Glynn Wilson

Former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman in Atlanta for his appeal hearing Dec. 9, 2008

by Glynn Wilson

The ancient, conservative judges on the decidedly Southern Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta surprised me with their ruling in the political prosecution of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman last Friday, while we were setting up camp totally off the grid in the Great Smoky Mountains.

So it has taken me several days of catching up on other work and some rest after 12 days on the road to get around to reading and evaluating their 68 page screed, which basically upholds all but two of the guilty verdict counts against Sieglmen and HealthSouth founder Richard Scrushy issued by Chief U.S. District Judge Mark E. Fuller in Montgomery.

I must say for all the balderdash in the ruling about Siegelman’s actions on some motorcycle cover-up conspiracy theory undermining confidence in government, certainly by any objective standard a minor distraction not worthy of the tax dollars and the federal court’s time in this case, I came away with less confidence in the one branch of government I have come to trust the most over the years: The federal courts.

Growing up in the South in a state where Governor George Corley Wallace ruled with an almost totalitarian fist for most of my childhood and early adult life, my confidence in state government has never been great. Nor did Republicans Guy Hunt or Fob James inspire much confidence in my home state government either, and forget the Alabama legislature. Goat Hill has been a joke my entire life.

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