Thursday, July 2, 2015

Idiot Government Officials are Going to Learn the Hard Way About Federal Civil Rights Law

Specifically 42 U.S.C. § 1988, also know as the "Private Attorney General Statute". Basically, if you bring a civil rights case in Federal court and you win, the loser has to not only pay your damages, they have to pay your attorney's fees and costs.

So every time some low-IQ politician starts bleating about how clerks and other officials can deny people same-sex marriage licenses, those aggrieved people will have no trouble finding an attorney to take the case. And since the Supreme Court has spoken on it, we're not exactly talking Clarence Darrow-grade legal work: File a complaint, have it served, get an order and blammo! As Bobby Jindal has found out:
IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that Plaintiffs in each of these
consolidated cases are awarded their costs, expenses, and
reasonable attorneys' fees according to 42 U.S.C. § 1988 and any
other applicable laws.
So if the idiots in Texas want to keep on refusing to issue marriage licenses, then they can start warming up their checkbooks. And it's not beyond the realm of possibility that the courts might start holding them personally liable.

So what are they going to do, now? Pick up an axe-handle and stand in the door to the county clerk's office?

This fight is over.
on or about

1 comment:

  1. dinthebeast7/03/2015 1:52 AM

    As long as there is still money to be raised by telling bigots that their bigotry is actually patriotism (& Christianity), someone will be doing so. That they lost is almost beside the point to them, as it helps them sell their persecution BS to the paying customers.

    -Doug in Oakland

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