USADA - Armstrong

[QuickStepper]

Multiple dopers have tried to say that USADA and other US Feds are state actors. They have all failed.

None of those other cases though raised the same arguments that Armstrong's attorneys have raised. This TRO Application and the complaint (and yes, I've read them all) is vastly different and raises arguments that were not raised by any other athletes who challenged USADA's power to act.

 

[BroDeal]

If they succeed, and I think Lance has the law (or the people that make it anyway), who gets the wins

Ullrich, a worthy champion who does not treat people as though they are too stupid to figure out they are being lied to.

Ullrich. Four time winner, baby.

 

[Berzin]

Perhaps he may yet still cut that deal if in fact it was ever offered.

He was given the opportunity to go to the USADA and answer questions.

He refused. Very difficult to offer a deal to someone who has no intention of telling the truth ever.

He could have put this behind him once and for all, but has decided to come out "fighting", which by Armstrong's standards means doing everything possible to derail the entire process by calling it unfair, unconstitutional and a violation of his rights.

 

[spetsa]

If they succeed, and I think Lance has the law (or the people that make it anyway), who gets the wins

You have asked this same question more than once in this very thread. Your intentions are obvious.

 

[Mount Megiddo]

Ullrich, a worthy champion who does not treat people as though they are too stupid to figure out they are being lied to.

Ullrich. Four time winner, baby.

Hold on. I thought this was about anti doping?

 

[Clemson Cycling]

Ullrich, a worthy champion who does not treat people as though they are too stupid to figure out they are being lied to.

Ullrich. Four time winner, baby.

Zülle would get 1, Ullrich four, Beloki 1, and Basso 1. I figured out why my dad cannot watch this stuff anymore. If it does happen the sport will have stripped the biggest title to compete for 9 times in the last 13 years. If their governments went after them we would probably be digging into the 5th place finishers range to get somewhat more clean champions.

 

[Clemson Cycling]

You have asked this same question more than once in this very thread. Your intentions are obvious.

I think that was the first answer though

 

[MarkvW]

That is a stretch to get to discovery. He asked for an injunction based on constitutional protections. His team is grasping. The law is pretty clear here and precedent.

Graham v. United States Anti-Doping Agency, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 34637 (D.N.C. 2011)

The court stated, "Again, although Graham, similar to Lee, purports to present claims outside of the Amateur Sports Act, namely, under the Constitution and the law of slander, ultimately, he is contesting his eligibility to coach amateur athletes involved in Olympic sports, a remedy only available under the Amateur Sports Act. Consequently, these claims are outside the subject matter jurisdiction of this court. The court further notes that the two exceptions to this general rule, as laid out in Lee, do not apply in this case. First, the court does recognize that it has a limited role in ensuring that the amateur sports organizations follow their own rules for determining eligibility. However, in this case, USADA followed the proper protocol in determining the proper sanction for Graham. USADA offered arbitration to Graham, but he subsequently withdrew.8 As a result of the withdrawal, [*19] Graham was subject to any sanction proposed by USADA, which in this case was a lifetime ban from coaching amateur athletes involved in Olympic sports. Second, although the court is in recognition that the Amateur Sports Act does not explicitly preempt a federal right independent of those conferred by the Act, this exception is not applicable here as Graham's claims are, once again, labeled as violations of constitutional rights and slander, but essentially seek to challenge his eligibility to coach amateur Olympic athletes. Therefore, USADA's Motion to Dismiss [DE-19] is ALLOWED for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. Because these claims are dismissed pursuant to Rule 12(b)(1), the court does not reach USADA's ground for dismissal pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6)."

So we have subject matter jurisdiction before we even get to Lance's crazy claims.

That arbitration is mandated by the Ted Stevens Olympic and Amateur Sports Act, which includes a due process checklist that delineates athletes’ procedural rights. Any appeals of the arbitrators’ decision would be heard by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, sport’s highest authority, and that decision would be final.

The Trevor Graham case isn't the greatest precedent (did you note who Graham's lawyer was). It's only a district court case. Assuming that USA Cycling is in the same situation as Graham's Fed., it looks like good reasoning, though.

If I was a judge, I'd wait to see a concrete injury in fact before I'd even think about letting Lance into federal court. Lance's lawsuit is way too premature. I'd dump him on standing.

 

[Race Radio]

None of those other cases though raised the same arguments that Armstrong's attorneys have raised. This TRO Application and the complaint (and yes, I've read them all) is vastly different and raises arguments that were not raised by any other athletes who challenged USADA's power to act.

Example?

When you say you have read them all which have you read?

 

[Benotti69]

Not remotely parallel, he has a basic point, no matter how expressed.

No he doesn't

Armstrong met with the the head of the lab in Luasanne, for what? to learn how to beat the tests and maybe cross a palm with coinage.

Lance was rarely tested.

He bought UCI.

He missed OOC tests.

He had showers unattended while the tester was kept waiting by Bryuneel.

No basic point. How do you catch a cheater who is holding all the aces?

 

[ggusta]

He was given the opportunity to go to the USADA and answer questions.

He refused. Very difficult to offer a deal to someone who has no intention of telling the truth ever.

He could have put this behind him once and for all, but has decided to come out "fighting", which by Armstrong's standards means doing everything possible to derail the entire process by calling it unfair, unconstitutional and a violation of his rights.

And that is more or less what I was saying in my 1st post that he responded to that I was responding to!

 

[ggusta]

Zülle would get 1, Ullrich four, Beloki 1, and Basso 1. I figured out why my dad cannot watch this stuff anymore. If it does happen the sport will have stripped the biggest title to compete for 9 times in the last 13 years. If their governments went after them we would probably be digging into the 5th place finishers range to get somewhat more clean champions.

I watch the sport because it's beautiful in it's form (Platonic form) like nothing else. If I watched it solely believing the outcome was legit, I'd watch 'pro' wrestling or Olympic swimming and Track and field. If it doesn't speak to someone on that level (its beauty) I could understand a viewer being turned off. I suppose that is the case for any sport.

 

[PedalPusher]

The Trevor Graham case isn't the greatest precedent (did you note who Graham's lawyer was). It's only a district court case. Assuming that USA Cycling is in the same situation as Graham's Fed., it looks like good reasoning, though.

If I was a judge, I'd wait to see a concrete injury in fact before I'd even think about letting Lance into federal court. Lance's lawsuit is way too premature. I'd dump him on standing.

It's a great precedent. Even though it does not reside at the appeals level or SCOTUS, it is a clear decision that A. USADA has jurisdiction, the court does not oversee matters relating to the Amateur Sports Act.

But we are basically agreeing, I said in a earlier post, motion denied, failing to state a claim in which relief can be granted(standing). And subject matter jurisdiction will not be there either.

I don't know if you read the whole case, many of the same arguments. All the other arguments Lance makes are fodder if he doesn't have standing or the court does not have jurisdiction.

 

[QuickStepper]

Where can the complaint be found?

You can find bits and pieces of what was filed at various links in online newspapers and magazines (most of them already posted above-thread).

For now, you need a PACER account to see all of the documents and exhibits online and to download them (there is a charge for each document, but it's pretty nominal).

After about a day or two, most of the documents will likely be available in their entirety. But for now, as far as I know, a PACER account is the only assured method of being able to view all of the documents and the exhibits online.

In the meantime, here's a listing of the Court's Docket showing the pleadings that were filed by Armstrong today.

***********************************************
Defendant
United States Anti-Doping Agency


Date Filed # Docket Text
07/09/2012 1 COMPLAINT ( Filing fee $ 350 receipt number 0542-4723246), filed by Lance Armstrong. (Attachments: # 1 Civil Cover Sheet)(Herman, Timothy) (Entered: 07/09/2012)
07/09/2012 2 MOTION for Temporary Restraining Order by Lance Armstrong. (Attachments: # 1 Proposed Order, # 2 Proposed Order)(Herman, Timothy) (Entered: 07/09/2012)
07/09/2012 3 Memorandum in Support of 2 MOTION for Temporary Restraining Order by Lance Armstrong. (Herman, Timothy) (Entered: 07/09/2012)
07/09/2012 4 AFFIDAVIT in Support of 3 Memorandum in Support, 2 MOTION for Temporary Restraining Order by Lance Armstrong. (Attachments: # 1 Exhibit, # 2 Exhibit, # 3 Exhibit, # 4 Exhibit, # 5 Exhibit, # 6 Exhibit, # 7 Exhibit, # 8 Exhibit, # 9 Exhibit, # 10 Exhibit, # 11 Exhibit, # 12 Exhibit, # 13 Exhibit, # 14 Exhibit, # 15 Exhibit, # 16 Exhibit, # 17 Exhibit, # 18 Exhibit, # 19 Exhibit, # 20 Exhibit, # 21 Exhibit, # 22 Exhibit, # 23 Errata, # 24 Exhibit, # 25 Exhibit, # 26 Exhibit, # 27 Exhibit, # 28 Exhibit, # 29 Exhibit, # 30 Exhibit)(Herman, Timothy) (Entered: 07/09/2012)
07/09/2012 Case Assigned to Judge Sam Sparks. CM WILL NOW REFLECT THE JUDGE INITIALS AS PART OF THE CASE NUMBER. PLEASE APPEND THESE JUDGE INITIALS TO THE CASE NUMBER ON EACH DOCUMENT THAT YOU FILE IN THIS CASE. (jk, ) (Entered: 07/09/2012)
07/09/2012 5 ATTACHMENT Continued Exhibits to 4 Affidavit in Support,, by Lance Armstrong. (Attachments: # 1 Exhibit, # 2 Exhibit, # 3 Exhibit, # 4 Exhibit)(Herman, Timothy) (Entered: 07/09/2012)
07/09/2012 6 ATTACHMENT Exhibits to 4 Affidavit in Support,, by Lance Armstrong. (Attachments: # 1 Exhibit Continued Exhibit 33, # 2 Exhibit Continued Exhibit 33, # 3 Exhibit Continued Exhibit 33)(Herman, Timothy) (Entered: 07/09/2012)
07/09/2012 7 ATTACHMENT Continued Exhibits to 4 Affidavit in Support,, by Lance Armstrong. (Attachments: # 1 Exhibit Exhibit 34, # 2 Exhibit Exhibit 35, # 3 Exhibit Exhibit 36, # 4 Exhibit Exhibit 37, # 5 Exhibit Exhibit 38, # 6 Exhibit Exhibit 39, # 7 Exhibit Exhibit 40, # 8 Exhibit Exhibit 41, # 9 Exhibit Exhibit 42 through 47, # 10 Exhibit Exhibit 48 and 49, # 11 Exhibit Exhibit 50 and 51)(Herman, Timothy) (Entered: 07/09/2012)
07/09/2012 8 REQUEST FOR ISSUANCE OF SUMMONS by Lance Armstrong. (Herman, Timothy) (Entered: 07/09/2012)
07/09/2012 9 MOTION to Appear Pro Hac Vice by Timothy J. Herman for Mark S. Levinstein w proposed order ( Filing fee $ 25 receipt number 0542-4723913) by on behalf of Lance Armstrong. (Herman, Timothy) (Entered: 07/09/2012)
07/09/2012 10 MOTION to Appear Pro Hac Vice by Timothy J. Herman for Robert Luskin w proposed order ( Filing fee $ 25 receipt number 0542-4724066) by on behalf of Lance Armstrong. (Herman, Timothy) (Entered: 07/09/2012)
07/09/2012 11 MOTION to Appear Pro Hac Vice by Timothy J. Herman for Patrick Slevin w proposed order ( Filing fee $ 25 receipt number 0542-4724082) by on behalf of Lance Armstrong. (Herman, Timothy) (Entered: 07/09/2012)
07/09/2012 12 MOTION to Appear Pro Hac Vice by Timothy J. Herman for Ana C. Reyes with proposed order ( Filing fee $ 25 receipt number 0542-4724101) by on behalf of Lance Armstrong. (Herman, Timothy) (Entered: 07/09/2012)
07/09/2012 13 MOTION to Appear Pro Hac Vice by Timothy J. Herman for Marcie Ziegler w proposed order ( Filing fee $ 25 receipt number 0542-4724120) by on behalf of Lance Armstrong. (Herman, Timothy) (Entered: 07/09/2012)
07/09/2012 14 DEFICIENCY NOTICE: re 8 Request for Issuance of Summons. (dm, ) (Entered: 07/09/2012)
07/09/2012 15 REQUEST FOR ISSUANCE OF SUMMONS by Lance Armstrong. CORRECTED (Herman, Timothy) (Entered: 07/09/2012)
07/09/2012 16 Summons Issued as to Travis Tygart, United States Anti-Doping Agency. (dm, ) (Entered: 07/09/2012)
********************************************

Some of this stuff is purely for procedural purposes, such as the pro hac vice applications of some of the lawyers who need to be formally admitted to practice before the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas located in Austin.

The guts of the filing consists of the Complaint, the Motion for TRO, the Declaration and the Exhibits by Tim Herman, and the Memorandum of Points and Authorities in support of the Motion.

 

[PedalPusher]

None of those other cases though raised the same arguments that Armstrong's attorneys have raised. This TRO Application and the complaint (and yes, I've read them all) is vastly different and raises arguments that were not raised by any other athletes who challenged USADA's power to act.

Please be specific in your analysis.

 

[FoxxyBrown1111]

Maybe he knows he´s finished, but prolongs his sick act until he safely turned some Mio $ to offshore banks... B/C one thing will happen (next to that his sponsors want their money back): SCA gets $ 5 Mio. + interest back since he wouldn´t be a 7 time TdF winner anymore. He must fear that more than anything else. 70% of pipo think he doped anyway. He knows his name is $hit forever. Now he solely fights to survive. Hope it won´t work out and he ends as what he is: a hobo.

 

[aphronesis]

It's absolutely parallel. His only point is that USADA should have found evidence of Lance's cheating sooner,and only incompetence prevented them. Feel free to point out the flaw in the parallel to CERN finding the Higgs boson. Both agencies were looking to establish a truth, both took time and various directions of inquiry to collect evidence. Both made their cases when they thought they'd established sufficient proof.

The OP is simply lashing out. It's called shooting the messenger.

Objections to the contrary, I don't want to get off topic. Some affective sobriety would be nice though. Truth is a relative invention. See Ptolemy.
My read of his point is not that they should have, but that they didn't care to. That matters.

 

[MarkvW]

It's a great precedent. Even though it does not reside at the appeals level or SCOTUS, it is a clear decision that A. USADA has jurisdiction, the court does not oversee matters relating to the Amateur Sports Act.

But we are basically agreeing, I said in a earlier post, motion denied, failing to state a claim in which relief can be granted(standing). And subject matter jurisdiction will not be there either.

I don't know if you read the whole case, many of the same arguments. All the other arguments Lance makes are fodder if he doesn't have standing or the court does not have jurisdiction.

We do agree, but did you note that Graham was acting as his own lawyer and some of his arguments were exceptionally stupid (like Ted Stevens applies to athletes, not coaches)? It's not like the judge had the benefit of good arguments from both sides.

 

[DominicDecoco]

Probably already been posted..

USADA confident case will continue.

"USADA was built by athletes on the principles of fairness and integrity,” it said in a statement released to VeloNation today.

“Like previous lawsuits aimed at concealing the truth, this lawsuit is without merit and we are confident the courts will continue to uphold the established rules, which provide full constitutional due process and are designed to protect the rights of clean athletes and the integrity of sport."


"Ironically, Armstrong’s agent Bill Stapleton was the president of the Athletes’ Advisory Council at the time when USADA’s policies and procedures were drawn up, and had a big part hand in writing that code."

http://www.velonation.com/News/ID/1...s-confident-Armstrong-case-will-continue.aspx

 

[QuickStepper]

It's a great precedent. Even though it does not reside at the appeals level or SCOTUS, it is a clear decision that A. USADA has jurisdiction, the court does not oversee matters relating to the Amateur Sports Act.

But we are basically agreeing, I said in a earlier post, motion denied, failing to state a claim in which relief can be granted(standing). And subject matter jurisdiction will not be there either.

I don't know if you read the whole case, many of the same arguments. All the other arguments Lance makes are fodder if he doesn't have standing or the court does not have jurisdiction.

The Graham case isn't such a terrific precedent with respect to Armstrong's claims, and it never really even addressed the issue of whether USADA was a "state actor" at all. In fact you won't even find the words "state action" in that decision. Rather it was a motion to dismiss under 12(b)(6) and the Court simply determined, without any real analysis (because Graham didn't challenge or raise the issue) that under the Stevens Act, Congress never vested those subject to the Act with a private right of action to challenge its administration. That's a very different argument than has been raised by Armstrong in this latest filing. Take a look at Brentwood vs. Tennesee (a case cited by Armstrong in his TRO application) for a completely different take on the question and the analysis of who and what are "state actors".

Graham raised silly arguments, e.g., the slander suit claim, which as the Court there noted raised only a state law question, not a justiciable controversy absent some other hook for federal jurisdiction (since US district courts are, by definition, courts of limited jurisdiction).

In any event, Graham really never addressed the question of USADA's status as a state actor, at least not as I read the decision. The only constitutional claim that Graham appeared to raise was that USADA's actions violated his First Amendment rights vis-a-vis the same allegations of slander, and that was a non-starter to the Court from the outset. The Graham case is also not terribly persausive as it pertains to Armstrong's situation with USADA for a variety of other reasons that really don't need to be gone into at this time.

 

[aphronesis]

No he doesn't

Armstrong met with the the head of the lab in Luasanne, for what? to learn how to beat the tests and maybe cross a palm with coinage.

Lance was rarely tested.

He bought UCI.

He missed OOC tests.

He had showers unattended while the tester was kept waiting by Bryuneel.

No basic point. How do you catch a cheater who is holding all the aces?

And you relate all this to advances in physics.....how?

 

[Kennf1]

It's interesting they state in the complaint that after serving the charging letter (June 14), USADA contacted one or more of the co-defendants offering a "deal" if they would cooperate in case against Armstrong.

Then again, they also allege that Astana had a comprehensive internal testing program conducted by an independent lab.

 

[TexPat]

Just woke up. Coffee in hand...

You've got to be freaking kidding, right? Jesus Murphy I cannot believe this.

 

[jackcav]

That is why he will go down in infamy

So funny.....

In the 15-page charging letter obtained by The Post, USADA made previously unpublicized allegations against Armstrong, alleging it collected blood samples from Armstrong in 2009 and 2010 that were “fully consistent with blood ma*nipu*la*tion including EPO use and/or blood transfusions.”

The guy who said he is not going to fight is now back in the ring. He knows the s**t is about to hit the fan so he is trying to stop it first. This will blow the cover off this arrogant mean spirited vindictive man once and for all. Hey he could have gotten in front of it but he is too stubborn.

 

[Oldman]

My favorite part of the complaint so far

There may have actually been 5 swimmers...