David Boies challenged America’s lawyers to “bring the rule of law to its full fruition here in this country … to fulfill the goals and lofty rhetoric of our founding fathers,” as the keynote speaker at the Opening Assembly of the 2010 ABA Annual Meeting in San Francisco.

The rule of law was the assembly theme, as ABA members gathered in the Herbst Theater of the War Memorial Veterans Building, site of the signing of the charter of the United Nations in 1945.  

President Carolyn B. Lamm pointed to ABA efforts from activities of the Section of International Law to such projects as the Central European and Eurasian Law Initiative, the Rule of Law Initiative and the World Justice Project as advancing United Nations goals to spread democracy based on law around the world.

Boies, co-counsel with Ted Olson in winning a federal district court ruling Wednesday that overturned California’s Proposition 8, cited “numerous challenges to the rule of law in our own country,” in applying that theme at home.

When our nation was born, it consisted of “wes” and “theys,” Boies said, with the “wes” being white male property owners and the “theys” comprising everyone else.  As the national history unfolded, the circle of “wes” expanded to encompass more and more segments of society.  

“We have an opportunity to expand the circle of ‘wes’ until there are no more ‘theys,’” said Boies, urging lawyers to work toward ensuring that “liberty and equality and protection of individual rights is something that every citizen equally enjoys.”

To achieve that goal, Boies identified four challenges confronting his audience.

First, he suggested the rule of law works best when adversaries have equivalent resources, whether those resources are plentiful or sparse.   But the “time when our system tends to break down is when one party has tremendous resources and the other party does not.”  Those are the times that “threatened to undermine the protections of the rule of law… [and lawyers] need to find ways to reduce the imbalance,” he said.  He urged reducing procedural advantages that favor the “better resourced party,” and urged lawyers to not “use discovery as a war of attrition,” for example. 
   
Second, he called for “better tools to help juries” decide important but complex cases, such as allowing jurors to ask questions and take notes on testimony.

His third challenge was to “improve judges and the judicial machinery,” citing a “crisis in terms of financing the justice system in the United States.”  First year associates in his law firm are paid higher salaries than federal district court judges, and state court judges earn even less, he said.  “If we can’t afford to spend a fraction of what we are spending to expand that system to Iraq, something is wrong with our sense of priorities,” he maintained.  

All lawyers must stand up for the independence of judges, resisting threats to their safety when they make unpopular decisions, said Boies, noting that there already have been threats to harm the judge who  ruled in the Proposition 8 litigation.

Boies’ cited predictably equal application of the law without regard to the identity of the parties as the final challenge to the rule of law, saying that when rights depend on who is asserting them, “the rule of law is undermined.”

Speaking to the decision, ABA President Carolyn B. Lamm noted, “The ruling of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California certainly points out what a very significant legal issue or series of issues marriage equality raises.  We know that marriage equality impacts issues in families’ lives — taxation, succession, custody of children, breakup and others.”

Panelists of the program were to include Ted Olson, who argued the case of Perry v. Schwarzenegger that challenged the constitutional validity of Proposition 8, but given the ruling’s timing, Olson was unable to attend.  Therese Stewart, San Francisco chief deputy city attorney, spoke in his stead. 

Stewart pointed out that evidence and research have shown that there is no difference in children being able to function whether raised by opposite sex parents or parents of the same sex.  People’s feelings on morality and immortality should not be the basis of law, said Stewart.

Gill v. OPM, in contrast, focused on federal recognition of couples who are already married, specifically Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act dealing will federal benefits.  Mary Bonauto, who argued that case, cited that marriage equality is not only about benefits but is as much about responsibilities, providing the example of conditioning eligibility for benefits on financial means.

Raymond Marshall, former president of the Bar Association of San Francisco and the State Bar of California, who moderated the program asked why marriage was sought, rather than civil unions or some other arrangement.  “Words matter.  Names matter,” stressed Stewart. “Everyone knows what marriage means.”

When asked why lawyers and courts should be involved, Bonauto succinctly stated that marriage is a legal institution.  In days gone by, interracial marriages have been prohibited as have inmate marriages. 

Lawyers and courts are important, argued panelists — Beth Robinson, an expert on state court marriage equality cases, also spoke — but the court of public opinion is also critical.  “I’m not sanguine about young people favoring [marriage equality],” said Stewart.  Popular opinions are fluid.

One attendee asked whether contracts entered into by committed individuals were being challenged.  The number of gaps that need filing in order to address all needs are too onerous.  “No paper I could draft” could address them all, noted Robinson.  

Marshall emphasized that — in the spirit of the American Bar Association — program planners invited speakers on both sides of the issue to take part in the session, but did not receive any acceptances from the other side.

The Annual Meeting of the American Bar Association runs through Aug. 10.  During the meeting of its policymaking House of Delegates on Aug. 9 – 10, the association will consider a recommendation dealing with marriage equality.  

The recommendation, as it is being brought to the House, reads, “[T]he American Bar Association urges state, territorial and tribal governments to eliminate all of their legal barriers to civil marriage between two persons of the same sex who are otherwise eligible to marry.”

Lamm noted, “As the nation's largest organization of lawyers, we in fact need to consider these issues because it impacts the lives of the public.  We will be debating them on Monday and this certainly helps to inform our debate.”

More than 20 entities of the ABA as well as state and local bars are bringing the measure to the House of Delegates. The ABA, with nearly 400,000 members, is the largest voluntary professional association in the world.

Civil rights groups on Thursday accused the U.S. Census Bureau of discrimination in its hiring of more than a million temporary workers to conduct the 2010 census, saying it ignored a warning from a federal agency that its hiring practices might violate the Civil Rights Act.

The Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the Center for Constitutional Rights and the Public Citizen Litigation Group were among groups that sued the secretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce in April to end the hiring practices and obtain back pay for plaintiffs. They beefed up the lawsuit Thursday with new claims and plaintiffs.

The lawsuit, which seeks class action status in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, alleges the Census Bureau in hiring temporary workers over the past two years illegally screened out applicants with often decades-old arrest records for minor offenses or those who were arrested but never convicted. It accuses the bureau, a division of the Department of Commerce, of discriminating against more than 100,000 blacks, Latinos and Native Americans, who are more likely to have arrest records than whites.

A New Jersey couple who gave their children Nazi-inspired names should not regain custody of them, a state appeals court ruled Thursday, citing the parents' own disabilities and the risk of serious injury to their children.

The state removed Heath and Deborah Campbell's three small children from their home in January 2009.

A month earlier, the family drew attention when a supermarket refused to decorate a birthday cake for their son, Adolf Hitler Campbell. He and siblings JoyceLynn Aryan Nation Campbell and Honszlynn Hinler Jeannie Campbell have been in foster care.

A family court had earlier determined that there was insufficient evidence that the parents had abused or neglected the children. That decision was stayed until the appeals court could review it. On Thursday, the three-judge appeals panel determined there was enough evidence and that the children should not be returned.

Mexico's Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a law allowing same-sex marriages in Mexico City is constitutional, rejecting an appeal by federal prosecutors who argued it violated the charter's guarantees to protect the family.

The justices' 8-2 ruling handed a legal victory to hundreds of same-sex couples who have been married in Mexico's capital since the landmark law took effect March 4. When approved last December, it was the first law in Latin America explicitly giving gay marriages the same status as heterosexual ones, including adoption.

The court, however, must still rule on the adoption clause and whether the ruling will affect states outside of the capital. It is expected to address adoption on Monday.

"We are very happy," said Mexico City lawyer Leticia Bonifaz, who argued Mexico City's case. "It fell to us to carry to a conclusion a struggle that has taken a long time."

Justices who voted on the majority side stressed that while Mexico's constitution enshrines protection for families, it does not define what a "family" is.

"It does not appear to me to be unconstitutional," Justice Jose Gudino said during Thursday's session. "The concept of the family established in the constitution ... is an open concept."

Jaime Lopez Vela, a leader of the group Lesbian, Gay, Transsexual and Transgender, was among a group of activists who celebrated the ruling outside the court.

President Barack Obama will visit a small business and talk about job-creation Friday shortly after the government releases unemployment figures for July.

The president will tour the facilities of Gelberg Signs in the District of Columbia and publicly applaud efforts the company is making to expand and hire more workers.

Later, he'll host a reception at the White House for Elena Kagan, newly confirmed to become the next Supreme Court justice.

Friday's report on the nation's employment situation is expected to show that private companies added only 90,000 jobs in July, not nearly enough for healthy economic growth.

A New York writer has pleaded not guilty in an alleged scheme to lure young women from overseas into forced labor.

Joseph Yannai (YAH'-nay) of Pound Ridge entered the plea Thursday in federal court in Brooklyn. He'll remain in jail pending an Aug. 9 bail hearing.

The 66-year-old Yannai wrote a reference guide to the world's top chefs called "The International Who's Who of Chefs 2004-2005."

Federal prosecutors allege he used au pair websites to try convince his victims that he was in the publishing business and looking for an assistant. He also is facing similar state charges, including labor trafficking and sexual abuse of women from Hungary, France and Brazil.

If convicted in the federal case, he could be sentenced to life in prison and lose his home.