Court on behalf of a criminal defendant. The Court trusts that this is a reflection of these eminent academics’ willingness in the future to step to the plate and provide like assistance in cases involving any of the numerous litigants, both in this Court and throughout the courts of our nation, who lack the financial means to fully and properly articulate the merits of their legal positions even in instances where failure to do so could result in monetary penalties, incarceration, or worse. The Court will certainly not hesitate to call for such assistance from these luminaries, as necessary in the interests of justice and equity, whenever similar questions arise in the cases that come before it.”
As you may recall, in the very early days Team Libby argued that the appointment was unconstitutional and Judge Walton did not agree and made the decision to move the case forward. Yet now he is claiming these individuals just threw this together in a few days; he is demeaning the collective intellect and good works of these lawyers in his little footnote. What a clymer.
What a snarky and arrogant footnote from Walton. A real clymer.
If that quote is correct, one could read that last sentence to be a threat to appoint them as pro bono counsel in indigent cases in retaliation for submitting an amicus brief on the topic.