Apparently doesn’t stay in Texas, but clearly has Texan ties…
In what can only be described as an interesting pairing, the Bush administration is backing Anna Nicole Smith, the former Playboy playmate, in her fight over her late husband’s assets.
Earlier this year, the Supreme Court granted cert to Anna Nicole (admit it, you can’t read that without hearing “Anna, Anna, Anna, Anna Nicole” in your head) to determine whether she is entitled to millions of dollars from the estate of her late husband, J. Howard Marshall II. Despite their 63 year age difference, Anna Nicole swears that Marshall wooed her, married her and promised to take care of her.
Marshall’s eldest son sees it a bit differently and fought to keep Anna Nicole out of the estate. The son prevailed in Texas court, but a federal bankruptcy judge in California ruled in Anna Nicole’s favor, awarding her a whopping $474 million. The verdict was later reduced and thrown out. The appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court centers not on the actual merits or facts of the case but a point of law: whether the federal court in California had jurisdiction over a Texan probate matter. In other words, this is not about whether Anna Nicole was a gold-digger or a wronged widow, it’s about jurisdiction.
The Bush administration’s top lawyer has filed a pleading in the case on Smith’s behalf, arguing that the U.S. Supreme Court should protect federal court jurisdiction in disputes.
It should make for one of the more interesting dialogues on jurisdiction that we’ve seen in a while…
