Ken Starr: Blackwater is "constitutionally immune" to lawsuit.

[kurth]

Read the gory details at
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/10/02/blackwater_bush/print.html

Trivia:
Blackwater Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel Joseph Schmitz's sister is Mary Kay LeTourneau.

[acmavm]

1. Starr is a sociopath. He wouldn't understand constitutionality or morality

if hit punched him in the nose. He's like the rest of the repubic elite. Amoral, criminal, corrupt, and disgusting.

[soothsayer]

3. Punching him in the nose would be a good start.

[rodeodance]

7. go South

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

16. *LOL*

:rofl:

[liberal N proud]

2. There is a name I hoped we would never hear again

Ken Starr, what an ass

[Le Taz Hot]

4. The Pantysniffer is back!

I kinda missed the little feller. OK, not really, but I can see he's still as clear on Constitutional rights as he ever was.

[catnhatnh]

8. Republican Constitutional Rights:

Corporations got them...
... and you don't.

[zeemike]

5. It seems like every day there is a new outrage

committed on the American people.
Will it ever end?

[Bassic]

6. How does he figure that exactly?

Do they also benefit from Executive Privilege, while we're at it?

Ridiculous.

[Hubert Flottz]

9. The GOP make up their own reality as the game goes along...

they used to call that cheating. I guess everything Really Did change after 9/11! Looks like the GOP have let the terrorists ruin everything in America, including the Constitution and the rule of law.

[Bassic]

10. Looks like they have indeed. nt

[Hydra]

15. What terrorists?

The only Terrorists I've seen credible evidence of have dinner at the WH and at Bush's vacation homes.

I do love how they argue that the law doesn't apply to them, and people aren't screaming at the top of their lungs to exile them.

[MissWaverly]

17. cheating, it's more like a different country all together

where crooks run free and women die becuz they missed their flight

[Spinzonner]

11. When there is no law to cover injustices

that leaves some very ugly alternatives.

Is he sure he wants to go down that path ?

[The Backlash Cometh]

12. Fuck you, Ken Starr! You are a leech on our Constitution and our country.

[Blackhatjack]

13. Just because a Repub says something does not make it so....n/t

[guitar man]

14. who gives a shit

what this drunk ambulance-chaser has to say. Ken Starr is beyond irrelevant now....

[MrCoffee]

18. Heh. What's really funny about that is The Government Contractor Defense

that he's basing his theory on (i'm guessing, because i can't find anything on the actual brief or Roberts' order denying the appeal) is from Boyle v. United Technologies, 487 U.S. 500, Scalia writing for the 5-4 majority.

I heard Fat Tony himself say that the one wrong decision that he ever wrote in his entire judicial career was Boyle.

That argument never stood a chance, Kenny boy. Swing and a miss.

[Warren DeMontague]

19. So you mean if Bill Clinton had just taken a job at Blackwater, we could have been spared your

$80 Million Dollar Witchhunt?

Asshole.

[Warren DeMontague]

20. But what if a blackwater employee holds up a sign saying "Bong Hits 4 Jesus"???

Sounds like an unstoppable force hitting an immovable object, to me.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

21. I hate Ken Starr but he's right about Blackwater being immune.

On the eve of the war, Shrub signed an EO exonerating all contractors of liability in Iraq. Then just before he left Iraq, Bremer signed his own order, restating that.

[KamaAina]

23. How does that make them "constitutionally immune"?

I don't see anything in the Constitution about executive orders. A good strict constructionist like Starr ought to be concerned about that. Oh, right, I forgot. Whatever the repukes do is okay. :sarcasm:

[MrCoffee]

24. It's gotta be the Government Contractor Defense

There was a case called Boyle v. United Technologies that held that government contractors are immune from tort liability for defects arising from procurement contracts. From the article:

"Blackwater continues to assert that the state of North Carolina lacks jurisdiction in the wrongful-death lawsuit against the security firm. On Oct. 18, 2006, Starr petitioned Chief Justice Roberts on behalf of Blackwater, asserting that the company was "constitutionally immune" to the lawsuit. "If companies such as Blackwater must factor the defense costs of state tort lawsuits into overall costs," argued Starr, "Blackwater will suffer irreparable harm." Roberts denied the petition on Oct. 24. In December, Starr filed a motion to bring the matter before the entire Supreme Court. The motion was denied in February."


That argument was dead on arrival. Scalia wrote Boyle, and i heard him speak once where he said it (Boyle) was the only wrong decision he'd ever written. There was no way that argument was gonna fly. Roberts turned him down, and Starr couldn't even get 4 votes to bring it before the Court.

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

25. I didn't know EOs were immune from constitutional restrictions.

:wow:

[Lerkfish]

27. an EO is not "constitutional"

[Froward69]

22. BULLSHIT!!!!

:puke: :puke: :puke: what is he smoking?

[ProSense]

26. BS:

Prosecuting Military Contractors...

[Jax]

28. He is true slime but why do I think the Supremos will back him

all the way. They crap all over the Constitution as much as that murdering deserter does.

Mary Kay LeTourneau is from a very screwed up family...

Alyce

[MrCoffee]

29. SCOTUS already rejected his argument...twice

[chill_wind]

30. Financially immune is more like it. Prince's got the DeVos in his Family Tree.

"(...)


Prince's sister, Betsy DeVos, is married is the former Chair of the Michigan Republican Party and her husband is Dick DeVos, failed candidate for governor of Michigan and scion of the DeVos family, founders of Amway and major funders of Republican and conservative causes.

Amway is privately owned by the DeVos and van Andel families. And to give some sense of the scale of their political giving, according to a 2005 Center for Public Integrity study, Dick & Betsy DeVos were the fifth largest political givers in the country during the 2004 election cycle. Richard DeVos Sr. & his wife were ranked third. And Jay Van Andel was ranked second.

Let's just say they give some real money to the Republican party and its candidates. And of course there are the DeVos Family Foundations which give money to conservative causes.

(...)"

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/054744.php

See also his other connections. Methinks no Bush DOJ or any other Bush appointed court apparatus is going to prosecute these guys. Ever.