Category Archives: National

Defending Liberty? The ABA Prefers Groveling

Posted on by under Law, National

The issue of drone strikes on American citizens on American soil is, I would posit, a rather weighty matter of concern. That such a thing would likely occur without due process is assumed. The precedents are being established for such executive action; drones are already being used against certain “suspects” (and innocent collaterals) residing in certain areas of the world.

The American Bar Association, the legal organization that promotes the lawyer cartel and is supposedly concerned with “Defending Liberty”, is silent on Rand Paul’s filibuster touching on this subject. The ABA has decided it is better to be popular and in the good graces of the powerful than to maintain its alleged organizational purpose.

Instead of standing for liberty, due process, and privacy, the ABA Journal concerns itself with an article, “Meet the man who would save Guantanamo“, that pimps the military commissions system, the 21st century Star Chamber. Elsewhere on the ABA website, one reads of the latest news on the legal cartel’s beloved rules on the unauthorized practice of law along with various Leveling initiatives that will stamp out “inequities.”

Trifling nonsense is what the ABA is about these days. It is not focused upon defending liberty or the due process of law.

The Citrus Republic: Prosecution by Governor

Posted on by under Law, National

The well-reported and sad death of 17 year-old Trayvon Martin took place on February 26, 2012.  By the third week of March, a joint hustler and washed-up celebrity hit parade was making its way through Florida to further stir up tensions, with Al Sharpton at the head and Roseanne Barr (not inconspicuously) bringing up the rear.  Twitter was made into a threat and terror weapon and the President made a blatantly collectivist appeal, stating that Trayvon could have been his own son, presumably because Obama’s son would “look” like Trayvon.

The Orlando Sentinel published a short article on the Martin case on February 28 mentioning the fact that Zimmerman (then unnamed) was a member of the neighborhood watch and hadn’t been charged.  On March 2, the Miami Herald incorrectly reported that Zimmerman, also incorrectly said to be 25 years old, shot Martin “at a convenience store.”

However, the kernel of agitprop was popping in full by March 7 when one of the first, if not the first, major report had then been issued by Reuters.  It tells the searching reader all he needs to know about the political agitation and discomfort surrounding the case: “The family of a 17-year-old African-American boy shot to death last month in his gated Florida community by a white Neighborhood Watch captain wants to see the captain arrested, the family’s lawyer said on Wednesday.”

On March 8, it heated up further in the Herald: “Why any neighborhood watchman be carrying a loaded gun?,” said Benjamin Crump, the Martin Family’s grammatically-challenged attorney.  Zimmerman is once again misreported in this story as being “white.”

On March 10, Good Morning America joined the fray, and by the next day, the New Black Panthers were demonstrating.  However, Sanford Police Chief Bill Lee maintained that there was evidence to corroborate Zimmerman’s self-defense claims.

On March 25, it was reported that members of the New Black Panther Party were offering a $10,000 reward for the “capture” of George Zimmerman.  Leader Mikhail Muhammad, when asked whether he was encouraging vigilante justice for slain teen Trayvon Martin, replied: “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.”  The Obama-Holder Justice (sic) Department had no public response to this.

Nevertheless, I submit that the main theme of the case is not race but the legal abuses inherent in the structure of Florida’s government and the abusive practices of its politicians (this includes prosecutors) who “interpret” and enforce that law.  The notion of self-defense seems to very nearly be on trial along with the issue of neighborhood citizen watches.  However, what is a neighborhood under siege from robbers supposed to do?  The police usually arrive too late.  In any event, expect some people to brand neighborhood watch groups as inherently “racist.”  This may have occurred already.

The Martin Family attorney was deliberately cultivating the meme that Zimmerman was white.  Crump said that race was “the 600 pound elephant in the room.”  Of course, after being white in initial media reports, Zimmerman then morphed into a “white Hispanic,” “half-Hispanic” and then finally a man with black roots, according to a more recent Reuters report.

For weeks though, the media incessantly repeated the agitprop racial tale offered by the family’s “lawyer” that a white man killed Trayvon, and that made a tragic situation much worse.  Rancid celebrities, long past their expiration dates, tweeted parties’ home addresses and promised retribution.

One Washed-Up Celebrity Past Her Expiration Date

Zimmerman’s aggressive actions may have been those of a reckless busybody depending on the precise events that transpired.  However, this fact doesn’t change the nature of the campaign waged against due process and proper legal procedure.  Governors, some of the creepiest of politicians (See “New York State Governors”), should not be able to “game” a prosecution by shuffling the deck of law enforcement and then simply picking his or her favorite prosecutor regardless.  However, Governor Rick Scott bowed to pressure and an unjust procedure won the day.

Scott has essentially rendered Florida a gubernatorial dictatorship.  When the State Attorney elected for the district covering Sanford, Florida wasn’t providing the prosecution the powerbrokers of Florida wanted, Governor Scott assumed the role of Chief Inquisitor and appointed a special prosecutor.  This created a situation where any ambitious, ruthless prosecutor worth her citric acid was compelled to prosecute.

Since the Governor of the Citrus Republic of Florida decides who the prosecutor of a case should be based upon political considerations, the people of Florida suffer under what can only be called a gubernatorial dictatorship.  If the governor wants to ruin someone, he simply has to appoint a special prosecutor to do his bidding.

Some had believed there were protections or limitations under the Bill of Rights, a set of brakes in the system as they were, such as indictment by grand jury.  Instead, there is now Indictment by Florida Governor.  Don’t get on Rick Scott’s bad side.

The Wheel: Coming to a Florida Court Near You Courtesy of Florida Republicans?

It made perfect sense that Corey cancelled the grand jury scheduled to hear the case April 10.  Scott’s appointment of her was the equivalent of dropping into her lap a multi-million dollar book deal and national fame.  Being the ambitious woman she is, she wasn’t about to let this opportunity pass.  There was no doubt in that politicized environment that there would be an indictment.

In Florida, only first-degree murder cases require the use of grand juries.  The second-degree murder charge against Zimmerman is itself preposterous, regardless of his probable missteps, unless one is truly inclined to think that Zimmerman simply decided to kill Martin in cold blood and out of rage.

This is how many believe law should work: an accident or tragic event occurs—and the misery must be compounded by “charging” someone with something, anything.  Said one Facebook commenter to a USA Today article: “As a neighborhood watch volunteer and not a police officer, Zimmerman should had never followed nor confronted someone that he thought was a potential burglar. He made a bad decision that cost a young man his life. Zimmerman needs to be charge (sic) with something.”  This is a not uncommon opinion.  It doesn’t matter what his state of mind was nor does it matter what actually happened to provoke Zimmerman’s response; he must be charged with something.

Indeed, the fallen but inimitable Alan Dershowitz does nothing if not recognize a prosecutorial abuse when he sees it.  Says Dershowitz: “[S]he (Corey) wasn’t appointed to get justice.”  He suggested that her affidavit withholding evidence of Zimmerman’s injuries, and a photo showing them, constituted perjury.  In any event, it is upon a dubious faith only that one could trust that Corey has operated within the framework of responsibility set forth by the Supreme Court in Berger v. United States, 295 U.S. 78 (1935), wherein it is said that a prosecutor’s duty is to find the truth, not obtain convictions (“while he [the prosecutor] may strike hard blows, he is not at liberty to strike foul ones.”)

Dershowitz thinks Corey may have foisted herself into legal trouble.  This seems doubtful since she is, after all, a personal servant to Governor Scott and is not likely to be held accountable for anything she does.  If Scott asks her to don a court jester’s outfit to the first day of trial, she will.  Dershowitz mentions that the U.S. is the only place in the world where prosecutors are elected.  The problem, though, is that any roving governmental prosecution system is an invitation for abuse and injustice.  Judge Napolitano raised the issue of privatizing these functions in a recent tweet.

This unfortunate case reveals the ugly intersection of the politics of ambition, government prosecutions, and racial controversy.  The result of this collision may leave the subjects of the Florida Governor with even less legal protection, real or imagined, than they enjoyed prior to February 26.

Empire State Utopia

Posted on by under Law, National, New York

If a news observer didn’t get enough of a laugh hearing of the White House’s announcement of Law Day 2012 (the same president who attacked the courts just weeks ago), New York’s court system steps in to maintain the hilarity, imposing by fiat a requirement of 50 hours of pro bono service on indebted new law graduates before they may practice.

“Today on Law Day, we pause from our busy routines to celebrate our nation’s faith in the rule of law and the liberties we so dearly cherish,” said Court of Appeals Court Chief Jonathan Lippman as part of his Law Day 2012 encyclical.  One can only hope these comments were written as I can’t imagine how he could say them with a straight face.  The legal profession works each day to reduce liberty.  And we have heard nothing from them about the lawless actions of the Bush/Obama administrations including Obama’s claim of right to detain anyone he wishes.  It is the very lawyers who populate the state legislatures and halls of Washington that have done much to destroy liberty.

At least the cynical dumping of an entire profession’s failures onto new law students isn’t whitewashed completely.  Continued Lippman: “We are facing a crisis in New York and around the country. At a time when we are still adjusting to the realities of shrinking state coffers and reduced budgets, more and more people find themselves turning to the courts. The courts are the emergency rooms of our society — the most intractable social problems find their way to our doors in great and increasing numbers.”  Get that-courts are now emergency rooms!  Attorneys are as important as surgeons, saving us all from ourselves.

In truth, lawyers are trained to venerate state action and see all societal problems as having their proper resolution in its courts, prisons and assorted gulags.  A new law is always the answer to a lawyer and the current political leaders, whatever their evil, are always worthy of respect and genuflection.  It is the price of their job.  But don’t worry, this is all about “liberty” and “justice” according to the state court rulemakers.

A New York Politician at the Switch

“Those who are privileged to call ourselves lawyers have a special duty as the gatekeepers of justice to participate in preserving what we hold so dear,” stated Lippman.  Wouldn’t you think that the burden should fall on, say, high-income partner attorneys who have significant experience-and might be able to actually help the type of pro bono clients being served?  Yes, but it is much easier and less unpopular among his colleagues if the burden be dumped upon indebted law students.  Further, many of the partners already do their volunteer work sitting on meaningless boards and offering reliable mopping services to the powers that be that keep such powers untouched.  Attorneys, in the end, are aware of their lowly place in the state machine.

“The new protocols that I will announce today for admission to the bar in New York, will challenge every law student to answer very basic questions that are fundamental to the very fibre of the legal profession: How will you choose to benefit your fellow man and your community with your new skills? Will you use your legal acumen to foster equal justice in our state? Do you recognize that being a lawyer requires an understanding that access to justice must be available to all New Yorkers regardless of their station in life?”

Lippman should ask many current bar members these questions particularly those who have found the profession to be quite lucrative.  Nothing seems better designed to increase the cynicism of law students in a market in which many will struggle to find employment that an indentured servitude requirement at the end of three years of classes, a bar exam and debt.

If pro bono service is rooted in “history” and “tradition,” those traditions shouldn’t be compromised by converting them into cynical state obligations in order to fix a budgetary problem  and a court system that are a result of a system of laws necessitating such massive court structures and processes-a system those in state power such as Lippman have created

Perhaps Lippman should at least reimburse students who undertake coerced pro bono work with a student loan charge-off–sending the bill for it to the law schools that profit so handsomely from the absurdly long, and irrelevant, three year law school professional protection racket.  But wait, he wouldn’t be “respectable” any longer among his law school friends if he were to suggest such a thing.  The ultimate guidance for developing good policy and ideas is, of course, what a judge’s colleagues might think.  Those colleagues have less time to think now; after advising their patients to drink arsenic, they are now needed in the emergency room.