Thursday, July 9, 2020

The Supreme Court Protects the President



"There has existed for many decades a spirit and determination on the part of the makers of penal codes and the courts to measure the criminality of acts not only by their objective but their subjective qualities as well and to assess punishment according to the true responsibility of the offender. There is now a growing social tendency, a humane and laudable tendency, toward the enactment of laws providing for individualization of the punishment to be meted out to the offender, having reference not alone to the objective and subjective nature and quality of his act, but also to the true nature of the individual, to his age, his past record and the possibility of his re­demption to social and moral worth." -- Federal judge Edward R. Meek (ND-TX), Should the Punishment Fit the Crime or the Criminal?, American Bar Association Journal Vol. 8, No. 4, pages 212-214, 1922


The Supreme Court just announced a ruling that allows New York state prosecutors to get access to the president's private and business financial records, including his tax returns. But in a defense of the president, the court also denied House democratic demands to see the same financial records, at least until after the election. Inexplicably, the decisions were 7-2, and all four liberal justices voted to protect the president from congressional scrutiny

The court reasoned that there are “significant separation of powers concerns implicated by congressional subpoenas for the President’s information.” Based on that bogus concern, the court sent the case back to the lower court for further consideration of whether congress has the power to seek a president's financial records. In essence, this move delays a final decision until after the election. Because of that, the court is directly interfering in the election by hiding information that would damage the president. In my opinion, the court is working for the president's re-election.

The operating assumption is based on a small leap of logic. Specifically, the president has fought so hard to keep all of his financial records secret, he therefore has something illegal to hide. This logic is the same that the president has used to criticize people he attacks. During the 2016 election, the president argued this regarding Hillary and some of her aides in relation to emailgate: “The mob takes the Fifth. If you're innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment? .... She lied to Congress under oath, and her staff has taken the Fifth Amendment and got immunity deals. .... It's worse than Watergate; it's a bigger deal than Watergate.”


Abuse of power?
Some commentators are saying the decision to protect the president from congressional scrutiny for now is reasonable. The logic is that such power could be used by future hostile congresses against future presidents.

Does that logic make any sense whatever? So what if congress can scrutinize a president's financial records? Why isn't that a good thing? Is the court saying that since all presidents are crooks and liars, they all need to be protected from a hostile, politically-motivated congress? Why shouldn't the American people have the right to know what kid of person their president really is, especially one who is a chronic liar?

Over and over and over, there is a heavy bias in law enforcement and the courts to protect white collar criminals and liars. This pro-white collar criminal bias has existed for decades, but now the level of damage it can do is potentially catastrophic. The supreme court, including the four existing democratic justices are blind to this deadly threat. If those four democrats are not blind, but had to cut a deal to let the president off, it must have been one hell of a deal.

It looks to me that the "spirit and determination on the part of the makers of penal codes" is using this tradition to protect white collar crooks and liars, presumably because most of them are whites in the same class as the judges and often the same race. This looks a lot like a form of systemic reverse racism in favor of while collar crooks and liars due to their potential for redeemed social and moral worth.

Moral worth is not a concept that applies to our president. Neither is social worth. 

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