Here is the press release from the University of Hawaii Law School: “UH Law School Graduate Named Law Clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.”
Ht.
Supreme Court clerks
ICT Editorial on Cert Pool Memos & Indian Law
You can read my newest Indian Country Today editorial here or here.
Here’s the text:
Each year, the U.S. Supreme Court chooses which appeals it wishes to decide. In most years, the court decides to hear fewer than 80 cases out of several thousand appeals. These usually include cases in which there is a split of authority in lower courts (often called a ”circuit split,” referencing the 13 federal circuit courts of appeals), cases in which a lower court has committed a gross error or cases in which there is a critical constitutional issue at stake. Cases in which there is no split, cases that will affect only a few people, cases involving simple correction of a minor lower court error or cases involving an unimportant issue are unlikely to be heard by the court.
Larry Plamondon and the “Keith Case”
We had the pleasure of hearing the story of Larry Plamondon, a member of the Grand River Band of Ottawa Indians, who was the defendant in the famous “Keith Case,” known in the U.S. Reporter as United States v. District Court, 407 U.S. 297 (1972). The “Keith Case” was announced by the Court on June 19, 1972 — two days after the famous Watergate burglary.
Here’s how Larry tells it in his memoir, “Lost From the Ottawa: The Story of the Journey Back.”
“Though I didn’t know it at the time this Supreme Court decision and the Watergate break-in were connected. Years later it was explained to me.
“It went down like this: The Justices decided the Supreme Court wiretap issue on Friday the 16th of June. According to Court rules the decision was to be kept secret until it was released by the Court [–] in this case, the following Monday. However, someone at the High Court (Rehnquist, or his clerk?) notified the White House and informed them the wiretap issue had been lost.
“This meant that any wiretaps installed by the Executive branch, or its agents, or Nixon’s re-election committee would be illegal on Monday, the 19th, when the ruling was made public. The Watergate burglars were sent in to the Democratic National Headquarters to retrieve the electronic listening devices on Saturday, the 18th of June, before the Monday release of the decision made warrantless wiretaps unconstitutional. The rest, as they say, sucks.”
Plamondon at 276.
I haven’t been able to find (in my ten minutes of research) whether or not anyone other than Larry and a couple conspiracy theorists have made this serious claim. If Rehnquist, who sat out the Keith case deliberations because he was personally involved in the prosecution of Larry Plamondon, or one of his clerks, called the White House to give them a heads up about the outcome AND that communication inspired the Watergate break-in, then … whew!
Turtle Talk 