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this issue.
Destroying the Rule of
Law
by
Ralph Nader
Every
law student promptly learns the national ideal that our country is governed by
the
rule of law, not the rule of men. Today, the rule of law is under
attack. Such
activities have become a big business and, not surprisingly, they have involved
big
business.
On
October 25th, Secretary Condoleeza Rice officially recognized before a House
Oversight
Committee that, remarkably, there was no law covering the misbehavior of
Blackwater
Corporation and their private police in Iraq.
Any
crimes of violence committed by Blackwater and other armed contractors
commissioned
by the Defense and State Departments to perform guard duty and other tasks, fell
into a gap between Iraqi law, from which they have been exempted by the U.S.
military occupation and the laws of the United States.
Since
the United States government is ruled by lawless men in the White House who
have
violated countless laws and treaties, Bush and Cheney clearly had no interest
in
placing giant corporate contractors operating inside Iraqi jurisdiction under
either
the military justice system or the criminal laws of the United
States.
Presidential
power has accumulated over the years to levels that would have alarmed
the
founding fathers whose constitutional framework never envisioned such raw
unilateral
power at the top of the Executive branch. Accordingly, they only provided
for
the impeachment sanction. They neither gave citizens legal standing to go to
court
and hold the Presidency accountable, or to prevent the two other branches from
surrendering their explicit constitutional authority-such as the war-making
power-to the Executive branch. The federal courts over time have refused to
adjudicate cases they deem “political conflicts” between the Legislative and
Executive branches or, in general, most foreign policy questions.
Being
above the law’s reach, Bush and Cheney can and do use the law in ways that
inflict
injustice on innocent people. Politicizing the offices of the U.S. Attorneys
by the
Justice Department, demonstrated by Congressional hearings, is one consequence
of such Presidential license. Political law enforcement, using laws such
as the
so-called PATRIOT Act, is another widespread pattern that has drag netted
thousands
of innocent people into arrests and imprisonment without charges or adequate
legal representation. Or the Bush regime’s use of coercive plea bargains
against
defendants who can’t afford leading, skilled attorneys.
Books
and law journal articles have been written about times when government
violates
the laws. They are long on examples but short on practical remedies of what
to do
about it.
Corporations
and their large corporate law firms have many ways to avoid the laws.
First,
they make sure that when Congress writes legislation, the bills advance
corporate
interests. For example, numerous consumer safety laws have no criminal
penalties
for the violations, or only the most nominal fines. The regulatory agencies
often have very weak subpoena powers or authority to set urgent and mandatory
safety standards without suffering years or even decades of corporate-induced
delays.
If the
laws prove troublesome, the corporations make sure that enforcement budgets
are
ridiculously tiny, with only a few federal cops on the beat. The total number of
Justice
Department attorneys prosecuting the corporate crime wave of the past
decade,
running investors, pensioners and workers into trillions of dollars of
losses
and damaging the health and safety of many patients and other consumers, is
smaller
than just one of the top five largest corporate law firms.
Out in
the marketplace, environment and the workplace, the corporations have many
tools
forged out of their unbridled power to block aggrieved people from having
their
day in court or getting agencies or legislatures to stand up for the common
folk.
Companies
can wear down or deter plaintiffs from obtaining justice by costly motions
and
other delaying tactics. When people get into court and obtain some justice, the
companies
move toward the legislature to restrict access to the courts. This is
grotesquely
called “tort reform”-- which takes away the rights of harmed individuals
but
not the corporations’ rights to have their day in court.
Lush
amounts of campaign dollars grease the way for corporations in the legislatures
in the
fifty states and on Capitol
Hill.
As if
that power to pass their own laws is not enough, large corporations become
their
own private legislatures. You’ve been confronted with those fine-print
standard
form agreements asking you to sign on the dotted line if you wish to secure
insurance,
tenancy, credit, bank services, hospital treatment, or just a
job. Those
pages of fine print are corporations regulating you! You can’t cross any of
them
out.
You
can’t go across the street to a competitor- say from Geico to State Farm, or
from
Citibank to the Bank of America, because there is no competition over these
fine-print contracts, with their dotted signature lines. Unless, that is,
they compete
over how fast they require you to give up your rights to go to court or to
object
to their unilaterally changing the terms of the agreement, such as in
changing
the terms of your frequent flier agreement on already accumulated
miles.
Oh,
for the law schools that provide courses on the rule of men over the rule of
law.
Oh,
for the time when there when there will be many public interest law firms
working
just on these portentous dominations of concentrated power to deny open and
impartial uses of the laws to achieve justice and
accountability.
Ralph Nader, attorney, author, was a green
party candidate for U.S. President in the 2000 campaign. He is again a
candidate in the 2008 campaign. Nader has been a prominent environmentalist
and consumer advocate for several decades, who founded along the way, several
non profit organizations that are still active; his accomplishments, like
forcing U.S. auto companies to install seat belts, are legendary. His most
recent book is The Seventeen Traditions. This essay is herein reprinted with the author's
permission.
Posted March 17,
2008
URL:
www.thecitizenfsr.org
SM 2000-2011
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