| CBS News |
| “That’s not how lawsuits work,” the exasperated judge told Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer’s legal team |
You probably thought that Arizona Governor Jan Brewer’s recent anti-medical-marijuana lawsuit — through which she sought to thwart the will of Arizona’s voters, as expressed at the polls — was not only an exercise in futility, but also damn silly as well.
Turns out that you’re not the only one who thinks so. U.S. District Court Judge Susan Bolton agrees, and she gave quite a spanking to Gov. Brewer and Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne on January 4 while dismissing the lawsuit.
The dismissal came after a December 12 hearing that didn’t go well for one of Atty. Gen. Horne’s lawyers, reports Ray Stern at Phoenix New Times. Horne — go figure — decided to stay away from this one and sent assistant AG Lori Davis to “take one for the team,” New Times reports.
In the transcript, the hapless Davis “absorbs the flurry of legal blows” from Judge Bolton, Stern reports, who took a “you gotta-be-kidding-me” approach to the state’s untenable legal position.
Gov. Brewer and Atty. Gen. Horne had nonsensically claimed their silly lawsuit was “neutral” since filing it last May — even as they begged the federal government to block implementation of the law approved by Arizona’s voters. They firmly opposed, before and after the November 2010 vote, the medical marijuana supporters and the citizens who passed the law.
But, of course, openly opposing the will of the voters could be seen as, not surprisingly, politically dangerous, and besides, it violated the Arizona Voter Protection Act — which, by the way, was passed because of the Arizona Legislature thwarting the will of the voters on at least two previous occasions when they had already approved medical marijuana.
So they couldn’t openly take a side — and Judge Bolton called Davis out on it.
“That’s not how lawsuits work,” she told Davis on page 21 of her ruling. “The plaintiff takes a position and doesn’t take two diametrically opposed positions. You have to advocate your position.”
But the unfortunate Davis had to forge ahead “with the bad lines her boss gave her,” New Times reports.
Here’s some more good reading from page 30 of the transcript:
THE COURT: At a minimum though, don’t I have to force you to amend to decide which side of this you’re on, because you have to take a side?DAVIS: Well, Your Honor, that certainly could be part of the Court’s order and we would consider whatever the Court has — if the Court —THE COURT: You don’t agree you have to take a side?MS. DAVIS: I believe we have taken a side, Your Honor, and I’m going to point out —THE COURT: Which side?
Judge Bolton’s dry sense of humor shines through as she describes what could happen next:
“And once you decide which position to take, we’re probably going to have to realign the defendants, because some will be with you and some will be against you. I don’t know which ones. We could get the federal government with the State of Arizona, which would be refreshing, or we could get all of the medical marijuana people with the State of Arizona against the federal government, which would be more traditional, and go from here possibly.”
“You’re going to have to pick at some point,” the judge scolded Davis. “I won’t make you do it today in front of this whole audience.”
Dispensaries are scheduled to begin opening in Arizona in July.
To read the entire court transcript, click here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/80062839/Transcript-of-Bolton-Pot-Hearing