Tom Delay's Lawyer is having a field day

[adamuu]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/23/us/politics/23states.html

--snip--

And in Texas, lawyers for Tom DeLay, the former House majority leader, said the pending state campaign finance case against him should be thrown out.

--snip--

For now, the decision does not overturn all the state laws in question, but it is only a matter of time, experts said, before the laws will be challenged in the courts or repealed by state legislatures. Since the state laws are vulnerable, it is unlikely that officials will continue enforcing them, experts said.

--snip--

The decision could also affect pending trials, like that of Mr. DeLay, who was charged in 2005 with criminal violations of state campaign finance laws and money laundering.

“The money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering charges will definitely be undermined,” said Dick DeGuerin, Mr. DeLay’s lawyer. “The reason is that the foundation of the prosecution’s argument is that corporate donations are illegal in any part of the political process, but the Supreme Court just struck that idea down.”

But Carl Bryan Case, the director of the Appellate Division at the Travis County District Attorney’s Office, which is handling Mr. DeLay’s case, disagreed.

“The indictments against Mr. DeLay describe corporate contributions to a political campaign,” he said. “What the Supreme Court addressed was independent expenditures made by third parties on their own and without having to do with campaigns.”

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[annabanana]

1. unintended consequences?

NOT

[adamuu]

5. I do wonder how much it is related. n/t

[napi21]

2. Does a new law really change the fact that someone violated

an existing law when they committed the crime?

[adamuu]

3. There is no new law. Previous laws were invalidated by the SC ruling

other laws are merely waiting for an inevitable challenge.

[adamuu]

4. If pot were legalized, prisoners would be freed. No? n/t