Posted on 04/29/2010 4:29:11 PM PDT by Free ThinkerNY
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A person familiar with the conversation tells The Associated Press that President Barack Obama has interviewed federal appeals court judge Sidney Thomas of Montana for the Supreme Court.
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
Appointed by: President Clinton, 1996
Born: August 14, 1953 in Bozeman, Montana
Education: BA, Montana State 1975; JD, University of Montana 1978
Law Practice: Bellingham, Longo & Mather, P.C.
Judicial Appointments: Ninth Circuit (1996-present)
Opinions Reported in Appellate Decisions Noted:
En banc Ninth Circuit eliminates guessing about the motive behind prosecution in deciding application of automatic bankruptcy stay
Firefighter may not be discharged for reporting that fellow workers had downloaded pornography
Additional Sources of Information:
Comments from Visitors to the Appellate Counsellor Home Page:
Carolyn Flores (2/6/00)
Re: Whaley v. Thompson, CA Nos. 98-36133; 98-36160, after repeatedly questioning the state’s attorney at oral argument about the complaining witness’s false and perjurious testimony casting doubt on her entire story, Judge Thomas along with Judge Ferdinand Fernandez and Judge Margaret Morrow ruled that the word of a woman who is a proven liar with a motive to lie is sufficient in and of itself to uphold a guilty verdict. Over half this woman’s story has been shown to be false, such that one of two of Mr. Whaley’s charges has been vacated by a lower court. Les Whaley’s accuser has a ten-year history of prostitution and drug addiction as well as a theft II conviction on her record at the time of her accusation. The records (withheld by the prosecutor at trial) reveal that she sought under false pretenses to gain several thousand dollars in victims’ compensation pay to cover medical bills entirely unrelated to her encounter with Mr. Whaley. Not a shred of evidence existed to prove that any of what the accuser stated occurred ever occurred; the prosecutor in his closing argument stated the whole case boiled down to believing or not believing the accuser. Les Whaley was convicted on accusation alone. If a man wrongly convicted of rape on accusation alone is not able to obtain justice under these circumstances, then what man possibly could? What would it take to satisfy Judge Thomas that Leslie Whaley’s accuser is not credible?
Anonymous (3/13/00)
It would be unfortunate to draw any adverse conclusions about the abilities of Judge Thomas from the note submitted by Carolyn Flores, relative to Whaley v. Thompson. In St. of Oregon vs. Leslie Whaley, the underlying Oregon sexual assault case, Mr. Whaley went to trial and insisted on acting as his own attorney. He attempted to establish his innocence of the charged offense by calling as witnesses women he had dated that he had NOT sexually assaulted. This opened the door to several adverse witnesses, including a woman who testified about being forcibly raped by Mr. Whaley while she was a minor (he was also convicted in that case). The victim was a compelling witness, and there was substantial evidence that supported her version of the events.
Caroly Flores (7/5/00)
Dear Anonymous: your post contains several factual errors. Mr. Whaley did not voluntarily represent himself - he was forced to make the Hobson’s choice, having to decide between incompetent counsel and no counsel; he has never forcibly raped anyone (the previous offense of which you speak was a statutory offense, entirely nonviolent and nonforcible); he did not call any adverse witnesses - the only adverse witness, other than the woman involved in the statutory incident, was his disgrunted ex-wife who had an interest in seeing him go to prison; he was not convicted of the statutory offense, rather he plead guilty; what matters is how the accuser’s testimony holds up NOW and, in light of her perjury and her motive that have come to light since the time of the trial, it certainly cannot be considered *compelling* at this point in time; and, contrary to your assertion that there was “substantial evidence” to support the complaining witness’s version of event, the fact remains that not a shred of evidence has ever existed to support any of what she claimed occurred - Les Whaley was convicted on accusation alone. To view the transcript of oral argument, attorney pleadings from both sides, and all relevant documents and exhibits, visit http://www.leswhaley.org and http://www.leswhaley.org/itlwc.html and get the complete facts on this case.
Anonymous (8/2/00)
I watched Judge Thomas in oral argument on four cases recently. He is very smart and was very well prepared for the arguments. He is also pleasant and polite.
Carolyn Flores (3/13/01)
Regarding Judge Thomas’s opinion in the Whaley v. Thompson case cited above, it is of note that the website, formerly http://www.leswhaley.org, now http://www.spiritone.com/~law, was closed down upon Mr. Whaley’s release to parole in August of 2000. This was done due to threats against Mr. Whaley by officials in the state where he lives. The very acts that Judge Thomas condoned in his ridiculous ruling are in fact so bad that the government doesn’t want them exposed, and has threatened Mr. Whaley with revocation of his parole and reimprisonment should the site and it’s contents continue to be made available on the Internet.
Therefore, we are unfortunately unable to bring you the facts of Mr. Whaley’s case at this time. However, in the event that Mr. Whaley’s parole is revoked, the site and domain name will be fully reinstated, and you will be able to make up your own mind about whether or not Judge Thomas ruled properly in this case.
Ninth Circuit. Nothing more to say.
I don’t know what to think of Sidney Thomas.
I attended oral argument in the Ninth Circuit last Friday, October 20, 2006 when Justice O’Connor was sitting by designation on a panel with Judge Pamela Ann Rymer and Judge Sidney Thomas. Here’s my review of the proceedings.
A little background about Justice O’Connor’s fellow panelists. Judge Pam Rymer: very smart, right-of-center, but not ideological; not a “buddy” judge to her clerks, and quite secretive about her private life; likes to play tennis and collect decorative frogs.
Judge Sid Thomas: also very smart, but very liberal; could be a future leader of the Ninth Circuit’s liberal wing (after Judge Reinhardt passes the mantle); friendly with his clerks, sometimes even going out for drinks with them; a very nice man; his beard could use a little judicious trimming.
You got that.
It is called the ninth Circus for a reason in the west.
More of their rulings have been overturned than any other.
I think at this point, more 9th-circuit rulings are overturned than the rest combined.
Known as the “Ninth Circus” by my nephew-lawyer here in the east too.....
I don’t think there have ever been 2 Justices with the same surname before.
Under the Alinsky model that argues that to bring down a system, introduce as much overload and confusion as possible. It would make sense for Obama to appoint someone with the same last name as Clarence Thomas. It may take decades to undo the damage that Obama is doing (if it can be undone.)
That’s actually not correct. You see it all over, it has simply become a trusim in our society that the Ninth Circuit is crazy and the proof for that is that it is reversed so frequently. Interestingly, however, no statistics support that “proof.”
In the 2009 cases decided thus far by the Supreme Court the Ninth Circuit has been reversed 80% of the time. The Seventh Circuit was also reversed in 80% of its cases, and four circuits have been reversed in 100% of their cases. http://www.scotusblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/Preliminary-Stats-OT09_042910-7.pdf
In 2008, the Ninth Circuit was reversed 91% of the time. That’s a lot no question, but 8 circuits were reversed 100% of the time. http://www.scotusblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/circuit.pdf
In 2007, the Ninth Circuit was reversed 80% of the time, but so was the Fifth Circuit, and the Tenth Circuit was reversed in all of its cases. http://www.scotusblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/scorecard07.pdf
In 2006, the Ninth Circuit was reversed 86% of the time, while the Third and Fifth Circuits were reversed 100% of the time. http://www.scotusblog.com/archives/ScorecardOT06.pdf
I could keep doing this for every year, but you should get the idea. The fact is that most cases are reversed by the Supreme Court - it generally averages over 75% per year for all cases from all circuits, and the Ninth Circuit is almost never the most frequently reversed circuit in the country. It is true that in many years the Ninth Circuit has more cases reversed than other circuit by number, although at a lower rate than other circuits, but that’s because the Ninth Circuit is so large. Considering it hears approximately 3x more appeals than the average other circuit, the really surprising thing is that more cases from the Ninth Circuit aren’t reversed compared to other circuits. http://www.slate.com/id/2170477/
There are many extremist judges on the Ninth Circuit, on both the liberal and conservative side, and you can complain about the Ninth Circuit for many legitimate reasons, but it simply isn’t accurate to say the Ninth Circuit is reversed more frequently than all the others.
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