by Paul Craig Roberts, Paul Craig Roberts:
In my book, The Tyranny of Good Intentions (2000), I discussed the weaponization of law in order to easier convict criminals. Once this process begins, it expands. In the 21st century we have witnessed a remarkable expansion in the weaponization of law. For example, the use of weaponized law against Trump rally attendees and against President Trump himself. The weaponization of law has brought no protests from law faculties, bar associations, Congress, media, or federal judges.
Consequently, we have become a society in which the function of law is to get someone or to achieve an agenda that cannot be achieved legislatively. The person doesn’t have to be guilty of a crime. Merely being demonized or disapproved of suffices. Law now serves not justice but political and ideological emotions and the agendas of the powerful.
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That the entire legal profession and all of its institutions have stood aside for this transformation of law indicates that freedom is no longer a value. Consequently, Constitutional protections are less and less enforced. White Americans have suffered discrimination in university admissions, hiring, and promotion for more than a half century. Government and its agencies have used print, TV, and social media to censor and control explanations. Spying on citizens without court approved warrants is widespread. The US has declared its law to be enforceable worldwide, even applicable to foreign national journalists such as Julian Assange, and to the President of Russia.
Any reader of alternative news can make a long list of arbitrary unaccountable power being used to negate legal and Constitutional protections. Republican President George W. Bush declared he could hold American citizens in prison indefinitely in defiance of habeas corpus. Democrat President Obama declared that he could execute American citizens on suspicion alone without due process of law. Neither were held accountable for these crimes and violations of oath of office. Getting presumed “terrorists” was considered more important than the US Constitution.
Civil liberty and the rule of law that civil liberty requires are always in jeopardy. Lawyers, prosecutors, and judges are poor defenders of a rule of law. Lawyers and prosecutors are always trying to get around the law or to come up with a novel interpretation of what the law means, a new theory of the law’s purpose in order to turn the law to the service of their agendas. Judges welcome novel interpretations as they break up the monotony of the law. Prosecutors are after convictions–their success indicator–not determination of innocence or guilt. Novel interpretations mean that the defendant finds himself on trial for a crime he didn’t know existed. Even President Trump finds himself in this situation. Trump did not know that it was a felony to doubt the honesty of Biden’s election and attempt to do something about it.
Just the constant additions to law make it unknowable. More than a decade ago Harvey Silverglate, former head of the Massachusetts ACLU, wrote a book, Three Felonies A Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent. Law is so vast and complicated that Americans can easily commit three felonies daily without knowing it.
In America passing a law is the solution to everything. We have all heard the common refrain, “There ought to be a law against it.” The unintended consequences of these laws are never addressed.
Prosecutors are less respectful of law than are criminals. Criminals merely break the law. Prosecutors corrupt it. Prosecutors withhold exculpatory evidence from defendants, bribe witnesses with dropped charges, suspended sentences and money for perjured testimony against the defendant.
In both New York and Texas, and undoubtedly other states, there have been scandals in which police evidence of illegal drugs used to convict large numbers of people turned out to be ground up wallboard. When the governor or state attorney general attempted to release those falsely convicted people, the prosecutors fought the release. In one case the prosecutors indicted and convicted the governor on false charges.
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