"Not From a Grisham Novel, but One for the Casebook" is the heading for this story today in the NY Times that begins:
JACKSON, Miss. — In the Mississippi of John Grisham's legal thrillers, the courts are nests of chicanery and corruption. This has led more than a few indignant Mississippians, lawyers especially, to brand the author as a defamatory purveyor of lurid and improbable pulp.Yesterday's issue of the Jackson Mississippi Clarion Ledger ran this story, headlined "Chamber may back candidates: Business-friendly high court is goal" re U.S. Chamber of Commerce' plans. Some quotes:But one recently issued text makes Mr. Grisham look as refined and restrained as Henry James: the federal indictment pending here against a sitting State Supreme Court justice, his former wife, two former judges and one of the state's most prominent lawyers.
Mississippi justice, the indictment suggests, is built on cozy relationships and fueled by bribes. This is a state, after all, where the Supreme Court justice in question, Oliver E. Diaz Jr., lived rent-free in a Biloxi condominium owned in part by the lawyer, Paul S. Minor.
WASHINGTON — Because the U.S. Chamber of Commerce wants to make Mississippi courts friendlier to business, it may repeat its efforts this year to influence Supreme Court elections as it did in 2000 and 2002 with varying success.Posted by Marcia Oddi at March 15, 2004 11:01 AM"We have not made any decisions yet," Lisa Rickard, president of the U.S. Chamber's Institute for Legal Reform, said last week.
But she hopes to raise $40 million this year to lobby Congress and state legislatures on changes to the legal system. The money from some of the chamber's big business members, including Aetna, Home Depot, Ford, General Electric and Johnson & Johnson, also will be spent on television and other ads aimed at influencing voters to choose candidates the chamber favors in state Supreme Court races. The states' trial lawyers are expected to support opponents of the chamber-backed candidates.
Mississippi has four Supreme Court races this year. They are contests for the seat of retiring Chief Justice Edwin Pittman and the re-election bids of Justices James Graves Jr., William Waller Jr. and George Carlson Jr.