Finally, one bit of good news on a different topic, a bit of news that may not have much impact on the world at large but just does my heart good.Former Kansas state Attorney General Phill Kline first appeared on my radar in February 2005 when I wrote about his demand that abortion clinics in the state turn over the complete and unedited medical records of nearly 90 women and girls, claiming he needed the material for some bogus fishing expedition about "underage sex" and "illegal" abortions. Kline, who I dubbed Attorney General Slime, was also the man responsible for the prosecutorial persecution of Dr. George Tiller, the abortion provider who was later murdered by a fanatic wacked out over Slime's failure to get Tiller thrown in prison.
Well, last week, the Kansas Supreme Court suspended Kline's law license for misconduct in office. The court unanimously found that Kline’s “overzealous advocacy” and “improper motives” in his prosecution of abortion providers, including Planned Parenthood and George Tiller, led to “significant and numerous” violations of professional conduct.
The 154-page report cited “clear and convincing evidence” that Kline violated 11 separate rules governing the professional conduct of attorneys during his tenure as Johnson County district attorney and later Attorney General and that he "repeatedly" violated rules prohibiting "engaging in false or dishonest conduct.”
The state’s disciplinary administrator for attorneys had wanted Kline to be disbarred, but the court wasn't willing to go that far, limiting the ruling to indefinite suspension.
In a bit of unintentional humor, Kline's attorney, one Thomas Condit, said the court’s action was based on a “cherry picking” of oral and written comments over a period of many years.
Um, yeah - so the evidence was of an on-going pattern of misconduct over a number of years, not a single incident. Thanks for the confirmation.
Phill Slime is now an assistant professor of law at Liberty University in Virginia - yeah, Jerry Falwell's Liberty University, ranked on Forbes' magazine list of US colleges and universities as #636 out of 650. So I don't think he'll be needing his law license and he's unlikely to run for office again: Even the GOPpers in Kansas got tired of him.
Even so, like I said, this does my heart good.
Sources:
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2005/02/when-i-look-over-my-shoulder.html
http://www.salon.com/2013/10/18/former_kansas_attorney_general_debarred_over_targeting_of_abortion_providers/
http://www.kansascity.com/2013/10/18/4560734/kline-indefinitely-suspended-from.html
http://www.forbes.com/colleges/liberty-university/
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment