Nothing is more distressing than injustice where justice should prevail. Yet the evidence demonstrates that is the state of affairs nationally and in Vermont. Most recently, we have a Justice Department lawyer in the civil rights division resigning a top career job because political leadership dismissed a case of voter intimidation in Philadelphia by the “new black panthers” after the case was already won. The story is even worse as racial matters further make the case an outrage. There have been claims of voter irregularities in Vermont, but between the Secretary of State (a liberal lawyer) and the attorney general, the issues have died without any media pursuit of the truth. It gets worse.

In several instances of police shootings where considerable evidence suggested wrongful actions by the police, the attorney general found no wrongful actions. In one case in Brattleboro, a civil case resulted in a cash settlement. Yes, life has a worth in dollars in the eyes of the legal system, but justice can’t be had. More recently, another mentally disadvantaged person was shot and killed by a SWAT team of state police. It gets worse. The father, step mother and brother hastening to the scene are intercepted and handcuffed with the father being arrested and charged, although the charges were ultimately dropped. What were they being prevented from seeing? We will never know as a following law suit by the father resulted in a loss to him based on testimony by the very officers that shot his son. Does it sound suspicious? The media apparently didn’t think so as they have been largely mute.

To practice law, you must be a member of the bar, the lawyers union. You cannot be a judge unless you are a member of the bar for some years. Virtually all of the states attorneys are members of the bar and an increasing number the side judges are members although there is no legal requirement for membership in either. The attorney general, the only state wide officer not in the Vermont Constitution, is not required to be a member of the bar, but certainly should know the law and particularly the constitutions of the state and nation. That is not what we see in the courts, where so called “case law” is cited as authority. It is not authority and even the law schools teach that it isn’t, but it may be persuasive according to the so called mainstream of legal thinking. Spend some time around a law school and you will soon discover that the mainstream of legal thinking is what the liberal professors there think.
Our justice system needs help.