The Rule of Law

A core principle of successful democracies is the Rule of Law. It is a pretty simple concept really. One would expect that a trained attorney and professor at a prestigious law school would understand and respect the importance of the idea.

The basic is that the law is immutable. It doesn't change with the defendant. It matters not if you are the king or the lowest serf, the law applies equally. If you don't like the law, you don't re-interpret it to suit the individual in front of the bench. You must repeal or change the law through the legislative process.

With the rule of law in place, every citizen knows that they will receive the same treatment before the court regardless of their circumstances, whether high-born or low.

We are about to see a Supreme Court justice replaced. The opportunity occurs very early in the administration of the Messiah and it is likely to be doubled as Ruth Bader Ginsberg ends her tenure shortly. Here's some detail on the situation:

Souter to Step Down

The critical quote in that piece is this one:

In the summer of 2007, he said "we need somebody who's got the heart . . . the empathy to recognize what it's like to be a young, teenaged mom; the empathy to understand what it's like to be poor or African-American or gay or disabled or old. And that's the criteria by which I'm going to be selecting my judges."

You shouldn't be surprised. He has long made it clear that justice in his perception is about concern for the poor, the minority, the special folks who were the ignorant ones who voted for him. It isn't about the law, it is about sticking it to "the Man." Being Black or gay or young hasn't got a damned thing to do with the law.

He's intending to shape the justice system to look a lot like Madame Defarge is on the bench. Whether or not there will be a guillotine on Pennsylvania Ave. in the near future is yet to be determined.