The bishops have their own lawyers. They did not commission the law
professor's letter, and no one but the signers had any input into its content.
Marci, even you agree that this bill was "plainly unconstitutional," so it did
not take a conspiracy of bishops to get me to say so.
If the real question is whether anyone was paid to write that letter, the
answer is no. Not a penny. I had no client that I could have billed, and even
if I did, I do not bill commercial rates to clients on public interest matters.
Usually, I do not bill public interest clients at all.
Many people who saw the bill thought it was obviously unconstitutional, and
they began turning for help in all directions. I heard about it from Catholic
lawyers, Protestant lawyers, two different list serves, and a Professor at at
the Yale Law School. No doubt the Connecticut bishops were encouraging their
representatives to spread the word and seek help, and there may well be a chain
of communications that leads back to the bishops. But I cannot reconstruct
that chain, they did not contact me directly, and no one in Connecticut
answered my e-mail when I tried to ask a question about one of the details in
the bill. As far as I know, they had never heard of me and had other
communications that seemed more important to attend to.
The idea to circulate a draft for additional signatures was my own. Many of
the people I sent it to already knew about it; some heard about it from me.
Quoting hamilto...@aol.com:
> I would like to ask a point of information on the law profs letter to
> Conn legis. I am wondering if it was formally or informally
> commissioned by the bishops.
> Marci
> Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: "Marc Stern" <mst...@ajcongress.org>
>
> Date: Thu, 12 Mar 2009 12:21:28
> To: <religionlaw@lists.ucla.edu>
> Subject: Re: NY Religious Corporations Law
>
>
> _______________________________________________
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>
Douglas Laycock
Yale Kamisar Collegiate Professor of Law
University of Michigan Law School
625 S. State St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1215
734-647-9713
Links:
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_______________________________________________
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