LAWFUEL – The Legal Issues Newswire – An impressive list of legal scholars has assembled itself to attempt to permit I. ‘Scooter’ Libby free while critical legal questions are examined.
The group, including former Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork and noted civil libertarian Alan Dershowitz, Vikram Amar of the University of California’s Hastings law school, Randy Barnett and Viet Dinh of Georgetown, Douglas Kmiec and Robert Pushaw of Pepperdine, Richard Parker of Harvard, Gary Lawson of Boston University, Thomas Merrill of Columbia, Earl Maltz of Rutgers and Robert Nagel of the University of Colorado.
The group wrote to the judge and, the Washington Post reports, within hours of Friday’s filing from the scholars, U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton wrote back. In the teeny-tiny print of a footnote, he said he was delighted to know that such a distinguished group was available to help argue on behalf of criminal defendants on “close questions” of the law.
Walton promised he’d ring them up very soon when — instead of Vice President Cheney’s former chief of staff facing the threat of the slammer — there might be poor defendants who need big legal minds to avoid incarceration.
