Equal Justice

Rapidly Escalating Tea Party Rhetoric Endangering President Obama And Civil Order!

For any sane person in America, the rapidly escalating Tea Party rhetoric that is developing on Capitol Hill, on right wing talk radio, in religious right wing rants, on conservative think tanks, and on Fox News Channel, is endangering the life of President Obama, and creating the threat of the breakdown of civil order!

There seems to be no limit to what utterances and threats are being issued, and the growing chant for impeachment of the President, which would under no circumstances lead to removal from the Presidency, but would disrupt American government and economic progress and foreign policy formulation, is an alarm bell ringing during the wee hours of the morning, giving one a sense of foreboding not seen since the time of the Civil War, and the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, whose 205th birthday we celebrate today.

The responsible Republican leadership in Congress seems, FINALLY, to realize the danger created by the anarchistic, fascistic Tea Party Movement, which is setting out to destroy the party of Lincoln, TR, and Ike, in their mad dash to take us back in every way possible to the 19th century, including talk of secession and states rights and racism and the use of violence to accomplish their goals!

This is a national emergency for survival of our democracy and system of equal justice for all, and everyone who has any common sense and sanity and decency, whether they agree or disagree with the administration in office, MUST speak up for calm and for eliminating the threat to our President, and to civil order for now and the long term future.

And some praying for divine guidance, whether religious or not, is appropriate here, hoping that we can return to a time of respect for our government, and acceptance of the reality that we are all in this together, the return of civil order and the ending of conflict that endangers the American future!

50th Anniversary Of Civil Liberties Victory: Gideon V. Wainwright!

Fifty years ago today, the United States Supreme Court made one of its most important civil liberties decisions in American history, and in the history of the Warren Court.

Chief Justice Earl Warren, appointed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1953 to lead the Supreme Court, and doing so for sixteen years until his retirement in 1969, led a Court that greatly expanded civil liberties in so many ways, and had an impact beyond the retirement of Warren himself.

Gideon V. Wainwright would guarantee that all criminal suspects were entitled to a court appointed lawyer in court if they were indigent, as to do otherwise would deny equal justice under the law.

It meant that lack of financial assets, or a state of poverty, would not prevent someone accused of a crime from having representation in court.

Many might not think this could apply to them in some future scenario, but this was an important victory for civil liberties and human rights, and would have the effect of equalizing the balance between prosecutors and defense in a criminal court case, and that is a good thing for the image of equal justice under the law!