Tuesday, November 22, 2005

 

What Would Thomas Do?

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Some more musings about the Thomas More Law Center:

A number of questions arise as to whether the Dover School Board was informed of all the fine print involved, such as the possibility of the District having to pay $1,000,000 or more in legal fees in the legal challenge that was almost certain to follow the board’s action. Also, was the board given a reasonable estimate of the chances in the lawsuit (though it apparently was told something along those lines by their own lawyer)? There is a certain duty upon an attorney to protect a client from its own folly, no matter how much you'd like them, for your own reasons, to play the fool.

Perhaps the most interesting question is what the Law Center was really after and what did they tell the board about it? If the Law Center intended to win this case under present law, there is serious question of the competency of its investigation and/or its appreciation of the facts and the law in the case.

If they wanted to bring a test case to change the law (in hopes, say, that Justice Scalia's dissent in Edwards v. Aguillard would be adopted) did they tell the board this? If so, that opens the individual board members up to potential personal liability for the legal fees.

The board members are only protected from liability for their actions if they are acting in good faith in the interests of the school district. Using the district as a guinea pig, and potentially forcing it to incur significant liability, in order to advance the board members' own religious and political interests (as their testimony makes painfully clear) is, in my book, as much a misuse of the district's resources as it would be to have district employees use district supplies to build houses for the board.

If the Law Center hoped to make new law but didn't tell the board that or didn't tell them of their potential personal liability if things went wrong, they were committing malpractice, at least, if not outright fraud.
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