TIME FOR SUPREME COURT TO GET TO WORK

Thursday, September 30^th, 2021

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

TIME FOR SUPREME COURT

TO GET TO WORK

If you look at poll numbers, it’s becoming obvious that the American public is losing confidence in the US Supreme Court.  In a new Gallop poll released this past week, only 40% of you as citizens approve of the job that has been done by the High Court. And it’s not just one party or the other. “At this point, less than a majority of Republicans, Democrats and independents approve of the job the court is doing,” said Gallup, which has been tracking the trend since 2000.

Justices on the nation’s highest court complain about their low salary. But the plain truth is that the court as a whole just does not work very hard.  Some 10,000 petitions are filed in the Supreme Court each year, and almost all of them are turned aside. This year, the court might consider some 60 cases.  They never worked too hard in the past, but at least up until some 15 years ago, the normal load was 125 cases or more.  But no longer.  The Supremes need more time for other pursuits.

Come summertime, there are no thoughts of carrying out the constitutional responsibility of considering cases of those who feel they are aggrieved.  No, it’s time to head off for speaking junkets and lucrative teaching posts far and beyond.   Justice Samuel Alito prefers the beaches and teachers in Malibu California at Pepperdine University at its Oceanside campus. And the Chief Justice John Roberts was paid $15,000 to teach a one week course in Vienna in recent years.  He should have stayed home and practice giving the oath.

Justices also benefit from the ethically troubling practice of regularly taking all expense paid junkets, often financed by private interests with business before this very court.  Many are labeled as “educational seminars” with large honorariums being received for a lecture.  The court has soiled its reputation by accepting such freebies, and it is obvious the members are incapable of effective self-policing. 

Congress is proposing a 30% pay increase bringing salaries up to $255,000 a year with the Chief Justice earning $280.000, plus benefits and regular cost of living increases.   But with the increase comes some restrictions that do not make the Justices happy. Limits on outside income.  Get paid more but stay in Washington and get more work done.  NO way say the Supremes.  They are opposing any such limitations, because right now they have lots of time off and are allowed whatever they can make on the side.

The justices also exasperate any strong public sympathies by covering the court’s work in a shroud of secrecy.  No television coverage of any kind.  It’s a good thing many of these judges write books for extra cash, or they would keep the aura of invisibility surrounding them.  Justices do surface to peddle their books on TV.  We saw Justice Antonin Scalia before his death on 60 minutes for the sole purpose of hawking his memoirs.  So too did Clarence Thomas and a host of other justices who put pen to paper and met with the press for the sole purpose of selling books.

With so little public availability, it’s no wonder that in a recent Zogby Poll, only 24% of adults could name two Supreme Court justices.  77% could name two or more of the Seven Dwarfs.

And when it comes to the work of the court, or lack thereof, the Justices do not even pick the few cases that are chosen for review.   There is an arrangement among the court’s members known as the “cert. pool” where clerks for each Justice meet and make recommendations as to what cases will be considered.  So we have a system where a young clerk just out of law school is allowed great sway over what cases get reviewed.

Professor David Stras, who teaches law at the University of Minnesota, has studied the whole problem of the law clerk pooling system and says: “The pool system does put enormous influence and power in a single clerk.  I’m quite sure there are cases that fall through the cracks.”   Special Prosecutor Ken Starr wrote in a recent law review article that there: “is an unjustifiable influence of the cert. pool and a hydraulic pressure to say no.”

As long as the court takes only a handful of cases and let’s their law clerks do most of the work, it’s easy to “get work done” on time.  But by not giving proper attention to a number of major legal issues, the court is shortchanging the citizens they were sworn to protect.  But with lifetime tenure, summers off to travel the world and be paid for it, and a large salary increase on the way, there is little pressure to do any work at all.  

_______

 The court of last resort is no longer the Supreme Court. It’s “Nightline.” –Alan M. Dershowitz                                 

 Peace and Justice

Jim Brown

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the nation and on websites worldwide.  You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownusa.com. 

 

 

 

CAN FAITH BE RESTORED IN THE FBI?

Thursday, September 23^rd, 2021

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

 

CAN FAITH BE RESTORED IN THE FBI?

 

If you were a parent or a grandparent watching the testimony last week of American gymnasts describing in tears the FBI's handling of its investigation into sexual assault, you would have been absolutely appalled. Young female gymnasts took turns repeatedly testifying how they begged the FBI for help. FBI agents drug their feet and did nothing as many of these young women continue to be sexually abused.

 

Olympic gymnast McKayla Maroney gave graphic details of her treatment, and cast the FBI agents who handled her case as indifferent. She told lawmakers those agents should be indicted, and that she was shocked in reading the inspector general report to learn that the FBI “lied” about what she told investigators in 2015.

 

 “To not indict these agents is a disservice to me and my teammates, a disservice to the system which is built to protect all of us from abuse,” she said. After telling my entire story of abuse to the FBI in the summer of 2015, not only did the FBI not report my abuse, but when they eventually documented the report, 17 months later, they made entirely false claims about what I said," she said.

 

Rachael Denhollander, the first survivor to speak publicly about Nassar's abuse, is now a lawyer and talked Thursday on CNN about the need for accountability at the FBI.

"If a citizen were to behave -- lying to the Department of Justice and investigators -- the same way these FBI agents behaved, you can bet there would be grounds for criminal charges," she said.

 

“If allegations raised by well-known, world-class athletes are not taken seriously by the FBI, what hope do other victims of sexual assault have?” asked Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas). “If this monster was able to continue harming these women and girls after his victims first went to the FBI, how many other abusers have escaped justice? Again, if the FBI did so little in the investigation involving world-class athletes, what hope can an average American have? What faith can they have in the system?” 

 

Of course there should be criminal charges. These lowlife agents who stood by and watched these poor young ladies be continually molested should themselves be prosecuted and brought to justice.

 

The FBI has a credibility problem. And for good reason. There has been a systematic effort by a number of FBI agents to cover up their failure to act on all the lurid details of the sexual abuse that took place and hide the true facts. Take a look at just some of the newspaper headlines across America.

“Evidence Suggests a Massive Scandal is Brewing at the FBI”-New York Post

“Wanted: An Honest FBI” -Wall Street Journal

“The Massive Case of Collective Amnesia at the FBI”-National Public Radio

“Scandal Ridden FBI-Must Be Abolished”-Boston Globe

Maybe we can learn a little bit from Hollywood.  In the movie “Final Impact,” the President asks a reporter to hold off on a major story by saying: And I can’t appeal to your sense of what’s in the nation’s best interest?”  To which she responds: “I always thought the truth was in the nation’s best interest.” The point made is to let it all out.

And how about the confrontation between Tom Cruise and Jack Nicolson in “A Few Good Men”?

Col. Jessep: You want answers?

 

Kaffee: I WANT THE TRUTH!

 

Col. Jessup: YOU CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH!

 

History shows that from the creation of the FBI under President Teddy Roosevelt, the FBI has been used, misused, and by their own actions, insubordinate in many administrations.  How long could we talk about the shenanigans of J. Edger Hoover, Watergate, Deep Throat, Sen. Joe McCarthy, investigations of Martin Luther King, and LBJ having the FBI harass Vietnam protesters?

At the present time, there are three major congressional investigations into possible criminal activity within the FBI.  Special prosecutors seem to be appointed in Washington at the drop of a hat, so it would seem appropriate to have a similar special prosecutor appointed to fully investigate the numerous allegations of impropriety by the FBI.

Is this powerful bureaucracy worthy of America’s trust?  Yes Col. Jessup, we can handle the truth.  Just let the chips fall where they may. And let these abused young women receive justice that so far has not happened.

Peace and Justice

Jim Brown

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the nation and on websites worldwide.  You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownusa.com. 

 

 

5th Circuit Court of Appeals an Embarrassment for Louisiana!

September 17^th, 2021

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

 

5^th Circuit Court of Appeals an Embarrassment for Louisiana!

 

Our nation is divided into 13 individual federal courts of appeals.  Louisiana has the unfortunate distinction of being lumped in to the most divisive and incompetent such courts in America. The Fifth Circuit regularly leads all appeals courts throughout the country in its decisions being overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court.  Just this week, the Washington post headlined: “The 5th Circuit is staking out a claim to be America’s most dangerous court.”

 

In an expose’ of the Fifth Circuit’s recent rulings, the Times Picayune quoted both Justices on the Supreme Court as well as prominent law professors who regularly lambasted verdicts handed down in New Orleans. University of Houston law professor David Dow said it seems clear that the Supreme Court “has lost confidence in the Fifth Circuit’s handling of capital cases.” And retired Justice Sandra Day O’Conner was equally blunt in criticizing the Fifth Circuit saying it was “paying lip service to principles of jurisprudence and that often the Fifth’s reasoning “has no foundation in the decisions of this court.”

Check out a few of the headlines about the dysfunction that seems to be in the fabric of 5th Circuit judges.

Fifth Circuit Covers Up Serious Judicial Misconduct!

Another Conflict of Interest Uncovered on the Fifth Circuit!

Judicial Diva Gone Wild? Chief Judge Tells Fellow Judge to “Shut Up!”

Chief Judge Attacks Fellow Judge!

Pattern of Misconduct Demands Full Investigation of Fifth Circuit Judges!

5th Circuit Judge Throws A Hissy Fit!

It’s a shame for those who must deal with the Fifth Circuit that its standing is so soiled and that the reputation of some of its members has degenerated to the point of such serious criticism. During the civil rights era, Louisiana federal judges like John Minor Wisdom, J. Skelly Wright and Albert Tate were held in high regard nationally. Their work was admired and quoted in the nation’s best law schools.

 

Here are just a few of the reasons why judges on the Fifth Circuit are held in such low esteem.  Former chief judge Edith Jones received international notoriety a few years back when she ruled that a fellow named Calvin Burdine, convicted of murder and sentenced to death row, received a fair trial even though his court appointed lawyer slept through a good bit of the trial. Her colleague on the Fifth Circuit, Judge Priscilla Owen, also has a colorful and controversial list of questionable decisions.  Times Picayune columnist James Gill outlined a litany of dubious rulings in a recent column, when he cited one example of Owens “setting on a case so long that a quadriplegic kid’s respirator failed before he could collect a dime of the $30 million awarded by a jury against Ford Motor Co. several years earlier.”

 

And then there is Judge Edith Clement.  Numerous press reports immerged where Clement was called everything from a “Secrecy Freak” to a “Closet Fascist.”  News articles also appeared questioning her judgment in taking free trips (called junkets for judges) paid for by conservative foundations that fund lawsuits that could end up in Clements’ court.  The New Orleans Times Picayune referred to one of her decisions as being “patently un-American.”

 

Federal court watchers have a name for federal judges who lack the scholarship, the temperament, the learning, and are simply in the wrong occupation.  They are called “gray mice.” It seems obvious that the Fifth circuit Court of Appeals is full of such critters.  Unfortunately, there is not much, short of impeachment, the discipline system can do about them.  But the court’s continuing incompetence places one more stain on the reputation of Louisiana. 

Peace and Justice

Jim Brown

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the nation and on websites worldwide.  You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownusa.com.

 

 

 

 

OUR LIVES WERE CHANGED BY 9/11

Thursday, September 11th, 2021

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

                                    OUR LIVES WERE CHANGED BY 9/11

 I have watched through a window a world that has fallen.

W. H. Auden

The date, 9/11, turned into the frantic dialing of 911 twenty years ago. A surreal feeling of shock and helplessness enveloped all Americans as we watched that day’s events unfold. In hindsight, we should ask many questions.  Is America a safer place today?  Maybe.  But we also have witnessed a fundamental shift in our culture, where liberty and freedom have been compromised so that we supposedly feel “more safe.”

I was home on that horrific when a family friend called a little after 8:00 a.m. to tell me about the first plane’s crashing into the World Trade Center. Like millions of Americans, I turned on my television just in time to see the second plane hit the second tower.

I was home alone, so I immediately felt the need to call the people closest to me. I was able to reach my mother, my brother Jack, and two of my daughters.  I told them all to turn on their TV sets. I reached my son on his cell phone as he was entering the LSU Lab School. But, what about my oldest daughter Campbell? I knew she had flown back to Washington late the night before, from California, where she was reporting a story for NBC news on the retirement of the president’s plane, a former Air Force One. Perhaps she was still home. I called her apartment but got no answer. Then the third plane hit the Pentagon in Washington. Thoughts raced through my head. Was there a fourth plane — or more? Wasn’t the White House a likely target? Was my oldest daughter sitting in her NBC office in the White House?

She didn’t answer her cell phone. I called the White House switchboard, which is noted for being efficient. There was a brief recording saying to hold on for an operator, then the line went dead. For a moment I feared the worst: a plane crashing into the White House, my daughter inside. Then I heard Matt Lauer on the “Today Show” say, “Now let’s go to Campbell Brown for an update across the street from the White House.” Campbell told a national audience that the White House had been evacuated and that she was broadcasting from a nearby hotel. She gave hourly reports throughout the day and late into the evening.

Like millions of Americans, I stayed glued to the TV all day.  That night, my wife and I kept a long-standing dinner date with friends at Chris’s steakhouse, close to our home in Baton Rouge.  Halfway through dinner, around 9:00 o’clock, my cell phone rang. It was my son James. “Dad, I’m still watching everything on television,” he said. “I just need to do something. Do we have an American flag here at home?” I told him we had one stored in our “flag box,” where we keep banners for the various seasons, as well as holiday flags for Christmas, Halloween, and Easter. When we drove into our driveway that night, a large American flag was hanging from the front porch, waving in the wind.

Twenty years later, we have a lot of questions to ask, and a lot of consoling to do. How is it possible that there is still such intense hatred for our country? Who is our enemy, and how do we do battle with them? Before 9/11, life was so normal and ordinary. Now we live under the so-called Patriot Act that has stripped all Americans of basic constitutional freedoms.  We live with body scanners, “enhanced” pat-downs and “fusion” centers. For all of us, life will never be the same.

Peace and Justice

Jim Brown

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the nation and on websites worldwide. You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownusa.com.