NationStates Jolt Archive

After that magnificent waste of taxpayer $ over the Monica Lewinsky deal, Ken Starr has a new opportunity for fame - Cartman weeps with joy.
It's good to know he's on to greener pastures.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/breaking_news/14491469.htm
Kenneth Starr to take on Alaska appeal over 'bong' banner
Associated Press
JUNEAU, Alaska - Kenneth Starr, the former Whitewater special prosecutor, will represent the city school board in appealing a court ruling that favored a high school student who displayed a
"Bong Hits 4 Jesus" banner during an Olympic torch relay.

The school board wants the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case. In April, an appeals court said school officials violated the student's free speech rights when they suspended him for 10 days.

Starr, who is dean at Pepperdine Law School in Malibu, Calif., has agreed to take the case for free, said Phyllis Carlson, president of the school board.

"Federal law requires us to maintain a consistent message that use of drugs like marijuana is harmful and illegal. Yet, when we try to enforce our policies, our administrators are sued and exposed to damage awards," she said.

Calls to Starr's office Wednesday by The Associated Press were not immediately returned.

Joseph Fredrick was 18 and a high school senior in 2002, when he unfurled his banner during the Winter Olympic torch relay through Juneau, hoping to grab the attention of television cameras.

School district officials said his banner violated the school's anti-drug policies and suspended him despite the fact that he was off campus at the time and did not disrupt school functions.

Frederick sued the school district but lost in federal court when a judge ruled that school officials had wider discretion to control his actions and were entitled to regulate speech that encouraged drug use.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco disagreed, saying school officials violated Fredrick's free speech rights.

Frederick's lawyer, Douglas Mertz, said it is unlikely the nation's highest court will hear the case.

Starr was independent counsel in the Whitewater hearings and his investigation into former President Clinton's relationship with Monica Lewinsky led to Clinton's impeachment.
----

Here's a little more on that angle:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002970774_bong04.html
http://abcnews.go.com/US/LegalCenter/wireStory?=1920764

Starr will lose as long as the supreme court wishes to maintain any semblance of enforcing the constitution.

Starr will lose as long as the supreme court wishes to maintain any semblance of enforcing the constitution.
Wouldn't that kinda depend on what contacts he maintains - especially the ones that think the Constitution is "just a goddamned piece of paper"? :(

YAY, freedom of speech!

How is this possibly worth it to the school board? How is it worth thousands of dollars in legal fees to avoid admitting a mistake?

How is this possibly worth it to the school board? How is it worth thousands of dollars in legal fees to avoid admitting a mistake?
Those are some good questions. I think i alluded to a possible "reason" in the OP title :(

Oh - on a possibly related note to the above post - it would appear Alaska's pretty good at setting a lot of money aside for peculiar pursuits ... remember the "Bridge To Nowhere", and our illustrious Senator Ted "The Hulk" Stevens?

http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/7709468p-7620567c.html
Legislature's project bill sets a record

By MATT VOLZ
The Associate Press

Published: May 8, 2006
Last Modified: May 8, 2006 at 08:53 PM


JUNEAU-- Kake is closer to getting a $200,000 facelift for the world's tallest totem pole.


Ice Alaska in Fairbanks, host of the World Ice Art Championships, will soon be getting $2 million for a new building.

And Goose Bay Elementary School in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough won't have to wait very long now for $25,000 to replace its carpet.

Those are just three of the hundreds of projects included in the $3.6 billion spending bill the House Finance Committee approved on Monday.

This capital budget is the largest in state history, a product of a year of record oil prices and a full state treasury.

"We are behind on our roads, harbors, docks, ports, schools, so I think you can justify that," said House Finance Co-Chairman Kevin Meyer, R-Anchorage. "We have the money this year, let's get caught up."

The bill includes a capital budget for next year, plus supplemental authorizations for state agencies' operating and capital costs this year and the construction of five schools in 2008.

The capital budget was on the calendar of the House floor this evening.

The Senate passed its version last week and will have to agree with the additions made in the House.

Combining the capital budget bill with the $7.5 billion operating budget approved by a conference committee on Sunday, the Alaska Legislature proposes to authorize a record $11.1 billion in spending by the time the legislative session ends Tuesday.

That includes money from the state treasury, the federal government and other sources, such as revenue bonds against the state's lawsuit settlement against three tobacco companies.

In the capital budget bill is tens of millions of dollars in municipal assistance to help cities, towns and villages, a one-time appropriation meant to share the state's oil wealth.

The money will have to be used to reduce the municipalities' pension obligations and their energy costs.

Some $600 million of this year's estimated $1.4 billion state revenue surplus was divided in a public education fund created last year by the Legislature and in the Alaska Housing Finance Corp.

Meyer said those appropriations filled the Republican majority's pledge to save up to half the surplus.

Additionally, lawmakers have included funding for new schools and rural energy aid that is based on tax revenue that hasn't been approved yet.

The capital budget bill earmarks $73 million for three new schools in the Alaska Bush. But that money will be appropriated only if the Legislature passes a new oil tax based on the Alaska profits of energy companies operating in the state with an effective date of April.

That same contingency is included for a $183 million appropriation to the power cost equalization fund, which is a subsidy meant to account for the difference in energy costs between rural and urban Alaska.

The net-profits tax has been the most dominant and divisive bill of this legislative session, and would be the biggest change in the state's tax code in decades.