County accepts grant, takes on bayous cleanup - Advantage ...

A4 Tuesday, June 16, 2009 The Vicksburg Post
THE VICKSBURG POST
EDITORIAL
Founded by John G. Cashman in 1883 Louis P. Cashman III, Editor & Publisher • Issued by Vicksburg Printing & Publishing Inc., Louis P. Cashman III, President
Charlie Mitchell, executive editor | E-mail: post@vicksburg.com | Tel: 601.636.4545 ext 132 | Letters to the editor: post@vicksburg.com or The Vicksburg Post, P.O. Box, 821668, Vicksburg, MS 39182
JACK VIX SAYS: The bayou drainage project will be good for Vicksburg and Warren <strong>County</strong>.
OUR OPINION
For sale
If case is a loser, just buy a judge
Light summer reading?
A John Grisham plot?
A company owned by a coal
tycoon is sued for illegally
destroying a rival business —
and gets whacked by a jury. The
verdict comes in at $50 million,
plus punitive damages. When the
case heads for appeal, the tycoon
funnels more than $3 million
into a political race for the state
supreme court. The contributions
are designed to unseat an incumbent
justice — and are perfectly
legal.
The challenger wins with 53.3
percent of the vote. The tycoon’s
company comes before the state
supreme court, and on a 3-2 vote,
the verdict is set aside.
The new justice refuses to step
away from the case. He votes
with the majority.
Real intrigue follows. The state
supreme court votes to rehear
the appeal. One of the justices
who voted with the majority
removes himself after photos surfaced
showing him vacationing
with the tycoon (on the French
Riviera) while the case was
pending.
One of the justices who voted to
uphold the verdict, meanwhile,
also recuses himself. He had criticized
the tycoon for pouring millions
of dollars into the judicial
election — calling into question
his impartiality.
But the new justice again
refuses to step aside. Indeed, by
now, he is acting chief justice, and
it falls to him to appoint replacements
for the two justices who
removed themselves from the
case.
The court again sets aside the
jury verdict.
The answer to the questions at
the outset are no and yes. The
facts are real — real enough that
they were adapted by Grisham.
Last Monday, the U.S. Supreme
Court supplied the Hollywood
ending. The case of the coal
tycoon and multimillion-dollar
campaign contributions is, in fact,
Caperton v. A.T. Massey Coal Co.
and arose in West Virginia.
In a 5-4 decision, the high court
held that the tycoon’s big money
violates due process — specifically,
“when a person with a personal
stake in a particular case
had a significant and disproportionate
influence in placing a
judge on a case by raising funds
or directing the judge’s election
campaign when the case was
pending or imminent.”
Chief Justice John Roberts
wrote the main dissent in the
Caperton case. He said he “fears”
the decision would lead litigants
to argue in courts across
the country that contributions
in judicial elections have undermined
judges’ impartiality and
ability to provide due process.
There’s no need for Roberts to
worry. Money already has poisoned
judicial elections. Parties
that make large contributions
and judges who accept them
should be called out for participating
in transactions that create
the appearance of justice for sale.
Indeed, reform will come only if
citizens complain — loudly and
vehemently.
Sadly, too few pay attention to
the courts and the fact that justice
can be and sometimes is for
sale.
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OLD POST FILES
120 YEARS AGO: 1889
A.L. Blanks is in Birmingham on business. • Michael Bove
and Miss Minnie Berger are married at St. Paul’s Catholic
Church. A reception follows at the home of Vincent
Lavecchia.
110 YEARS AGO: 1899
The Y&MV baseball team wins 13-10 over the Q&C team in
a game at Ken Karyl park.
100 YEARS AGO: 1909
Dr. H.F. Sproles returns from New York where he was
taking a post graduate course.
90 YEARS AGO: 1919
Supervisor E.S. Martin officiates at the marriage of Addie
Green and Stanley Wilson. The ceremony is held at the
Illinois Memorial.
80 YEARS AGO: 1929
Mr. and Mrs. Robert Selby welcome a baby girl.
70 YEARS AGO: 1939
Charles E. Crook is elected chairman of the Mike Conner
campaign forces in Warren <strong>County</strong>.
60 YEARS AGO: 1949
Mrs. Joseph Pugh, a former resident of Vicksburg, dies in
Hamilton, Texas.
50 YEARS AGO: 1959
Gubernatorial candidate Ross Barnett visits Vicksburg on
a campaign tour.
40 YEARS AGO: 1969
International Paper Company begins test loading a new
type vessel that promises to revolutionize shipping at
inland ports. The LASH system will consist of “lighters,”
barge-like vessels operating from inland points to a “mother
ship” anchored at a seaport.
30 YEARS AGO: 1979
Services are held for Warren Funches.
20 YEARS AGO: 1989
The Warren <strong>County</strong> Vicksburg Public Library formally
ends a 12-year association with the Jackson Metropolitan
Library System. • Warren Central pitcher Randy
Wright signs to play at Mississippi College. • This summer’s
most hyped movie, “Batman,” draws a capacity crowd
in Vicksburg.
10 YEARS AGO: 1999
James Leon Adams, Vicksburg native, dies in Durham, N.C.
• Melissa Buford wins honorable mention for her entry in
the USA Today Collegiate Challenge advertising contest. •
Sheriff Martin Pace is honored for his participation in the
Sheriffs’ Anti-Litter Campaign.
MODERATELY CONFUSED
by Bill Stahler
The role of resolutions is to fuel rhetoric
EMILY
WAGSTER
PETTUS
Does anyone think the Congress
sits around in Washington waiting
for advice from the Mississippi Legislature?
Or that folks in Eastabuchie
or Escatawpa care whether senators
or representatives at the state Capitol
commend or condemn a particular
program or proposal?
Mississippi legislators have sponsored
resolutions this year that had a
lot to do with making political statements
and little to do with solving
the substantial problems they were
elected to handle.
Democratic Rep. Jim Evans of Jackson,
an unabashed liberal, sponsored
House Concurrent Resolution 25,
to commemorate April 28, 2009, as
Workers Memorial Day. Evans has
worked as a national staff member
for the AFL-CIO, and his resolution
clearly was intended to show support
for the union’s work. The resolution
even mentioned the AFL-CIO in its
opening phrase.
Republican Rep. Greg Snowden of
Meridian, an outspoken conservative,
sponsored House Concurrent
Resolution 129 to urge the U.S. attorney
general and the federal Bureau
of Prisons not to transfer any Guantanamo
Bay terrorism detainees to
prisons in Mississippi.
Evans’ resolution passed the House
early this year, but only after a debate
that stretched into legislation pending
in Congress.
The AFL-CIO is among the supporters
of the federal “Employee Free
Choice Act,” which would make it
Mississippi legislators have
sponsored resolutions this year
that had a lot to do with making
political statements and little to
do with solving the substantial
problems they were elected to
handle.
easier for workers to organize for
collective bargaining. The act would
let a majority of employees at a work
site form a union by signing cards,
taking away employers’ right to
demand secret-ballot elections.
Evans’ resolution originally said
Workers Memorial Day was designed
to recognize “the right of workers to
organize and join unions without
employer interference or intimidation.”
House Republicans amended
it to say nothing should be done
to deny workers “a secure secret
ballot vote in all union representation
elections.”
Essentially, the Republicans made
Evans’ resolution say exactly the
opposite of what he wanted. The resolution
eventually died for lack of a
vote in the Republican-controlled
Senate Rules Committee.
Snowden had 62 co-sponsors for
his we-don’t-want-no-Gitmo resolution
— just over half of the House
members.
Mississippi is not alone in saying no
to Guantanamo detainees as President
Barack Obama discusses closing
the U.S. military prison in Cuba.
Legislators in several other states
have adopted similar resolutions.
Snowden’s resolution said that
“despite the best efforts of federal
and state corrections authorities,
these detainees, if transferred stateside
to facilities in American communities
and neighborhoods, would
present a significant threat to the
American people at large, and, most
especially, to those people located
near any detention facility.”
The resolution passed the House
overwhelmingly in the final days of
the regular legislative session, with
little debate. Opponents didn’t even
mention that prisons in Mississippi
have already hosted hardened criminals
from other places — including
Hawaiian inmates who rioted in
2005 at a privately run prison in the
tiny Mississippi Delta community of
Tutwiler.
The anti-Guantanamo resolution
died for lack of action in the Senate.
Neither Snowden’s resolution nor
Evans’ would have had much impact
on decision-makers outside the Mississippi
Capitol. Still, they gave legislators
something to talk about back
home, which is why it’s safe to bet
that other lawmakers will be filing
similar resolutions in the future.
•
Emily Wagster Pettus lives in Jackson and covers
Mississippi for The Associated Press.