Jose Padilla has filed suit against a number of members of the Bush administration. You remember Jose Padilla, aka Abdullah al-Muhajir. He was the famous dirty bomber who is currently serving a 17-year sentence for conspiracy.
Muhajir, which is the Muslim name he prefers, sits in the Supermax prison in Colorado and really has nothing else to do with his time, so he sued almost everyone involved with his detention.
Muhajir has sued Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, former Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz and about fifty others, including the guards at the Marine brig where he was held. Muhajir has also sued John Ashcroft and former Assistant Attorney General John Yoo.
The problem a number of these men now face is that the Department of Justice is no longer representing them in court. DOJ is still representing Gates. The others have to face funding their defense on their own. Without DOJ representation, they have to find a good lawyer. They are reimbursed for legal expenses up to $200 dollars an hour.
Sound impressive?
It isn’t. Even hack lawyers charge $200 an hour. To get the really good lawyers in this field, you are going to be paying around $1000 an hour.
Lurking in the background is something else. There is more than just Padilla filing law suits from his supermax cell. The ACLU is involved.
Padilla only seeks one dollar in damages. The really big bucks in this case come from the attorneys’ fees. If a jury (or in some instances a judge) agrees with Padilla, even if he gets only $1, because of the “civil rights” statute that he is suing under, he will be awarded attorneys fees. Those will run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Put another way, a lawyer is never cheap when he is on the other side’s dime.
As always, the ACLU is on the side of America’s enemies. They tried to expose the identity of undercover CIA operatives to terrorists, they have sued to try and have some of our most sensitive documents released and now they are continuing their war against conservatives.
Make no mistake about this. This is a war against conservatives. What the ACLU and the left want to do is make it where no conservative will want to be in government service. If the ACLU has its way, for conservatives, it would be four years of public service work, then twenty years of litigation following. And if the ACLU is lucky enough to have a sympathetic ear in the White House, the usual support that might be offered will not be. Many conservatives are going to think before they go into government service, if they can afford the litigation that will follow.
The real reform that needs to be made is stripping the attorney fee provision out of the civil rights laws. These have simply been tools to enrich liberal lawyers and bankrupt anyone who wants to stand in their way.
We need to get congress to take action so we can help put the law firm of treason out of business.
Permalink Reply by David R Aikens on Permalink Reply by D.W. Richards on Permalink Reply by dbadj1949@yahoo.com on Permalink Reply by Doc Franklin on 
Permalink Reply by Carmen O'nita Miller on Funny how we are trillions of $ in debt???? We help all foreign country's with billions of $. Why can't we help our own???? What if ??? your grandson/granddaughter, son/daughter, You your wife, was born or became very ill? U run out of money and insurance ??? Now imagine??? There is very little Medicare and no Medicaid....
Have U ever held a love one while they were dieing, because there was no money to obtain some prescriptions for a long an healthy life...Who is responsible for your loved ones Death??? You?? Your friend? The Governor?? The Senator?? The Congressmen?? The President Of the United States?? Who is going to commit This Massive MURDER ??? The Government ,and Most of all The President and His assanine ways...OOps The Muslims get Free Medical. Go Figure.
SUE THE SPIT OUT OF THEM ALL
Permalink Reply by Dave Maitland on Permalink Reply by Ron Boyer on 
Permalink Reply by Carla Virga on Permalink Reply by paco12348 on 
Permalink Reply by Nathan Wente on I am a conversative - however it is very clear to me that we are not getting both sides of the story in this article. With what I see in this article I absolutely DISAGREE with Mr.Phillips as to how he has reached his conclusion.
Quite frankly I DO NOT trust the government to not violate a person's civil liberities. As one who is intimately involved in day to day operations in a field of government where fundamental constitutional rights are at stake I see the general disregard by our government of citizen's rights.
I think this article is very one-sided and appears to be using the same scare tactics to invoke action that we see liberals make to create bigger government.
Permalink Reply by Carla Virga on Permalink Reply by Nathan Wente on The assertion is that we take away attorney's fees for suits alleging civil liberty violations. Without compensation attorney's have little, or severely reduced, incentive to represent citizens in suits alleging civil liberty violations. Without attorney's willing to represent citizens there are is no threat of a suit being brought. Without a threat you create a government with even less incentive to uphold citizen rights.
Unless you are ready to create another system to create incentive for government compliance with citizen rights I'm not sure how you are confused with the logical connection.
I'll ignore your silly concluding remark that does nothing to further discussion.
© 2013 Created by Judson Phillips.
