HOW TO LOWER AUTO INSURANCE COSTS IN LOUISIANA!

Monday, July 15^th, 2024

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

 

HOW TO LOWER AUTO INSURANCE COSTS IN LOUISIANA!

 

Louisiana legislators met last week to find legal solutions that will lower the cost of automobile bill insurance throughout the state. Hey, all you guy and gal lawmakers. There are no new laws that will make any difference. If you want to see automobile rates go down for the average policyholder, get law-enforcement to start enforcing the laws that are on the books right now. Let me give you some examples.

 

It's hard to get an exact figure, but estimates are that as many as 20% of all Louisiana drivers are uninsured. That means that those of us who follow the law must pay a much higher premium in case you are hit by an unsured motorist. When was the last time you heard of some driver being cited for not having insurance? Here’s what happens. Thousands of drivers initially buy insurance and finance it, then the minute they get their proof of insurance card, they cancel and quit paying the monthly payments. So drivers driving legally gets stuck with higher premiums.

 

The Bayou State has way too many drunk drivers on the highways.  We regularly read in the press that someone has been stopped for their fifth, sixth or even seventh DWI.  Why do Louisiana judges allow this? The law states firmly that if a driver is convicted for a third offense DWI, their car should be seized and sold. It’s the law, but it’s not enforced. Why not?

 

Drunk drivers who kill someone often get only a minor jail term or even probation. What happens in other states? A Long Island, New York jury recently convicted a drunk driver of murder for killing two people in a head-on collision. The district attorney who brought the charges had been elected on a “take no prisoners” approach to drunk drivers.

Was this too tough a penalty? Not according to the mother of one of the female victims. She used no euphemisms in describing the damage done. “As I crawled out of the car, the only thing that was left of Kate was her head. This was murder and no different from carrying a loaded gun around, pointing it at people and having a few shots go off killing them.” The prosecutor made no bones about how she will act in dealing with drunk driving deaths. “We hope that this verdict sends a message that if you drink and drive and kill somebody, you will be prosecuted for murder.”

 

More than 20% of all drivers in Louisiana lie on the application for insurance according to a study by NerdWallet.com.  So when Insurance applicants give false information about where they live or the number of drivers in their household, failing to add a teenage driver to their policy, or not disclosing any pre-existing issues with their vehicle, such drivers get away with receiving a cheaper rate, which means you and I pay more.

 

Louisiana has some of the worst drivers in America according to CarInsuranceComparison.com. A large number of drivers do not obey the traffic laws, fail to turn on their lights when it rains, do not wear seatbelts, regularly go beyond the legal speed limit, drive recklessly, and don’t even maintain a valid driver’s license.

Law enforcement officers, particularly the Louisiana state police, say they are stretched to the limit and do not have the manpower to travel the highways and cite lawbreakers.  So the governor can spend millions of dollars sending Louisiana guardsmen to patrol the Texas–Mexican border. But the state is not capable of patrolling its own highways to get automobile law breakers off the road.

The bottom line is this. We don’t need any new laws. The state just needs to enforce the laws that are on the books. If legislators want to lower the cost of auto insurance for the average safe driver, they should cut some of the fat and pork projects from the state budget and appropriate money for more police officers on our highways. 

Aggressive highway enforcement of state laws will cause a significant drop in the cost of auto insurance for those drivers who obey the law. If there’s a will, there’s a way to get this done.

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.

 

LOUISIANA COURTS FIRST RULED WHEN A PRESIDENT IS ABOVE THE LAW!

Monday, July 8^th, 2024

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

 

LOUISIANA COURTS FIRST RULED WHEN A PRESIDENT IS ABOVE THE LAW!

 

These days, it’s hard to find a political controversy on the national stage that does not, in some way, involve Louisiana.  You may be surprised to know that a lawsuit involving land in the Bayou State, and fought out in Louisiana courts, set the precedent of presidential immunity that was the basis of the recent Supreme Court decision giving presidents “absolutely immunity” from prosecution for any “official act.”

 

Edward Livingston had been a congressman during the time that Thomas Jefferson was the nation’s president. Jefferson confiscated land in Louisiana from Livingston claiming it was federal property and Livingston was furious.  He sued Jefferson personally and was successful in winning his case against Jefferson in Louisiana courts. These courts ruled that presidents cannot be above the law.  But the U.S. Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice John Marshall, disagreed saying that a president could not be sued for actions he performed in his official capacity as president.

 

I know a good bit about being sued in the legitimate capacity of a public official. I have not checked all the state records, but I might have been sued more as a public official than anyone else in Louisiana public office.  Here’s the story. I was elected as Louisiana insurance commissioner in 1991, and when I took office the insurance department was in shambles. The previous commissioner had been removed from office for allowing a number of Insurance companies to illegally siphon off millions of dollars that should have been reserved for policyholders.  As Commissioner, I shut down 45 financially troubled companies. Knowing that officers of these companies faced major civil and criminal penalties, they pushed the blame of their companies going broke onto the insurance department.  Of course, this was really a ruse to buy time.

 

I was sued both in my capacity s insurance commissioner and also sued personally. The courts, of course, determined that I had no personal liability, and no judgement nor any other penalties were levied against me or the insurance department. Giving a public official immunity for any actions taken in the official capacity is basically how the Supreme Court ruled just last week. This is viewed by a number of political observers as a victory for former President Donald Trump.

 

In fact, the court rejected Trump’s assertion that all presidential acts have absolute immunity. If an action is not considered an official act, the president would have no immunity. So for example, when Trump has asserted that if he shot someone on Fifth Avenue, he would be immune. He meant it a joke, but the Court put the brakes on all actions by a president or formal president that would make him immune from criminal prosecution.

 

Here are few examples of official vs unofficial actions.  Paying off a porn star and deducting such payment as a legal expense would certainly not be an action for which a president could claim immunity.  How about withholding classified documents once a president leaves the White House? That’s more of a close call. If there was a demand that the documents be returned to the national archives, Trump should have complied. But did it require swat teams and armed federal agents to swoop down on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida to bring them back? This looked to me like overkill.  

 

Calling the Georgia Secretary of State asking him to find 14,000 more votes that would have allowed Trump to carry Georgia? It depends on what Trump was asking. Was he suggesting that the Secretary of State illegally add more votes to the Georgia totals? Or was he merely asking that every effort be made to be sure that every single vote had been counted because Trump needed 14,000 more votes to carry the state.? I think the Georgia prosecutor has a big hill to climb to make her charges stick.

 

In an 1812 letter to Thomas Jefferson, President John Adams wrote: “Good God! Is a President of the US to be subject to a private action of every individual? This will soon introduce the Axiom that a President can do no wrong; or another equally curious that a President can do no right.”

 

The Supreme Court, in its recent ruling, did not define “official” or “private” action. So whatever people think of its decision, this matter is going to wind itself through the courts for years to come.

 

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

VOTING MACHINE CHANGES NEEDED ACROSS THE COUNTRY!

Monday, July 1^st, 2024

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

 

VOTING MACHINE CHANGES NEEDED ACROSS THE COUNTRY!

 

After former President Donald Trump lost his reelection in 2024, there have been continuous allegations that election fraud has taken place all across the country. So here is the question. Can voting machine computers be hacked? Can the election process be manipulated? Is there widespread election fraud as many and others allege? I may be a pretty good source to give you an opinion. I did serve for eight years as Secretary of State, Louisiana’s chief elections officer. 

 

According to every legitimate watchdog group across the country, as well as judges who reviewed allegations in numerous lawsuits, the answer is no. And I would agree. With minor exceptions, I just have seen no evidence that anything improper has taken place in the nation’s election process. But half of the US population mistrust election results.  If so many people feel that way, then elections officials need to find out how to rebuild confidence in the elections process.

 

I was having lunch in the back room of Phil’s Oyster Bar in Baton Rouge a few months ago, where a recognizable face was sitting at the next table. Robert F Kennedy, Jr.  started to leave, then proceeded to sit down and visited with our group having lunch. He’s running for president now, and usually garners some 15% of the vote in national polls. Kennedy cannot be elected president, but his voters certainly willhave an effect on who wins the presidency in November.

 

We talked about the election process and why there is such a lack of confidence in the current system.  “US citizens need to know that everyone of their votes were counted, and that their election cannot be hacked”, he told me. “And a large number of voters do not believe that such is the case. We need to return to paper ballots to avoid electronic interference with elections.”

 

He's right.   Paper ballots were the way we conducted elections for years in Louisiana.  In today’s modern age, machines connected to the Internet and even simple electronic machines can be hacked or tampered with.  And if there is no paper trail, you can see why voters can be suspicious. If we want to have the gold standard for voter security, then paper ballots are the key.

 

The overwhelming majority of democratic countries require paper ballots in their elections. According to the Pew Research Center, paper ballot are used in 209 of the 227 countries that re democratic.. For example, the Associated Press reports that voters in France “use the same system that’s been used for generations: paper ballots that are cast in person and counted by hand.”  

 

Under my watch, Louisiana used large and bulky voting machines that had no electronic connections and gave a full paper display of the vote. The machines were opened after being removed back to a warehouse where any citizen could watch a review and final account. No one questioned the process.

 

And what happened to election day? It’s gone by the wayside. It used to be everyone voted on one day with military exceptions, and those who signed a notarized affidavit that they would not be present on election day. Now we have voting spread out over a month and absentee voting mailed to anyone who asks.  It’s become “too inconvenient” to drive a few blocks to a polling location.  The US is almost alone in not combining the voting process to one day.  So we now have election month.

 

Right now, there are lots of suspicions about the elections process, both in Louisiana and throughout the rest of the country. If voters are to have assurances that elections are legitimate, changes in the process have to be made. These changes are simply the procedures found in most civilized countries to assure sure voters there will be less fraud and more trust to the system. 

 

One of the ways to rebuild this trust is to use voting machines that provide a counting procedure that use paper ballots. A method that Louisiana used for many years. A simple system that takes us back to the future.

 

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEN COMMANDMENTS UNDER ATTACK IN LOUISIANA!

June 27^th, 2024

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

 

TEN COMMANDMENTS UNDER ATTACK IN LOUISIANA!

 

You just cannot keep Louisiana out of the national news. As Roseanne Roseannada used to say on Saturday Night Live: “It’s always something” Here in the Bayou State, there are happenings that stir up both interest and dismay from coast to coast. In recent weeks, it’s been our Baton Rouge gal, Stormy Daniels. And for months now, the national press has been consumed with stories about our former obscure congressman from Northeast Louisiana, now speaker Mike Johnson.

 

Recently, news outlets all over the country have been expressing concerns and publishing columns over the appropriateness of a new law, just signed by Louisiana’s governor, requiring every public school classroom to display the Ten Commandments. That’s right! The laws of getting along with one another, handed down by the good Lord himself, are deemed by many in the national press to be right down inappropriate for public display. 

 

Most opponents to the new law argue that religion has no place in the classroom. But is a mere display of rules to live by on a small sheet of paper posted on the wall have that much undue influence on school children? It’s not like they are specific requirements of adherence to any specific religion.  And only three of the ten commandments make any reference to the Lord. So just how far should we go with such an argument?

 

There are numerous references to God and religion from the founding of America right up to the present.  Let’s start with the US Constitution (“the year of our Lord – Article IV). State Constitutions?  God is mentioned in all of the 50 state constitutions and nearly 200 times overall, according to the Pew Research Center. Check out any federal banknote or all paper money as well as coins and you will see the phrase “in God we trust.” In the signing of the Bill of Rights, the document ends with “the year of our Lord.”

 

A trip to the nation’s capital will let a visitor see numerous religious artworks and religious references on virtually every public building and monument. “In God we Trust” is prominently displayed throughout the United States capital, along with numerous other religious symbols and paintings. And how about Moses, who went to the mountain to receive the law of God, who can be seen looking down on the proceedings of the U.S. House of Representatives. It would be hard for you to find a federal building that does not display images of the Ten Commandments including the U.S. Supreme Court itself.

 

I took an oath to uphold the laws of Louisiana on eight different occasions as a public official. As Secretary of State, I gave the same oath to literally hundreds of state and local officials. In every instance, the last words of the oath stated, “so help me God.”  

 

Groups are coming out of the woodwork to say they are ready to challenge this new law, including The American Civil Liberties Union, Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the Freedom from Religion Foundation. These groups, plus other national organizations, site a Supreme Court ruling back in 1980 that found unconstitutional a similar statute that was approved in Kentucky. But the whole makeup of the US Supreme Court has changed radically since this ruling.

 

 The current court is obviously much more conservative as we have witnessed from a host of contemporary rulings. A recent decision by this more conservative court ruled that a Washington state high school football coach, who had been fired for praying at midfield after football games and inviting players to join him, was able to get a favorable ruling stating that such prayers do not amount to any endorsement by the school of Christianity.

 

The law requiring the displaying of the Ten Commandments received overwhelming support from Louisiana legislators with immediate backing of the governor. Considering the make-up of the US Supreme Court, the opponents to such a display will face an uphill fight. Outside of a lightning strike against the law from the good Lord himself, you can expect to see the Ten Commandments soon to be on the walls of Louisiana Public schools. My opinion? It just ain’t no big deal. With all the negative things that happen in public schools, this might be refreshing.

 

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

APPOINTING FEDERAL JUDGES A BAD IDEA!

Monday, June 17, 2024

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

                                          APPOINTING FEDERAL JUDGES A BAD IDEA!

Several business groups in Louisiana, including the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry, have suggested that the state do away with the election of judges and the undue influence of campaign funds. Their proposal would be to follow the federal path of appointment. But is the appointive process really better than electing judges? Do citizens get better choices and more competent jurists? Certainly not the way the system works at the federal level.

First of all, presidents do not really choose federal judges outside of the Supreme Court. At the district and court of appeals level, the president, as a general rule, defers to the choice of the state’s U.S. senators. If the president is a Democrat, the Democratic senator in the home state of the proposed appointee makes the recommendation. So to qualify in most states as a federal judge, it’s not what you know but whom you know.

Huey Long said it best: “I’m all for appointin’ judges as long as I can do the appointin.” Cronyism has been the deciding factor in numerous Louisiana federal appointees to the bench.

At the court of appeals level, incompetent judges have sparked a wave of concern and criticism. Because the U. S. Supreme Court is hearing fewer cases as each year goes by, the federal court of appeals is the last vestige of hope for any effort to overturn a lower court decision. Out of more than 10,000 appeals filed last year at the nation’s highest court, only 65 were even considered. The action is at the court of appeals level. And hands down, the worst such court in the nation sits right there in New Orleans.

If you have any doubt of this, google the U.S. Fifth Circuit, and you’ll see these headlines pop up:

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
Judge Clement Makes Friends with Big Oil
Pattern of Misconduct Demands Full Investigation of Fifth Circuit Judge

These are just some of the most recent headlines. Similar conflicts and personal vendettas have been going on at the Fifth Circuit Court for years. The Fifth Circuit regularly leads all appeals courts throughout the country in its decisions being overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court. In an exposé 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.” 

It’s a shame for those who have to 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. But with such a mediocre judicial stature on the Fifth Circuit today, Louisiana won’t be in the running for one of its own to move up to the nation’s highest court.

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

               
This stinging criticism certainly does not apply to a number of hard working and well-meaning judges within the federal system. But the Fifth Circuit out of New Orleans has set itself up as the poster group for how not to pick federal judges. There needs to be a better way.

 

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.

 

 

 

BIDEN AND TRUMP-WHO COULD HAVE BELIEVED IT!

Monday, June 10^th, 2024

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

 

BIDEN AND TRUMP-WHO COULD HAVE BELIEVED IT!

The county is just weeks away from our two national conventions. The Republicans meet in Milwaukee in the middle of July and the Democrats convene in Chicago several weeks later. We all know it will be Trump vs Biden. I wonder what candidates would be picked if the selections were like the old days where party bosses selected the party candidates.

This time-worn system produced Presidents Dwight Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy. The current process gave us George Bush and Barack Obama along with either Donald Trump or Joe Biden this year. You be the judge as to which process has worked out better for the country.

My first Democratic convention was in Atlantic City back in 1964. On a summer break from Tulane Law School, I was driving my fifteen-year-old Volkswagen convertible up to New York for a summer job, and I stopped in Atlantic City on the way. The Democrats were gathering in the old civic auditorium on the boardwalk, which for many years was the site of the Miss America pageant.

I was able to park my car about half a block from the auditorium and walk right up to the front door. A guard asked me where I was going, and I said I wanted to join the Louisiana delegation.

“Are you supposed to be with them?” he asked.  “I sure am,” I said. I might have exaggerated a bit, but I really wanted to get in the door. “Well then, welcome to Atlantic City. Go right on in.”

I stood about fifty feet away from the stage where President Lyndon Johnson kept the crowd in suspense until he announced that Senator Hubert Humphrey would be his running mate. Johnson was a cinch to be re-elected, and the Democrats pulled together as one big happy family. What a contrast to what happened four years later.

The next Democratic convention was held in Chicago. I was living in Ferriday, Louisiana at the time with my wife and our two-month-old daughter Campbell. On the spur of the moment, we decided to travel to Chicago and visit old friends, so we packed up the car and headed north.

The main party headquarters was at the Sheraton Hotel, which faces Lake Michigan in downtown Chicago. Major opposition to the Vietnam War was building, and a large number of protesters had gathered in Grant Park across from the Sheraton.  I knew I could get a better view from the top of the Sheraton, so I headed for the elevator in the lobby. When the doors opened, there were two people inside: Senator Russell Long, and Louisiana Governor John McKeithen.

Sticking my hand out, I introduced myself. “Governor, I’m Jim Brown from Ferriday.” McKeithen smiled. He was visibly surprised.

“Why Jim, what are you doing up here?” he asked.

“Governor,” I said, “I came all the way up here to support you for vice-president.”

McKeithen laughed, slapped me on the back, and told me he could not be more pleased.  I later learned that the Senator and the Governor had been on their way up to Vice President Humphrey’s suite to urge him to put McKeithen on the ticket. When he was not tapped for the job, the Governor left in a huff and headed back to Louisiana.

Both Trump and Biden will no doubt stir up plenty of animosity in the host cities, and we can look forward to a rancorous outpouring of support by delegates and major protests by onlookers at both party gatherings.

As a side antidote, can you believe that Trump will be traveling to New Orleans in just a few weeks for a fundraiser? And guess who is also performing in the Crecent City for two nights at a local night club about the same time as Trump’s appearance? Our Louisiana gal from Baton Rouge-Stormy Daniels. You just can’t make this kind of stuff up.

Subsequent conventions produced numerous additional Louisiana antidotes. I attended seven conventions in all, both Republican and Democratic. I’ll fill you in on more political yarns next week.  Stay tuned.

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.

 

TRUMP’S CONVICTION NO SURPRISE !

 

Monday, June 3rd, 2024

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

 

TRUMP’S CONVICTION NO SURPRISE !

 

I wrote in my  column over a month ago that no one should be surprised over former president Donald Trump’s conviction in a New York Court last week. As we say in the South, Trump was a gone pecan from the get-go. There are a number of reasons why. Some emanated from his prejudicial surroundings in New York City. But other causes were of his own making.

 

If you had to pick the worst place for Trump to be tried in America, New York City would be it. The prosecution certainly had the home-court advantage. It was like LSU having to go to Tuscaloosa to play Alabama. Voters in New York City are overwhelmingly Democratic, and numerous polls have shown that Trump is very unpopular there. The judge was a contributor to Democratic causes, and his daughter was a major consultant and fundraiser for Democratic candidates. The former president’s prosecutor had run on a  platform of “getting Trump.” The playing field could not have been more uneven.

 

But Trump and his legal team certainly did not help themselves by the former president’s antics, and by the strategy put forth as a defense. Trump’s running abuse of the system played well to his voters across America, but hurt him with the voters who count, the New York jury. Whenever the judge wanted to admonish Trump and fine him for ignoring the court’s numerous gag orders, he had the jury removed from the courtroom. He did the same when dressing down witnesses for Trump on a number of occasions. But then the jurors went home for the evening, watched the evening news, and read the daily newspapers. They  were able to see all the venom thrown at Trump and his team by the judge outside the presence of the jury.

 

Trump did himself no favors by either looking bored or shutting his eyes, giving the  

impression that he was sleeping. It was a sign to the jury that the former president was not taking the case seriously. Then he would go outside the courthouse and blast the entire proceedings, all played on the nightly news as jurors watched from their homes . My experience with juries, and I’ve tried a number of cases as practicing lawyer in my day, is that jurors are not impressed with verbose and cocky defendants who don’t seem to be taking their fate seriously. Trump came across as just such a defendant.

 

The case was not supposed to be about porn star Stormy Daniels. It should have  been focused on money and failure to report under the  federal campaign laws. No one observing the trial believed that Trump did not have a tryst with Stormy. And her testimony came across as quite believable to jurors. Trump’s team made a big mistake but not just admitting there was an affair, but it had nothing to do with any violation of state or federal laws. The jury would have been much more willing to accept such an explanation.

 

Then there was the incoherent rationalizations and responses from Trump’s defense team.  There was no alternative, no believable answer as to why the charges were wrong. Trump’s lawyers seemed to do a little more than splatter the prosecution witnesses, particularly Michael Cohen, with responses that he and other witnesses were liars. Cohen was a liar, and he was the only witness to confirm that Trump was directing the entire hush money episode. 

 

Much of the alleged illegal activity took place after Trump became president. He could have offered the jury a believable response that he was extremely busy being president, and that the decisions of taxes, any nondisclosure agreement, and funds paid to Stormy Daniels were left up to Cohn and Trump’s financial chief Allan Weisselberg. It would have given the jury an alternative explanation of what took place, and why Trump knew so little.  But the Trump team never offered a coherent alternative, and so the jury had little choice but look to the facts offered by the prosecutors.

 

All this is not to say that Trump will stay a convicted felon in New York. I could write several columns on defects allowed by the judge in the trial, and what grounds there are for appeal.

 

 And maybe the conviction will actually help Trump politically. He apparently raised over $29 million in the 10 hours after his trial concluded.  He has an appeal to pursue in his New York case, and three additional criminal cases yet to be tried. His legal team needs to reevaluate their tactics in the courtroom. Their strategy proved to be a failure in Trump’s first trial this past week.

 

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.