Temple Law Notes

Temple Addresses St. Augustine's Church On The Spirituality of Thurgood Marshall

On Sunday May 16,2010, Donald Temple was invited to address St. Augustine's Episcopal Church on the spirituality of renown Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. The following is an excerpt of that address. The complete speech can be found in the Speech and Lecture section of this blog here.

 "How does one even begin to stick his toe in the water of Thurgood’s spirituality except perhaps, as here, through his work.  In that respect,  it has been said that “Words are wonderful, but deeds are divine.”   I would like to briefly talk about Thurgood from this perspective:  “Thurgood: taking us to a place in the law where God dwells.”

 Where is that place?   Where is the place in the law where God Dwells?

 Fundamentally, in the deep religious convictions of world religions, all men and women are children of God.  And God’s love, at least theoretically, knows no color line.  As children of God we too espouse color blindness in our own spiritual and Christian life journeys. 

In  Galatians 3.28 it is written: “ There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (more...)

 

 

From the Archives:Donald Temple Delivers Sermon at Howard University's Historic Andrew Rankin Memorial Chapel-October 8,2006

Download Donald Temple Sermon Rankin Chapel (1-12-2010 5-34-24 PM)

Temple Addresses National Conference of Black Lawyers (NCBL) Conference in NY.

 Donald Temple at last Saturday's panel during the National Conference of Black Lawyers (NCBL)conference in New York City.

On Saturday October 11, 2009 Attorney Temple moderated and presented remarks on the subject: The Role of the Black Lawyer in the 21st Century.  The other panelists were Attorney John Brittain and Professor Margaret Burnham. 

 Temple spoke about civil rights in the last 25 years and the challenges confronting the Bar in the next 25 years through Year 2034.  He underscored the need to change the way that we think and approach empowerment issues and emphasized new approaches and strategies. Temple also underscored principles that he developed in the Empowerment Through Law and Justice Agenda ("ETLJA"), which the National Bar Association passed as a resolution.

Temple Lands Jury Verdict in False Arrest and Imprisonment Case

On Friday, October 2, 2009,  I and my legal team secured a hard fought verdict in the District of Columbia Superior Court for $175,000. against the District of Columbia and  Secure Pro, a local security company.

 The Plaintiff, an African-American female, was falsely arrested for shoplifting. After her purse was searched and no items discovered, a D.C. police official refused to release her.  Rather, he arrested and detained her for inflated criminal charges.   A store security guard falsified a witness statement.   A racially mixed jury returned a verdict after five hours of deliberation: $25K in compensatory damages and $150K in punitive damages against the officer.

I thought I'd share this recent article by a friend and fellow seeker of African-American unity: 

The African and the Brother Man

 

August 6, 2009

Raynard Jackson

 

I received a call from a good friend of mine earlier this week.  He’s a Black gentleman who worked very high in the Clinton administration.  He’s one of the top political operatives in the country. 

 

He called me because he wanted to get together and talk.  He was extremely frustrated with his dealings with African leaders.  He asked me why African governments seems to always hire white lobbying firms to represent them in the U.S., but then ask Black’s to join them in the struggle to make Africa more stable?

 

Having done a lot of work in African countries for various presidents, I have often wondered the same thing.  So, I began calling other friends with various levels of knowledge and familiarity with Africa.  My friend’s experience was very common among most of those I talked with.

 

Part of the problem is that African’s think the “white man’s” ice is colder than the “Black man’s ice.”  Last time I checked my chemistry book, water freezes at 32 degrees, regardless of who puts the water into the freezer. 

 

One thing I have learned and noticed during my many trips to Africa is a lot of these attitudes are taught to Africans.  They are taught that Black Americans are not serious people, they are criminals, and they should not be trusted.  Most African’s only image of Blacks come from BET or the Hip-Hop community.

 

Two weeks ago I had a heated conversation with a friend of mine from Ethiopia.  She has been in the U.S. for about 10 years.  I asked her has she ever dated a Black American.  She emphatically said, “NO, and I never will!”  It was not only what she said, but the disdain in her tone of voice.  It was though the very thought of dating a Black American was repulsive to her.  When asked why, she said because they are not Ethiopian (she doesn’t date outside her culture).  I told her she sounds just like some of the good ole boys from the south when it comes to Blacks dating white women and her comment was simply idiotic.  Is discrimination based on culture equivalent to discrimination based on race?  I will be dedicating one of my radio shows to this issue very soon.

 

I cannot count the number of times I have had to challenge my treatment by Africans in my own country!  I am amazed how many Africans are surprised that I can speak with knowledge about many countries on the continent.  When they hear me discuss local issues that one can only know if they have been to a given country, their whole attitude changes.

 

What does it say about how Africans view Blacks when a very connected political operative can’t get a contract to represent an African country?  You would have thought that Obama’s election would have shifted that dynamic somewhat, but it hasn’t.  But, as soon as African’s get in trouble, they run to the Congressional Black Caucus for relief.  The CBC should tell them in no uncertain terms, “when you hire some Blacks to work with you, then come see me.”  I have seen white elected officials do this on many occasions when it comes to their own. 

 

I have donated thousands of dollars worth of professional services to African causes and charities only to have them contract with others once they get money.  I now refuse to deal with any African cause or issue unless there is a budget for professional services. 

 

So, when my friend expressed his frustration with me, I could definitely relate to his situation.  Until Africans change their attitude towards Blacks in America, there will always be a rift between the two groups. 

 

This attitude is the underlying reason that the continent has not progressed more than it has.  Africa has everything it needs to sustain the continent and be truly independent.  But, they can’t continue to beg others to do for them what they are not willing to do for themselves.  They want Black entrepreneurs to invest in their country, but refuse to hire Blacks who can assist them in making this happen.  One of the largest IT firms in the world is owned by a Black, one of the larger restaurant owners in the country is owned by a Black, some of the best medical professionals in this country are Black, and some of the best architects and engineers in this country are Black.  So, then why does Africa refuse to recognize this with their dollars?  How many African presidents have ever given a speech at a Black college, visited a Black business owner’s company, or visited a Black media company?  The answer is very few. 

 

So, to my Africans both here and on the continent, don’t call me “Brother” and then give all the opportunity to others.  Don’t call me “Brother” only when you need help.  Africa is where it all started and where our ancestors departed.  So, when you come to the U.S., when will you recognize your own family?  BROTHER!

 

Raynard Jackson is president & CEO of Raynard Jackson & Associates, LLC., a D.C.-based political consulting/government affairs firm.   You can listen to his radio show every Saturday evening from 7-9:00 p.m.  Go to www.ustalknetwork.com

 

to register and then click on host, and then click on his photo to join his group.

 

 

 

Temple Weighs In...Should Professor "Skip" Gates Sue?

In today's (Wednesday, August 5, 2009) metro section of the Washington Post, columnist Courtland Milloy weighs in on the Gates issue and quotes me, Charles Ogletree, Professor Gate's friend and attorney while discussing the issue of police misconduct. This is what he wrote and what I had to say:

Here's the ugly truth about the relationship between African Americans and law enforcement, as seen by Donald Temple, a lawyer in the District who has handled many cases involving police misconduct:

"The problem with false arrest is cancerous in our communities," Temple told me. "Police are locking people up at will, using the charge of disorderly conduct as an opportunity to abuse people, to lock them up, instead of having meaningful exchanges with them."

The cases are pervasive, he said, and appear ever more egregious. Read more...

White Committee Chairmen Have Fewer Black Aides

Check this article out .  It is very alarming.

By Jonathan Allen

Congressional Quarterly

July 9, 2009

Black aides are so scarce on some House committees that the Congressional Black Caucus surveyed the panels. Their conclusion: black staffers are most prevalent when African American chairm en do the hiring.

The 31-person Democratic staff of the House Agriculture Committee and the 24-person Democratic staff of the House Rules Committee, for example, each have a single black aide. Conversely, the Homeland Security and Oversight and Government Reform Committees — both run by African American chairmen — have Democratic staffs that are 455 percent and 44.4 percent black, respectively.

The caucus is comprised entirely of Democrats, and the group gathered data only on the rosters of the majority party. Republicans on each committee have separate staffs.

“The survey confirms what members have noticed anecdotally—the lack of African American staffers on Capitol Hill, particularly in senior positions,” said Black Caucus Chairwoman Barbara Lee, D-Calif.
Committee staff jobs cover a wide range of responsibilities, from clerical positions to investigators and lawyers. At the highest levels, the aides have six-figure salaries.

The Black Caucus’ data, which has not been publicly released, begins to paint a portrait of staff diversity in an institution that has not traditionally kept records on racial representation.
The caucus’s effort mirrors formal and informal diversity initiatives under way in Washington lobbying shops and in the Senate.

California Rep. Howard Berman, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, said it’s a legitimate issue to raise. “We’re going to try to improve,” said Berman, whose 85-member staff includes seven African Americans. Li ke other chairmen at the lower end of the scale, he noted that he has aides who represent other minority groups.And, he said, “I’m not firing anyone.”

Overall, the survey found that African Americans account for a percentage of committee staff — 18.7 percent — that is higher than the 12.8 percent of the national population that is black.
That average is skewed upward by the hiring practices of black chairmen, whose staffs range from 35.3 percent black on Michigan Rep. John Conyers Jr.’s Judiciary Committee to 455 percent on Mississippi Rep. Bennie G. Thompson’s Homeland Security Committee.

The House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, which is chaired by a white woman, Rep. Zoe Lofgren, ranks third-highest with African Americans accounting for six of the ethics panel’s 16 aides. Lofgren took over for an African American, former Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, D-Ohio, when Tubbs Jones died in the last Congress.The staff of the House Administration Committee, where white Pennsylvania Rep. Robert A. Brady holds the gavel, is 34.4 percent black. Brady comes from a majority-black district in Philadelphia and he succeeded the late Juanita Millender-McDonald, D-Calif., who was black.

“I don’t ever look at the color of anybody’s skin,” said Brady, who is one of a handful of white lawmakers whose chiefs of staff are black.Black aides comprise 10.5 percent or less of the staffs of nine House committees, all of which have white=2 0chairmen.
Four committees with white chairmen — Budget; Education and Labor; Financial Services; and Veterans Affairs — occupy a middle ground, with African Americans holding between 16.9 percent and 21.7 percent of the staff jobs.

The Small Business Committee, run by a Hispanic lawmaker, Rep. Nydia Velazquez of New York, did not participate in the Black Caucus survey. Black lawmakers argue that the absence of black staffers can have an impact on the choices that are made in the course of a committee’s work — choices about what to put in bills and about what bills to make a priority.Rep. William Lacy Clay, D-Mo., offered as an example the difficulties black farmers have had in getting timely information from the Agriculture Department. “Those black farmers aren’t getting their fair share,” he said, suggesting that they would fare better if there were more black staffers at the Agriculture Department and on the Agriculture Committee.

Rep. G.K. Butterfield, D-N.C., an officer in the Black Caucus, said the next step will be to meet with leadership aides to discuss the study’s findings. “We want to use it in a positive way,” he said. “We know diversity when we see it.”  Added Lee: “We are aware that there are efforts under way to address this institutionally, and the caucus is committed to lending assistance to House leadership and committee chairs to ensure a more diverse workforce on Capitol Hill.”

Two Scholars Hold Up the Wall for Another on Racial Profiling: Dr. Boyce Watkins and Professor Charles Ogletree Weigh in on the Gates Matter

"I Am Not Al Sharpton"    

     _____________________________________________________________________________________

Brief Statement on Behalf of Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

 

This brief statement is being submitted on behalf of my client, friend, and colleague, Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr.  This is a statement concerning the arrest of Professor Gates. On July 16^th, 2009, Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., 58, the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor of Harvard University, was headed from Logan airport to his home at 17 Ware Street in Cambridge after spending a week in China, where he was filming his new PBS documentary entitled “Faces of America”.  Professor Gates was driven to his home by a driver for a local car company.  Professor Gates attempted to enter his front door, but the door was damaged.  Professor Gates then entered his rear door with his key, turned off hi s alarm, and again attempted to open the front door.  With the help of his driver they were able to force the front door open, and then the driver carried Professor Gates’s luggage into his home. 

 

Professor Gates immediately called the Harvard Real Estate office to report the damage to his door and requested that it be repaired immediately.  As he was talking to the Harvard Real Estate office on his portable phone in his house, he observed a uniformed officer on his front porch.  When Professor Gates opened the door, the officer immediately asked him to step outside.  Professor Gates remained inside his home and asked the officer why he was there.  The officer indicated that he was responding to a 911 call about a breaking and entering in progress at this address.  Professor Gates informed the officer that he lived there and was a faculty member at Harvard University.  The officer then asked Professor Gates whether he could prove that he lived there and taught at Harvard. Professor Gates said that he could, and turned to walk into his kitchen, where he had left his wallet.  The officer followed him.   Profe ssor Gates handed both his Harvard University identification and his valid Massachusetts driver’s license to the officer.  Both include Professor Gates’s photograph, and the license includes his address. 

 

Professor Gates then asked the police officer if he would give him his name and his badge number.  He made this request several times.  The officer did not produce any  identification nor did he respond to Professor Gates’s request for this information.  After an additional request by Professor Gates for the officer’s name and badge number, the officer then turned and left the kitchen of Professor Gates’s home without ever acknowledging who he was or if there were charges against Professor Gates.  As Professor Gates followed the officer to his own front door, he was astonished to see several police officers gathered on his front porch.  Professor Gates asked the officer’s colleagues for his name and badge number. As Professor Gates stepped onto his front porch, the officer who had been inside and who had examined his identification, said to him, “Thank you for accommodating my earlier request,” an d then placed Professor Gates under arrest.  He was handcuffed on his own front porch.

 

Professor Gates was taken to the Cambridge Police Station where he remained for approximately 4 hours before being released that evening.  Professor Gates’s counsel has been cooperating with the Middlesex District Attorneys Office, and the City of Cambridge, and is hopeful that this matter will be resolved promptly.  Professor Gates will not be making any other statements concerning this matter at this time.

 

 

Professor Charles Ogletree

Jesse Climenko Professor of Law

Executive Director, Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice

Harvard Law School

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Ogletree@law.harvard.edu

 

Harvard Law Professor Charles Ogletree Shares Perspectives on Sotomayor on CNN Panel

Thought this  CNN panel on which Charles Ogletree served in late May would be insightful as confirmation hearings on Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor near:

"US Torture Memo a Tortured Rationale"

Here's an interesting article about the legal arguments made by a judge that the use of confinement in a box with insects, waterboarding, sleep deprivation, and walling (the practice of pounding someone's head against a wall with a towel wrapped around his neck to prevent whiplash) do not constitute torture and is permissible under U.S. law. This is some scary stuff...

Jay S. Bybee: It's Not Torture If You Use A Caterpillar

President Obama's...

Recently, a student asked me about President Obama and the impact of his presidency on Black America. After careful reflection, which the question demands, I can answer as follows.

 

Obama's ascension to the presidency is a phenomenal and tremendous statement about the resilience and soul of American people   Indeed, its says volumes about this nation's progress, for which I am very proud.  There is a dualism about American citizenship, however, that is inescapable for black folk.  It is that which we are and at the same time that to which we have been so deeply deprived.  Although folk try to erase the pages of America between 1619 and 1954, we can't and they should not. Our present status is substantially attributed to the residue of slavery and I am prepared to debate that thesis at any time with anyone.

 

Our honesty affects our reality.  In a fascinating way,the historical deprivation of our equal citizenship rights has redefined America and contributed to its development as a nation.  A pre-civil war America would be indisputably far different than a post-civil war America.  Think about it. Given the views articulated by Justice Taney in Plessy  v. Ferguson, the pre-civil war America (pre-Lincoln) would probably have supported Adolph Hitler during World War II or remained neutral. We should never take for granted the rights that we enjoy, including the right to challenge the denial of those rights. 

 

While we are understandably proud of President Obama, and have appropriately high expectations, we must remember that he is President of the United  States of America, not President pf Black or Brown America. Furthermore, we must understand the role of the President and quite realistically the extent to which he will be forced to compromise his views on so many different issues.  He is not a dictator and represents only one of three branches of government. One very good thing is that as President, he will nominate judges to our federal courts and hopefully, reverse the twenty year Reagan-Bush-Bush positioning of extremely conservative judges to our federal courts.  Don't get it twisted,  those judicial appointments are very significant.  Federal judges interpret the constitution and federal laws.    And yes, his very presence and cogent, sensitive thinking and articulation on substantive issues in the areas of education, health care, foreign affairs and criminal justice will influence a more human and people sensitive society.  But don't go to sleep.  As the great Frederick Douglass proclaimed:  Power concedes nothing without demand, it never has and it never will.  At times we will have to create pressure on President Obama just like other constituency groups. .

 

Our greatest expectation, however, must continue to be of ourselves.   Leadership on issues of priority concern to black people, I think, must come from non-elected individuals whose intellectual and moral integrity is not compromised by political considerations and bean counting of votes. Someone outside the government must speak the truth to power and to the people.    President Obama by definition cannot do that for black people and should not be expected to.  Nor should we think that his election is our salvation and the the culmination of our tremendous struggle.    This nation and our community still have a very long way to go, and we must not let folk forget this. This is the stuff of 21st centurt leadership. Don't go to sleep.

 

Obama can make progressive decisions and create productive public frameworks. But fundamentally, we still have to take the necessary action to maximize short and long term gains that effect our communities.   Government is not going to change the values and cultural shortcomings that affect our behaviors.  We must do that.  Government is not going to transform our students, inspire their intellectual curiosity and heighten their sense of discipline.  We must do that.  Government is not going to stop the vicious black on black crime among young black men. It can help, but I believe we must find ways to stop this insanity ourselves. Government is not going to stop us from spending our dollars making others rich (The eagle flies on Friday).  We must do that.  

 

So, let's not get it twisted.  Kudos a million time to President Obama and his beautiful and brilliant queen, first lady. Their presence, sensitivity, understanding, level of achievement, family unity, and aesthetics are greatly valued.  The psychological implications of the  Obama presidency benefit the entire world and turn long standing institutional stereotypes and myths of racial inferiority on their head.  It is unimaginable what young children of all races must think, especially young black children when they see this man speak for the nation and to the world. Seize the time!   Obama as president is light years better than Bush, and even Clinton, not because of race alone....on the merits.  The black community must keep this presidency and its expectations in context.  But don't go to sleep.


Donald Temple