Author: TSA Press

Last week, while the world at large was growing rightfully concerned about the burgeoning threat of the coronavirus, one judge found himself even more concerned about the state of the nation’s highest court.

Meet James Dannenberg. He’s a retired Hawaii judge who served for 27 years on the state’s 1st Circuit District Court. Prior to sitting on the bench, Dannenberg worked as the state’s deputy attorney general, teaching federal jurisdiction as an adjunct professor at the University of Hawaii Richardson School of Law, for more than a decade. The retired judge had also been a member of the prestigious Supreme Court Bar for almost 50 years — until he quit.

On Wednesday, he submitted a resignation letter to Chief Justice John Roberts, going so far as to refer to the Roberts Court as the Trump administration’s “errand boy.” Here’s an excerpt from Dannenberg’s letter, which is printed in full on the next page:

The Court, under your leadership and with your votes, has wantonly flouted established precedent. Your “conservative” majority has cynically undermined basic freedoms by hypocritically weaponizing others. The ideas of free speech and religious liberty have been transmogrified to allow officially sanctioned bigotry and discrimination, as well as to elevate the grossest forms of political bribery beyond the ability of the federal government or states to rationally regulate it. More than a score of decisions during your tenure have overturned established precedents—some more than forty years old– and you voted with the majority in most. There is nothing “conservative” about this trend. This is radical “legal activism” at its worst.

Without trying to write a law review article, I believe that the Court majority, under your leadership, has become little more than a result-oriented extension of the right wing of the Republican Party, as vetted by the Federalist Society.

Oh snap. We wonder how many of Chief Justice Roberts’s colleagues would concur with Dannenberg’s assessment of the politicized nature of the Supreme Court.

The only constitutional freedoms ultimately recognized may soon be limited to those useful to wealthy, Republican, White, straight, Christian, and armed males— and the corporations they control. This is wrong. Period. This is not America.

I predict that your legacy will ultimately be as diminished as that of Chief Justice Melville Fuller, who presided over both Plessy and Lochner. It still could become that of his revered fellow Justice John Harlan the elder, an honest conservative, but I doubt that it will. Feel free to prove me wrong.

Would this be considered a benchslap? With jaw-dropping insults like these, it may as well be. This is the judicial equivalent of saying “fight me, bro,” except here, it’s more like a respectful “cite me, bro.”

Dannenberg may have lost his faith in the Supreme Court, but he certainly hasn’t lost his will to fight for what’s right.

(Flip to the next page to see James Dannenberg’s letter in full.)

Former Judge Resigns From the Supreme Court Bar [Slate]

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Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

As a law firm associate, you have to do your job.

Or get fired.

If a partner asks you to draft a brief, you generally must draft a brief. You can’t punt.

If, say, a sixth-year associate asked to draft a brief turns to, say, a second-year associate to do the work, the partner probably won’t approve. The second-year associate has to be assigned to the case team, and many cases don’t merit thick staffing. Even if there’s a junior person available, the partner knows that he asked you to write the brief. The partner reviews the bills that show that you didn’t do this. The brief was written by two people instead of one. The partner is not happy.

In-house is a little different.

What’s the status of your case?
“I’ll set up a call with outside counsel.”

What damages are the plaintiffs seeking in that class action?
“I’ll set up a call with outside counsel.”

What’s our strategy for defending this thing?
“I’ll set up a call with outside counsel.”

Can you send me a summary of the case and the important issues?
“I’ll ask outside counsel to prepare something.”

This a type of freeloading that’s easier to do, and conceal, in-house than at a firm.

The in-house freeloader may have authority to approve bills, without review, up to a certain level. Suppose the freeloader asks outside counsel to do $20,000 worth of the freeloader’s work, and the freeloader is authorized to approve bills of less than $25,000. The freeloader’s unrestrained approval of the bill conceals the evidence of freeloading. It’s the perfect sloth!

Or you may have an alternative fee deal, where the law firm does all work on cases for a specified annual fee. It’s thus costless to the corporation for the freeloader to avoid doing his work. (The only cost to the corporation is the freeloader’s salary.  But that’s sort of my point.)

Within the corporation, of course, it’s obvious to everyone who works with the freeloader that the freeloader is not a real lawyer.  A real lawyer knows a little bit about his cases; a freeloader does not. A lawyer knows who the witnesses are; the freeloader does not. A lawyer can write up a short summary of one of his matters in a half hour; a freeloader requires a day or more for the task, as the freeloader assigns the task to outside counsel and then awaits a response.

Eventually, corporate freeloaders are likely to be exposed. But that may take far longer at a corporation than it does at a law firm.

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Mark Herrmann spent 17 years as a partner at a leading international law firm and is now deputy general counsel at a large international company. He is the author of The Curmudgeon’s Guide to Practicing Law and Drug and Device Product Liability Litigation Strategy (affiliate links). You can reach him by email at inhouse@abovethelaw.com.

We’ve written a lot of hedge fund obituaries in our time, both for the industry (premature) and for individual funds (usually not). There are, of course, all sorts of ways for a hedge fund to die: quantitative easing, manager boredom, confused political and economic outlooks, low volatility, frustration, Brian Hunter. But now we have a novel cause of death, specifically the 2019 Novel Coronavirus, which has claimed more than 5,000 human lives and, now, one limited partnership.

Hedge-fund manager Solus Alternative Asset Management LP, known for its investment in retail chain Toys “R” Us, told investors this week that it is shutting its flagship fund and will restrict redemptions as it works to sell off holdings… The firm in the letter told investors it has received unexpected withdrawal requests this year and that the turbulence caused by the coronavirus has made it difficult to raise cash as it normally would to fulfill those requests by selling holdings.

* Creditors of Toys ‘R Us claim that employees bilked the company of assets during the bankruptcy process. That must’ve been where all the video games went… [Law 360]

* A lawyer involved in the Trump impeachment process has tested positive for coronavirus. [CNN]

* The prosecution of Jussie Smollett has become an important issue in the upcoming Cook County State’s Attorney election. [Chicago Tribune]

* Perhaps one of the first coronavirus lawsuits filed over an event that was cancelled due to the pandemic has been settled. [Salt Lake Tribune]

* A New York woman has filed a lawsuit claiming that she was shackled to a hospital gurney by the NYPD while giving birth to her child. [Guardian]

* Former Alabama Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore filed a brief before the Supreme Court of the United States seeking to overturn marriage equality. Maybe he’ll ride his horse to oral arguments… [Newsweek]

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Jordan Rothman is a partner of The Rothman Law Firm, a full-service New York and New Jersey law firm. He is also the founder of Student Debt Diaries, a website discussing how he paid off his student loans. You can reach Jordan through email at jordan@rothmanlawyer.com.

Kelvin Charamba with his daughters inside the tent the family has lived in for the past year [Tendai Marima/Al Jazeera]

Airliners are being grounded and large gatherings cancelled to reduce the chances of infection. People are urged to wash their hands frequently, not to shake hands and, indeed, keep a metre distance from others – difficult if crowded into a bus or train.

These precautions are being taken in countries with sophisticated health services. What will happen when the coronavirus hits Zimbabwe fills us with trepidation, given the state of its health service and the weakened immune system of so many malnourished people.

Whether this troubles the Zanu PF elite is open to doubt. After all, President Mnangagwa, instead of investing in hospitals, has wasted money on hiring three expensive public relations companies to campaign for the removal of US sanctions. The Americans have now extended them, including Owen Ncube, the security minister accused of ordering security services to abduct and mistreat members of the opposition.

The US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, urged the Zimbabwe government to ‘immediately end state-sponsored violence including against peaceful protesters, civil society, labour leaders and members of the opposition in Zimbabwe, and to investigate and hold accountable those responsible for human rights violations and abuse.’ (See: https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-zimbabwe-sanctions/u-s-blacklists-zimbabwe-officials-over-human-rights-abuse-idUKKBN20Y2D7).

To mark the 5^th anniversary of the abduction of the human rights campaigner Itai Dzamara, the European Union has demanded action by the Zimbabwe government. The response was a bizarre statement by the police that investigations into the matter were continuing and that law enforcement agents had submitted ‘over 113 fortnightly updates to the High Court’! (See: https://www.herald.co.zw/police-submit-over-100-reports-on-dzamara/.)

An equally bizarre comment came from Zimbabwe’s Defence Minister Oppah Muchinguri who said coronavirus was the work of God punishing countries which imposed sanctions. She added: ‘They are now staying indoors. Their economies are screaming just like they did to our economy’. (see: https://www.enca.com/news/coronavirus-work-god-punishing-west-zimbabwe-minister.)

Other points

• During the week a number of Vigil activists attended a meeting of the Mike Campbell Foundation at the Royal Geographical Society. Under the title ‘Living on the Edge’ there was a discussion on the rule of law in Zimbabwe. Chief Felix Ndiweni gave a moving account of his legal persecution. The late Mike Campbell was one of the farmers beaten up when his land was seized. We doubt that he would be convinced by the government’s announcement offering land to dispossessed farmers (see: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-13/zimbabwe-offers-land-to-recompense-dispossessed-white-farmers). Those who attended from the Vigil and MDC were: Cephas Maswoswa, Charles Mararirikwenda, David Kadzutu, Delice Gavazah, Dennis Benton, Esther Munyira, Handsen Chikowore, Martin Chinyanga, Mary Muteyerwa, Mercy Mukaririrwa, Patricia Masamba, Rose, Benton, Rosemary Maponga and Tapiwa Muskwe. Special thanks to Rose Maponga for bringing a drum.
• Thanks to those who arrived early to help set up the Vigil today: Miriam Gasho, Rosemary Maponga, Philip Maponga, Patricia Masamba, Tapiwa Muskwe, Farai Mutumburi, Sithobekile Sikhosana and Kevin Wheeldon. Thanks to Rosemary and Miriam for looking after the front table, to Farai, Kevin, Netsayi Makarichi and Sithobekile for handing out flyers, to Patricia for taking photos, to Miriam for prayers and to Rosemary for providing hot drinks.
• For latest Vigil pictures check: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zimb88abwevigil/. Please note: Vigil photos can only be downloaded from our Flickr website.

FOR THE RECORD: 10 signed the register.

EVENTS AND NOTICES:

• ROHR general members’ meeting. Saturday 12^th April from 11.30 am. Venue: Royal Festival Hall, South Bank Centre, Belvedere Road SE1 8XX. Contact: Ephraim Tapa 07940793090, Patricia Masamba 07708116625, Esther Munyira 07492058107.
• The Restoration of Human Rights in Zimbabwe (ROHR) is the Vigil’s partner organization based in Zimbabwe. ROHR grew out of the need for the Vigil to have an organization on the ground in Zimbabwe which reflected the Vigil’s mission statement in a practical way. ROHR in the UK actively fundraises through membership subscriptions, events, sales etc to support the activities of ROHR in Zimbabwe. Please note that the official website of ROHR Zimbabwe is http://www.rohrzimbabwe.org/. Any other website claiming to be the official website of ROHR in no way represents us.
• The Vigil’s book ‘Zimbabwe Emergency’ is based on our weekly diaries. It records how events in Zimbabwe have unfolded as seen by the diaspora in the UK. It chronicles the economic disintegration, violence, growing oppression and political manoeuvring – and the tragic human cost involved. It is available at the Vigil. All proceeds go to the Vigil and our sister organisation the Restoration of Human Rights in Zimbabwe’s work in Zimbabwe. The book is also available from Amazon.

• Facebook pages:

  Vigil: https://www.facebook.com/zimbabwevigil
  ROHR: https://www.facebook.com/Restoration-of-Human-Rights-ROHR-Zimbabwe-International-370825706588551/
  ZAF: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Zimbabwe-Action-Forum-ZAF/490257051027515

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Africa’s former colonial powers have recently come under pressure to send looted artefacts back to their home countries.

They figure on Zimbabwe‘s national flag, banknotes and official documents: stone statues representing birds taken away by the European colonialists more than a century ago.

The eight original sculptures hold great spiritual value for people of the southern African nation, and have been made into national emblems.

Six of the large carvings were stolen from the ruins of Great Zimbabwe, an imposing stone complex built between the 11th and 13th centuries and attributed to pre-colonial King Munhumutapa.

The palatial enclosures are now a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Site situated in the southeast of Zimbabwe, 25 kilometres (16 miles) from the present-day city of Masvingo.

‘Connect present with past’

Almost all of the prized green-grey soapstone birds that were looted have now been returned to the country.

Only one remains in South Africa, where it is kept in the house of 19th-century British mining magnate and imperialist, Cecil Rhodes.

In a rare move last month, four of the statues were temporarily set on the original plinths from where they were stolen at the Great Zimbabwe monument.

The heavy figurines, some standing at about 1.5 metres (4.9 feet), were moved from an on-site museum and placed outdoors on pedestals for a photoshoot.

Their pictures were taken for a book on ancient African art – Zimbabwe: Art, Symbols and Meaning – to be published in September. The country marks the 40th anniversary of independence from Britain next month.

The book will be co-authored by a Zimbabwe-born duo and mother and son – Gillian Atherstone and Duncan Wylie – who now respectively live in Britain and France.

“The birds are among the most symbolic cultural objects of our time,” the head of Zimbabwe’s national museums, Godfrey Mahachi, told AFP news agency.

“They connect the present with our past.”

‘Troubled existence’

Great Zimbabwe ruins curator Munyaradzi Sagiya said the statues are kept inside the museum for security reasons.

“Not everyone who visits a museum is there to admire the displays,” he said.

Africa’s former colonial powers have recently come under pressure to send looted artefacts back to their home countries.

Germany returned the chopped-off pedestal of one of the birds in 2003.

Zimbabwe’s late ex-president Robert Mugabe said at the time that the piece had “a very eventful if not troubled existence during its almost 100 years in exile”.

South Africa returned five other birds in 1981, one year after Zimbabwe’s independence.

Retrieving that statue could be complicated as Rhodes left his estate to the South African government after his death, Sagiya said.

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Harare — The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) has said it will pay tobacco farmers half their earnings in US dollars after producers demanded forex payments due to a lack of confidence in the local currency.

Tobacco is one of Zimbabwe’s top export earners and last year brought in more than US$500m in earnings last year. There were fears farmers would withhold their crop if they did not receive payments in US$ ahead of the tobacco-selling season set to start this month.

Zimbabwe is the largest grower of tobacco in Africa and has some of the best climatic conditions to grow the crop in the world, despite the persistent climate change-induced droughts Southern Africa is facing.

Last year, the Tobacco and Industry Marketing Board (TIMB) sold 256-million tonnes of tobacco, which was the highest output since the chaotic land reform programme 20 years ago.

Despite the record output, experts say the new tobacco growers — mostly communal farmers who are shunning the staple maize crop and other grains — have been bringing to market poor-grade tobacco that sells at a low price or is sometimes rejected.

The future of the tobacco industry also hangs in the balance due to the World Health Organisation (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control that restricts smoking and use of tobacco.

Furthermore, the coronavirus pandemic poses a new threat to the tobacco industry as China is the largest importer of tobacco from Zimbabwe.  Though the crop is exported in US dollars, the cash-strapped Zimbabwe government retains part of the forex in it’s coffers and pays the farmers in its almost worthless local currency.

A similar promise to pay half the earnings in hard currency was made last season but the government failed to deliver as forex shortages continued. The failure prompted calls to hold this year’s crop by the growers.

This year, the RBZ says farmers are free to keep money in their foreign currency accounts as well as conduct foreign transfers without limits. The RBZ is battling to keep its local currency relevant as most businesses prefer to use foreign currency due to the unpredictability of the local unit.

In June last year, the central bank re-introduced the local currency after 10 years of a multi-currency system dominated by the US dollar and the rand. It also accepted sterling, the yen and Botswana’s pula.

“The 50% foreign currency portion shall be paid directly into the growers’ foreign currency bank accounts, and the 50% local currency portion directly into the growers’ local currency bank accounts or e-wallets on the day of the sale,” a joint statement from the RBZ and the TIMB said.

Tobacco farmers have been permitted to conduct inter-foreign currency accounts payments without any restrictions and the account balances will not be subject to any liquidation requirements. Farmers who took loans in foreign currency will also repay them in US dollars.

“We are happy for now but we wait to see if the banks will readily release the forex,” the Tobacco Association of Zimbabwe (TAZ) president George Seremwe told state media on Friday. The TAZ represents all commercial growers.

Other producers said they have reluctantly agreed to the 50% forex payment but they would have preferred 100% payment in US dollars.

In the bright light of the moon a pair of owls call to each other across the neighbourhood: Hoo hoo, Whoo hoo. It’s not quite 4.00am but already their dominance of the darkness is being disturbed as Zimbabwe wakes to try and get a head start on the next sixteen hour power cut. Outside the sky is clear, the stars bright and for a moment you linger, eyes closed, letting the balmy pre dawn air of our beautiful but broken Zimbabwe wash over you. Within quarter of an hour the electricity has gone and within an hour the buckets are being readied for the daily water collecting.

Every day we look at the spreading red stain on world maps of the Covid 19 Coronavirus and we see nothing marking Zimbabwe. Every day we wonder what is more frightening: not seeing any cases being recorded or wondering why we aren’t seeing any cases. Even more frightening is how we will cope when Coronavirus gets to Zimbabwe.

So far only one message from the Ministry of Health and Child Care has circulated on mobile phone networks which is the main source of information and communication for 90% of Zimbabweans with no electricity for radio and TV and unaffordable newspapers. The message came on the 3^rd of March and read: “Cover your mouth and nose when coughing or sneezing preferably with a tissue. Dispose it right away and wash your hands to prevent the spread of the virus.” (sic) The message from the Ministry of Health didn’t even name the Coronavirus; didn’t specify signs and symptoms, didn’t tell you what to do if you think you’ve got the virus; didn’t tell you how or where or even if you could get tested.

Neither the Ministry of Health nor the government of Zimbabwe have addressed the huge crisis we are facing already in just something as simple as washing our hands. We have no water in our taps five days a week; some places have no water in their taps ever. Around wells and boreholes with hand pumps, every day in every town scores of people come with buckets; hundreds throughout the course of a day. Everyone’s hands are touching the same pump handle to get water from the wells and boreholes. How then, government of Zimbabwe, do we stop the spread of Coronavirus?

The next crisis is soap. In the past week the rate of exchange between the US dollar and Zimbabwe dollar has increased from 25 to 40 and it is still rising. Today you need Z$40 to buy US$1. As a result the price of everything (imported and paid for in US$) has increased by 50%. Last week a 200ml bottle of liquid Dettol soap was Z$54; today it is Z$95. A 375g bar of Dettol soap is $30. A 9 pack of toilet rolls is anything from Z$80 to Z$200. An average monthly income for most people is around Z$300 a month; enough for one pack of toilet rolls and two bottles of Dettol soap but no food, rent, transport or anything else. How then, government of Zimbabwe do we wash our hands or sneeze into tissues?

In government buildings and public toilets there is usually no water and there is always no soap. At roadside vendors’ stalls where fruit and vegetables are sold individually there is no water for vendors or customers to wash hands. In buses, minibuses and pirate taxis people are crammed in and there is no way to prevent being contaminated and no other means of travelling. Our hospitals are in a shocking state, without basic equipment or medication and countless numbers of medical staff incapacitated and unable to afford to go to work.  How then government of Zimbabwe do we treat people who contract Coronavirus?

A few suspected cases of the virus in Zimbabwe have made it into the press and each has been shrouded in mammoth bungling: premature release of a woman from isolation and then her re-admittance a few days later, a man running away from isolation, going into the community and then headlines saying there was a ‘manhunt’ to find him, a woman dying on the way to hospital, medical staff running away because they had no protective gear. We are told that all of these cases have been negative for Coronavirus but alarm bells are banging.

At election time our government leaders plaster our towns with pictures of themselves but now, when the country needs them most, there are no signs and posters, no flyers under our doors, no clean running water in our taps and soap and toilet paper that we can’t afford to buy.  Perhaps we’ll see our government leaders in Zimbabwe’s hospitals for this first time in forty years because like us, if they get Coronavirus they won’t be able to fly off to China or India or South Arica for treatment. Like us they will have to pray that the hospitals have staff, gloves, medicines, respirators, oxygen, water and electricity to run the life saving machines.

Until next time, thanks for reading this Letter From Zimbabwe, now in its 20^th year, and my books about life in Zimbabwe, a country in waiting, love cathy 13 March 2020. Copyright © Cathy Buckle.  http://cathybuckle.co.zw/
For information on my books about Zimbabwe go to www.lulu.com/spotlight/ CathyBuckle2018 . For archives of Letters From Zimbabwe, to subscribe/unsubscribe or to contact me please visit my website http://cathybuckle.co.zw/

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