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CNN Saturday Morning News

Interview with Lida Rodriguez-Taseff, Nelda Blair

Aired August 16, 2003 - 08:16   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THOMAS ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: All right, you heard the gavel there. So it's time to open our Legal Briefs and talk about the some of the legal stories that are making the headlines. On our docket today, a possible decision by the judge in the Kobe Bryant case and the federal government may fine an American who was a human shield in Iraq, but not for protesting. So we'll get to that in a second.
We're going to talk about these cases a former prosecutor Nelda Blair, who joins us from Houston, and civil liberties attorney Lida Rodriguez-Taseff, who is in Miami.

Ladies, good morning.

Great to have you with us, as always.

NELDA BLAIR, FORMER PROSECUTOR: Thanks.

LIDA RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF, CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY: Good morning, Thomas.

ROBERTS: All right, let's start off with Kobe Bryant and the fact that come Monday, a judge will decide whether or not certain documents should be unsealed.

Explain, I guess, first off, how likely is it that these documents will be unsealed? And then I'll follow that up with what do we think could be in these papers?

BLAIR: Well, I think it's pretty likely, actually, that this judge will unseal these documents. What's going to be in those papers is whether or not the prosecution actually has a pretty good circumstantial case against Bryant. We're going to find out what kind of physical evidence they had, what kind of perhaps bruising, perhaps skin abrasions, perhaps torn clothing, other things that they've been gathering that led them to file these charges against him.

ROBERTS: Lida, do you agree with that?

RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: Well, I think that's true, if the judge actually lets this stuff come out. This is the, what we're talking about here is a motion that was made by about five different news outlets, including CNN, to request that documents be unsealed. Thus far, these judges have demonstrated, in this case and in the Scott Peterson case, a penchant to disregard the first amendment and to try to seal these cases or shield these cases from public view.

I certainly hope that the information is released because the public has a right to know. This would have otherwise been public had it not been for this case and the fact that it is a high profile case. But let's not forget that we have a first amendment in this country that protects the right of the public and protects the right of the press do disseminate information about cases, even when they're in the public eye.

ROBERTS: Well, we'll wait to see what happens when that judge makes a ruling on Monday.

All right, ladies, I want to move you down south to Alabama. And talk about what's taking place there. This 5,300 pound statue of the Ten Commandments that's in one of the federal buildings down there, or in one of the buildings there in Alabama, the justice, Roy Moore, Chief Justice Roy Moore is, I guess, abandoning and disobeying this order to have this removed. He placed it in the building there and now he's saying no, I'm going to keep it there and we're going to take this all the way to the Supreme Court.

What do you think about this guy?

RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: Well, you know, one of the things that's funny about this is just a few days ago, Justice Moore said in a radio talk show program that it is tyranny when a court tries to impose its will upon us. And that's a quote, "It is tyranny," he said. And what's interesting is this is a guy who is the chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, the highest judicial officer in Alabama, who has rendered hundreds and hundreds of decisions himself. And I don't know that he thought those were tyranny.

This is really sad for American justice because it harkens back to a time when people who didn't like our laws and our orders decided to just disobey them. Whatever he thinks of the decision of the federal court, he should not be disregarding it and we should follow through and make sure that the law prevails here.

ROBERTS: Nelda, I wanted to read this to you. This is from the wires, from Justice Chief Moore saying that he argued to the U.S. courts that they had "no authority to tell the State of Alabama that we cannot acknowledge god as the source of our justice system."

BLAIR: Right.

ROBERTS: So the U.S. courts have no place here to tell them, the State of Alabama. Are they different from the U.S.?

BLAIR: Well, perhaps they plan to secede. That may be on the agenda. But I'll say this, Justice Moore is talking about his religious beliefs. He's not talking about his position as the chief justice for the State of Alabama. And what he's got, and what he's got to do is follow the orders that have been put down to him by superiors judges. And it's very unfortunate because obviously he has some very strong religious beliefs. I admire him for that. But in this case, what he has to do, as we all have to do who are pledged to the law, is to follow court orders.

Now, he does have one more shot, at the Supreme Court. But honestly it's unlikely that anything is going to be done there.

What has put him in that position, the attorney general of the State of Alabama has basically distanced himself. Eight other justices are distancing themselves because he is a judge. He is bound to follow the law.

ROBERTS: Well, and as we learned from this judge's saying that the U.S. courts don't have authority. However, he wants to take it to the U.S. Supreme Court, so we'll see what happens on that front.

I want to move on real quickly, finally, a gentleman named Ryan Clancy, a 26-year-old record store owner from the Midwest that went to Iraq as a protester now is finding himself in a little trouble back here in the States. But it's not for being a protester.

Lida, I guess explain, do you understand why he's getting in trouble for this?

RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: Yes. He's not being fined for being a protester or for being a human shield. He's basically now been fined for violating trade embargo laws with Iraq. Now, these laws are destined or designed to basically prevent companies and others from doing business and propping up Saddam Hussein's regime.

What's interesting about this is that the charges, the fine has nothing to do with the acts of acting as human shields. So it kind of leads one to believe that what's going on here really is that the government is using this as a pretext to punish these people for their political opinion.

Now, the act of being human shields and laying down in front of oil fields may not be protected first amendment speech, but certainly the political statements that they made against the war, not just this gentleman, but other people -- because there were about 20 of them -- the statements that they made certainly are protected speech. But it starts, it's starting to look funny when the government is going after these people not for what they did, but for having spent a few dollars...

ROBERTS: Spent some money, yes.

RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: Yes, on Iraqi tea down the street.

So this one's really worrisome.

ROBERTS: Nelda, real quickly, the last word to you. Although there are other cases in American history where there have been Treasury regulations that have been upheld when people come back from protesting, correct?

BLAIR: That's correct. That's absolutely right. But, you know, the law is the law. And if these people who've broken the law, no matter what else they may have done that is protected, then the government has a right to go after them, whether it's selective or not. It's like being stopped for speeding. Everybody else may have been speeding, too, but just because everyone else wasn't stopped doesn't mean the speeder wasn't violating the law.

These people, if they're in violation, the government has a right to go after them and should.

ROBERTS: A case to be watched.

Nelda Blair and Lida Rodriguez-Taseff.

BLAIR: Thank you.

ROBERTS: Ladies, thanks very much for joining us this Saturday.

Spend your Saturday well.

And we will be back with much more on CNN SATURDAY MORNING in a moment.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired August 16, 2003 - 08:16   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THOMAS ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: All right, you heard the gavel there. So it's time to open our Legal Briefs and talk about the some of the legal stories that are making the headlines. On our docket today, a possible decision by the judge in the Kobe Bryant case and the federal government may fine an American who was a human shield in Iraq, but not for protesting. So we'll get to that in a second.
We're going to talk about these cases a former prosecutor Nelda Blair, who joins us from Houston, and civil liberties attorney Lida Rodriguez-Taseff, who is in Miami.

Ladies, good morning.

Great to have you with us, as always.

NELDA BLAIR, FORMER PROSECUTOR: Thanks.

LIDA RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF, CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY: Good morning, Thomas.

ROBERTS: All right, let's start off with Kobe Bryant and the fact that come Monday, a judge will decide whether or not certain documents should be unsealed.

Explain, I guess, first off, how likely is it that these documents will be unsealed? And then I'll follow that up with what do we think could be in these papers?

BLAIR: Well, I think it's pretty likely, actually, that this judge will unseal these documents. What's going to be in those papers is whether or not the prosecution actually has a pretty good circumstantial case against Bryant. We're going to find out what kind of physical evidence they had, what kind of perhaps bruising, perhaps skin abrasions, perhaps torn clothing, other things that they've been gathering that led them to file these charges against him.

ROBERTS: Lida, do you agree with that?

RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: Well, I think that's true, if the judge actually lets this stuff come out. This is the, what we're talking about here is a motion that was made by about five different news outlets, including CNN, to request that documents be unsealed. Thus far, these judges have demonstrated, in this case and in the Scott Peterson case, a penchant to disregard the first amendment and to try to seal these cases or shield these cases from public view.

I certainly hope that the information is released because the public has a right to know. This would have otherwise been public had it not been for this case and the fact that it is a high profile case. But let's not forget that we have a first amendment in this country that protects the right of the public and protects the right of the press do disseminate information about cases, even when they're in the public eye.

ROBERTS: Well, we'll wait to see what happens when that judge makes a ruling on Monday.

All right, ladies, I want to move you down south to Alabama. And talk about what's taking place there. This 5,300 pound statue of the Ten Commandments that's in one of the federal buildings down there, or in one of the buildings there in Alabama, the justice, Roy Moore, Chief Justice Roy Moore is, I guess, abandoning and disobeying this order to have this removed. He placed it in the building there and now he's saying no, I'm going to keep it there and we're going to take this all the way to the Supreme Court.

What do you think about this guy?

RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: Well, you know, one of the things that's funny about this is just a few days ago, Justice Moore said in a radio talk show program that it is tyranny when a court tries to impose its will upon us. And that's a quote, "It is tyranny," he said. And what's interesting is this is a guy who is the chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, the highest judicial officer in Alabama, who has rendered hundreds and hundreds of decisions himself. And I don't know that he thought those were tyranny.

This is really sad for American justice because it harkens back to a time when people who didn't like our laws and our orders decided to just disobey them. Whatever he thinks of the decision of the federal court, he should not be disregarding it and we should follow through and make sure that the law prevails here.

ROBERTS: Nelda, I wanted to read this to you. This is from the wires, from Justice Chief Moore saying that he argued to the U.S. courts that they had "no authority to tell the State of Alabama that we cannot acknowledge god as the source of our justice system."

BLAIR: Right.

ROBERTS: So the U.S. courts have no place here to tell them, the State of Alabama. Are they different from the U.S.?

BLAIR: Well, perhaps they plan to secede. That may be on the agenda. But I'll say this, Justice Moore is talking about his religious beliefs. He's not talking about his position as the chief justice for the State of Alabama. And what he's got, and what he's got to do is follow the orders that have been put down to him by superiors judges. And it's very unfortunate because obviously he has some very strong religious beliefs. I admire him for that. But in this case, what he has to do, as we all have to do who are pledged to the law, is to follow court orders.

Now, he does have one more shot, at the Supreme Court. But honestly it's unlikely that anything is going to be done there.

What has put him in that position, the attorney general of the State of Alabama has basically distanced himself. Eight other justices are distancing themselves because he is a judge. He is bound to follow the law.

ROBERTS: Well, and as we learned from this judge's saying that the U.S. courts don't have authority. However, he wants to take it to the U.S. Supreme Court, so we'll see what happens on that front.

I want to move on real quickly, finally, a gentleman named Ryan Clancy, a 26-year-old record store owner from the Midwest that went to Iraq as a protester now is finding himself in a little trouble back here in the States. But it's not for being a protester.

Lida, I guess explain, do you understand why he's getting in trouble for this?

RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: Yes. He's not being fined for being a protester or for being a human shield. He's basically now been fined for violating trade embargo laws with Iraq. Now, these laws are destined or designed to basically prevent companies and others from doing business and propping up Saddam Hussein's regime.

What's interesting about this is that the charges, the fine has nothing to do with the acts of acting as human shields. So it kind of leads one to believe that what's going on here really is that the government is using this as a pretext to punish these people for their political opinion.

Now, the act of being human shields and laying down in front of oil fields may not be protected first amendment speech, but certainly the political statements that they made against the war, not just this gentleman, but other people -- because there were about 20 of them -- the statements that they made certainly are protected speech. But it starts, it's starting to look funny when the government is going after these people not for what they did, but for having spent a few dollars...

ROBERTS: Spent some money, yes.

RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: Yes, on Iraqi tea down the street.

So this one's really worrisome.

ROBERTS: Nelda, real quickly, the last word to you. Although there are other cases in American history where there have been Treasury regulations that have been upheld when people come back from protesting, correct?

BLAIR: That's correct. That's absolutely right. But, you know, the law is the law. And if these people who've broken the law, no matter what else they may have done that is protected, then the government has a right to go after them, whether it's selective or not. It's like being stopped for speeding. Everybody else may have been speeding, too, but just because everyone else wasn't stopped doesn't mean the speeder wasn't violating the law.

These people, if they're in violation, the government has a right to go after them and should.

ROBERTS: A case to be watched.

Nelda Blair and Lida Rodriguez-Taseff.

BLAIR: Thank you.

ROBERTS: Ladies, thanks very much for joining us this Saturday.

Spend your Saturday well.

And we will be back with much more on CNN SATURDAY MORNING in a moment.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com