The far right's most dangerous lawyer: James Bopp, Jr.

James Bopp Jr., currently filing suit to derail Iowa's judicial nomination process, may be the most dangerous, underestimated, and busy attorney on the far right. A special counsel for Focus on the Family, he is also helping NOM evade campaign disclosure laws in several states. Bopp eviscerated McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform legislation by initiating the Citizens United case, which Ted Olson, — yes that Ted Olson — argued successfully before the Supreme Court. How does he do it?

Bopp has a knack for finding provisions in campaign finance laws that have been taken for granted for decades as acceptable restrictions on corporate speech. Then, he makes ACLU-like arguments that such rules violate the First Amendment. Part of Bopp's genius lies in his choice of clients. Although his cases ultimately benefit powerful corporations, their public faces are usually small advocacy groups like Wisconsin Right to Life or Citizens United that are seeking to participate in political debate. Perhaps most impressive, he crafts cases that appear persuasive to people who do not share his agenda (he is a staunch conservative and member of the Republican National Committee). As a journalist and civil libertarian, I was deeply conflicted about the Citizens United case. After viewing the Hillary documentary, I thought Americans ought to be able to watch it on television if they wanted to, and was sympathetic to Bopp's argument that the campaign finance rules in this case resulted in censorship. Clearly the Supreme Court was, too.

Read Stephanie Mencimer's Mother Jones expose (The Man Who Took Down Campaign Finance Reform) of this very dangerous man, then click "Bopp" at the bottom of this post to review aksarbent's two previous posts about him.

The quotable Bopp: James Bopp Jr., the NOM lawyer trying to wreck Iowa's judicial nominating process

James Bopp, Jr.

James Bopp Jr., a Focus on the Family attorney, has a history of abetting anti-gay organizations like the National Organization for Marriage in the evasion of state financial disclosure regulations.

The Iowa Independent had this to say:

Even before the final ruling on Citizens United, however, Bopp had begun new campaigns into election law and specifically chose to represent predominantly anti-gay, socially conservative groups who wished to hide the donors that funded their political activities. His firm — Bopp, Coleson and Bostrom — has represented such groups in Iowa, California and Maine, petitioning that laws which require the groups to form Political Action Committees (PACs) and disclose their donors are unconstitutional. Many anticipate that the questions presented by Bopp and his associates  in such cases will also be eventually heard before the nation’s high court.

On December 10, Maine's Free Press reported:

Bopp... represents the National Organization for Marriage (NOM). Last year NOM gave nearly $2 million to the committee that was working to repeal the same-sex marriage law that had been passed by Maine's legislature. NOM challenged Maine's law that requires any group that spends over $5,000 to influence a ballot question vote to disclose donors who gave more than $100 and is challenging Maine's disclosure rules for political action committees. The court has ruled that the "influence" standards are unconstitutionally vague, but that, otherwise, Maine's laws governing PACs, independent campaign expenditures and attribution requirements are constitutional.

Read the ruling here; names from Bopp's law firm are all over it.

Common Cause and Public Campaign commissioned a report by Klein Research Services dated October 25, 2010. It devastatingly exposes James Bopp Jr. Its title?

The Man Behind our Secret Elections: James Bopp Jr.
New Report Examines Radical Activist and His Drive
to Dismantle Election Laws.

In the report is a collection of outrageously creepy assertions called The Quotable Bopp.

Campaign-finance reform, I consider mainly a slogan. I believe that this court, if pushed, would be willing to dump all campaign-finance regulations. [Gannett News Service, June 28, 2007]

I'm a guy that specializes in loopholes. [New York Sun, May 9, 2008]

We had a 10-year plan to take all this down. If we do it right, I think we can pretty well dismantle the entire regulatory regime that is called campaign finance law. ... We have been awfully successful and we are not done yet. [New York Times, January 25, 2010]

Groups have to be relieved of reporting their donors if lifting the prohibition on their political speech is going to have any meaning [New York Times, January 25, 2010]

The problem is having to file a report at all. To be regulated at all. To be accountable to the government at all. [Washington Independent, February 3, 2010]

Lurleen at Pam's House Blend has been on to this man's modus operandi for some time:

NOM and friends have been pursuing a two-prong agenda.  These groups are using anti-LGBT political campaigns as a vehicle to challenge the public disclosure and campaign finance laws.  The pattern that has emerged is this: They attack LGBT civil rights via referenda/initiatives or by backing anti-LGBT candidates or attacking pro-equality candidates, but they refuse to divulge the identities of their petition signers or campaign donors.  Then, when pressed for the information that law-abiding organizations provide, they sue the state to challenging the law.

The lawsuits they file are purely challenges to campaign finance and public disclosure laws and are not in any way "LGBT cases".  But because they oppose equal rights for LGBT Americans and oppose any campaign regulations or public disclosure requirements, NOM often launches their lawsuits off of controversy they create with their campaigns attacking LGBT rights or pro-equality candidates.  NOM & friends work hard to cloud their real intent in the public's eye.  They conflate the vehicles for their cases with the goal of their cases.

Focus On The Family attorney files lawsuit to remove half of Iowa's Judicial Nominating Commission;'A right wing campaign to screw up our courts'

James Bopp, Jr.

[Note to readers: Click the home tab to see the latest posts]

Focus On The Family attorney James Bopp Jr., filed a lawsuit Wednesday on behalf of four Iowans alleging that the method used to select finalists for the Iowa Supreme Court denies them a chance to participate equally in the selection of justices and judges.

The suit was filed under the auspices of the James Madison Center for Free Speech in Terre Haute, Ind.

ABC 5 in Des Moines said the nominating commission could start meeting this week to talk about replacements. The lawsuit is expected to be ruled on within the next few weeks.

ABC 5 further noted:

Through their suit they are trying to remove the 7 [of 15] members of the Commission that are members of the Iowa State Bar Association from the nominating equation entirely. They have asked for an immediate court action to stop the Commission from beginning the formal nominating process.

Rob Hogg, a Democrat from Cedar Rapids who is a lawyer and vice chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee decried Republican judicial activism.

“This lawsuit clearly is part of a right wing ideological campaign through an out-of-state lawyer to screw up our courts,” Hogg told the Des Moines Register.

The lawsuit alleges that the plaintiffs, because they are not attorneys, are excluded from the elections of the Elective members and have no say whatsoever in their selection.

Similar federal lawsuits filed in Alaska and Kansas were thrown out earlier this year.

The Des Moines Register quoted Constitutional Law expert Mark Kende: "They have to show that they were injured in some way personally. It's usually a pretty heavy burden for the party seeking an injunction, that would stop the election process of the whole state. That's not to say that it's unprecedented, but it's a very heavy burden, for them to meet."

Kende noted that there's good reason to have a certain amount of lawyers involved in the process, because of their knowledge about the judicial system and its players.

You can read the lawsuit here.

The Des Moines Register profiled the four Iowans (all Republicans) on whose behalf Bopp filed the lawsuit.

They are: Steve Carlson of Woodbury County, Mary Granzow of Polk County, Richard Kettells of Pleasant Hill, and William Ramsey of Black Hawk County.

Carlson made donations to Rod Roberts’ unsuccessful campaign for governor, and to the Woodbury County Republican Central Committee this year, and to the Alons for Representative Committee in 2007.

Campaign finance records show that Granzow donated to the Polk County Republican Central Committee this year. Ramsey donated to Iowa Realtors PAC.

Ramsey lives in Waterloo, Granzow in Johnston, Carlson in Sioux City and Kettells in Pleasant Hill, according to election and campaign records. The lawsuit shows those residences except for Granzow, who is listed as living in Des Moines.

A Steven S. Carlson has been quoted as a regional representative of the Iowa Christian Alliance and wrote an op-ed for the Sioux City Journal supporting U.S. Rep. Steve King, who represents northwestern Iowa.

“What became crystal clear in this election cycle is that a conservative resurgence evidenced itself in America on Nov. 2, 2010, and that this resurgence favors the bold, conservative approach exhibited by Steve King, Michelle Bachman, and others – not the “moderate views” of the past,” Carlson wrote.

A spokesman for the Iowa Christian Alliance, now the Iowa Christian Alliance Education Fund and the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition, said Carlson served on the Alliance board. He couldn’t say when or for how long.

Exclusive: Gay Marriage NOT Their Real Agenda
SCARY HOMOSEXUAL PLOT TO STRAIN
WORLD SUPPLY OF 8-GIGABIT FLASH
MEMORY CHIPS BY CORNERING
100 MILLION OF THEM!

Photo: (Cook, Jobs) Text: Eric Zeman

File this under: Whoa. According to DigiTimes, Apple has placed orders for up to 100 million 8GB NAND flash memory chips. Gee, what would Apple want to do with that many chips?
One hundred million 8GB chips is a lot of memory. The order is so large, says DigiTimes, that it is causing tight supply in the market. It reports, "Contract prices for MLC NAND flash chips have increased by up to 16% for the first half of April, as a result of shipment adjustments by chip suppliers."
Most of the chips for Apple will come from Samsung, which is the world's largest supplier of NAND flash. It appears that Nokia (NYSE: NOK) and Sony (NYSE: SNE) are also beefing up their supplies of flash memory, though the DigiTimes doesn't have figures.
This and other reports suggest that Apple is ramping up production of the next-generation iPhone. Lest you think that any new device would be limited to just 8GB (which seems a skimpy amount), keep in mind, Apple may use multiple chips inside one device. With 100 million chips on hand, Apple will be able to supply millions of iPhones and iPods with all sorts of different memory configurations, including 8GB, 16GB, 24GB, 32GB and so on.
We also know that Apple has ordered 3.2- and 5.0-megapixel camera modules, and that iPhone OS 3.0 (which is great, by the way) will support video capture.
Tie everything together, and Apple just might have something really interesting to announce at WWDC in June.

IS APPLE COO TIM COOK GAY?

[Rumormonger]
Tim Cook, Steve Jobs's second-in-command, may be up for the top job at Apple should anything happen to the company's iconic founder. Indeed, he's already subbed in once when Jobs was recuperating from surgery to treat pancreatic cancer. But who is this guy? Even Fortune's in-depth profile gives few clues: Cook, 48, is a Southerner who's "intensely private," a "fitness nut," and a "lifelong bachelor" who rents a house in Palo Alto. Outside interests? "When he isn't working he tends to be in the gym, on a hiking trail, or riding his bike." Come on. What is this — a Fortune profile, or a men-seeking-men personals ad in Craigslist?
     Gina Gloski, a classmate of Cook's at Auburn University, told Fortune, "He just never seemed that interested in other people. I'm a hugger and a kisser, but I'd never feel comfortable giving Tim a hug or a kiss." A Republican when he worked for IBM, he donated money to Barack Obama's campaign.
We dislike stereotypes as much as the next guy. But an intensely private bachelor in his 40s, with a Southern background? We'd be remiss in our duties as a gossip if we didn't wonder if Cook was gay.
Not that there's anything wrong with that: Apple recently donated $100,000 to the unsuccessful effort to defeat Proposition 8, California's ban on gay marriage.
Source: valleywag.com