For light reading, I enjoy books and articles that clearly demonstrate that democracy is dead and American society is doomed.
One such new item that should be on every sadistic masochist’s bookshelf is Free To Judge: The Power of Campaign Money in Judicial Elections by Michael S. King and Joanna Shepherd.
People of wealth and power, to say nothing of education, status and Piedmont-Portola Valley-Perry Ellis-Calvin Klein good looks, can dump buttloads of money into elections and campaigns to elect and reelect lawmakers who follow their orders. In a corrupt system like ours, those with bucks up can also blow heavy dough to elect and reelect judges who take cases in the directions they need to be taken (wink, wink).
In the old days, this kind of thing would disturb the hell out of anyone who believes that maybe money shouldn’t dictate outcomes in a fair and impartial judicial system. This is important because the Supreme Court, having become both totally corrupt and lazy, is leaving more and more important issues to the states, from reproductive rights to the drawing of legislative district boundaries.
If a justice of the court is on safari farting through silk with one of the Koch brothers, Harlan Crow and Richard Uihlein, darlings of the oligarchy, who the hell has time to make an impartial decision on a critical issue?
The book, which actually hurts to read, is about how and why campaign money increasingly influences how judges dispense justice, the newest fungible commodity in our legal system, and what can be done to fix it.
As if.
This is the first book we know of that does the job of establishing once and for all that sitting judges’ decisions are influenced by their future needs for campaign funds to be returned to office.
What can be done? Just this: limiting judges to a single, lengthy term in office removes reelection bias that would ensure we don’t need more dramatic, challenging steps such as a total ban on judicial elections in all 50 states.
Term limits, bro. They will save us.
Craig J. Corsini is a writer and grandparent in San Rafael.
