Reinhardt--His Views in Major Court Rulings

Judge Stephen Reinhardt has expressed his views in major court decisions, ranging from political asylum standards to the First Amendment rights of rock concert promoters.

In granting political asylum to Espectacion Bolanos-Hernandez, a refugee from El Salvador whose life had been threatened by guerrillas, he wrote:

“We cannot agree with the immigration judge that Bolanos must present independent corroborative evidence of the specific threat to his life. . . . Persecutors are hardly likely to provide their victims with affidavits attesting to their acts of persecution.”

Proposal Rejected

In thwarting a proposal to block civil jury trials in federal courts because of a judicial budget crunch caused by the Gramm-Rudman Act, he said:

“The availability of constitutional rights does not vary with the rise and fall of account balances in the Treasury. Our basic liberties cannot be offered and withdrawn as ‘budget crunches’ come and go. . . . In short, constitutional rights do not turn on the political mood of the moment.”

Declaring that an Irish Republican Army terrorist must be extradited to England for a murder allegedly committed there, Reinhardt compared the situation to the Middle East:

“One of the principal reasons our courts have had difficulty with the concept of affording certain contemporary revolutionary tactics the protection of the political offense exception is our fear and loathing of international terrorism. . . .

“When PLO members enter Israel and commit unlawful acts, there is simply no uprising for the acts to be incidental to. The plain fact is that the Israelis are not engaged in revolutionary activity against their own government. To the contrary, the PLO’s worldwide campaign of violence . . . clearly constitutes international terrorism.”

Cocaine Case

In a case granting a new trial to a Marina del Rey cocaine dealer, he argued against the use of police dogs to search private homes for drugs:

“As sure as it is being argued today that it is constitutional for police dogs to come into our homes and sniff suitcases, it will be argued tomorrow that it is equally lawful for them to sniff and bite our clothes, beds, chairs, cradles or whatever possessions we keep in our homes. And can we really be assured that while the dogs are at it, they won’t be sniffing, snuffling or otherwise molesting people as well?”

Rock Concert Promoter

While awarding attorney’s fees to a rock concert promoter who charged that the City of Burbank had banned hard-rock concerts at the Starlight Bowl, he wrote:

“There are sound reasons for recognizing the First Amendment rights of concert promoters. . . . However unsophisticated or ill-informed the members of the City Council may have been regarding current forms of popular music, it is difficult to believe that they would not have been aware of the differences between Jackson Browne and Donnie and Marie Osmond.”

Refusing a government request to delay payment of Social Security benefits to 78,000 disability recipients, pending an appeal of a lower court order, Reinhardt said:

“The government estimates that if every one of these former recipients re-applies for benefits, the total monthly cost of restoring benefits pending re-adjudication of claims will be $12 million. . . .

“Yet the physical and emotional suffering shown by plaintiffs in the record before us is far more compelling than the possibility of some administrative inconvenience or monetary loss to the government. Our society as a whole suffers when we neglect the poor, the hungry, the disabled, or when we deprive them of their rights or privileges.”