SATURDAY, JULY 31, 2010
KLMNO POLITICS THE NATION &
In immigration uproar, an attorney with subtlety Kneedler brings experience,
apolitical reputation to job arguing against Ariz. law
by Jerry Markon Several years ago, Justice Department
lawyer Edwin S. Kneedler argued his 100th case before the U.S. Supreme Court, a benchmark shared by fewer than 10 attorneys in U.S. history. In a rare departure from court routine,
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. congrat- ulated Kneedler from the bench. Knee- dler quietly thanked him, said he was honored and walked away, according to lawyers who were there. Now, Kneedler is bringing the same subdued style to a case that has attracted loud political voices from all sides: the Obama administra- tion’s lawsuit over Arizona’s new immigration law. As the govern- ment’s lead attorney, the deputy solicitor general must fight a law that President Obama has strongly condemned while not alienating Arizonans who fer- vently support it, all in the con- text of a national struggle over the divisive issue of immigra- tion. Kneedler has won the first
battle: A federal judge in Ari- zona this week granted his re- quest for a preliminary injunc- tion blocking the most controversial por- tions of the law, which allows police to question those they suspect of being ille- gal immigrants. Arizona has appealed. Friends and former colleagues of Knee-
dler, who declined to comment Friday, have described him as the quintessential government lawyer, a 35-year Justice De- partment veteran with an encyclopedic memory. He is known for burying his head in legal papers, documents that he transports in a weathered black satchel from his Washington home to his office. Kneedler, 64, has been in the solicitor
general’s office, the government’s advo- cate before the Supreme Court, since the Carter administration. He is no stranger to politically charged cases: More than a decade ago, he argued the government’s position on whether young Cuban refu- gee Elian Gonzalez should be sent home to his father, and he worked on briefs about whether Paula Jones’s sexual ha-
rassment case against President Bill Clin- ton should proceed with Clinton in office. In recent years, Kneedler has been in- volved in other legal controversies, in- cluding the question of where terror sus- pects should be tried and whether white firefighters in New Haven, Conn., were unfairly denied promotions because of their race — an issue in last year’s confir- mation hearings for Supreme Court Jus- tice Sonia Sotomayor. Kneedler is widely described as apoliti-
cal. His first government boss, when he joined the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel in 1975, was Antonin Sca- lia, the future conservative Supreme Court justice. In the insular world of Washington Su- preme Court advocates, few are willing to criticize colleagues. But former deputy solicitor general Lawrence G. Wallace, who helped hire Kneedler into the solici- tor general’s office in 1979, said Kneedler did make some en- emies in the government over the years. Wallace said Kneedler did not
DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE Edwin S.
LONNIE TAGUE /
Kneedler is a veteran of the solicitor general’s office.
hesitate to argue with high-level political appointees from across the government who were try- ing to force a particular legal outcome. “He was sometimes regarded as an obstacle by people who were trying to accomplish cer- tain policy objectives that the law would not support,” Wallace said. “Neither of us were always popular with some people in
some administrations.” Some lawyers said Kneedler’s apolitical
reputation made him a savvy choice for the high-profile Arizona immigration case, even though it is unusual for a top official in the solicitor general’s office to argue before a U.S. district judge. Knee- dler is the senior career deputy — there are four deputies in all — and he served as acting solicitor general for several months in 2009 before Elena Kagan was confirmed as solicitor general. “The Justice Department wanted to show they were taking this case incred- ibly seriously, but didn’t want to send Obama’s guy,” said Tom Goldstein, a Washington lawyer who founded the Sco- tusblog Web site. “I’ve never seen any hint of politics in Kneedler. There really isn’t a more respected advocate in the Supreme Court bar.’’
At this week’s hearing in Phoenix be- fore U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton,
MARK RALSTON/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE VIA GETTY IMAGES
Sheriff ’s deputies arrest an illegal immigrant this week in Arizona, where Kneedler presented the Obama administration’s legal objections to the state law.
Kneedler shook hands and chatted with Arizona’s lead attorney, John J. Bouma. He then fielded pointed questions from Bolton, never raising his voice and consis- tently holding to his argument that the Arizona law intrudes on federal immigra- tion enforcement. “He’s tremendous on his feet during
oral argument,” said Patricia A. Millett, a Washington lawyer who worked with Kneedler in the solicitor general’s office for 11 years. She described Kneedler as “an incredibly hard worker” who often stays at his Justice Department office into the night and works weekends. Kneedler, a University of Virginia Law
School graduate, is married with two daughters. Unlike many colleagues who left public service to make more money in private practice, friends said he stayed because he loves his job. That longevity means Kneedler has now argued 109 cases before the Supreme Court, 32 more than any other active law- yer, according to the court clerk’s office. Wallace, who holds the 20th-century rec- ord with 157, said he is not worried about Kneedler one day eclipsing his mark. “Records are made to be broken,” said
Wallace, who retired in 2003. “Ed is an ex- traordinary lawyer.’’
markonj@washpost.com DIGEST NEW YORK
ADL: Putting mosque near Ground Zero is ‘not right’
The nation’s leading Jewish civil rights group opposes the planned mosque and Islamic community center near Ground Zero, saying more information is needed about funding for the project and the lo- cation is “counterproductive to the heal- ing process.” The Anti-Defamation League said it re-
jects any opposition to the center based on bigotry and acknowledged that the group behind the plan, the Cordoba Ini- tiative, has the legal right to build at the site. But the ADL said “some legitimate questions have been raised” about fund- ing and possible ties with “groups whose ideologies stand in contradiction to our shared values.” “Ultimately this is not a question of rights, but a question of what is right,” the ADL said in a statement. “In our judg- ment, building an Islamic center in the shadow of the World Trade Center will cause some victims more pain — unnec- essarily — and that is not right.” The Cor- doba Initiative did not comment Friday. The mosque and community center would be located two blocks from the Lower Manhattan site of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
—Associated Press
Four killed in Air Force C-17 crash: All four crew members were killed in a U.S. Air Force cargo plane that crashed while practicing for an aviation show, the Air Force said Thursday. The C-17 Globemas- ter went down Wednesday in a wooded area near an airfield in Anchorage shortly after taking off, the military said. The ac- cident is believed to be the first crash of a C-17, which joined the Air Force fleet in 1995.
Great white sharks sighted offCape Cod: Officials have indefinitely closed five miles of a Cape Cod beach — South Beach in Chatham, Mass. — after a spotter pilot saw great white sharks, including one swimming about 100 yards from a party on the sand.
Cannonball-size hailstone in S.D.: A gi- ant hailstone that fell in central South Dakota measures 8 inches in diameter and weighs 1 pound 15 ounces, breaking U.S. records, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said. —From news services
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