Thursday, April 14, 2005
Judge is forbidden to tell the truth
Judge Guido Calabresi has been admonished for saying that George W. Bush "came to power as a result of the illegitimate acts of a legitimate institution...That is what the Supreme Court did on Bush v. Gore. It put somebody in power. Now, he might have won anyway, he might not have...that is exactly what happened when Mussolini was put in by the king of Italy...That is what happened when Hindenburg put Hitler in. I'm not suggesting for a moment that Bush is Hitler. I want to be clear on that....It seems to me that one of the things that is at stake is the assertion by a democracy that when that has happened it is important to put that person out, regardless of anything else as a statement that the democracy reasserts its power over somebody who has come in and then has used his office...to build himself up"
(Transcribed from an article on law.com (by Mark Hamblett in the 4/13/05 issue of the New York Law Journal). A direct link does not appear to be possible. Thanks to MM for circulating this.)
Isn't what Calabresi said just simple common sense? That fascism has come about because democracies have failed to reject procedural irregularities in the selection of national leaders? That the manner in which Bush arrived in office was so unlawful that the justices themselves stated that the case could never be used as a precedent?
What a debased society, in which a judge can be admonished for speaking the simple truth.
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