From the Wool-sack

• Publication year: 2003
• Pages: 77
• Citation: Vol. 32 No. 10 Pg. 77

32 Colo.Law. 77 Colorado Lawyer 2003.

2003, October, Pg. 77. From The Wool-Sack

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77

Vol. 32, No. 10, Pg. 77

The Colorado Lawyer
October 2003
Vol. 32, No. 10 [Page 77]

Departments
From The Wool-Sack
From The Wool-Sack
by Christopher R Brauchli

Chris Brauchli practices law in the firm of Hutchinson Black & Cook LLC in Boulder, Colorado. He can be reached at brauchli.56@post.harvard.edu

You cannot possibly have a broader basis for any
government than that which includes all the
people with all their rights in their hands, and
with an equal power to maintain their rights

William Lloyd Garrison

It all makes perfect sense until you think about it That's how a lot of things are in the Bush world. The most recent example came from Mark Quinlivan, a lawyer in the Ashcroft Justice Department. He addressed the annual meeting of the American Bar Association held in August in San Francisco. Individuals invited to speak are supposed to say something interesting. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy demonstrated how that is done

Addressing the group on August 9, 2003, Justice Kennedy told the lawyers that too many people are imprisoned in the United States. He pointed out that one American in 143 is incarcerated, compared with one in 1,000 in many European countries. He called for the repeal of mandatory-minimum sentences for federal crimes saying: "Our resources are being misspent. Our punishments are too severe. Our sentences are too long." He said mandatory minimum sentences can produce "harsh and unjust" results.

Justice Kennedy's comments were thoughtful and thought-provoking. They provided a nice contrast to the comments of Mark Quinlivan, who propounded the preposterous to the assembled lawyers. Quinlivan told the assembly that people in California who voted to legalize marijuana for medical use were exactly like the people in the South in the middle of the twentieth century who espoused segregation. Until Quinlivan spoke, it is safe to say, that thought had occurred to no one outside the Ashcroft Justice Department. It is that kind of creative, if somewhat antediluvian, anti-Republican thinking that has distinguished that department under Attorney General Ashcroft.

The concept Quinlivan propounded was antediluvian because of its content, and anti-Republican because Republicans claim to dislike it when the federal government tells...