Lawyers win, you lose
Disqualifying a judge without cause affects more than your right to vote. It also enables bad lawyering.
Assume a public defender has tried only two misdemeanor cases during 16 years in office. And the day before a felony trial is to start, he moves to withdraw as the defendant’s lawyer because his client wants to go to trial and he doesn’t.
If the judge orders the trial to proceed because of the client’s constitutional right to a jury trial and a speedy trial, you can bet that lawyer will disqualify that judge in all of his or her subsequent cases.
The lawyer wins, future clients lose.
Assume a lawyer intentionally misrepresents the law to a judge. The judge reports the conduct to the Idaho State Bar as the judge is obliged to do, and the lawyer is sanctioned. Again, you can bet the lawyer will never allow that judge to handle his or her cases again. The lawyer, who is wrong, wins and the public, who elected the judge, loses.
How in the world did we get a system where up is down and down is up? Surely we can do better.
JOHN BRADBURY, Lewiston
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Where’s the compassion?
Why are border states such as Florida and Texas having to send illegals north? Why don’t the lefty sanctuary cities and states have buses and airplanes waiting?
You would think the tolerant open-border supporters would be right there to greet them with handfuls of cash and boxes of food. Where is their compassion?
LUCKY BRANDT Kooskia
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Reelect Nelson
With his background in agriculture, industry and education, Idaho state Sen. David Nelson is well-equipped to serve all the citizens of Legislative District 6.
Nelson has worked tirelessly to improve our health care system, our roads and our access to broadband in rural areas.
And he works in a bipartisan manner. He has served with the governor on the Idaho Behavioral Health Council and the Economic Rebound Advisory Committee.
I urge independents and Republicans as well as Democrats in Legislative District 6 to vote for David Nelson this November so that he may continue his good work.
WALTER HESFORD Moscow
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Practice what you preach
I have a challenge for all politicians, the Hollywood group and the 1 percenters:
If you are in favor of the Green New Deal, stop flying all over the world in private jets and limit the size of your homes to less than 5,000 square feet.
If you support the National Education Association, please pull your children out of private schools and place them in public schools like most of your voters.
If you support defunding the police and restricting gun ownership, get rid of your private security and the guns they possess.
When you all can do this, I will believe that you practice what you preach.
REBECCA FREELIN Pomeroy
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Power intoxicates
Quoting Charles Caleb Colton to our rulers:
“Power will intoxicate the best hearts, as wine the strongest heads. No man is wise enough, nor good enough to be trusted with unlimited power.”
To criminal defense lawyer Danny “Yackyack” Radakovich: Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
Thanks, Yack-yack.
BRIDGER BARNETT Clarkston
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Heat radiates
You wonder, sometimes, why people don’t accept journalism’s interpretation of scientific data. Well, journalists and many other adults sometimes speak carelessly. We often say that heat rises. No, heat radiates in all directions. It’s warm air that rises because cool air is heavier and sinks. That’s why chimneys work. That’s why air near the ceiling is warmer than air near the floor.
A recent example is the children’s activity, “Escaping heat,” on the science page for kids in the Sept. 8 “Inland 360.”
WILEY HOLLINGSWORTH Pullman
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Nelson responded
In the middle of the pandemic crisis, the Idaho Legislature passed a bill that would endanger and condemn wolves to genetic deterioration.
I wrote to each of my state legislators expressing strong feelings on that bill and on Idaho’s handling of wildlife issues. The only one who bothered to answer was Sen. David Nelson. There are many important reasons to reelect Nelson and Democrats in general, but I would support him if there were only the one reason: He cared enough about what I think to respond.
KAREN SCHUMAKER Deary
