The Greatest Threat to America

They have caused disruption to and destroyed American democracy and our fundamental freedoms more than any terrorist group in the world.

They have sanctioned the murders of more Americans than any terrorist group in the world.

They punish the innocent, but take extraordinary measures to protect the guilty.

They operate in shadowy black disguises.

They are known to the FBI, the CIA, the NSA and the Department of Homeland Security, yet none of these agencies have made the slightest effort to stop them.

They are Antonin Scalia, John Roberts, Anthony Kennedy, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, who currently comprise the “conservative” majority on the United States Supreme Court.

Before readers dismiss these opening paragraphs as mere hyperbole, they should examine some of the Supreme Court’s more egregious rulings.

This court endorsed the random drug testing of public school students who are not even suspected of abusing drugs, which means that thousands of innocent children across America are dragged from their classrooms everyday, ordered to reveal personal medical information, and forced to urinate as strangers listen to them doing so—intrusions into personal dignity and privacy that Scalia has described as “minimal.”

In addition, people arrested for certain crimes can be compelled to provide a sample of their DNA to government authorities, even though they have not been tried or convicted. Yet, in the case of District Attorney’s Office v. Osborne, the Supreme Court ruled that persons convicted of crimes have “no constitutional right to obtain post conviction access to the State’s evidence for DNA testing,” even though that testing could establish their innocence.

In other words, a system that claims people are “innocent until proven guilty” now requires people to provide DNA and/or other bodily fluids to prove their innocence, yet does not require the government to provide DNA evidence that could exonerate a wrongfully convicted person, even though a wrongful conviction means that the real perpetrator is free and potentially committing more crimes.

This is “judicial hypocrisy” and it’s tragic that karma isn’t more rapid and righteous, because nothing would be more beneficial than seeing Scalia, Roberts, Kennedy, Alito and Thomas entombed in the worst of America’s prisons, begging their attorneys to obtain the DNA evidence that could free them, only to be told that the “State” has refused to provide it.

The racism of the Supreme Court has been apparent throughout its history, from the now infamous Dred Scott decision, which threatened to expand slavery throughout the United States, to Plessy v. Ferguson, which gave constitutional blessing to the segregationist doctrine of “separate but equal.” And Scalia, Roberts, Kennedy, Alito and Thomas have continued this shameful tradition, in the cases of Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle and Meredith v. Jefferson County Board of Education, by endorsing the racial re-segregation of public schools. And, in an act of judicial callousness that insulted the memory of those who struggled and died during America’s civil rights movement, some of these so-called “justices” even defended their “racist opinion” by citing Brown v. Topeka, the landmark 1954 case that endorsed the desegregation of public schools.

Also, by upholding racial segregation in Plessy, the court essentially declared that African-Americans were second-class citizens. What followed from 1896, when Plessy was decided, until the civil rights era of the 1960s was a sordid history of lynching, beatings and other injustices directed primarily against African-Americans, as well as the denial of their most fundamental rights, including the right to vote, which supposedly had been guaranteed with the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment in 1870.

In Employment Division v. Smith freedom of religion came under attack when the court ruled that the government no longer had to prove it had a “compelling reason” to interfere with one’s religious practices. When the United States Congress attempted to restore this “compelling reason” requirement via the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), the court voided much of it on the grounds that Congress had exceeded its authority.

Three current members of the court - Scalia, Kennedy and Thomas - and two former members - O’Conner and Rehnquist - bloodied their hands, and (if there is such a thing as justice) damned themselves for all time, when they supported the coup of 2000 in the case of Bush v. Gore. Thanks to this corrupt decision, which illegally placed a sadistic, inept, venal and mendacious cabal of war criminals in the White House, thousands of Americans, and tens of thousands of Iraqis, have died in a war that was based upon nothing but lies. And in violation of UN resolution 1441, which DID not authorize war with Iraq.

But Scalia, Kennedy and Thomas were not satisfied with the partial destruction of democracy wrought by Bush v. Gore, particularly since democracy appeared to be restored during the 2008 presidential election. So, joining with Alito and Roberts, they decided to destroy it completely, along with most of the Bill of Rights, in the recent case of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission by striking down laws that once limited the amount of money corporations could contribute to political campaigns.

Now corporations are free to buy and sell politicians like trading cards, and, since they control the bulk of the “mainstream” media, they can also ensure that any political messages contrary to theirs are unheard.

In other words, freedom now only belongs to those wealthy enough to afford it. This imposing body has determined that corporations were equal to natural citizens, and are entitled to the protections of the Bill of Rights. Overruling centuries of good law.

Although the Citizens United ruling is deplorable and deserving of contempt, it is not surprising. The unified Republican opposition to health care reform has already demonstrated how the bulk of America’s politicians are controlled by special interest groups. The fact that many Democrats refused to endorse any health care reform proposal that included a “public option” for people unable to purchase health insurance in the private sector further illustrates how corporate influence has already transcended party lines.

What Scalia, Roberts, Kennedy, Alito and Thomas undoubtedly hope to accomplish by Citizens United is to purge the few politicians actually devoted to serving the public interest. Now these politicians will either succumb to the whims of their corporate masters, or find limitless amounts of money being provided to their political opponents.

In a nation of millions, it seems almost obscene that five biased, bigoted, corrupt, unethical and agenda driven individuals in black robes can destroy an entire system of government. And it is certainly contrary to what the Supreme Court was intended to be.

When the federal court system was created, a debate ensued over whether federal judges should be elected or appointed. It was ultimately decided that they would be appointed to lifetime tenures, removable only through death, retirement or impeachment. The hope was that federal judges would be immune from political party influences, act in accordance with the law, and protect the rights of racial, religious and political minorities, since they did not have to raise money in election campaigns or appease the majority in order to win the popular vote.

Unfortunately this hope was quixotic. The five so-called “justices” who weakened democracy in Bush v. Gore, and the five who destroyed it in Citizens United were all appointed by Republican presidents. In fact, Bush’s vice-president Dick Cheney was even Scalia’s “hunting buddy.” So it was not surprising when they ignored legal precedent and common sense to ensure that corporate rights and profits supplanted individual rights and needs.

Even conservative columnist David Broder acknowledged that the Citizens United ruling “extended itself far beyond what was necessary” and “may well be the best news Republicans have received since the 2000 ruling in Bush v. Gore.”

In law schools throughout America, Supreme Court opinions are dissected and analyzed as though they were commandments from Mount Sinai.

Attorneys, after all, are supposed to deal in facts, not in suppositions. But, given the cases I have cited in this article, the harm they have caused, and the harm they will cause, I believe there is enough evidence to conclude that Scalia, Roberts, Kennedy, Alito and Thomas are perhaps the most dangerous, despicable, conscienceless and evil individuals to ever disgrace the United States Supreme Court, and the biggest threat to democracy and the Bill of Rights in the history of the United States.

James Madison, one of America’s founding fathers, once said, “We are free today substantially, but the day will come when our Republic will be an impossibility . . . because wealth will be concentrated in the hands of a few. And when the day comes, when the wealth of the nation will be in the hands of the few, then we must rely on the best elements in the country to readjust the laws of the nation to the changed conditions.”

Some of the best elements in America did try to readjust the laws to minimize the potential for corporations to use their vast financial resources to purchase political influence. Unfortunately five of the worst elements in America - Scalia, Roberts, Kennedy, Alito and Thomas—have ensured (with apologies to Abraham Lincoln) that the government of the corporations, by the corporations, and for the corporations will cause the government of the people, by the people and for the people to perish from the earth.

This article was in part borrowed from an article by David R. Hoffman, an attorney and with which this author fully agrees.

American’s have lost those rights intended by and incorporated in our Constitution, exemplifying the basic traditions of our republic. We have lost those rights not by accident, but by design of evil men, and a court system that has floundered in inadequacy. The US Supreme court is an antiquated concept, controlled by politicians, who bestow the favors of unbridled terms of office to secure that which they support.

The Latest Supreme Court Ruling, May Protect Corporate Officers From Criminal Prosecution

The US Supreme Court issued a landmark opinion on Thursday that over-turned the way American election campaigns are financed.

The Court has been considering whether to end long-standing limits on corporate and labor union spending in US political campaigns. But the decision has far reaching implications that go beyond campaign financing and include a broad sweeping protection for Corporate officers accused of fraud.

In America, political campaigns are big business, literally - they cost millions of dollars! The 2008 contest between Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain for the White House was the most expensive in US election history, with both candidates raising more than a billion dollars between them, and much of that money was spent on relentless TV ads.

At the heart of the question the Supreme Court considered, should corporations be treated as persons under the US constitution and allowed to spend huge amounts of cash on political campaigns at state, and Federal Congressional and Presidential levels? Their decision, which granted citizenship to corporations, now requires that each of the Constitutional Amendments must be applied to the corporate existence. A potentially devastating blow to prosecutors and the Justice Department

Those in favor argued before the bench that not to include corporations would be a violation of the First Amendment which guarantees free speech. But that free speech has always been a right of the individual, not the corporation which derives its existence through state law!

Those against claimed it would be devastating for American democracy with a flood of corporate sponsored TV ads with big business way outspending individuals.

This intentional error of the Supreme Court will have a lasting impact on the US Constitution and for all Americans. Corporations prior to this ruling enjoyed NO other rights under the Federal Constitution, they had no right of privacy which Americans are entitled to under the Fourth Amendment, and they had no protection against Self incrimination which Americans enjoy under the Fifth Amendment.

Yet the Supreme Court has now leveled the playing field, this error has the propensity to undermine centuries of precedents, it will further cripple criminal cases against corporate officers, because if as the Supreme Court has now determined, “A corporation has the rights of a natural person” then all the rights of citizenship must now be provided to corporations and will effectively shield their officers who commit fraud, and perhaps, as the current investigation is being played out in the Congressional hearings, this was the Supreme Court’s real intent.

It’s time to rethink a Supreme Court

That the makeup of the Supreme Court can be controlled, and with it decisions rendered is not an issue, it’s a fact. Lincoln and Grant were two of the early presidents who learned how to stack the court with political appointments, lawyers who would hold in favor policies that were important to the administration, yet which were candidly unconstitutional.

The most inglorious example was the Legal Tender cases of Knox V lee 79 U.S. 457 (1870) and Hepburn v. Griswold, 75 U.S. 603 (1870)

Lincoln took office during one of the most tumultuous times in America’s history, the Treasury was out of money, the South was in the midst of succession and refused to pay its share of taxes, a war was inevitable, but how to finance that war?

Lincoln appointed Salmon Portland Chase as the Secretary of the Treasury and gave him a mandate; find a way to finance the war!

Chase was the architect of the United States Note, a forerunner to the Federal Reserve Note, but different. Chase made the US Notes a Legal Tender for the first time in US History, prior to this our legal tender was either Gold coin or Silver coin and the paper was a representative of value.

The new US Notes circulated as a debt of the United States, the government bought the horses and armaments using these notes, and all understood that at some point in time they would be redeemed in specie.

Lincoln was no fool, he was an astute lawyer who understood the US Constitution, and he knew that this law would be challenged.

Lincoln appointed Salmon Portland Chase first as his secretary of the treasury from 1861, to 1864 then elevated him to the Supreme Court as its chief justice in 1864, his intent was for Chase who had been the architect of the Legal Tender currency to uphold its constitutionality.

When the first case came before the Supreme Court in 1870 Hepburn v. Griswold, Chase writing for the court unconditionally stated that although during times of war the nation might do things not otherwise allowed or permitted, the US Government had no authority to make paper a legal tender.

This decision was adverse to the railroads which were heavily in debt, and this decision which would require their bond payments to be made in specie would drive them into bankruptcy.

In 1870 after the Chase ruling Ulysses S. Grant then the US President nominated two lawyers for the railroad interests to the Court, Joseph P. Bradley, and William Strong, changing the makeup and control of the Court

Directly after their seating, a second case was brought before them also engendering the very same issue the question of a paper currency as a Legal Tender, Knox V lee

The makeup of the court now changed favoring a paper currency, Bradley and Strong reversed the Chase holding.

What this lesson and the lesson of today where the Court has ruled 5 to 4 against the Constitution, have brought to our attention, the validity of the Supreme Court itself.

The Supreme Court has been so stacked against the interests of preserving the republic, that rulings are instrumental in reducing our rights and in fact calculated to over through the US Constitution, Our rights are continually being eroded by this august body!