From Civil Liberties to Cloning: The 2002 Ninth Circuit Conference
By Peg Carew Toledo, Co-Chair of the Lawyer Representatives for the Eastern District

Each year the Ninth Circuit holds a Judicial Conference somewhere within the territory of the Ninth Circuit. Last year the conference took place in Big Sky, Montana and this year the conference was held July 15-18 in San Diego, California at Loews Coronado Resort. The primary purpose of the conference is to consider the business of the courts in the Ninth Circuit and to consider ways of improving the administration of justice in the Ninth Circuit. Pursuant to statute, Chief Judge Mary M. Schroeder summons all judges in the circuit to attend the conference and allows members of the bar from throughout the circuit to actively participate in the conference. The members of the bar who attend the conference are appointed for three-year terms and are called "lawyer representatives."

Most, if not all, of the judges from the Eastern District attended the conference this year. The lawyer representatives at the conference were Kathleen Bales-Lange, Albert Berryman, Barry Goldner, Matthew Jacobs, Kim Mueller, Roger Nuttal, Lance Olson, Alan Perkins, Malcolm Segal and Peg Carew Toledo. Other Sacramento lawyers in attendance at the conference included Ann Taylor Schwing and Lisa Mercurio.

This year's conference theme was "The New America: Borders and Beyond." Over four days, judges and lawyers listened to an impressive roster of speakers address the historical aspects of citizenship, historical and current perspectives on national security and related civil rights issues, border nation economies, immigration policy, and advances in stem cell research and cloning.

The Ninth Circuit conference opened with a naturalization ceremony where keynote speaker U.S. Assistant Attorney General Viet Dinh spoke of his own experience of immigrating to this country as a refugee from Vietnam in 1978. After the naturalization candidates recited the Oath of Allegiance, Conference Chair, the Honorable Michael R. Hogan, invited all in attendance to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. Although Judge Hogan made clear that the phrase "under God" was optional, the conference attendees, most of whom held small American flags, appeared to recite the entire pledge with the new American citizens.

One of the most moving presentations at the conference came during a panel on national security and civil liberties. Ninth Circuit Judge A. Wallace Tashima and Los Angeles Police Commission member Rose Marie Ochi shared their childhood experiences of being taken from their homes to internment camps after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.

At a panel discussion titled "These Uncertain Times: An Interactive Panel on National Security and Civil Liberties in the Wake of the 9/11/2001 Terrorists Attacks," former Secretary of State Warren Christopher expressed disappointment that the federal government had refused to reveal the identity of hundreds of individuals detained in connection with investigations of terrorism. He eloquently noted a parallel between the Bush administration's secrecy around these detentions and the "desaparecidos" in Argentina during the 1970s. On that same panel, former FBI and CIA director William H. Webster expressed concern about the anticipated use of secret military tribunals to try terrorism suspects.

The lawyer representatives from the Eastern District sponsored two resolutions at the conference. Kim Mueller presented a resolution on the continuation and enhancement of ADR and ADR education programs in the federal courts throughout the circuit. Peg Carew Toledo presented a resolution which requested the appointment of a task force to study the use of videoconferencing in federal court proceedings. After a vote by the judges and lawyers, both of these resolutions were adopted by the Judicial Conference.

Each year the conference closes with a "conversation" with one or more of the United States Supreme Court Justices. This year the conference concluded with a very interesting "Conversation with Justice John Paul Stevens and Solicitor General Theodore B. Olson." In his comments, Justice Stevens expressed his view that with capital punishment for mentally retarded defendants abolished last term by Atkins v. Virginia, an opinion he authored, the death penalty for juveniles is likely to be the next area for debate.