NY Times Endorses Eric Schneiderman for NY AG

The race for New York's Attorney General is an important one.  Eric Schneiderman is by far the outstanding candidate in the race, and his endorsement by the New York Times is a real stamp of approval.   His fundraising efforts are bearing fruit and his is moving towards the September 14 primary as the "man to beat".

Former Republican Kathleen Rice, a prosecutor from Nassau County, is also in the race.  According to Newsday, Rice didn't vote for 18 years.   According to Rice, as reported by NY 1:

"It was a mistake, and I readily admit that,” said Rice. “And I spend a lot of my time now speaking to young people and encouraging them not to make the same mistake I did."

A Rice spokesman later added that, until now, the candidate actually never brought up her own personal voting story in those speeches. Although it was the mistake of not voting that has encouraged her to speak to students about the importance of heading to the polls.

How does one "mistakenly" not vote for 18 years?

According to NY 1, Rice registered as a Republican in 1984. For some of us, watching who gains the support of Sheldon Silver is an important determinant in voting.  Rice has the backing of Sheldon Silver's law firm Weitz & Luxenburg, who according to the New York Times is "pouring money into the campaign" of Rice (Weitz accounted for 12% of Rice's total donations).   And when one sees "Republican" and "Nassau County" in someone's resume, one can't help question whether New York's greatest kingmaker, former Sen Al D'Amato, had a hand in the pick.  Was D'Amato's getting to pick Rice the price of D'Amato's support of Andrew Cuomo in the gubernatorial race?  According to Newsday, D'Amato attended a Rice fundraiser and has thrown his backing behind Cuomo.

The last thing New York needs is for its Attorney General to be a puppet of Sheldon Silver.  Here is one reason why those who are skeptical of putting the AG's office into Silver's hands should turn out in droves to support Schneiderman.   In the last redistricting battle, Sheldon Silver took Schneiderman's Upper West Side district away from him.  Redistricting is the ultimate Albany battle, where kingmaker Silver rewards friends and punishes enemies.

Silver redistricted Schneiderman into Washington Heights, confident that Schneiderman would be defeated in the coming election.   To his credit, Schniederman fought back, ran an effective grassroots campaign and crushed his adversary.

Albany is a cesspool.  But Schneiderman, today still serving as State Senator bucked the trend, heading a committee that pushed the expulsion of Hiram Monserrate.

NY Times endorsement  here.http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/21/nyregion/21endorse.html

Eric Schneiderman deserves our support. Contribute to the Schneiderman campaign here.

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Free CLE - IP Colloquium on Fair Use and Shepard Fairey v. Associated Press

Prof. Doug Lichtman has put together another excellent program at the IP Colloquium. This program interviews players in the case Shepard Fairey v. Associated Press (attorney Mark Lemley for Shepard Fairey and attorney Dale Cendali for the Associated Press). Ken Richieri, GC of the New York Times comes in with an interesting take on the controversy. I wrote about the case here.

The case is pending in the Southern District of New York before Judge Alvin Hellerstein. The latest news from the docket sheet (as of August 14, 2009) is that photographer Mannie Garcia is claiming ownership of the photograph, and both Fairey and Associated Press are counterclaiming against Garcia.

The image you see here is of Paul Newell, a candidate endorsed by the New York Times in his race against Speaker of the Assembly Sheldon Silver that took place on New York's Lower East Side.

Newell, deemed "the quintessential anti-establishment democrat" by the Times garnered a respectable 24% of the vote where the incumbent spent over $800,000 to keep his seat.

I think that the IP Colloquium perhaps underplayed the whole political aspect of the expression involved and the role that core political speech plays in our jurisprudence, at least for Fairey's activities up until the election. But the arguments are interesting and for those interested in copyright issues, political speech and artistic freedom, the case opens up a very tasty can of worms.

IP Colloquium has programs that you can listen to or download for free. Attorneys can receive free CLE credits by completing an online form after listening to the program.