Magistrate Judge Torres Bonks Governor Scott on Intrusive Subpoena on ACLU.

Usually when you serve a subpoena to depose opposing counsel that means there is at least a fair chance you are a d$@k of a lawyer.

That's especially true when there's not even an arguable basis for how such a deposition fits within the broad discovery parameters of Rule 26.

But hey, that's our Governor:

We agree with the ACLU that the ACLU’s “knowledge and position” on employer drug testing, the prevalence of drug use, public opinion polls, and the effects of workplace drug use, have almost nothing to do with the claims or defenses in this case. Whatever the ACLU knows or believes about the frequency or propriety of employer drug testing or drug use simply has no relevance to the constitutional claim at issue – whether drug testing of these state employees in executive agencies is permissible under the Fourth Amendment. Neither does the ACLU’s knowledge or belief have any bearing on the Defendant’s affirmative defenses.

Oh yeah, one other thing -- the ACLU is counsel of record in the suit challenging the Governor's insipid drug-testing policy:

Finally, the most troubling aspect of these subpoenas is their impact on the ACLU’s role as counsel in the case on behalf of the Plaintiff. Obviously, such requests are generally disfavored. “Discovery was hardly intended to enable a learned profession to perfonn its functions . . . on wits borrowed from the adversary.” Hickman v. Taylor, 329 U.S. 495, 516 (1947) (Jackson, J., concurring). Both the attorney-client privilege and the work-product doctrine are implicated when an attorney deposes his or her adversary. If clients fear that their counsel may be deposed and forced to answer questions about the case, a chilling effect on clients’ candor with counsel may result. Similarly, knowing that they eventually may be deposed about their knowledge of documents and other facts connected with a case may lead attorneys to shield themselves from relevant facts, thereby resulting in less effective representation. 

Good thing we have the Governor to protect our constitutional liberties from the big bad ACLU.....

Glenn Garvin + Peter Tosh = BFF!

Can any serious policy maker defend the failed drug war on economic, moral, or practical grounds?

Is there anyone who doubts its disproportionate effects on the poor and minorities?

Or the "status-like" nature of a stop that predictably turns into a drug bust?

Even the contrarian bearded one, holed up in his college dorm with crappy seed-filled weed and a dog-eared copy of William F. Buckley's God and Man at Yale -- while the hippies outside met all the cute girls and had all the fun -- sees the wisdom in at least trying some kind of change:

But the cold fact is that U.S. drug-enforcement policy overwhelmingly targets not drug lords but the people to whom they sell. FBI statistics for 2007 show that more than 80 percent of U.S. drug arrests that year were for possession rather than sale, and that there were nearly twice as many arrests for marijuana as for heroin and cocaine combined.

When he was a military policeman, Vogt thought arresting people for using marijuana was weird: ``If we were called to a domestic dispute or a hostage situation, we worried about alcohol, not marijuana, because it's alcohol that makes people crazy.'' But it wasn't until after he left the military and opened a construction business in Port St. Lucie that he turned into an active opponent of marijuana laws.

``My son was arrested after a cop saw him smoking a joint in a parked car,'' Vogt said. ``He had to pay a fine of a couple of hundred dollars, which is not such a big deal, at least not for us. But college scholarships? Forget it. My son can't even get a simple job. He goes online to fill out an application to work at a hamburger chain, and he gets to that little box that says, `Have you ever been arrested?' And when he clicks yes, the next thing he sees on the screen is, SESSION ENDED.''

The worst, Vogt fears, is yet to come. He looks south across the border to Mexico, now the most murderous country in the world as a result of warfare between drug cartels competing for the U.S. market, and sees a grim vision of America's future.

``Prohibition creates crime and violence in our society that need not exist, except for the policy of prohibition itself,'' he said, shaking his head. ``We tried this with alcohol, and we had gangsters, just like Mexico does. And when we replaced Prohibition with a system of regulation and control, we got rid of the gangsters. You don't see Coors and Budweiser doing drive-by shootings or planting car bombs to increase their market share.''

Garvin, there's hope for you yet my friend.

Norm Kent Explains Why He Smokes Pot (Legally!)

I really enjoyed this Norm Kent piece on the stupidity of our nation's policy toward marijuana possession:

As a California patient, I am empowered to acquire cannabis lawfully at medical dispensaries. Under the California Health and Safety Code, I am also entitled to grow up to six plants of my own in my little apartment on the bay. I do not have to hide them from the authorities.

I joined the Oakland Cannabis Buyers’ Cooperative, and was issued a Growers Certificate. It affirms that any herbs I cultivate at home would be grown for my personal medical use. I was now at liberty to grow my own medicine. It is still called pot in Florida. We call it medicine in California.

Today, therefore, the same medicine I can consume lawfully in California I have to prevent people from going to jail for in Florida. It makes no sense. Fourteen states and scores of communities across our country have either decriminalized or ‘medicalized’ marijuana. It is not good enough. Americans still face one very large federal stumbling block.

Once again the small-g government types and state's rights folks can't manage to maintain the same principled approach that William F. Buckley did when it comes to our marijuana laws, leading to the absurd situation Normie details so well.

You can see Norm's thought process behind writing the piece at his snazzy blog here.