We are seeing stories come out about how the Leftists, especially in Minnesota, have a “new” tactic… this being to clog the courts with hundreds of Habeas Corpus petitions to get their revolutionary foot soldiers released from jail. The claim is that this flood of petitions forces judges to simply release many of these storm troopers from detention to clear their dockets.
And this narrative is pure, unadulterated bovine excrement.
For starters, flooding the courts in various ways to overwhelm them is really nothing new. One technique is what I call the “Louis Brandeis Tactic.” His method was simple- overwhelm the court with mounds of data. In one case, he had carts loaded with boxes wheeled into a courtroom, material supposedly backing up his already massive court brief. Apparently, this was to overwhelm the court, but Brandeis knew his audience. He understood that many judges were already leaning towards “loose constructionism” regarding law. Thus, his show of force was in large part designed to give the courts cover to provide left-leaning judgments. After all, with so much “data,” Brandeis had to be right!
But the key lie being promoted now is that the Left’s tactics are forcing judges to vacate their dockets so as to stop their courts from being bogged down. This is more nonsense. According to state and federal rules, judges have tremendous discretion on the pace of their dockets. They can slow… or speed up… any cases placed before them, almost with impunity. Legislatures can do this as well. I know this from first hand experience.
For example, when I was doing lobbying work in the state of New Hampshire, I had rallied close to 400 people to come to the State House to oppose a bad piece of legislation before a Senate committee.1 I watched as the committee chairman, the late State Senator Eleanor Podles, purposely avoided our bill in the stack laying before her, instead pulling up items from the bottom of the pile. She did this purposely to frustrate our people, many who went home after hours of waiting around to voice their opposition. She did eventually bring our bill up… being the last in the stack and late in the day. She could have even stalled longer, for days, weeks, or even a year, had she desired.
So what is really going on in places like Minneapolis? It’s very simple… the Habeas Corpus technique is being used to provide cover to Leftist judges, those committed to revolution rather than upholding the law, to release miscreants back onto the streets to keep the revolution in motion. A judge could easily tell these folks and their lawyers, “get in line… I’ll get to you when I get to you,” and leave the clients cooling their heels in a cell. But they don’t.
Some might say, “but that will infuriate their lawyers and they will retaliate against the judges.” More bovine excrement. Lawyers are “officers of the court,” and as such are required to uphold the stature of the court and legal system, even if it means betraying their client. In one instance I know well, an attorney friend of mine was arguing a case with tremendous energy, when he was called to the bench. The judge leaned over and told him, “look Doug, you may ultimately win this case. But if you don’t back down, I guarantee that you will lose every marginal case you bring into my courtroom.” It was game over, and my friend’s client lost.
There is a time to suspend the writ of Habeas Corpus. And there is a time to invoke the Insurrection Act. However, we must make sure that we understand the deeper rot in the system.
For well over 100 years, Leftists who are Constitutionally “loose constructionists” have dominated in our courtrooms. This rot began to take hold in our law schools not long after the Civil War. By the early 1900s and the so-called “Progressive Era” (translator’s note… the era of State Socialism), Leftist judges had already taken over much of the legal system.
And here we are today, with a court system that by and large refuses to uphold the law when it doesn’t suit the revolutionary impulses of the Left.
It will take time to root these evil people out of their benches and black robes. It took us over 100 years to get into this mess… it may take us that long to get out of it.
Russ Rodgers’ books can be found on Amazon.
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1 As an aside, my activities taught me that there is no such thing as “spontaneous” rallies, riots and revolutions. After all, 5,000 people don’t just wake up on morning and say, “golly, I think I’ll go downtown today and bust shop windows.” Such events are organized, with many organizers being paid quite well for their work.