State justice says he wasn't at Mukasey's speech

By Adam Wilson | The Olympian • Published November 25, 2008

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Contrary to rumor, Washington Supreme Court Justice Richard Sanders said he was in town, but not in the room, when U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey collapsed last week.

Mukasey was released in good health from a Washington, D.C. hospital Friday, the day after he collapsed while giving a speech to a law group.

Michelle Malkin, an Internet columnist and Fox News contributor, reported that someone had heckled Mukasey during his talk, and that person might have been Sanders.

"I dearly hope this is not true," Malkin wrote Sunday. The article was referred to widely, including links to it from national organizations, including The Washington Post.

Sanders said he did attend the gathering of the Federalist Society last week, but had gone back to his hotel before Mukasey made his evening address. Sanders declined to respond directly to Malkin's story.

"As to that, I don't have any comment," Sanders said. "But I wasn't there when he collapsed. I heard it on television the next morning. I was very sorry to hear it."

Sanders pointed to a video of the speech posted on the Federalist Society's Web site, which does not show Mukasey reacting noticeably to interruptions from the audience, which occasionally applauded and laughed.

The Federalist Society is largely considered conservative, and Malkin said it is "renowned for bringing together the sharpest conservative and libertarian legal minds."

Mukasey's speech defended the Bush Administration's counter-terrorism strategies, saying the decision to treat people seized abroad as enemy combatants without constitutional rights is based in legal tradition, and critics of the administration have forgotten the reality of a larger war on terror.

Sanders, often considered one of the Washington State Supreme Court's conservative judges, said his involvement in the group is limited to attending lectures at its national and state conventions.