Not surprisingly he is now one of the most successful lobbyist on Capitol hill.
The tyranny and injustice of the courts is palpable. We all suffer with it. I see it everyday up close and personal. I have had to deal with it for more than 25 years. So I have given it a lot of thought. Understanding the actual Nature of any problem is the key to finding a solution.
Most people lump all the problems together. They see the courts don’t dispense justice, they throw up their hands and they blame it All on corruption. And that just isn’t the reality.
Now I could go off on the courts because they do have it coming. I could tell you about individual cases of crookedness and incompetence that are so ridiculous that you would think I was Making them up! But I am not going to do that today. I am going to hold my tongue no matter how difficult. Because the point I want to make is that the system is totally screwed, even without the power hungry types that get off being able to do that stuff to you and me. And people need to understand the way the system actually operates.
THE BASIC MECHANICS OF TYRANNY AND INJUSTICE.
Okay, it’s true these are NOT examples of systemic tyranny. But still, you gotta love “old economy Steve”.
There are two general kinds of tyranny imposed on the people from the bench. One is systemic. The other is what I call “subjective tyranny”.
Both types of tyranny are seriously problematic of course. They are both rampant. And they both erode confidence in the overall system itself.
Systemic tyranny is any tyranny where justice is NOT served in the situation, but where the “law” is “technically followed” by the judge. In other words where the law is DESIGNED to create INJUSTICE. There are countless examples of this.
I will give you a simple example. If I take a case on a contingency and I lose, I am not entitled to take a “deduction” for any of the time I spent pursuing that case, even though it clearly “cost me” my time, which is all I have to sell in the market. My time spent on a case IS my money. But if I take a case on an hourly basis and lose and cannot collect my fee because the party that owes me the money goes bankrupt, then I can claim that amount as a deduction. Do you see the inequity?
I have lost my time, which is all I actually have to sell in the market under each example. In one case I have a legal remedy in the form of a deduction for the loss to me. In the other I do not, even though I suffered the same type of loss. That is an example of systemic tyranny.
Another example would be where a police officer lies on his report about my conduct. I take a lie detector to try to help prove that I am telling the truth. But the law neither allows me to compel him to take one, nor does it allow me to show the jury my results and tell them that he was asked to take one and refused.
I got to play a little chess with one of the Circuit justices over the weekend. I was a little unfamiliar on some of the rules he insisted we use. For some reason I was always black. But I didn’t dare say anything since I have a case before him. Okay, ready for another game? We’re having fun right?
Clearly the evidence IS probative. How probative of course would be up to each juror. Many might feel it is Compelling and Material, some might find it uncompelling. But regardless, the jury does not get to hear it because it is not admissible. That is not justice. That is another example of systemic tyranny.
Note how both examples result in a tyranny of Injustice on the individual. That in fact is a common factor in virtually all systemic tyranny. The individual loses rights to the state, and to powerful interests who can afford to pay for protection from the state by making contributions, which create legal loopholes and protections.
A judge who denies my claim to the lost contingency fee deduction in tax court, or to the offer of evidence on the polygraph in criminal court, is not out to screw me. He isn’t crooked. He is quite literally, quote on quote, just following the law. He is actually “Doing his job”.
Do you see that systemic tyranny Can be meted out by a perfectly honest hardworking judge. It doesn’t take a crook or a scoundrel.
Now if the same judge Denied me my right to claim the deduction for the money lost due to bankruptcy, he would be engaging in what I call subjective tyranny. Because he would not be following the law. He would be acting outside the law.
Subjective tyranny is where the judge acts in a way that is personal and is either outside the rules, or in an area that does not have clear rules, or that is technically within his discretion within the rules, but works injustice.
The judge hated doing it to him, but hey, it’s the law and like the judge said, we all have to follow the law. He understood of course.
The motivations for this type of tyranny from the bench can be anything from simple mistakes, to laziness, to a personal grudge, to a power trip, to out right incompetence or actual corruption. I have seen all of them.
Trial judges have immense power, so do appellate judges. A trial judge can inflict subjective tyranny in many many ways. For example, he can refuse or fail to follow the law and require that you in effect, have to “force him” to comply. He can also make rulings against you that should have gone in your favor.
The important thing to understand about subjective tyranny from both a trial judge or an appellate judge is that there is no way to tell the difference between, incompetence, laziness, intentional conduct, a grudge, or a bribe. No way. Of course the severity of the “error” and the glaring nature of the disconnect between the ruling on the law as applied to the facts can give you an indication. But you can’t know. And trust me, there are plenty of judges who are just plain Dense. Not dishonest. Just not very bright.
An example of subjective tyranny would be denying a motion that, by All objective measures, you were entitled to win. By denying the motion, the judge has now in effect required you to spend many more months or possibly years in costly discovery and litigation on issues that are not properly litigated. As a result you may very well not be able to afford to continue to successfully either defend or prosecute a valid claim you have.
The only answer to such conduct is to litigate your case through trial and hope you can win on appeal, or to “settle your case” if possible. Of course under those circumstances, the settlement value has been destroyed by the judge’s improper ruling.
I thought the hearing was going pretty well until I saw the pic my client took of me giving my argument.
You have no recourse for conduct like this.
Therefore once again, the individual loses to entities like the State, and big businesses that can afford endless litigation costs.
Trial courts do the most damage to individuals as a practical matter, only because they have the most contact. Not because the judges are better or worse. They dish out systemic tyranny, even if they are a good judge. And if they aren’t a good judge, then they are likely to dish out both kinds of tyranny to you. Lol
Remember, it doesn’t take intentional conduct to screw you as I have just showed you.
At the appellate level the damage can be even worse. One, you are already at a very expensive stage of the litigation. So settlement is problematic. But even more importantly, the Only recourse you have is the S.Ct. and the chance that they will even Look at your case is basically Zero. So whatever they do is Final.
SYSTEMIC INJUSTICE IS INTENTIONALLY BUILT INTO THE SYSTEM.
People see the system and they see how screwed up it is and they just Assume that it is that way because most lawyers and judges are crooked or incompetent. Hence all the lawyer jokes.
I hope you at least now can see that tyranny and injustice do not require corruption by the vast majority of judges. The problem, much of the time, is nothing more than their willingness to BLINDLY DO AS THEY ARE TOLD. Let me show you what I mean.
Justice Bryan, known as the “Energizer”, served 10 more years on the appellate bench after this picture was taken. He was heralded as a brilliant scholar upon retirement.
The systemic injustice that pours out of the courts is, for the most part, the End result of a very few bad actors. The system is Intentionally set up so that it can be Manipulated from the top down from behind the scenes. Only a very small amount of corruption needs to be inserted into the upper levels of the system over time, slowly, incrementally, imperceptibly and Insidiously, in order to create a Huge amount of injustice and systemic tyranny down the line in the trial courts.
Here’s how the system works. The S. Ct. makes law. Appellate courts and trial courts Must follow that law. Appellate courts make law that the trial courts in their Circuit Must all follow. So the trial courts Must follow the courts above them. And since they are the only court that the average person will ever be exposed to, whammo, you have just seen how the system can “touch you” without ever having to even involve itself with you.
The vast majority of cases do not involve controversial issues. So all that really has to be done is to control and affect a few key points on a few key cases at the Appellate level each year. A well placed crooked judge here and there on a case or two in each Circuit making a “well designed ruling” in a key area and you can do a lot of damage over time.
And who is watching? nobody but a few lawyers. Do you follow oil and gas appellate law? What about arbitration law? lol When does it make news? Starting to catch on?
Now add in to this the fact that appellate judges sit for life. Just like a supreme court justice. They can have a 20 year tenure of doing damage. Maybe more, maybe 30 years, or more. Imagine the damage just ONE such judge can do if he is just Innocently incompetent.
Now picture one who is “compromised” and not at all incompetent. Now add on to that law makers slipping in loopholes that then “become law”. Now do all of this for a decade or two or ten or twenty, like what we have now on the books and the law can become almost unrecognizable. No justice at all.
Look around, what do you see? Right… exactly what I just described. lol And THAT is how it happens my friend. Do you see how dangerous this is?
This is why so much has to be made about how “fair and high minded” the justices all are. Why we have to hear all the time how they are as pure as the wind driven snow. It’s the reason for all the pomp and formality. Distractions!
In fact you better tread lightly making allegations against a judge if you’re a lawyer. Even though Lawyers are clearly in the BEST position to KNOW who is out of line on the bench. It is more dangerous than questioning an NBA referee’s call as a coach. lol It isn’t done.
I had some great information I just knew the Judicial misconduct board would want to know, so I sent it right in. I was impressed how fast they got back to me.
Do you see how it works now? Do you understand how easy it is to control such a system from the top down Unnoticed? And do you see how once put in place it runs itself.
The workaday judges who are the foot soldiers are, for the most part, oblivious to what they are even doing. They probably actually believe they are “doing justice” by “following the rules”.
Of course some are meglomaniacs or narcissists. But most are basically honest but they are distracted, and busy, and intellectually lazy and they have fallen victim to the same brainwashing you have.
The real problem is that they never question the overall system of “obeying” whatever the “law” is from the appellate courts or the Supreme court. They rationalize ruling in a way they disagree with the outcome, by telling themselves that they are “following the law”, and that is what “their job is”. And THAT is the key to the system.
Convincing everyone that a judge’s Obligation is to “blindly follow the law” is the key. Once that is done. The rest is easy. They start in law school with the brainwashing of lawyers. It continues in movies and at every level of news and media. Then they have well paid “media lawyers” write best sellers to talk about this wonderful virtue of judges only “following the law”. lol
The judges never stop to think that their job is supposed to be to actually DO JUSTICE.
What a judge should be taught is that his job is to Do Justice. If the law prevents what he believes is justice then he should Ignore the Law. If the system prevents that, then ignore the system. If that means that the system gets rid of you, then so be it.
Do we really want judges sitting who don’t care if they are doing justice?
Do you now understand a little better how the system works so insidiously and why it does not require any kind of grand conspiracy?
I’m done for now. I hope you learned something. Next time I will talk about another aspect of Judicial tyranny.
Take care my brainwashed Brethren. Don’t be down, live in the light and tell someone the truth about the law.
Legalman still lives