November 4, 2008 is a day that will forever live in infamy across the globe. To this day I am still in shock that America has elected its first African-American president. As I watched the news channels call the election I felt goose bumps and tears began to run down my face. The scenes of Grant Park in Chicago, Harlem, and Atlanta are forever engraved in my mind. One news organization showed the celebration in Atlanta and there was a shot of a young lady on her knees in tears of celebratory joy. This summed it up for millions of blacks in America. 

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Gertrude Baines, the daughter of former slaves, cast her vote for Obama at 114 years of age!

Tuesday, November 3, 2008, will go down in history as the day America elected a Black man, Barak Obama, to the presidency of the United States.  Trevin Franklin, a former Prairie View A&M student (a Historically Black University), and now a law student, sat with me at lunch yesterday unwilling to allow himself to hope too much that this nation would elect a Black man.  He stated “I don’t want to hope too much in case he loses.”  While this is a victory for democrats, it is also a victory for the nation—and one which rival John McCain was quick to note in his concession speech last evening.  The nation moved beyond the years in which Black Americans could not even eat in the same restaurants as White Americans, and selected Barack Obama to lead our nation through one of its darkest hours.  This sentiment was echoed across the nation, with many feeling that the great divide between White and Black has been breached—and healing begun. 

Dr. McGriggs:

Professor Joe White

Founding Partner, Shelly A. Sanford, is in the center of Cleveland, Ohio, on Election Day 2008.  Working in a what is, admittedly, a Democratic stronghold, Shelly Sanford reports that excitement and optimism rule the day.  She interviewed Joe White, a professor of international business and lifetime resident of East Cleveland.  He had just voted, and expressed his optimism at how wonderful it is to be in America today. He reiterated that America “is a wonderful country despite all the ill that has transcended.” Dr. White also said: “It is wonderful to see the consciousness of people risen to the point where they examine a person on his merits.  And if that is done collectively today, Obama will win.”

In another sign of guarded optimism, an African American veteran came out of the polling booth to circle the American flag before stopping to pray for our nation on Election Day 2008.

But the day was not without its detractors, as Republican activists repeatedly came to the polling station to complain of election abuses, citing the placement of pro-Obama materials within 50 yards of the polling station.  The activists once brought local law enforcement officials, but no proof of any violation was visible.  While some see this as posturing in the event of a close election or even a possible recount, others see this as simply a matter of a heightened sense of the reality that every vote counts in this election year.

Founding Partner, Shelly A. Sanford Displays Her Election Credentails

Founding Partner, Shelly Sanford, is in Cleveland, Ohio, at a polling station in the heart of “Obama Country.”  She has been working with the Ohio Voter Protection Team for several days now. As the morning progresses, Shelly has noted that there are many first-time voters, and this makes the day all the more exciting.  

      No Republican candidate has ever won the White House without winning Ohio.   Nonetheless, many states remain at play in this election, with record numbers of early voters pointing to heavy voter-day traffic at polls across the nation.  The polls are already closed in Dixville Notch, New Hampshire, where for the first time since 1968, the town has voted for a democrat . . . doing so overwhelmingly.  

World Interest is Evident as a Canadian News Crew Interviews an Ohio Voter

With a new administration coming, regardless of the outcome of today’s election, Shelly, Chris and Tony, attorneys at Sanford Pinedo LLP, joined with other attorneys across the nation in the Tuesday Morning Believer’s Caucus, to pray that God would direct this nation.

What do we know of Senator Obama’s commitment to open courts for Plaintiffs?  Obama is a democrat, and as such ought to be much more concerned for the rights of citizens to come to the courts with their concerns about unsafe consumer products and to challenge large corporations to keep our environment clean for generations to come.  The Democratic Party understands that access to the courts in a foundational principle in this democracy, and Democrats in Texas know that nowhere is this principle more enshrined than in the Texas Constitution.  But this access has been under fire from Republicans (Bush led the way as governor in Texas and for the last eight years as president).  They use the same failed logic that underpins their economic policies to justify the idea of preventing consumers from suing large corporations. Apparently, if we force big corporations to produce responsibly this will hurt the American consumer.  I call this trickle-down corporate responsibility.  Everyone saves money when we do not hold corporate American responsible for its products.  By that logic, we ought to continue to import cheap dog food and baby formula from China . . . we would all save a few dollars.

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On September 26, 2008, the Texas Supreme Court injected new life into the use of a Batson challenge in civil cases, noting that the “landscape has evolved” since it last considered the issue in Goode v. Shoukfeh, 943 S.W.2d 441 (Tex. 1997).  The Court looked to Miller-El v. Dretke, a criminal case settled by the Supreme Court of the United States, for guidance, noting that the principles underlying the Batson challenge were fundamentally similar.  545 U.S. 231 (2005).  The Texas Supreme Court adopted a five-point totality of the circumstances test to be employed in the review of a Batson challenge and, of vital import, reiterated the procedural elements of a correct challenge.  Both are reviewed below.

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