REESTABLISHING JUSTICE

IN AMERICA'S LEGAL SYSTEM

   It is well understood that one of the most important pillars that holds up a civilization is a good quality legal system that is working well.  Without such a system of jurisprudence, no nation can long endure.

   Our founding fathers realized this and did all that they could to establish a truly fair process of law and order for us all.  They did the best they could, and taking into account the implementations by very imperfect officials, it has done surprisingly well for a number of years (with obvious corrections from time to time).

   However, we now find ourselves in a time where our legal system has become a cruelly oppressive burden for an ever increasing number of our citizens.  Many volumes by many expert authors have chronicled quite a number of shocking examples of this.  The problem is not unknown.  (Some cable news networks have chronicled some of the many horrible abuses, especially with regard to sex criminals who are routinely let off with a slap on the wrist, over and over again.)

   The chances are either you or someone you know has been a victim, at one time or another, of one of the many crimes being committed by lawbreakers and/or by the judges and prosecutors themselves.  So, where did we go wrong?  We have a well constructed Constitution and a good Bill of Rights.  What happened?

   From the book, "Good-bye, America?" you can read that, "Basically, the Bill of Rights is a prohibition against the government.  It was intended to keep our government from becoming an oppressive force against its citizens, as the British government was perceived to have been to the citizens of colonial America."

   The book goes on to describe how we have grown to become a massive, unwieldy government with a process that, quite often, has forgotten all about the search for truth or the administration of genuine justice.  Instead, we have ended up with judges that have decided to make their own laws, through judicial legislation, even though it is clearly an unconstitutional act.  And we have ended up with horribly expensive, bumbling attorneys who can get by with the way they do things because they have a solid lock on the process.  (Don't forget, almost all judges and prosecutors were attorneys and the most heavily represented occupation in federal and state legislatures everywhere in America is that of attorneys-at-law.  They truly do control the whole wretchedly deficient process.)

   Both the civil and the criminal justice systems have become noticeably dysfunctional.  I'm sure you're aware of some of the really crazy lawsuits, and what about the DNA breakthrough that has shown us how flawed the criminal system has been?  Even New York Supreme Court Judge Harold Rothwax has said that, "Criminal justice in America is in a state of collapse.  We have formalism and technicalities but little common sense.  It's about time America wakes up to the fact that we are in the fight of our lives."

   It has become painfully obvious that we must do something about this mess, and we must do it now.  We must take the system out of the hands of the incompetents and bring things back to the original intent.  And it is something we can do.  It will be one hell of a fight, but we can do it.  (The book will give you some of these details on what we can do, and you can find some of the answers on this web site as well.)

   By way of example, how about pushing for an amendment of original intent, to make it very clear that no further legislation by judges will be allowed, that the Constitution must be followed as it was written, and that if changes seem to be needed, we must use the amendment procedure that was given to us to make such changes with?  How about that for starters?

   Another interesting idea would be to put an affordable cap on legal fees.  Not fair to the poor lawyers?  Such regulation is not at all unusual for any business or utility that has a sanctioned monopoly, which the attorneys clearly have in that field where they are obviously making a fortune.

   So, what am I saying here?  I'm saying it's a mess and we can begin to clean it up.  It's as simple as that.  (And, in trying to make it happen, it's as complicated as that.)

   Are you with me so far?  I hope so.

--- Jonathan West