I have long been critical of the indictment of former Texas Governor Rick Perry. Two years ago, Perry was indicted by a grand jury in Austin on charges of abuse of power. The charges stem from Perry carrying out a threat to veto funding the budget for the Travis County Public Integrity Unit, which handles political corruption investigations. The charges have now been dismissed but I remain concerned that such charges were brought in the first place.
District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg had been arrested for drunk driving and was widely criticized for her conduct while in custody. She refused to resign even after been sentenced to jail and Perry carried out his threat. I have been critical of Perry in the past and I believe that his veto was wrongheaded. However, I viewed the indictment as deeply troubling on a separation of powers basis and the result of the extension of criminal provisions with tangential applicability to this type of dispute.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled that the actions against Perry was unconstitutional in limiting the veto power and that prosecuting Perry over his action violates “the separation of powers provision of the Texas Constitution.” It further found that the action infringed on Perry’s First Amendment right to freedom of speech.
Here is the opinion: Ex Parte Rick Perry
Well, no doubt Perry is happy about this…Wait…happy . . .hmmm. “Gay” maybe in the old sense of the word. . .WOW!!! I just thought of an Irish Poem!!!
Gay Per-ry???
A Three Stanza Irish Poem Summary by Squeeky Fromm
A Prosecutrix named “Rosemary”,
Blew an alcohol level of “VERY!”
The Guv’ner said, “WHAT???”
“You must fire this sot!”
“Or, your funding I’ll veto and bury!”
But Liberal panties — My God!
Got into a hell of a wad.
Sooo, they got excited-
And the Guv’ner indicted—
Which legally was pretty odd.
But, the Democrat hacks and their shills,
Have just been prescribed “bitter pills.”
“You exceeded your reach!”
And as for “free speech!”
Said the Court, “You are giving it chills!!!”
🙂
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Girl Reporter: A liberal A+ for effort with those three stanzas, but a conservative D- for it having no relationship to a successful business model with which you can be financially successful.
stevegroen – poets do not have a successful business model. To make it pay they have to take up teaching as a sideline.
Paul Schulte: In the race to the bottom in abusing prosecutorial discretion for political gain, Lehmberg has nothing on Milwaukee District Attorney John Chisholm in his investigation of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s supporters. http://reason.com/archives/2015/10/21/forced-silence
Since Prof Turley is so interested in Texas politics and criminal justice, I have yet to see anything about the Attorney General of Texas case for felonies he was indicted for. Should Paxton resign, or should we follow the opinion of Guv Abbott, that we should wait until the trial before he leaves office? Too bad Lehmberg did not get the same consideration.
Concerning politicians who utter the words “Do you know who I am?”
~+~
The proper response to a politician saying this is…
“Sorry, I don’t. But I know a good psychiatrist that can help you with that problem.”
Yes. Any other stupid questions?
The fact is that before she was convicted, Perry had demanded her resignation. Then he cut out the funds to halt the investigations into his slush fund which was mismanaged and broke a number of laws regarding the oversight. Yet we have the AG of the state of Texas arrested and going to trial on FELONY charges, and he is still on the job with the FULL endorsement of the Guv Abbott. I doubt even if Paxton is found guilty that he will serve even a day in prison since Abbott will undoubtedly pardon him. Or the bought and paid for judges on the Criminal Appeals Court will overturn any conviction as they did for DeLay when they ruled that a check is NOT considered CASH under the law. Thus writing a check for cashing into a bank account is not considered as cash. That is creative judicial parsing of words. I wonder if Scalia would have approved.
Then speaking from personal experience, I got one DUI and spent just one night in jail, and got probation, no jail time. As one observer reported, Lehmberg’s sentence to jail set a RECORD for severity in Travis County. I wonder what Prof Turley’s response to that is since it is obvious that her position played a large part in putting her in jail for the misdemeanor and first time DUI. Should public officials be subjected to extra time in prison for a misdemeanor that exceed that of the ordinary citizen?
RandyJet writes in part: “I got one DUI and spent just one night in jail, and got probation, no jail time. As one observer reported, Lehmberg’s sentence to jail set a RECORD for severity in Travis County.”
A very fair point. Still, in the video, she – that county’s top public servant – was trying to deny what was clearly true. She can’t be trusted with the public good if she’ll deny her own personal mistakes. There’s no second chance at that level. She should have been circular-filed.
You hear “Do you know who I am” in Chicago all the time.
Am I the only one who really was pleased seeing the District Attorney restrained while she gritted her teeth as if she was ‘really going to do something now!’? I cannot believe she was not referred from employment as that county’s top law enforcement officer after that shenanigan in her poor attempt to feign sobriety.
Imagine her judgment. She’s a bit like Al Haig telling the press after Reagan was shot that he’s got everything under control at the White House.
Nick writes, “You hear ‘Do you know who I am’ in Chicago all the time.”
There may be good reasons for this:
1. Long lines at the men’s restroom during the seventh-inning stretch at Wrigley Field.
2. Anyone named Mustafa at O’Hare check-in and baggage claim.
3. Horrendous delay in table service at Pizzeria Uno.
4. ?
Politicians who utter the words “Do you know who I am?” should be ineligible for public office.
Pay back time.
Paul S
Excellent non-sequitur.
How come you didn’t blame Scalia’s death on Hillary?
I’m not in a position to discuss the IRS issue in any detail here, but if Trey and other Republicans had been serious about finding out the truth, they would have granted immunity to Lois Lerner. They didn’t do that, likely because they knew or suspected that what she would have said would not have fit their narrative.
Don de Drain – if Lerner was not such a valuable Democratic operative why was she moved to the State Dept to help with the Clinton emails?
“the action infringed on Perry’s First Amendment right to freedom of speech. ”
Yep, another case of money is protected speech.
Paul S
I knew it. Christie’s problems are all the Democrats’ fault! Just like Hillary’s problems are all the Republicans’ fault.
Perry’s problems are just karma biting him in the posterior. The prosecutor may be a hack, but so is he. He’s today’s John Conally. Even without the indictment he might have earned a few delegates at most.
Don de Drain – I am not big on conspiracy theories, however, the DNC has clearly laid out the red carpet for Hillary. We know that Obama has had the IRS tie-up the Tea Party applications in the government for years. People have been audited more times than they should have. Do you think party stalwarts would be against filing criminal charges against potential candidates? I think we have reached the point in Hillary’s campaign where we are going to begin to see some suspicious deaths. If I were Huma or Mills I would hire my own body guards.
There is some thought that the case against Perry was part of a series of actions against Republicans who could possibly defeat Hillary in 2016. Playing the long game, if you can tie a potential opponent up in a criminal lawsuit or even investigation, you take them off the table. Another to get hit with this tactic was Christie of NJ.
Rosemary Lehmberg is a alcoholic hack DA. The fact that she’s still the DA in Travis county is a travesty. She prosecutes DWI and DUI cases.
Not only was she drunk, she drove backwards, she has a open bottle of vodka in between her legs and she was put in a safety cell because she was a threat to herself and others. They even had to put a no spit veil on her head.
Another city in Texas that is bad for keeping convicted DWI/DUI people employed, is the City of Allen.
Their court manager and warrant clerk both have DWI/DUI convictions. They had to remove their warrant search server from their courthouse to the police Dept because they were no longer allowed to do searches on them. Yet they act as court officers in a civil proceeding. They literally arrested the court manager and she also hit two cars the night she was drunk. The county didn’t arrest her for 9 days, after the results of her blood test were revealed. Anybody else, would have been arrested that night.
The City of Allen will not hire people with Class A/B Misdemeanors but they sure harbor them as employees.
One of the most common criticisms of government is that its employees are unaccountable. Behavior that would get anyone fired in the public sector just gets laughed off, right before they get another raise.
We just had a similar case on this blog where a young doctor was videoed drunk in public and abusing an Uber driver.
There needs to be some mechanism in place for misbehavior, negligence, or poor job performance to affect their employment. Requiring someone to resign voluntarily seems like a poor protection for the public. Shkreli, of Turing Pharmaceutical infamy, for example, would likely not have stepped down based on his own conscience. Oh no, he would have merrily gone on overcharging for their toxoplasmosis drug so that patients of little means would die.
Vetoing their budget may have not been the best approach. However, if he was legally allowed to veto a budget, then he didn’t break any laws. She seems entitled in her fight to avoid consequences.
The opinion is a bit long and wordy. I do not understand why the prosecutor dwi thing and Perry are mingled here.
Rick Perry. If I could buy him for what he is worth and sell him for what he thinks he is worth, I could retire a multimillionaire.
Luckily for the DA, she probably didn’t remember anything from her booking antics caught nicely on video. (Notice too how police can record, but non-governmentals can’t.) Perry was right: she should have resigned. I can’t believe she was allowed to return to work. At least she didn’t say, “Do you know who I am?” She just said, “I’m not an attorney; I’m the District Attorney.”
Power corrupts. (Enter Hillary, stage right of center.)
Regardless of the constitutional and political ramifications, one should take a look at the arrest and booking video in Professor Turley’s first link in the article. This woman’s tested BAC% was .239! That she was still standing and able to speak intelligibly is incredible. Though she is from Austin, there isn’t frat boy at UT that could keep up with her. She should be given a 2nd term on the strength of her liver alone!
What a shocker, not.