Bruce Jorgensen, a human rights lawyer, said acting Attorney General Gregory Baka may have chosen not to represent the CNMI in the ongoing litigation because he’s aware that he can be both professionally and personally liable if the case is found frivolous.
Jenner & Block and Howard P. Willens, the governor’s special legal assistant, is representing the CNMI in the case challenging the federalization provision of U.S. Public Law 110-229.
The CNMI pays Jenner & Block a monthly retainer of $50,000, excluding extras.
The acting AG acknowledged in his letter to Saipan Independent Rep. Tina Sablan that public funds were used to finance the lawsuit.
Federal Judge Paul Friedman placed the case “under advisement” after a hearing last week.
The U.S. Department of Justice said the CNMI’s case should be dismissed because it wasn’t brought forth by the commonwealth’s AG. Further, the Covenant allows the U.S. Congress to extend federal immigration law to the islands.
“As most lawyers know, a lawyer signing or participating in a U.S. lawsuit faces both personal and professional liability,” Jorgensen said, noting that if lawsuits are found frivolous or filed in relation to improper purpose or motive, lawyers who signed papers or facilitated the lawsuit proceedings might have to face the prospect of paying for the costs incurred by an adversary as well as face other sanctions.
While the CNMI is incurring legal expenses in the ongoing litigation, Jorgensen said the U.S. Department of Justice is also using taxpayer money to defend the U.S. Departments of Homeland Security and Labor, the defendants in the CNMI lawsuit.
“This case will cost the U.S. many hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions. And if you were the CNMI AG lawyer who lost this kind of case, you would not want to be on the hook not only for the monetary damages assessed for having lost the case but, as well, for the professional consequences,” said Jorgensen.
He said the matter is further compounded by the fact that the CNMI is dragged into the corruption scandal in Washington, D.C. involving disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff whose past lobby firms got over $10 million from the CNMI during the 1990s to block federalization legislation.
“The funding of the CNMI’s claims might appear to be related to the $10 million in CNMI public funds reputedly orchestrated by the CNMI’s current governor as payment to well known felons like Jack ‘Honest Abe’ Abramoff and his crew,” Jorgensen said.
