Thread: Attorneys asking 2.3 Million from Hazleton

Attorneys in Hazleton illegal immigrant case ask for $2.3 million
By MICHAEL RUBINKAM - Associated Press Writer

ALLENTOWN, Pa. --Plaintiffs who successfully sued to overturn Hazleton's illegal immigrant law want the city to pay more than $2.3 million in legal fees.

U.S. District Judge James Munley struck down the Illegal Immigration Relief Act in July, ruling it unconstitutional. Hazleton has appealed the ruling to the Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Lawyers representing the plaintiffs asked Munley on Friday to award them more than $2.3 million in fees and another $45,000 in related costs.

"But for the efforts of the private lawyers and public-interest law groups involved in prosecuting this matter, plaintiffs would not have been able to seriously challenge Hazleton's unconstitutional ordinances and the lives of plaintiffs and other similarly situated residents of Hazleton would have been adversely and irreparably affected," the lawyers said in a petition.

Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta called the request absurd and said the city would fight it. Barletta has raised $400,000 for the city's legal defense fund, of which about $150,000 has been spent.

The plaintiffs' petition "illustrates the circus the ACLU brought to this case," Barletta said. "They had 20 attorneys sitting in the courtroom at a time, 16 of them doing nothing but running up the bill."
Actually, the petition lists a total of 37 attorneys as having worked on the case, most of them from the Philadelphia firm Cozen O'Connor, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund.
They billed a total of 7,613 hours.
The lawyers defended their fee request as reasonable, saying the city repeatedly amended its ordinance in an effort to put it on sounder legal footing - making more work for them.

"The consequence of defendant's experimentation was that in this one case, plaintiffs were forced repeatedly to recalibrate their arguments to focus on the ever-changing target," the petition said.

The city had sought to impose fines on landlords who rent to illegal immigrants and deny business permits to companies that give them jobs. Another measure would have required tenants to register with City Hall and pay for a rental permit.

Hazleton's act was copied by dozens of municipalities around the nation that believe the federal government hasn't done enough to stop illegal immigration.

Maybe it is time for the American people to sue the ACLU.

Sorry...Forgot to include the link about Hazleton.

http://www.centredaily.com/news/state/story/194756.html

Shad, there are countless numbers of folks like you and me that would cherish a suit on the ACLU and I have addressed this many times with different folks. In this case, however, we may have to play it out for now.

On my home page at www.stoptheaclu.org, I posted a piece about a law in Pennsylvania known as the Dragonetti Act that would allow countersuits against the likes of the ACLU if deemed frivolous and the ACLU was on the losing end. Unfortunately, because they won round 1 , they would not be able to be sued, however, that could be a different story if the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals reverses (hopefully and prayerfully so) the lower court ruling.

I would just assume the other firms be sued as well if this is overturned. And it really should be. After all, where does it say or imply in our U.S. Constitution that illegal aliens have constitutional rights? The ACLU says they do. In fact, the ACLU will tell you that illegals shouldn't come into this country but once they do, you can't deny them their civl rights. I sure don't know where they get that one.

We're always talking to people and looking for ways to sue the ACLU. I hope there's some constitutional law expert out there who could tell me how. Those I have talked to said it would be extremely tough to use RICO against them. Well, if we can't, we need to find some other way to do so. The ACLU is wreaking legal havoc on America and there are few solid folks working to stop this runaway freight train.

Weird how the aclu- American civil liberties union- is fighting for non-Americans "rights".
Why won't these towns/states get together and pass laws all at the same time to really throw off these groups?They'd never be able to keep up and they'd be spread so thin that hopefully they'd just give up.
It will cost more inthe next few years to support these parasites(illegals) than to fight them in court.




Head 'em up,move 'em out Rawhide!

Isn't the purpose of the ACLU to defend the civil rights of AMERICANS??? Or am I reading too much into the translation.

I wish someone could explain to me WHY illegal aliens are entitled to ANY rights! WHY are they given the same Constitutional rights as American citizens IF they make it over the border without being picked up? Are they LESS ILLEGAL if they escape the border patrol and make it into the interior of the US???

The same goes for the CUBAN WET FOOT, DRY FOOT scam!

As I see it, the only CIVIL RIGHT illegal aliens have is the right to be peacefully and humanely catapulted right back over the border!!!

ARE THEY CRAZY!! What they want is to scare other towns into going there. If this judge lets them get away with this we know we are done for.
What judge would make their town pay for 20 lawyers sitting around doing nothing, talk about over kill. I am just shocked.

We had better find a way to get this country's attention and very soon!!


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