I am in New Mexico today to speak at the first conference of the New Mexico Chapter of the Federal Bar Association. The establishment of the chapter is a significant milestone for the New Mexico bar, which only recently celebrated the 100th anniversary of New Mexico’s statehood. The chapter will finally integrate the New Mexico bar into the national association of lawyers practicing in the federal system.
I will have the honor of serving as the conference keynote speaker on Friday. I will be discussing my proposal for the reform of the United States Supreme Court, including an expansion of the Court to 19 members. I proposed this expansion years ago in the belief that the Court is demonstrably too small. As discussed in prior articles, the expansion of the Court would bring it closer to the size of other national courts in other countries and reduce the occurrence of a single justice controlling outcomes on the Court.
I was able to see some of the awesome balloons as part of the annual festival. They are really a sight to see against the clear blue sky of New Mexico. This is an incredibly friendly city. One couple at the airport even told me about their home town of Turley Mill NM. Turley made whiskey in the 1800s but was massacred in the fighting during the upraising over the US takeover of the territory.
My only regret is that I cannot stay to enjoy Albuquerque, New Mexico, but I have to get back to Washington. The greatest challenge was trying to fly here last night while keeping track of the Bears-Giants game. I was able to cheer for the Bears in an airport bar in Chicago, but had to get my connecting flight after the first quarter. The pilot was good enough to let us know the score during the flight.
[By the way, during my travels I occasionally let readers know of a good or bad find in hotels or restaurants. Happily, I usually only report positive finds. However, I thought I would warn people about Hyatt Place hotels. We booked the Hyatt Place Uptown thinking it was a standard Hyatt. It does appear to be part of the chain but it was a nightmare. I arrived a little before midnight. I was given a room next to the elevator that sounded like a helicopter taking off. That did not matter however because next to the bed was a huge air unit that rattled and knocked like a monster truck. My favorite feature however was the light next to the bed. I turned it on only to discover that the switch could not be turned off. Since it was now 1 am, I stayed in the room with the light on and the East German air unit pounding away. This was a room that went for over $200 a night. It would have been better to stay at the airport for night. I am astonished that Hyatt lends its name to the chain, but it is not one that I am likely to encounter again. I just wanted to warn our own travelers to be careful on the confusion with Hyatt hotels.]
And the Bears did go on barely…..
Normally the Hyatt Place is fairly decent…..
Hope New Mexico enjoys the Federal Bar…..
“I will be discussing my proposal for the reform of the United States Supreme Court, including an expansion of the Court to 19 members.” (JT)
Keep on keeping on!
Re the hotel … duly noted
NO members of the BAR should be employed by the people.
All BARs are organization that have deprived many Citizens their right to practice law. It has created a monopolization of price fixing, collusion, corruption and a protection racket, like none other in the world. Next to the Federal Reserve Bank and other central banks around the world, the enforcement of the UPL laws are the single most destructive element that has caused the destruction of the rule of law in our country. Judges around the country constantly ignore statutes, rules of procedures and constantly usurp individual rights and allow prosecutorial corruption to a point where it is an epidemic. Many people believe as I do, that it is the UPL laws that create the incentives to blatantly undermine the rule of law. Protecting ones ticket has become more important than providing and protecting justice and honest attorneys will tell you this if you are willing to listen to all the stories.
Sorry about you hotel stay in Albuquerque. Nest time, try the Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites Albuquerque Historic Old Town. It is owned by the All Indian Pueblo Council and is across the street from its cultural center.
http://www.indianpueblo.org/
Billy Rogers,
That’s the third time you’ve posted that link. Stop spamming.
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20131011_Video_shows_aggressive_stop_and_frisk_in_Philly_that_ACLU_calls__abusive_.html
I like the notion of a change on the Supreme Court. Start with regional and cultural diversity. Right now we have six of nine Justices from Jersey or New York. All hail from Harvard or Yale. None ever represented a criminal defendant in a jury trial. One represented the government in a criminal trial. All were clerks for other judges. When one listens to oral argument on CSPAN, all you hear is this New Yorkie accents quibbling. Sometimes Breyer will chimne in with his phony baloney. Thomas never speaks. Scalia cant shut up.
How about 11 Justices, one from each Circuit? No more than one from Harvard and/or Yale. Require trial experience. How about legislative experience too. Give me an Earl Warren, Hugo Black or William Brennan.
If you’re regretting that you can’t enjoy Albuquerque, I won’t rub it in by mentioning Santa Fe. Oops, I did.
What crap are they teaching our kids? The importance of the Bill of Rights apparently. One doesn’t realize the importance of water until one doesn’t have any. Same with rights.
this is the crap they are teaching our kids in school?!?
Worksheet asks children to remove parts of the Bill of Rights S
A student in Bryant School District in Arkansas brought home a worksheet that presented her with a scenario that referred to the Bill of Rights as “outdated” and that as part of a special committee she would need to throw out two of the Amendments.
The worksheet was handed out to Sixth grade students in a History class. According to the girl’s mother, Lela Spears, she has not received any government or civics classes and this was the first assignment dealing with the Constitution or Bill of Rights. The school district is participating in the embattled Common Core curriculum.
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/359714
Have a great presentation Professor and Go Bears!!
Scott L.,
Almost all the abuses of civil liberties in America first happened on the State and local levels. They are the most easily corrupted. “Jim Crow” laws for one instance and its antecedent slavery.
One of my favorite states, a great mix of people and cultures. Hopefully you had some Mexican food w/ red, green, or Christmas chili sauce.
“may be resumed by . . . the people.”- James Madison
Of course, Madison and his cohorts meant white, landed or wealthy males when he wrote of “the people.” And yeah, the voter suppression laws, the misogynist restrictions of a woman to own her own body — the first and foremost of all human rights — the Koch funded tea party movements, the knee jerk reactionary opposition of all things Obama give ample evidence of Madison’s “the people” resuming their power.
Folks, the civil war amendments and the 17th, 19th, and 24th amendments obviated a great deal of the reasoning found in the the Federalist Papers
Scott Lazarowitz 1, October 11, 2013 at 6:03 am
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The Supremes side with the State and the police over the individual most of the time. They rarely come to the side of liberty. Given human nature and history, you think adding more members will change that?
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At least the discussion will put some focus on the dysfunctional direction the Supremes are taking in their current conservative activism.
Hmmm. Expanding the Supreme Court from 9 ignorant and corrupt political hacks to 19 ignorant and corrupt political hacks.
Why not 29? Or 39? You think that adding more fools to this State-monopoly of “authority” will do anything to protect our liberty? The Supreme Bureaucrats rarely shoot down government laws and policies as “unconstitutional,” even though most of the laws and policies before them really are unconstitutional. They are a joke.
When the states created the federal government, that federal government was to be the states’ third-party agent. And the states were to be the boss of that agent. They didn’t intend for a federal “Supreme Court” to have the absolute final say on anything!
But now it is in the total reverse of that, in which, as long as Chief Apparatchik John Roberts says we must obey the federal government’s criminal medical intrusions, then that’s that. You see, now the feds are the boss, and we had better follow their orders, or else!
The Supremes side with the State and the police over the individual most of the time. They rarely come to the side of liberty. Given human nature and history, you think adding more members will change that?
Please oh please speak of nothing but the decay of Civil Liberties
“The powers granted by the proposed Constitution are the gift of the people, and may be resumed by them when perverted to their oppression, and every power not granted thereby remains with the people.”- James Madison