April 30th 2009
Take On Government At Your Own Risk
The OC Register Watchdog blog has quite a post today on the risks of standing up for truth, justice and your rights … at least when the offending party is a government bureaucracy. The story of Dan Bader and the OC Fair Housing Council is a cautionary tale well worth reading.
Here’s Bader’s big crime that turns out not to be a crime, not that it not being a crime protected him from losing over $40,000: He ran an ad in Craig’s list for an apartment, right, and included a line saying the 480-square foot rental unit was “Well suited for professional adults” and “Perfect for 1 or 2 professionals.” The Fair Housing Council took that to mean Bayden was discriminating against people with children – who would no doubt find a 480 square-foot unit perfect for them – figured he was jus another racist honky (there are so many!) and filed a complaint with the Department of Fair Employment and Housing.
The Department is really a non-profit, but it has judicial responsibilities and can adjudicate matters like this one. Let’s put it another way: They’re not responsible to anyone, and it shows:
Our research indicates that these nonprofits aren’t well funded, but they do have a way to make money: they’ve been granted special legal powers to seek money from the very people they accuse of discrimination. As one attorney told us, there’s nothing to stop these agencies from effectively blackmailing landlords.
“They hold all the cards,” Bader said.
At the hearing in Los Angeles, Bader found himself before a couple of fair employment staffers. The council wasn’t even represented. The bureaucrats told Bader they had investigated and found that Bader does not discriminate… BUT the ads were still a problem.
The complaint would be dropped — if Bader paid the Orange County council $4,000 and agreed to five years of classes at $250 a class.
There’s a word for that: blackmail. Bader refused and kept up the fight with a countersuit, thinking it was the right thing to do since the state had said he didn’t discriminate. No brainer, right? Wrong:
Last year, Orange County Superior Court Judge Andrew Banks dismissed Bader’s countersuit and said Bader would have to pay the department, the council and Pierson’s attorney’s fees.
Then, in the Fall, right before the trial on the Craiglist ads, the state dropped the suit. Two years after the initial complaint, all charges of discrimination were dropped. The case went away.
But by then Bader had spent quite a bit defending himself. Quite a bit. He asked the court to award him attorneys fees.
Nope. This month, Judge Banks denied his motion to have the department and council pay his legal bills. So now Bader is hurting. He’s already paid Pierson $7,500 in attorney’s fees. The council and the department haven’t asked for their money, but they could each ask for about $7,000. And Bader owes about $30,000 for his own defense.
So, Bader is on the hook for as much as $44,000. For a case that was dropped. Where the state already said he didn’t discriminate.
Judge Banks won’t talk about it, natch. And Bader? He says if he had it all to do over with, he’d forget about what’s right and just pay the blackmail.
“There’s nothing you can do. You have no ability to win this.”
Note: Should Obama succeed in imposing national healthcare on our country, there will be groups like the Department of Fair Employment and Housing with names like the Department for Healthcare Decisions that will be deciding whether you really deserve that pain medication or that heart transplant. If that day comes, remember Bader’s quote: There’s nothing you can do. You hae no ability to win this. Just curl up and die submissively.
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