Yall Politics

SCOTUS rejects Jim Hood’s $1 billion appeal over water theft

As YP noted in October ("Jim Hood seeks a billion from Memphis over alleged water theft, case with U.S. Supreme Court") and Respond Mississippi posted ("Billion dollar set backs for Jim Hood"), Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood sued Memphis on the basis they were pulling water properly belonging to Mississippi.

Judge Glen H. Davidson dismissed the lawsuit in February of 2008, and Hood with Don Barrett appealed to the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. In June, the Fifth Circuit affirmed the lower court's dismissal. The suit was then appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Today the Court denied to hear the case, which can only be seen as solid defeat for Hood, and a missed opportunity for massive attorney fees for his hand picked counsel.

No. 09-289
Title: Mississippi, Petitioner
v.
City of Memphis, Tennessee, et al.

Docketed: September 8, 2009
Lower Ct: United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
Case Nos.: (08-60152)
Decision Date: June 5, 2009

~~~Date~~~ ~~~~~~~Proceedings and Orders~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sep 2 2009 Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due October 8, 2009)
Sep 23 2009 Order extending time to file response to petition to and including November 9, 2009.
Oct 30 2009 Order further extending time to file response to petition to and including December 2, 2009.
Dec 1 2009 Brief of respondents City of Memphis, Tennessee, et al. in opposition filed.
Dec 16 2009 DISTRIBUTED for Conference of January 8, 2010.
Dec 16 2009 Reply of petitioner Mississippi filed. (Distributed)
Jan 11 2010 DISTRIBUTED for Conference of January 15, 2010.
Jan 19 2010 DISTRIBUTED for Conference of January 22, 2010.
Jan 25 2010 Petition DENIED.

YP
1/25/10

Posted January 25, 2010 - 6:22 pm

11 Comments:

I doubt this will reverberate much across the political landscape, but it’s a pretty big deal.

Posted by Alan on 01-25-2010 at 04:33 PM [link]

CasualObserver2 wrote:

Alan

I agree, this is a very big deal,

Water rights are the most important natural economic resource, second only to sunlight and breathable air. Ask the farmers and public works engineers of the effects of declining access to naturally flowing water and you will see that the potential economic decline resulting from declining access to naturally flowing water is astronomically bad (like surface water, subterranian water has a natural flow.)

For those of you still think this is not a critical issue, let Mississippi install bigger pumps than Memphis and thereby draw water AWAY from Mempnis and see how fast Memphis runs to the US Supreme Court for relief.

If the Supreme Courts still refuses to address the issue, let the “My pump is Bigger Than Your Pump” wars begin!!

Posted by FrankMickens on 01-26-2010 at 01:44 AM [link]

I must be missing something here. I thought the mighty Mississippi is fueled by 2/3 of all the water in the United States, or I thought I read that.

If the statement is correct, I don’t see how Memphis will be able to use all of the water. Help me out on this one so I will stand corrected.

Bottom line to me is that I don’t trust Jim Hood.

Posted by Hammer3 on 01-26-2010 at 04:48 PM [link]

The litigation is over the rights to water in the aquifer under Desoto County, not water flowing down the Mississippi river.

Posted by north ms lawyer on 01-26-2010 at 05:30 PM [link]

AG Hood will continue to discover grandiose sources of money among the citizens of our state and our neighbors. Also, by using people like Don Barrett, he outsources the work to only the most reputable of lawyers. How could we do without him! But I’d like to try.

Ship Island

Posted by ship island on 01-26-2010 at 05:31 PM [link]

NML, regardless of where the water comes from, this deal was frivilous from the start. We have recently had THE BIGGEST JUDICIAL BRIBERY SCANDAL in Mississippi and maybe even one of the largest in the country, and our AG doesn’t file a single charge. Nothing. Nada. Zip. Instead, he’s ill-advisedly suing other states for water at the behest of huge financial donors.

It just looks REALLY bad.

Posted by Alan on 01-26-2010 at 05:34 PM [link]

Do the lawyers still get paid since they lost? We cannot have two standards where Langston gets over 10 mil for a weekend on the golf course with Moore and settled for 10 cents on the dollar and took his 10% with him. Surely he was not thinking it was like a tithe.

Posted by Contract with America on 01-26-2010 at 08:20 PM [link]

AP in Sun Herald:

Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood says he wants to talk to his counterparts in Tennessee and Arkansas before deciding whether to continue a legal fight with the city of Memphis over water taken from an aquifer in DeSoto County.

Posted by Just Me on 01-27-2010 at 11:59 AM [link]

Don Barrett is back, right in the middle of the class action against BP. And with some old friends too. Just color me surprised.

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/florida-class-action-filed-in-bp-oil-spill-disaster-93077039.html

Its such a small world, the same names just keep popping up over and over and over. Random thoughts....wonder if anyone has a trailer on the coast..........or if there’s an attorney ‘confidential informant’.....good thing we know Scruggs has a working email address in case he just wants to keep up with the local news.

More random thoughts......
-12 days from explosion to AGs meeting, lawsuits, etc.
-2 weeks on Katrina (http://rightofmississippi.wordpress.com/2010/04/08/hood-files-katrina-lawsuit-in-two-weeks-but-cant-decide-on-obamacare-in-two-weeks/)

Maybe if Minor, Teel, Whitfield, Scruggs Sr, Scruggs Jr, Balducci, Patterson, Langston, Backstrom, Peters, etc. had spit oil or had the name Katrina.....

Posted by Just Me on 05-07-2010 at 11:28 AM [link]

Attorney General Hood just recently employed Billy Quinn to represent the State against a drug company in what appears to be an open and shut case. Quinn was the Lawyer that worked with Joey Langston on the World Com-MCI case and was a membaer of the Langston Law firm in Booneville at the time that Langston was charged in the Ed Peters case. Quinn now practices in the Jackosn area and is a contributor to the Hood campaign fund.

This type of corruption (pay to play) will not be stopped until the legislature takes some action or the Supreme Court rules against Hood.

Posted by north ms lawyer on 05-07-2010 at 12:26 PM [link]

Or, NML, we boot the sucker from office and elect a candidate that’s willing to back some common sense rules for outside counsel.

Posted by factord_agin on 05-07-2010 at 12:34 PM [link]

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