American Samoa Seeks its Place in House of Delegates #ABAChicago
The 92 members of the American Samoa Bar Association will have to wait a while to learn whether they will be granted representation in the ABA House of Delegates.
The House on Monday morning declined to amend the ABA Constitution to add one more delegate to its ranks so that the American Samoa Bar would be represented.
Instead, the House approved a motion to refer American Samoa’s request to the Credentials and Admissions Committee. The committee should be able to report back to the House in a year at the 2010 Annual Meeting in San Francisco, said chair C. Elisia Frazier of Pooler, Ga.
The House convened Monday as the ABA continues its 2009 annual meeting in Chicago. The House is expected to complete its business, which includes a number of policy recommendations, Tuesday afternoon.
American Samoa’s request goes beyond simply the question of whether to increase the size of the House from 555 to 556, Frazier said. “It’s essentially about fairness,” she said, because the proposal raises issues about representation for other smaller geographical entities, as well. She noted, for instance, that the territories of Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands currently share a delegate, even though they are both larger than American Samoa.
“So it’s a good time to look at our overall policy” on creating new seats in the House, Frazier said.
But Jay G. Foonberg of Beverly Hills, Calif., the primary sponsor of the proposal to add a delegate, argued that the small size of American Samoa’s lawyer population and its remote location in the South Pacific should not keep it from being represented in the House.
“If the ABA is going to represent the legal profession, then it will add American Samoa to the House,” said Foonberg (who is not a member of the House). “The lawyers of American Samoa want to be part of this association.”
If the territory is given a seat in the House, its representative will have to travel farther than just about any other member to attend meetings. American Samoa is 7,210 miles from New York City, 6,510 miles from Chicago and 4,790 miles from Los Angeles.
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