Scary Times

One of our attorneys attended a seminar recently in Seattle. He reports that he saw a disturbing presentation on the Rapanos case. During the presentation, the speaker went out of his way to show that Mr. Rapanos is a "bad actor" (i.e., he's a developer who defied federal authorities and filled the wetlands on his property). The speaker commented with some sarcasm that "only PLF would represent someone like Mr. Rapanos." At the end of the presentation, he showed pictures of me and Mr. Rapanos with this caption: "If the Supreme Court rules against the government so that federal regulators can no longer regulate wetlands, we have these men to blame for it."

When our attorney upbraided the speaker for his unprofessional presentation, demeaning PLF and holding me and Mr. Rapanos up for public scorn, the speaker was tongue-tied for a second, then beliggerently defended himself.

You know, the scary thing about this is that the speaker felt so confident that we are so clearly in the wrong that he could not conceive of any one disagreeing with him.

Here we are fighting for the ultimate good--the rule of law and our constitutional freedooms--and being accused of the ultimate wrong--trashing the environment for greedy purposes.

It's sad and scary.

P.S. I guess I shouldn't have cancelled that body armor order.