Medlin Law Firm - March 2020

Medlin Law Firm - March 2020

The Medl in News

MARCH 2020

I should have booked plane tickets and a hotel room ahead of time, just in case. But honestly, some good old-fashioned superstition took hold — I just didn’t want to jump the gun and jinx their chances. So, perhaps a little like Bilbo, I scrambled to put this last-minute adventure together.

UNEXPECTED JOURNEYS

It may not be on your standard calendar, but March 25 is “Tolkien Reading Day,” a day dedicated to the fantasy works of J.R.R. Tolkien. I confess: I’ve never really read any of “The Lord of the Rings” books myself, but my wife is a big fan. So, in honor of the author’s first adventure in Middle Earth, I thought I’d share some unexpected journeys of my own. The first came almost exactly a year ago. The NCAA tournament was in full swing, and I was watching the proceedings with growing interest. Normally, I’m not one to make brackets or get too invested in the “madness,” but this year was different. This year, my team was winning. Basically, I was born into the Texas Tech fandom. My dad graduated from the school, and I remember rooting for the teams since I was a kid. This appreciation for the Red Raiders only deepened when I was accepted to the school myself. I wound up getting my undergrad and law degrees there, and I made it to almost every home game for our basketball team. Still, I never would have imagined we’d get as far as we did in 2019. Don’t get me wrong, Texas Tech has always had a strong basketball team, but compared to the national heavy hitters with massive athletic budgets, we seem eternally destined to be the underdog. This didn’t seem to matter last year, however, when the Raiders managed to win upset after upset, surprising even die-hard fans like me. When they reached the semifinals, I knew I had to go to Minneapolis to see the final game. March Madness and the Grand Canyon

I WAS GOING TO SEE THE TEAM I’D ROOTED FOR SINCE I WAS A BOY PLAY BASKETBALL AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL —THATWASWORTH RISKING SOME BED BUGS.

The plane tickets weren’t too much of an issue, but finding a place to stay the day of the finals was next to impossible. I wound up settling for a motel room that left much to be desired, but I didn’t care. I was going to see the team I’d rooted for since I was a boy play basketball at the highest level — that was worth risking some bed bugs. The sports fans reading this already know how this story ends. After a nail-biting game, Texas Tech ultimately lost in overtime, but I certainly didn’t regret the journey. Being in that stadium, I felt just like I did cheering on the Raiders in college, with one key difference: My work as a lawyer made their uphill battle feel very familiar. Being a defense attorney asked to square off against the government and all their resources can feel a lot like playing as the underdog. The fighting spirit Texas Tech brought to the entirety of that tournament was a testament to the kind of attitude that shapes great attorneys and athletes alike.

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could handle a downhill walk. Of course, I’d heard downhill is actually harder on your body, but I never really believed it.

Shame on me. About halfway down to the raft launch site, my right knee started to swell, and by the time we were near the bottom, it was about the size of a basketball. It just so happened that there was a radiologist in our rafting group, and he was convinced I had severed a tendon. Worse still, we couldn’t radio the National Park Service for help thanks to the steep canyon walls. We ended up having to wait for a passing airliner, radioing the pilots who then relayed the message to a rescue team. A helicopter piloted by a Vietnam veteran ended up swooping in to save me. On the bright side, I was treated to a fantastic view of the Grand Canyon. And so my journey took an unexpected detour to the hospital. After X-rays and tests, the doctor gave me the news — my knee was bruised. That was it. Just a bruise. A bad one to be sure, but not exactly an epic finale to my tale, so I resolved that it wasn’t the end. After a week on crutches, I rented a mule and set off down the same trail that had done me in. The trip was still grueling, and I had plenty of blisters thanks to the hike out, but I’m glad I made it. The views were spectacular, and I’d proved to myself that I could tackle the challenge. From basketball to basketball-sized bruises, these journeys didn’t exactly end with a dragon’s treasure, but I still took away something valuable. Both trips underscored the importance of perseverance and taking one step at a time toward your goals, despite the odds. Those are the kinds of lessons that make it worth going there and back again.

Of course, the loss in the final round did sting. But compared to my other unexpected journey, March Madness 2019 was a painless experience. At least I could physically walk out of the stadium when the lights came up. I can’t say the same about my trip to the Grand Canyon. Several years earlier, I made the trip to Arizona to explore everything it had to offer. Unlike my March Madness trip, this adventure was well planned. I had already rafted the top half of the canyon, hiking out on the rugged Bright Angel Trail, so this time around, I wanted the full experience: hiking down the back half and rafting the entire length of the park. I wasn’t too worried about the hike down. After all, if I could handle the Bright Angel Trail — an uphill journey that rises a mile in elevation in just 8 miles — surely I The Freedom of Information Act, commonly referred to as FOIA, has been a crucial part of the democratic system for decades. It was designed to improve public access to governmental records, but unfortunately, it doesn’t always work as intended. In most cases, requests are only answered if a lawsuit is filed. Nevertheless, FOIA has had a crucial role in many high-profile legal cases. Here are a couple of the most significant ones in American history. A Journalist’s 16 Years in Court California-based journalist Seth Rosenfeld has had some serious contention with the FBI. In 1985, he filed his first lawsuit against the FBI for ignoring his requests for information about the Berkeley protests of the 1960s. The case was eventually settled in 1996, and Rosenfeld was awarded $560,000 in fees. In their settlement agreement, the FBI agreed to be more thorough with FOIA requests. Rosenfeld filed a second lawsuit in 2007 accusing the FBI of withholding information during former President Ronald Reagan’s presidency. Five years later, he was awarded $479,459 in attorney fees. Rosenfeld is known DIGGING FOR THE TRUTH

FOIA Lawsuits That Changed How Americans Participate in Democracy

for having some of the longest-pending FOIA requests and has received over 300,000 pages of FBI documents since the 1980s. The SCOMM Scandal In a landmark FOIA settlement concluded in 2013, the federal government paid $1.2 million to settle a suit brought by several civil rights groups over the Secure Communities (SCOMM) Immigration and Customs Enforcement program. The litigation exposed a plan to create a multi-agency >Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4

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