Update 10/23: Indiana Ballot Challenge: 9/26/2012 Official Court Transcript
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Further to GreatGrey’s observer reports (see below) on yesterday’s hearing in Indianapolis, we hear from A Legal Lohengrin:
I woke up late, as I had forgotten to set my alarm, and then proceeded to dawdle around reading PMs on The Fogbow until I was even later, so I didn’t arrive in town until 12:15, about 15 minutes after I had planned on arriving. Then I somehow managed to get lost on a walk from the parking garage to the City-County building, which happens to be a straight line on the same street. I met GreatGrey at the Subway catty-corner from the City-County Building on 200 E. Washington St., where we had a quick sandwich. Thanks for buying me a sandwich, GG. I cleverly left my iPhone in the restroom of the Subway, so after clearing security, had to go back and retrieve it.
I am glad that Sugar Magnolia was not there to do a fashion report, because my hair looks like it was cut with a buzz saw and I had terrible eyebrow dandruff.
I wore a black Brooks Brothers suit with a dark tie with small pink dots on it, a blue and white striped shirt with French cuffs, a “scales of Justice” tie clip, and unfashionable wire-frame glasses, which are all I have since I sat on my Ermenegildo Zegna black framed glasses.
I incorporate by reference Sugar Magnolia’s fashion report on Orly. She wore the same “black lawyer suit” she usually wears, and while her hair did not quite look as if styled by an egg beater this time, it somehow became more disheveled during the hearing, and was kind of a rat’s nest by the end of the hearing. Since there was no heavy wind in the courtroom, I assume that somehow, the crazy leaks out and disorders her hair.
At the defense table, from left to right as viewed from behind, were Senior Deputy Attorney General Kenneth L. Joel, and Deputy Attorneys General Kate Shelby and Jefferson Garn. Mr. Joel made no arguments during the hearing, but was representing DAGs Shelby and Garn. I believe his presence was partly for moral support, and partly to emphasize to Judge Reid how many man-hours and taxpayer dollars this frivolous lawsuit is wasting.
As a preliminary matter, I commend the manner in which DAGs Shelby and Garn conducted themselves at the hearing. They displayed professionalism and competence, and unlike many co-counsel, worked together very well and smoothly handed off argument to each other when one was more well-versed than another with a particular aspect of the case.
At the plaintiffs’ counsel table, again from left to right, were Orly and Black. Black seemed familiar with both Judge Reid and defense counsel, and they exchanged a few words in a seemingly cordial and collegial manner. There does not seem to be any animosity between Black and defense counsel. It seems to me that Black regularly practices before the Superior Court. Orly adding them as defendants for nothing more than doing their job is the pathetic and despicable act of a vexatious litigant.
Behind counsel table were the plaintiffs. From left to right, there was Kesler, then an individual I did not recognize, who did not identify himself, wearing a green shirt, Weyl, Swihart and Ripley, who I believe is a new plaintiff, in what appeared to be a wheelchair. I may be incorrect about that, and the person in a wheelchair may not have identified herself.
An idiot, who I assume was a birther, was taking photographs with a cell phone camera with some kind of enhanced camera accessory, and otherwise aiming the cell phone camera around. I could see the bailiff looking balefully at him, and when I caught his eye briefly, looked over at the birther and raised a single eyebrow. Shortly afterward, the bailiff went out the back door into Judge Reid’s office.
At around 1:30, give or take a minute, the “all rise” announcement let us know Judge Reid was entering the courtroom. She strode to the bench, and after a brief pause, said “Please be seated.”
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