"I'm glad there's no gavel in your hand, Judge."

Video of the Autry-Wanger debate is available at the Fresno Bee website, so I won’t recount their combat blow by blow. But I have one overriding observation: Alan Autry is woefully misguided about how courts work.

Autry spent the debate hammering a completely wrong sense of “judicial notice” as “common sense,” even after Judge Wanger explained how judicial notice actually works (and even cited the applicable Federal Rule of Evidence). Autry essentially wanted Judge Wanger to “judicially notice” that the ACLU has carried out a “reign of terror on American values since 1920.” (He never managed to articulate that clearly, but from what I could tell, that’s what he was trying to say.) As the Judge pointed out, one requirement for judicial notice is that the matter be completely uncontroversial. The Rule specifically requires that its “accuracy cannot reasonably be questioned.”

Autry confused constitutional amendments with decisions on constitutional questions by the Supreme Court. After talking about amendments like the Bill of Rights, he threw in Brown v. Board of Education. It was an odd non sequitur. Then he argued that Brown shows judges can use common sense to overturn precedent—in that case it was Plessy v. Ferguson. But then he claimed “the same thing happened” with Planned Parenthood v. Casey. People thought the Court might overturn Roe v. Wade in Casey, but instead it stood by Roe as precedent. How that helped Autry’s argument, I’m not sure.

Instead of making good arguments, Autry advanced bizarre ones, like claiming that the Endangered Species Act is “blatantly” unconstitutional. He can say that all he wants, but unless the Supreme Court holds it unconstitutional, he has no traction. (During the question-and-answer period at the end, someone asked the Judge whether anyone ever advanced that argument in the ESA cases he heard. Nope. And, as the Judge pointed out, an argument not presented by the parties is one the court cannot consider.)

In a debate that was supposed to be about the role of courts in society, Autry spent a lot of time making extremist comments about the American Civil Liberties Union. He made a lot out of the old saws that the ACLU was “founded by an avowed agnostic and socialist” and that it wants to “take God out of this country.” Never mind, I guess, that the ACLU has often defended religious freedom on the side of Christians.

Finally, during the question and answer period, lawyers in the audience asked the mayor some hard questions. Does he actually read Judge Wanger’s decisions before he criticizes them? When the dust cleared from his hemming and hawing, it was clear that he doesn’t. In the homeless people’s case against the City of Fresno, couldn’t the city deal with that problem before it got to litigation? Apparently not, apparently because Autry didn’t think to take “the media” with him when he went to visit the homeless encampment. (Where, by the way, he could apparently tell, just by looking, that a mattress was infected with both hepatitis and E. coli.)

Overall, Autry was loud, angry, incoherent, and inaccurate. During one segment, he kept repeating that “all men are created equal,” with emphasis on the word “men.” Judge Wanger got up to respond and pointed out that both women and men are equal in the United States. Autry’s reply? First a sarcastic apology for not being politically correct enough. Then: “Of course I meant all women. I have two daughters. Gimme a break.” Right. That makes a lot of sense.

Alan Autry is charismatic and popular, but when he opens his mouth, he spews ignorance and incoherence. Judge Wanger’s final remark at the end of the debate lamented that Autry is uninformed and does not understand the issues they were discussing. He was right. Even though their debate was more entertaining that most live theater I’ve seen in Fresno, it was depressing to see the quality of person Fresno allows in the mayor’s office.

If you want to see more, you can watch the video linked above, but if you live in Fresno, just be glad that Autry will soon be gone. Maybe he’ll do what he said at the end of the debate: “I just wanna get back to makin’ bad movies, Judge.”

As we were walking out of the room at the end, I heard Mayor Autry say to his coterie, “I have to get back to Starbucks.”