One of the canards being bandied about on the internet against me by the opponents of MCE is that a “retired attorney” listed as a supporter of Mandatory Continuing Education (MCE) for private investigators is that she has a bad record with the state bar. I call this a canard because it is a deliberately misleading non-story. There are certain things that the opponents who used this didn’t tell their readers that they would have if they weren’t just picking the fly-sxxt out of the pepper to use for spin doctoring.
First off, they didn’t bother to give the entire list of primarily non-PI supporters of SB 202 brought together by the “Same Page Coalition,” which includes:
RE: SB 202 – SUPPORT
Supporting Public Entity:
- City of West Hollywood
Supporting organizations:
- California League of United Latin American Citizens
- LULAC Councils 3122, 3036, and 3150
- San Fernando Valley Chapter of Mexican American Political Association
- San Fernando Valley/Northeast Los Angeles, San Gabriel Valley/Whittier, Los Angeles South, and Sonoma County Chapters of the National Organization for Women
- Stonewall Democratic Club of Los Angeles
- Adelanto Committee of Watts
Supporting Individuals:
- Angel G. Luevano, Vice President, Far West, LULAC
- Argentina Davila Luevano, State Director, California LULAC
- Norma Ramirez, President, LULAC Council 3122 (San Fernando Valley)
- Jose Luis Ramirez, President, SFV Chapter MAPA
- Cynthia Conover, Activist Liaison, SFV/NELA NOW
- Linda Pruett, Co-President, SFV/NELA NOW
- Jeffrey Prang, City Council Member, West Hollywood (Title for ID only)
- Ramon Miramontes, Member, Pasadena Board of Education (Title for ID only)
- Marguerite Buckley, retired attorney
- Pamela Narcisse, President, Adelanto Committee
- Malinda Rosell, President, Los Angeles South NOW
- Joseph Paolella, Retired U.S. Secret Service, member LULAC Council 3150
- Roger Jon Diamond, Attorney at Law
The opponents of MCE also didn’t mention a few facts that they apparently didn’t know or didn’t think anybody else ought to know for context about the “retired attorney” that they condemn out of hand.
They didn’t mention for example that she got her bar card when I was three (3) years old. It does not take intuition for anybody to understand that even great attorneys (like some great PIs) sometimes fall on hard times when they get older, lose their edge, and things start falling through the cracks. That said, assuming arguendo that everything the State Bar claims is true about her, not one of the opponents of MCE who has been publicly vocal about the issue can hold a candle to her accomplishments.
First and foremost, none of them won a 9-0 (nine to nothing) United States Supreme Court decision that was hailed by a major law review as being the landmark 14th Amendment case of the decade of the 70’s on issues of equal protection of law. That decision overturned 19 out of 20 California state and federal judges who had ruled the other way in the case (Lubin vs Panish), including a unanimous State Supreme Court, before it made it to Chief Justice Warren Earl Burger. Burger, a Nixon appointee and no flaming liberal, wrote the majority opinion; there were separate concurrences by Rehnquist joined by Powell, and by William O. Douglas. The case established the right of poor and working people to run for office without paying filing fees if they could not afford them.
She was also the first attorney ever to appear before the Supreme Court in a mini-skirt (in front of Earl Warren) and a pants-suit when she argued Lubin vs. Panish in front of Warren Earl Burger. The pants-suit was controversial for women attorneys once upon a time and Chief Justice Burger issued a dress code the next day banning them.
Now, whether or not people agree with the politics of the American Indian Movement and their occupation of Wounded Knee 71 day occupation in 1973, one can respect the courage of an attorney who was inside with her clients while gunfire was being exchanged between them and the United States government, while her more famous leftist colleagues, like William Kunstler and Leonard Boudin were outside, holding press conferences.
I could go on ad nauseum about her credibility and credentials, but if any of the opponents of MCE can even come close to matching her 9-zip U.S. Supreme Court win, I’d like to hear what they did that compares with that.
One last point. I’ve been accused, quote - unquote, of “hiding behind the skirts of NOW” (the National Organization for Women) by the chief self-appointed opponent of MCE for PIs. Please keep the quotes coming. That one, like the ones denouncing the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC, the nation’s oldest and largest Latino civil rights organization), will go over really well with women and minority legislators in Sacramento and guess how they will go over with a new Governor if the Democrats (by the way, I’m not now and have never been a Democrat myself) win the office back in the next election.
I’ll tell you how those comments will play out. The opponents of MCE have created an independent agenda and an independent reason for the Same Page Coalition to seek to have PI MCE revisited as soon as there is a Governor who is not hostile to MCE in office. They view these comments as demonstrating (a) sexism, (b) racism, and (c) lack of impulse control by people who hold state licenses. So now you’re going to see groups outside of the PI community wanting to craft a legislative MCE and regulatory response instead of CALI being out in front and proactive on the issue.
Exactly what we’ve been warning about for a long time.