Saturday, September 04, 2010

$1.5 Million Donation to Help AZ Defend SB 1070

Timothy Mellon, descendant of Thomas Mellon, the 19th Century reailroad, steel, and banking magnate, has donated $1.5 Million to help the State of Arizona defend itself from the Federal Governments attack on SB 1070.  This is the largest single contribution to the fund which now has more than $3.5 million.

Is Timothy Mellon a real-life Hank Rearden??

Wyoming man donates $1.5 million to defend Arizona immigration law

PHOENIX - A Wyoming man has given more than $1.5 million to help defend Arizona's controversial immigration enforcement measure in court, Gov. Jan Brewer's office said Thursday.

The contribution from Timothy Mellon of Saratoga is the largest to Brewer's defense fund, which has amassed more than $3.6 million from 41,000 donors nationwide. Mellon could not immediately be reached for comment.

Mellon's Aug. 18 donation was 300 times more than the next-largest contribution of $5,000 -- an amount donated by at least four people, records show.

The latest legal bills released Thursday show Brewer's office has spent more than $440,000 for the first two months of defending the law.

The bills, obtained through a public records request by The Associated Press, are for work performed through June by Phoenix law firm Snell & Wilmer. They do not cover July hearings in federal court before a judge Susan Bolton temporarily blocked enforcement of the law's most controversial provisions.

Brewer has appealed Bolton's order to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Her office is defending the state against seven lawsuits challenging Arizona's law, including cases filed by the U.S. Justice of Department, civil rights groups and two police officers.

Bolton has dismissed two of the cases.

"The fees incurred have been, and will continue to be, sizeable," Brewer spokesman Paul Senseman said, noting there have been more than 900 legal filings totaling more than 12,000 pages.

The invoices are heavily redacted and don't reveal details about the state's defense strategy or lawyers' thoughts. They show Snell & Wilmer attorneys in frequent contact with the governor's in-house lawyer and occasionally talking with Kris Kobach, a law professor who helped draft the measure and is running for secretary of state in Kansas.

Attorneys met with Brewer and state Sen. Russell Pearce, the measure's chief sponsor, on June 10.

In June, lawyers billed the state between $225 and $450 per hour for more than 1,100 hours of work at a cost of $363,000.

That work follows $77,000 for 241 hours of work in the last 12 days of May.

Arizona's law would generally require officers enforcing other measures to check the immigration status of people they suspect are illegal immigrants.

2 comments:

Rose said...

It certainly is a tragedy of our time that the Federal Government is attacking a State for seeking to ensure that Federal Law in enforced, and attacking a Sheriff for doing his job.

Apparently, the new breed of politician thinks it is ok to selectively enforce laws, pick and choose who can break laws and get away with it and who they will go after, even to the point of going after the one who is enforcing, not breaking the laws. It's insane.

They cannot stop drug dealers and illegals, so instead they bring the full power of the law down on the law-abiding, they sure can bust you for not wearing your seat-belt or talking on your cell-phone while driving. Heaven forbid.

What does that tell us? We are better off defying them en masse, on every level.

What benefit is there to being a law-abiding prson these days?

Kirly said...

Rose, my friend, you just defined tyranny. Dictatorial totalitarian tyrants always arise from leftism.