The core principle of our legal system is literally carved in stone on the portico of the United States Supreme Court: “Equal Justice Under Law”.
Without this principle, there can be no individual liberty. Unless laws are applied equally to all, a legal system has no legitimate authority.
Federal laws are no longer being equally applied. Even more disturbing is how many citizens and members of the news media (the so-called watchdogs of liberty) condone abandonment of the rule of law if it furthers their political agenda.
Special prosecutor Robert Mueller has wasted millions of taxpayer dollars on a fabricated witch-hunt following a FISA court ordered wiretap. Public exposure of e-mails between FBI officials reveals those officials colluded to mislead the FISA court to get the wiretap, and did so to overturn the lawful election of President Trump. That is the most egregious abuse of power in our history. The Watergate scandal, which resulted in people going to prison, pales in comparison.
But none of those FBI officials are being prosecuted. Even when some were fired they are widely celebrated as heroes. Many in the news media (who still tout Watergate as their finest hour) attempt to minimize, or simply ignore, this official misconduct.
James Comey (who ran the FBI at the time) then declined to charge Hillary Clinton with clear-cut criminal violations of national security laws, and obstructing the investigation of those violations, on the laughable grounds that “no reasonable prosecutor would bring a case against her”. Comey (a lawyer) either slept through criminal law 101, or the fix was in for Clinton. He had no authority to decide if a “reasonable prosecutor” would “bring a case” – and his conclusion is legally wrong.
I was a “reasonable prosecutor” for over 30 years, and the evidence against Clinton that Comey himself publicly laid out would support a guilty felony verdict – which is the legal standard required to “bring a case”. And that’s not just my opinion. Legal scholars as well as many former US Attorney’s and FBI agents say there was ample evidence to convict her. So why has Clinton not been prosecuted? Apparently federal laws don’t apply to Democrat presidential candidates, and “Equal Justice Under Law” has become merely a platitude.
How have we reached the point where ignoring the rule of law to further a political agenda is acceptable to so many? In a word – socialism. Historically, regimes across the socialist spectrum, from Marxists to National Socialists, can only maintain themselves by abusing government power to their own ends.
Socialism ignores that individual initiative is an inherent human trait. Because socialism accepts this willful ignorance, and can only be sustained by perpetuating that lie, citizens under those regimes must be coerced to sublimate being individually rewarded for that trait in lieu of the regime-approved “greater good” of the masses. Those entranced by the Sirens of socialism condone abusing government power to further their political agenda just as infection leads to disease.
Failing public schools, dominated by greedy teacher unions and education “experts”, that substitute brainwashing for teaching the principles of individual liberty are the chief cause of this insidious mindset. Beginning in elementary and secondary schools independent thinking is suppressed in favor of politically correct conformity so students are prepared for colleges – where speech codes are selectively used to eliminate diversity of thought.
Going from college speech code persecution of politically incorrect words, to using the FISA court against political opponents (and shielding others from prosecution) is an inevitable progression. Socialists want everyone to go to free college, instead of trade schools, to complete the progressive indoctrination process.
In 1850, Fredrick Bastiat wrote “It is easy to conceive that instead of being a check on injustice, [law] becomes its most invincible instrument.” And as the band Steppenwolf observed about the US government in 1969, “There’s a monster on the loose, it’s got our heads into a noose, and just sits there watching”. The noose is now selectively tightened only on some.
The Declaration of Independence proclaims “… whenever any Form of government becomes destructive … it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it …”. Officials of the federal government are destroying our legal system by using the law for partisan political ends. Our founders intended the sovereign States, who created the federal government, be a check against just such a threat to our liberties – and gave them the Constitutional power prevent it. The States need to act before politically correct socialists destroy what’s left of individual liberty.
Gary Beatty lives between Florida and Pagosa Springs. He retired after 30 years as a prosecutor for the State of Florida, has a doctorate in law, is Board Certified in Criminal Trial law by the Florida Supreme Court, and is now a law professor.