Should the 4th Circuit Issue Sanctions Against Thom Tillis?

Over the last two days we have seen governors and attorney generals in Wyoming and Arizona indicate that they will not appeal lower district court rulings in circuits where the U.S. Courts of Appeal have already issued sweeping rulings striking down state same sex marriage bans.  Such actions recognize (i) the futility of any such appeal and (ii) that filing such an appeal is frivolous and could potentially expose the appealing party and their legal counsel with sanctions.   As an attorney, one is not supposed to bring appeals that are frivolous.  Yet, this reality isn't stopping North Carolina House speaker and U.S. Senate candidate Thom Tillis (pictured at right) from seeking an appeal from the U.S. District Court ruling that struck down North Carolina's ban.  Why?  Because some believe Tillis is still seeking to prostitute himself to the Christofascist base of the North Carolina GOP and bolster turn out in next month's mid term elections.  One can only hope that the 4th Circuit summarily rejects the appeal and issue sanctions and makes Tillis and company pay the legal fees of the appellees. The New York Times looks at Tillis' disgusting behavior - which underscores his unfitness for the Senate - and the arguably unethical behavior of his legal counsel.  Here are highlights:

Thanks to three court rulings over the last week, North Carolina has become the most southern state where same-sex marriage is clearly legal, and dozens of gay couples have wasted no time getting married. But conservatives are still waging a desperate rear-guard action to prevent it — at considerable cost to the taxpayers — and one of them happens to be the Republican candidate for senator.

That candidate, Thom Tillis, the speaker of the state House, has yet to take a lead in the polls against the Democratic incumbent, Senator Kay Hagan, which may explain why he has decided to wave the marriage banner in the final days of the campaign.

Last week, the United States Supreme Court effectively allowed gay marriage in five states when it refused to consider appeals brought by conservatives. One of those states was Virginia, where a state constitutional amendment banning gay marriage had been struck down by a federal appeals court.

North Carolina, which has a similar amendment approved by voters in 2012, is in the same federal judicial district as Virginia. As a result, within days of the Supreme Court announcement, two federal judges in North Carolina ruled that Virginia’s situation applied in their state, too, officially legalizing gay marriage. One of the judges, William Osteen Jr., said he could find “no substantive distinction” between the North Carolina amendment and the one struck down in Virginia.

For most public officials here, that ended the battle. The attorney general, Roy Cooper, said he would drop all legal efforts to defend the amendment. “It is the job of the attorney general to argue for state laws, but also to recognize when there are no arguments left,” he said. Gov. Pat McCrory, a Republican, said he disagreed with the rulings but would enforce them. “Whether I disagree with it or not, that’s the way democracy works,” he said.

But it’s not the way Mr. Tillis works. He and the state Senate Republican leader, Phil Berger, immediately announced that they wanted to intervene in the case and pursue further appeals on behalf of the legislature, and Judge Osteen agreed to let them try.

The Supreme Court, though, has already ruled, as Mr. Tillis knows. Pursuing this appeal will cost the taxpayers thousands of dollars, all so that he can rally conservative opponents of gay marriage to support his election bid. Though the appeal has no chance of success, Mr. Tillis has his eye on a very different victory.

One can only hope that some attorney in North Carolina will file an ethics complaint against Tillis' legal counsel.   This is a flagrant abuse of the court system.