Friday, December 27, 2013

The AG's Office Needs Help to do Their Job?

Imagine my shock when I read this from the Tribune:

The state of Utah has turned to outside counsel for help with its efforts to stop same-sex marriages, a move the office said Thursday would temporarily delay its application for a stay to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Outside help.  Which means one of two things:

1) There are no attorneys in the office that are willing to go pursue the case further.   I doubt it.

2) The AG's office is out of ideas.  Given their arguments to date, and how resoundingly they have been shot down already by lower courts, I find this highly likely.

Which makes you wonder: isn't part of the AG's job to defend the state in lawsuits?  I realize that Sean Reyes has only been on the job since Monday, but shouldn't he have hit the ground running?

The Attorney General’s Office planned to file a stay request Thursday but said the application would be made on Friday or Monday as it coordinates with the outside firm, which it has not yet identified. 

In other words,  the state of Utah is saying "This is such an emergency, we needed a few days to think this over.  But could you grant us the stay, anyway?"

The AG’s office also hasn't provided any information about how much it will spend or from where it is drawing the funds to pay the outside counsel.
But, I can guarantee that once we know who the outside counsel is, good government watchdogs, including myself, are going to be pouring over the Herbert Swallow and Reyes campaign donations.

-Bob

1 comment:

Daniel B. said...

This is actually not an uncommon move when seeking certiorari to the Supreme Court. If you're going to go to the Olympics, you want to go with your best athletes. Similarly, going to the Supreme Court with the best lawyers you can get is a wise, and fairly standard, decision.