Miguel Estrada Nomination To Federal Appeals Court Post; Local Doctors Boycott Big Pharmaceutical Company; Megan's Law/Sex Offender Registration
Miguel Estrada Nomination To Federal Appeals Court Post
He is a Harvard Law School graduate and former law clerk to Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy. He is also an immigrant from Honduras who came to the US in 1979. Miguel Estrada is also President Bush's nominee for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. If nominated, Estrada would be the first Latino to serve on the D.C. Circuit, but not all Latinos are happy about his nomination. Detractors say that he is a conservative ideologue. They accuse Bush of trying to staff the Supreme Court with conservative candidates. Joining host Larry Mantle are Antonia Hernandez, President and General Counsel, MALDEF, Mexican American Legal Defense Fund. She opposes Estrada's nomination. Roger Pilon, Vice President for Legal Affairs for the CATO Institute. He is in favor of Estrada's nomination.
Local Doctors Boycott Big Pharmaceutical Company
The drug maker GlaxoSmithKline has stopped supplying drugs to Canadian pharmacies that sell medications to Americans at bargain prices. The drugs in question are, for the most part, purchased online by seniors who can't afford to pay US prices, often 80% more than in Canada. In protest, a local medical group adds their voice to an ongoing boycott of Glaxo's products. Larry talks with Steven Krems, Internist with the Access Medical Group, a group of seven doctors in Marina del Rey, who are boycotting GlaxoSmithKline products, and John Cronin, Senior VP and General Counsel for the California Pharmacists Association.
Megan's Law/Sex Offender Registration
Megan's Law is scheduled to expire in California at the end of this year. Legislators in Sacramento, and across the nation, are working to make it permanent. There is also a serious challenge to Megan's Law in the hands of the Supreme Court, with a decision expected any day. The challenge comes from a Connecticut man who says that his right of due process was violated when he was placed on the local Internet sex offender list. Megan's Law raises many questions: does it work? Does the right to know whether a sexual offender lives next door supercede the offender's right to privacy? What about due process? In these times of tight budgets, how can local police departments make sure that sex offenders register? Larry Mantle speaks with Michael Yamamoto, a criminal defense attorney and the Past President of California Attorneys for Criminal Justice, Diane Webb, a detective with the LAPD who worked on the sex offender registration unit before it was disbanded, Daniel Armagh, Director of Legal Education at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in Washington, D.C., and Assemblywoman Nicole Parra, Democrat from California's 30th Assembly District. Ms. Parra chairs the Committee on Megan's Law and Sex Offender Registration.