Legal Theft

Special interests routinely manipulate legislatures, but few have done it as successfully as two legal parasites in California. The Associated Press reports that two lawyers wrote a bill allowing them to sue cities and school districts with only one electoral district (supposedly the big districts hurt minorities.)  After 7 years, they are the only ones who have cashed in on that:

Every lawsuit filed or even threatened under a California law aimed at electing more minorities to local offices - and all of the roughly $4.3 million from settlements so far - can be traced to just two people: a pair of attorneys who worked together writing the statute...Seattle law professor Joaquin Avila, with advice from lawyers including Robert Rubin, legal director for the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area. Avila, Rubin's committee and lawyers working with them have collected or billed local governments about $4.3 million ...

That's only a fraction of what might come. Dozens of cities and school boards have been warned they could be sued under the 2002 California Voting Rights Act…

We called the lawyers. I wondered if they were embarrassed at that the AP publicized their scheme.  But Avila said he forwards all questions to Rubin’s firm. On Wednesday Rubin’s firm said they would send us a statement by 5pm, but they didn’t.

"It's a money grab," charged John Stafford, superintendent of the Madera Unified School District that was slapped with a $1.2 million attorneys' bill even though it never contested a lawsuit…

To pay, Stafford said the district would have to slash money for books and lunches for its mostly Hispanic students, an odd consequence for a law intended to aid Hispanics.

Lawyers run the system. They make sure they profit from it.