August 24, 2007, Outcome oriented justice and other oxymorons
I'll stop seething long enough to pass along this (hat tip to Mahablog's Barbara): "this" being from Judge Michael Mukasey, who gives us
this Rupert's Journal op ed. Judge Mukasey outlines his case why, contrary to the actual historical facts and our legal, ethical and Constitutional principles, he contends that our justice system is just not up to trying terrrrrrrorists like Jose Padilla (you will recall that Judge Mukasey first issued the material witness warrant pursuant to which Padilla was first arrested, and originally handled Padilla's first ill-fated habeas corpus petition in which the Supreme Court eventually found that the Great Writ was a creature of venue statutes, rather than Constitutional principles.)
Some of Judge Mukasey's points, such as a need for "national security courts" have been raised elsewhere (such as here, in my interview with Commander Glenn Sulmasy.) Even Commander Sulmasy, however, acknowledged that this could not-- ever-- apply to citizens (such as Padilla) because of Constitutional concerns. But overall, the subtext is that Padilla converted to Islam and is just a bad guy so... you know... due process... it's just too much. Damn the fact that every "threat" attributed to him has been debunked, or that "super-terrorist" Abu Zubaydah, who fingered Padilla, did so while under extraordinary torture (and, btw, while clinically insane in any event.)
What the good judge (appointed by Poppy Bush, btw, and long the chief judge of the district in which my office happens to be) suggests is that the federal courts just don't work... that we need outcomes that will get us what we want-- i.e., terrrrrorists have to be stopped, whether we can find them guilty under our "quaint" systems of Constitutional justice... or not. Well, that quaint system of Constitutional justice, as irksome as it is, just happens to be the American system, which served us through a Civil War, two World Wars, and a Cold War with nuclear armed ICBMs never more than potentially hours away. And somehow... we made it.
I'm sorry, Your Honor, but I'm not just going to stand here while you bad-mouth the American system.
Comments
Am I reading Former Judge Mukasey's argument to be that our current criminal judicial system of laws is ineffective to combact terrorism that is conceived overseas by foreign nationals and executed by foreign nationals? So, we should empower our federal courts to take preventative actions and wrest any authority for same away from the FBI, CIA, NSA and other agencies? Why not just merge the federal courts and all these agencies into one?
Posted by Geebers at August 24, 2007 5:33 PM