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Who You Gonna Call?
No constitutional lawyer has won a single case keeping soldiers from being redeployed to Iraq. But a couple of Manhattan lawyers, whose other clients have included John Gotti and Joe Columbo, are batting five for five.
By Tara McKelvey
Stuart P. Slotnick does not look like a rebellious lawyer. Photos of him alongside prominent Republicans including Rudy Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg decorate his office on the 35th floor of One Chase Manhattan Plaza, and a World War II-era “Pledge of Allegiance” poster hangs behind his desk. He dresses in a crisp white shirt with bling-gold, lion’s head cufflinks, and, as he says on a recent Friday morning, “I enjoy wearing an American flag on my lapel.” Meanwhile, his father, Barry Slotnick, an attorney who works down the hall at the law firm Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney, is known for representing mobster clients such as John Gotti and Joe Colombo. The elder Slotnick sauntered into the lobby that Friday morning with his signature alligator briefcase in tow.
Yet despite the trappings of lawyerly success and conservative politics, the Slotnicks have a radical streak: They are in the vanguard of a legal movement on behalf of soldiers and officers who resist the call of duty after they have been ordered to deploy under “stop-loss” policies. These policies cover tens of thousands of soldiers and have become increasingly controversial as troops are being called up for second and third tours of duty in Iraq. So far, says a U.S. Army spokeswoman, 34,138 soldiers on active duty have been affected by stop-loss policies since December 2003.
See also: Agustin Aguayo found guilty of desertion
Charges Refiled Vs. Ehren Watada
Lt. Ehren Watada’s Mistrial
Rockland Green to attend Watada Court Martial
Related: Who can stop the War? We the People
The War Prayer by Mark Twain
What Does It Mean To Support Our Troops?
How the Democratic Congress betrayed American voters, the troops in Iraq
and extended the occupation
Dems conning Anti-War movement for political gain
Filed under: activism, Anti-War, media, Political Websites, reform, US Politics Tagged: | book of the month
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