Floyd Landis continues to pursue legal remedies against his doping ban, apparently wanting to enrich a cadre of lawyers

Floyd Landis, the winner disqualified cyclist in 2006 Tour de France continues legal strategies designed to...well not sure what they are designed to accomplish at this point. 

Landis tested positive for exogenous testosterone both in the T:E ratio, and in a test for synthetic testosterone (and note this subject has been debated ad infinitum from all angles of the issue pro and con).

Landis won then lost the 2006 Tour de France.  His case was heard on appeal at Pepperdine CA in 2007 where the cyclist lost a split decision.  The CAS rejected Landis's further appeal in 2008 to uphold his suspension from cycling competition.  Landis will come off suspension in January 2009.

So why does Landis continue to appeal these rulings?  Reports indicate he already spent over $2,000,000 on his defense.  Enough already.  GM, or Citibank can use money like that these days. To Velo News:

American Floyd Landis has challenged the ruling of the international Court of Arbitration for Sport that stripped him of the 2006 Tour de France title in U.S. Federal court, charging that the system for resolving doping cases is inherently biased against the accused.

In a motion filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, Landis claimed that the three arbitrators in the case had undisclosed conflicts of interest that may have affected the outcome of his appeal of an earlier panel’s ruling. In June, the CAS panel upheld Landis’ two-year suspension, the negation of his Tour de France win and imposed a $100,000 penalty to offset the costs of prosecuting a case that the panel said was made unnecessarily complex by Landis’ “scattershot” defense.

Does a United States court hold any sort of authority or jurisdiction over the Court of Arbitration for Sports, which is in Switzerland?

Landis originally filed the case in September, seeking to vacate the CAS arbitration award. On Thursday, Landis’ attorneys filed a motion alleging that all three members of the appeals panel had conflicts of interest that would have precluded a fair hearing in the matter. Those conflicts, the motion asserts, went unreported by each of the three.

History indicates the challenges to the CAS are incredibly futile.

Since the creation of the World Anti-Doping Agency and the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, there have been no successful challenges to CAS’s authority in the court systems of athletes’ respective countries.

In 2004 Spain's David Meca-Medina and Slovenia's Igor Majcen, two professional long-distance swimmers mounted a challenge to a CAS ruling. The European court, however dismissed the claim, but also ordered them to pay court costs for both sides, ruling that the challenge was "frivolous" in nature.

Here in the U.S., sprinter Justin Gatlin failed in his effort to overturn a CAS ruling in U.S. Federal Court. The court ruled it didn’t have jurisdiction in the matter and rejected Gatlin’s effort to overturn his CAS-imposed suspension.

One option Landis did not exercise was to file an appeal with the Switzerland’s Federal Tribunal, which may have some authority over the Swiss-based CAS.

In the motion filed on Thursday, Landis’ attorneys claimed that evidence of arbitrators’ conflicts of interest on recently came to light after CAS recently posted information about past cases on its Web site.

Landis’ federal court strategy may cause some concern at WADA’s world headquarters in Montreal, since arbitration of his case and its subsequent appeal consumed nearly the agency’s entire $1.8 million litigation budget in 2008.

"We will certainly watch the case with interest," said WADA director general David Howman. “We have no intention of being pushed into compromising our efforts to stop doping, not matter how much it costs.”

Isn't it starting to be ridiculously irresponsible to carry out this obsessive fight forever?  Even if the funds are donated, why enrich the barristers with frivilous motions over and over and over...drained defense funds too...and when your suspension will be expired before the Obama administration takes over (was Obama even a US Senator when Landis won the Tour in 2006?)...hey there is an idea...a Presidential pardon from the out-going Bush adminsitration.

Comments

[TBV]

"Frivolous" is in the eyes of the beholder. If one reads the complaint, and has spent some time understanding the legal theory involved, it looks like there is some merit to the claims, see for instance the discussion referenced here:

http://trustbut.blogspot.com/2008/10/about-conflicts.html

As to letting go, the CAS ruling is not just a suspension, there is also a $100,000 fine imposed, which Landis may not be able to pay, preventing issuance of license and livelihood.

And as to enriching attorneys, those working for him currently aren't doing it for a payday, but to right what they perceive as a wrong.

TBV

[Steroid Nation]

The CAS imposed a 100,000 fine? For what? Court costs?

Kinda feel yet like the dude (the uncle who was shot as a deputy years before) at the end of 'No Country for Old Men' who says to Tommy Lee Jones:

"Well all the time ya spend trying to get back what's been took from ya, more is going out the door. After a while you just have to try to get a tourniquet on it."

[ugg boots]

http://grg51.typepad.com/steroid_nation/2007/02/breaking_news_h.html

[justin supra shoes]

let's join our hands together to stop this kind of wrong doings. It may risk lives in the future if we just let them continue.

[Jimmy Choo Chaussures]

let's join our hands together to stop this kind of wrong doings. It may risk lives in the future if we just let them continue.