New Haven Independent

Posted by: Sins of New Haven | October 7, 2008 8:54 AM

Constitutional rights were violated? What about the CITIZENS right to homeland security? I guess if I drive without a license or have a gun without a permit I could call myself "undocumented driver" or "undocumented pistol handler".

So if I don't have a license and the cops try to arrest me for not having one, I could argue that since I am "undocumented" they can't touch me. Please.

Same goes for guns. Oh officer, you're right I don't have a permit but since you searched my car without "due process" I'll be on my way and give me my gun back.

See if that flies.

Leave New Haven now and come back in 10 years and you'll see an over run lawless City with JD and his staff driving Bentleys.

Ridiculous.

Make sure you vote for anyone else next time.

Posted by: Fedupwithliberals | October 7, 2008 9:44 AM

And you can thank the Yale Law Clinic for that! Should be a law that the clinic devotes as much effort to the defense as well as the plaintiff. Who looks out for the public good in these matters? No wonder this country is in the toilet!

Posted by: DAFeder | October 7, 2008 10:51 AM

Boy, it's tough to be an immigrant. Used to be, you did whatever it took to come to this great bastion of freedom and opportunity to make a better life for your family, maybe escape a government that wants to kill you. You bust your butt at work, slowly learn the language, send your kids to school, and finally make it. Now, apparently, you also have to send your kid to Yale Law School just to figure out what the hell is going on with the justice system.

"An immigration court is run differently from a criminal court.... [It] falls under the Department of Justice, rather than the judicial branch..."

I'm glad I'm not teaching immigrant civics classes -- too tough for me.

Here's a thing I _do_ know, SINS: the Constitution applies to everyone here, not just citizens. You're welcome to argue your "undocumented" status all you want, but that's not the Fourth and Fifth Amendment argument the immigrants are making. Maybe the Constitution should only protect those who bother to Wikipedia "U.S. Bill of Rights."

David

Posted by: Hater hater | October 7, 2008 11:23 AM

Sins,

Which person arrested was a terrorist? In fact, name one Latino terrorist that has done anything in this country. I was in OK when they had the 'terrorist' attack. Should we have started targeting white people after?

Due process and constitutional rights were put in place BECAUSE of law enforcement abuses. Your analogies make no sense. Police can not break into your house for driving without a license nor can they stop your car because they suspect you don't have a license. If they take your gun improperly you should get it back.

You claim to be defending our country but you don't want the judicial system to do the work it was put in place to do. You claim to be upholding the law but don't want that law to work. You don't get to choose the laws we want to enforce.

I have a suggestion for you... WHY DON'T YOU LEAVE!!! (but don't bother coming back in 10 years.)

Posted by: Um Fed Up | October 7, 2008 12:12 PM

The problem with your "law" other than that it would violate the First Amendment Right to freedom of speech and association -- lawyers can represent who they want and law schools can teach what they want, is that you seem to forget that this is not a question of one side getting lawyers and the other side not.

ICE is represented by the US Attorney's office. While these lawyers have proven to be incompetent, corrupt and politically motivated in the Bush Administration, historically they have been considered an elite legal arm.

So stop whining. Everyone deserves a lawyer. Otherwise the justice system which requires an adversarial interaction would become a farce.

If the Yale lawyers are right then their clients should be vindicated, otherwise the Constitution means nothing. And that would not be good for any of us. Remember it is a federal judge who will be making these decisions, not Yale lawyers or the US Attorney. Both sides should get to make their best case and the judge decides who is right under the law. See that's how our justice system is supposed to work.

One side (ICE) is not supposed to get quality representation while the other rolls over and plays dead. That may be how the Bush Administration views the Constitution and the concept of justice, but it does not for a viable democracy make.

Posted by: Tina | October 7, 2008 3:30 PM

Constitutional rights apply to all "persons." Raids spread terror among communities, generate media panic, and violate all of our basic rights to protection under the law.
Way to go, Yale legal clinic! Keep up the good work.

Posted by: fedupwithliberals | October 7, 2008 6:57 PM

UM FED UP

I must be getting up there in the world to have my own dedicated opposition! Paul, I deserve my own column.

So, you have no problem with one side employing a phalanx of Ivy Leauge lawyers complete with far left agendas and unlimited resources pushing this country into an increasingly unrecognizable nation from what is was just a scant 2 decades ago. I'm supposed to take comfort that a federal judge, most likely Clinton appointee, will interpret the existing constitution and not legislate from the bench like the one who gave us scatter site housing or a "penumbra of rights" that has led to unprecidented infanticide under the guise of freedom of choice? Right!

Freedom of speech. I guess that you have no problem with people like ExxonMobil employing pricey Philadelphia lawyers at $500/hr to go talk to Senators and Congressmen and influence how laws are made too, right? I suppose that you should have no issues with the NRA or Big Tobacco anytime a wrongful death lawsuit is litigated and defended by their army of attorneys. After all, a judge hears all this and makes the right decision, irrespective of the amount of legal expertise and pressure that is brought to bear. Yeah, no such thing as political bias in the court. Why, Ruth Bader Ginsburg could actually overturn Roe v Wade if the right argument were made! If you truly believe that, then I have a bridge to nowhere that I'd like to sell you.

With the increasing population of bottom feeding attorneys entering the world every year searching for billable hours or a name for themselves, you stand a pretty good chance of being sued by some poor slob who has an eager and aggressive law clinic behind him with unlimited capabilities and resources to break you in two, irrespective of if they are right or wrong. That slob has nothing to lose. Do you? I want to hear from you at that point in time to see if you think that relationship is fair or not.

Posted by: Josh Smith | October 7, 2008 8:37 PM

Wow, I'd love to see those immigrants get rewarded with legal citizenship if they win the case. That would be great. Keep up the good fight, Yalies! You make me proud to live in this city.

Posted by: DAFeder | October 8, 2008 1:55 AM

Oh, FEDUP,

I'm going to restrain myself and just ask, do you really think that "a scant two decades ago" people weren't saying _exactly_ the same thing about the nice comfortable days of their own recent past? And two decades before that? And two decades before that? I'm sure you're wonderful at your job (I'm guessing it's not at Planned Parenthood, huh?), but you'd make a lousy historian.

David

Posted by: Alan Felder | October 8, 2008 7:24 AM

Saint Thomas Aquinas said, non enforcement of a law is no law at all. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, there are just laws and there are unjust laws. America's immigration law is just, and unjust for not enforcing and protecting our borders.

Posted by: Alan Felder | October 8, 2008 8:05 AM

What has the Yale Law School done for the Descendent of Slaves in the City of New Haven?

Posted by: Dr. Richard Garibay | October 8, 2008 4:23 PM

Thank you to the Yale Law School students for their commitment to our nation's constitution and the rights of all. I am the product of an immigrant father who worked in an Indiana foundry for 40 years. He arrived as an undocumented worker, and married my mom, became a permanent resident, worked hard, raised hard, raised six children and eventually had the opportunity to become a U.S. citizen. He was not a criminal, and indeed, every 4th of July placed Old Glory outside. It is disheartening to see how the discussion on immigration has become grounded in fear, hatred and the 'criminality' of human beings. These aren't the values I learned from my parents, nor the founding values of my father's adopted country.

I believe that the innate sense of fairness and the nobility of the human spirit will ovecome this period of stereotypes, misguided conclusions and intolerance.

The work that the Yale Law School students undertook is commendable -- as important as representing those falsely accused for crimes they did not commit, and for securing their release.

Respectfully,

Dr. Richard Garibay, PharmD

Posted by: Not to Defend Yale Law School, but | October 8, 2008 9:25 PM

Alan Felder -- are you serious?

Since I went to another school, I am not particularly looking to sing the praises of Yale Law School.

But here's some examples of Yale doing something for "Descendent (sic) of Slaves":

- Marian Wright Edelman, first black woman member of the Mississippi bar, head of the Children's Defense Fund, graduate of YLS
- Amistad Middle School, Elm City College Prep, Amistad High School -- all high performing schools founded by graduates of YLS
- LEAP youth program and community center -- founded by graduates of YLS
- Haitian refugees imprisoned by US at Guantanamo Bay but released after representation by students at YLS
- The majority of YLS students have refused for decades to cross union picket lines when Locals 34 & 35 have gone on strike.
- Burke Marshall, late YLS professor and graduate, head of the civil rights division of Justice Dept., convinced Kennedy to send federal troops to integrate Old Miss, when James Meredith was denied entry, shepherded 1964 Civil Rights act through.
- Kathleen Neal Cleaver, leader in the Black Panthers, YLS grad, professor at Emory law.

Well that's enough for now.

Posted by: fedupwithliberals | October 8, 2008 10:01 PM

DR RICHARD GARIBAY

Your father was not part of a 30 million person wave of illegals, living under the radar screen and invading this country to suck on the teat of government entitlements which are draining us dry. The problem with the intelligensia of this nation is that they don't have to live with the consequences of their actions. Like these privileged Yalies who undoubtably come from gated communities and will eventually live in similar protected surroundings, they will be insulated from the crap they create that the middle and lower class have to deal with on a day to day basis. Why don't you and these nutjob activists get an apartment on Ferry Street and see how enjoyable your life is with an ever growing protected underclass who have nothing to lose?

And Dafeder, don't lecture me on how things were decades ago. You are obviously younger than I with no similar frame of reference. We were not facing the end of our american culture then, and it would have been unthinkable to allow clearly written laws to be so flagrantly ignored and violated. There is a reason why countries have borders. It maintains culture and sovereignity.

From borders to financial bailouts, this decade will go down as the era of complete unaccountability. What's next?

Posted by: DONNA | October 9, 2008 4:11 PM

I am sick and tired of all this...free yale law students taking illegal cases.....how many times have the helped the legal immigrants....they and the mayor should be investegated from homeland security....did all you forget 911....terrosit groups....now they all have a safe haven in new haven... sick sick sick..

Posted by: DAFeder | October 11, 2008 11:30 PM

Dr. Garibay -- beautifully put. Thanks for that.

FedUpWith, not so much. I'm kind of fascinated by your comment, though. I wonder what basis you have to guess my age? Seriously -- is it the grammatical conventions of the 1970's? Fondness for the quirky sentence structure of the 1930's? Counting gray hairs in my beard through your Rear Window scope? I'm being a smartass again, but I really am interested.

David