THE EVOLUTION OF JUDICIAL TYRANNY IN THE UNITED STATES:

"If the judges interpret the laws themselves, and suffer none else to interpret, they may easily make, of the laws, [a shredded] shipman's hose!" - King James I of England, around 1616.

“No class of the community ought to be allowed freer scope in the expression or publication of opinions as to the capacity, impartiality or integrity of judges than members of the bar. They have the best opportunities of observing and forming a correct judgment. They are in constant attendance on the courts. Hundreds of those who are called on to vote never enter a court-house, or if they do, it is only at intervals as jurors, witnesses or parties. To say that an attorney can only act or speak on this subject under liability to be called to account and to be deprived of his profession and livelihood by the very judge or judges whom he may consider it his duty to attack and expose, is a position too monstrous to be entertained for a moment under our present system,” Justice Sharwood in Ex Parte Steinman and Hensel, 95 Pa 220, 238-39 (1880).

“This case illustrates to me the serious consequences to the Bar itself of not affording the full protections of the First Amendment to its applicants for admission. For this record shows that [the rejected attorney candidate] has many of the qualities that are needed in the American Bar. It shows not only that [the rejected attorney candidate] has followed a high moral, ethical and patriotic course in all of the activities of his life, but also that he combines these more common virtues with the uncommon virtue of courage to stand by his principles at any cost.

It is such men as these who have most greatly honored the profession of the law. The legal profession will lose much of its nobility and its glory if it is not constantly replenished with lawyers like these. To force the Bar to become a group of thoroughly orthodox, time-serving, government-fearing individuals is to humiliate and degrade it.” In Re Anastaplo, 18 Ill. 2d 182, 163 N.E.2d 429 (1959), cert. granted, 362 U.S. 968 (1960), affirmed over strong dissent, 366 U.S. 82 (1961), Justice Black, Chief Justice Douglas and Justice Brennan, dissenting.

" I do not believe that the practice of law is a "privilege" which empowers Government to deny lawyers their constitutional rights. The mere fact that a lawyer has important responsibilities in society does not require or even permit the State to deprive him of those protections of freedom set out in the Bill of Rights for the precise purpose of insuring the independence of the individual against the Government and those acting for the Government”. Lathrop v Donohue, 367 US 820 (1961), Justice Black, dissenting.

"The legal profession must take great care not to emulate the many occupational groups that have managed to convert licensure from a sharp weapon of public defense into blunt instrument of self-enrichment". Walter Gellhorn, "The Abuse of Occupational Licensing", University of Chicago Law Review, Volume 44 Issue 1, September of 1976.

“Because the law requires that judges no matter how corrupt, who do not act in the clear absence of jurisdiction while performing a judicial act, are immune from suit, former Judge Ciavarella will escape liability for the vast majority of his conduct in this action. This is, to be sure, against the popular will, but it is the very oath which he is alleged to have so indecently, cavalierly, baselessly and willfully violated for personal gain that requires this Court to find him immune from suit”, District Judge A. Richard Caputo in H.T., et al, v. Ciavarella, Jr, et al, Case No. 3:09-cv-00286-ARC in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, Document 336, page 18, November 20, 2009. This is about judges who were sentencing kids to juvenile detention for kickbacks.

Friday, October 30, 2015

Crowd control in ghost towns

In my previous blog I wrote about the "crowd control" measure invented by the Delaware County police in order to:

 1) provide a no-public-bidding "training" contract to the county undersheriff Craig DuMond and his wife Cathleen Dumond;

 2) provide public relations/promotion/advanced pay opportunities to members of the families of police management - Craig Dumond and wife, daughter of former police chief Tellian and reported girlfriend of Delaware County jail chief Lt. Stanton.

 The article about "resurrection" of "mount patrol" in Delaware County points out two necessities for such a new unit:
  1. public relations;
  2. crowd control

Public relations of the police is, first, not a necessity, and, second, should be done not by posing on horseback, but by doing their jobs properly.

As to crowd control - population of Delaware County is dwindling, so I wonder where the mounted patrol unit will find crowds in order to control them other than a one-time weeklong County Fair event.

When I first came to Delaware County in 1999, there were 4 kindergarten classes in Delaware Academy in Delhi and more kindergarten classes in Treadwell.

Now the Treadwell school is closed and building sold, for lack of children to fill it, and the Delaware Academy, reportedly has one or two kindergarten classes.

Delaware County clerk's office workers recently expressed surprise when I finalized a divorce for a client, saying they did not do such a thing for a long time, so cases are dwindling in court, too.

People are fleeing New York state because of high taxes, no jobs and high and all-permeating corruption.

People stopped coming to Delaware County from NYC for vacations and are selling their second residences.

Delhi, NY looks like a ghost town.

That downstaters and out-of-staters stop coming to the Delaware County's neck of woods must have an impact on the number of criminal cases, at least, on DWI cases.

You can only arrest the drinking locals so many times, they are all numbered, and their driver's licenses, once revoked, are revoked and they can no longer be charged for DWIs - unless they get behind the wheel despite a license revocation, which will happen not so often.

Moreover, when a person's driver's license is revoked in Delaware County, he or she tends to leave the are, because he or she cannot maintain employment where there is no public transportation, and there is no public transportation in Delaware County.

To boost fines Delaware County already tried to create a new prosecutor's position - not filled yet, specifically to deal with DWIs, in order to have that prosecutor drum up conviction fines, and with an incentive to do that, the prosecutor will be paid (unlawfully and unconstitutionally) out of those conviction fines, according to the County plan.

Not many violent crimes are reported in Delaware County either, and those violent crimes that are committed, are often committed by people close to the local government, and, if that happens, such crimes are swept under the rug and not prosecuted.  Drugs in Delaware County are also not prosecuted as vigorously as they should be, where certain well known locations of drug exchanges and sales are deliberately not patrolled, which begs the question whether the local police and prosecution has a cut in the drug sales.

So, with the dwindling population and the nearly-stopped traffic from out of state or downstate to Delaware County for vacation, tourism and 2nd home purposes, the number of all court cases, including criminal cases, has necessarily gone down, making a new judgeship unnecessary.

Yet, a second judgeship was created to handle the allegedly "increased caseload" which a single judge handled just fine when the caseload and population was larger.

To handle expanding caseload in Family and County/Criminal Court.

In the ghost town of Delhi, NY.

In the ghost Delaware County, New York where there are more bears than people.

At taxpayers' expense.

Clans associated with he local government need to get salary increases somehow, right?  And, when honest business opportunities go down, government grows - as well as corruption.

All the more reasons to leave Delaware County.
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