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There is no doubt that the US Constitution is dead and buried. [[i]] As a solution, some notable scholars have proposed the institution of a Constitutional Convention. [[ii]] There is no doubt, that there is a need for some Amendments, e.g., abolishing Corporate Personhood, before any semblance of civil society can be restored.
However, conditions which led to the previous Constitutional Conventions were vastly different. Last time around, it was a revolution against the British, and the old, oppressive ruling class sailed back to England.
Today, the problem is different. It is the homegrown ruling class, which is corrupt, oppressive, and which has showed its disregard for the law. In situations of this nature, even after adopting a new constitution or a regime change, the old nomenklatura typically comes back as the new nomenklatura.
It is impossible to dismiss and/or prosecute the entire class of US and state judges and clerks at once, together with a multitude of attorneys, who are jointly involved in the corruption of the justice system. Likewise, it is impossible to dismiss and/or prosecute the entire class of banking regulators and banking executives at once.
Such dynamics were at play in Russia after communism, in Germany after WWII, in Spain after Franco, and in various failed US “nation building” enterprises.
Therefore, if one compares the situation in the US today to that in other nations, one must realize that a Constitutional Convention alone is not likely to provide the desired outcome.
Under such circumstances, it was often recommended to establish a Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Since 1973, more than 20 “truth commissions” have been established around the world, in recent decades in nations that emerged from under various types of tyrannies, for example, South Africa y (1992 and 1993), Chille (1990-1991), Germany (1992-1994). [[iii]]
It should be noted that already in 2009, Senator Patrick Leahy, Chair of the Senate’s Judiciary Committee proposed the institution of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission on the US Department of Justice. [[iv]] However, the scope of any such Commission should be much wider than one government department, although corruption of the US Department of Justice is surely a key to the current situation.
In fact, what is sorely needed in the United States is probably some “Nation Building”.
LINKS______
[i] [1] 11-06-14 Corruption of the Courts and Failing Banking Regulation in the United States: Dred Scott redux?
http://www.scribd.com/doc/
[2] 11-06-24 Time Magazine - 4th of July Issue: Does the Constitution Still Matter?
http://www.scribd.com/doc/
[3] 11-10-03 Execution of US Citizens by Presidential Directives With No Due Process of Law
http://www.scribd.com/doc/
[4] 11-11-22 Habeas Corpus in the United States - Medieval-Digital Era…
http://www.scribd.com/doc/
[5] 11-12-02 Posse Comitatus Act (1878) and current martial law in the United States
http://www.scribd.com/doc/
[6] 11-12-05 Criminality at the Top of a Lawless, Bankrupt Nation
http://www.scribd.com/doc/
[ii] Conference On The Constitutional Convention, Harvard Law School, September 24-25, 2011.
http://conconcon.org/[iii] 02-00-00 Avruch, K and Vejaran, B: Truth and Reconciliation Commissions, A Review Essay and Annotated Bibliography, OJPCR- The Online Journal of Peace and Conflict Resolution 4.2-- 37-76 (2002)
http://www.scribd.com/doc/
[iv] 09-02-09 Transcript of Senator Leahy speech, calling for a Truth and Reconciliation Commission in re US Justice Department s
http://www.scribd.com/doc/
[v] 11-12-10 Where Should #Occupy Go Next? Civil Disobedience in the Footsteps of Thoreau and Gandhi!
http://www.scribd.com/doc/
Joseph Zernik, PhD
Human Rights Alert (NGO)
The 2010 submission of Human Rights Alert to the Human Rights Council (HRC) of the United Nations was reviewed by the HRC professional staff and incorporated in the official HRC Professional Staff Report with a note referring to “corruption of the courts and the legal profession and discrimination by law enforcement in California.”
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* Foreclosure fraud: The homeowner nightmares continue
CNN (April 7, 2011)
* About 3 million homes have been repossessed since the housing boom ended in 2006 That number could balloon to about 6 million by 2013 Bloomberg (January 2011)
* "...a system in which only the little people have to obey the law, while the rich, and bankers especially, can cheat and defraud without consequences."
http://www.scribd.com/doc/
_____________________________
WHAT DID THE EXPERTS SAY ABOUT THE JUSTICE SYSTEM IN LOS ANGELES COUNTY, CALIFORNIA?* "...judges tried and sentenced a staggering number of people for crimes they did not commit."
Prof David Burcham, Dean, Loyola Law School, LA (2001)
http://www.scribd.com/doc/
* "This is conduct associated with the most repressive dictators and police states... and judges must share responsibility when innocent people are convicted."
Prof Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean, Irvine Law School (2001)
http://www.scribd.com/doc/
* "...the LA Superior Court and the DA office, the two other parts of the justice system that the Blue Panel Report recommends must be investigated relative to the integrity of the system, have not produced any response that we know of..."
LAPD Blue Ribbon Review Panel Report (2006)
http://www.scribd.com/doc/
WHAT DID THE EXPERTS SAY ABOUT THE JUSTICE SYSTEM IN CALIFORNIA?* "...corruption of the courts and the legal profession and discrimination by law enforcement in California."
United Nations Human Rights Council Staff Report (2010)
http://www.scribd.com/doc/
WHAT DID THE EXPERTS SAY ABOUT THE STATE COURTS IN THE UNITED STATES?
* "On July 26, 2010, Laurence Tribe, Senior Counsel for the United States Department of Justice, Access to Justice Initiative, delivered an important speech to the Conference of Chief Justices, challenging them to halt the disintegration of our state justice systems before they become indistinguishable from courts of third world nations."
Prof Laurence Tribe, Harvard Law School (2010), per National Defender Leadership Institute (2010)
http://www.nlada.net/library/
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WHAT DID THE EXPERTS SAY ABOUT THE CONDITIONS IN THE PRISON IN MONROE COUNTY, TENESSEE?* "What goes on there is more like gulags of centuries ago."
ACLU
http://www.scribd.com/doc/
WHAT DID THE EXPERTS SAY ABOUT THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES?* "More than 100 law professors have signed on to a letter released today that proposes congressional hearings and legislation aimed at fashioning "mandatory and enforceable" ethics rules for Supreme Court justices for the first time. The effort, coordinated by the liberal Alliance for Justice, was triggered by "recent media reports," the letter said, apparently referring to stories of meetings and other potential conflicts of interest involving Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas among others."
More than 100 law professors, as reported by the Blog of the Legal Times (February 2011)
http://www.scribd.com/doc/
WHAT DID CHIEF JUDGE OF THE US COURT OF APPEALS, 5TH CIRCUIT, SAY ABOUT THE US JUSTICE SYSTEM?
* "The American legal system has been corrupted almost beyond recognition..."
Chief Judge, US Court of Appeals, 5th Circuit, Edith Jones, speaking before the Federalist Society of Harvard Law School (February 2003)
http://www.scribd.com/doc/
WHAT DID THE CHAIR OF THE SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE SAY ABOUT THE US JUSTICE SYSTEM?* In a speech in Georgetown University, Senator Leahy, Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee called for a "Truth and Reconciliation Commission" on the US Department of Justice.
Transcript of Senator Leahy speech (2009)
http://www.scribd.com/doc/
As part of efforts for the preservation of our civilization for future generations:
A call for proposals, ending January 10, 2012.
Occupy Jerusalem-AlQuds - the Party!
Late August 2012
Love, Peace, Justice
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Empowering the People through
a dance/music/art/study/pray
celebration
READ MORE:http://josephsdream2012.
VIEW VIDEO:11-12-12 Oh My God, it's Occupy Jerusalem-AlQuds!
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I'm not sure what a TRC would remotely accomplish in the United States. In other nations, the TRC approach has had mixed results. It was very effective in South Africa in getting many people who held power under Apartheid to come forward and tell their stories of how they abused power and committed crimes. In the U.S., however, many in the ruling class would dispute that they have committed crimes. After all, they have passed the laws to make whatever they are doing legal, so why confess to something as a crime if it is, in fact, legal? The motivation to appear before the TRC in South Africa was amnesty--people who voluntarily spoke out about crimes they were compelled to commit as a part of Apartheid policy could avoid criminal prosecution if they fully cooperated and disclosed the facts. Here, the ruling class wouldn't have any compelling reason to come forward to confess anything. There would be no point.
ReplyDeleteA constitutional convention would be something new in American history, at least in the sense that one has never been called since our Constitution was ratified. How radical that convention would be--i.e., would it conservatively offer a few amendments, or would it rewrite the entire document from scratch?--is interesting to consider. The risk, though, of upending the current political structure utterly probably means that there would be a lot of opposition to such a convention.
Really, though, with states stripped of almost all of their other power at this point, the ability of three-quarters of the states to force a constitutional convention is about all that we have left. Elections certainly don't seem to work anymore, and protests haven't added up to much change. Less..
Posted 6 hours ago By Buzzardist
@buzzardist
ReplyDeleteA Truth and Reconciliation Commission will have to help in sorting out, who of the culprits will be prosecuted, who would be dismissed, and who would be permitted to remain in government positions.
Even under current law, much of what is going on today is criminal.
See for example:
1) Bernanke, Paulson, Lewis - report sent by NY State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo in re: His investigation into the merger of Bank of America and Merrill Lynch [1]
2) Mozilo and others from Countrywide, Moynihan and others from Bank of American [2]
3) Various State and US Judges - see for example US Judge Jed Rakoff and his conduct in re: Settlements through simulated litigation in the US District Court in NYC. [3]
LINKS:
[1] 11-02-11 Press Release: US Congress Fails to Perform Its Oversight Duties and Impeach Bernanke
http://www.scribd.com/doc/48669543/
[2] 10-05-05 Countrywide, Bank of America [NYSE;BAC], and its President Brian Moynihan Compilation of Records Evidence of Racketeering
http://www.scribd.com/doc/30975368/
[3] 11-08-08 PRESS RELEASE: Fraud and Corruption in the US Courts are Tightly Linked to Failing Banking Regulation and the Global Economic Crisis – presentation in the 16th World Criminology Congress, Japan
http://www.scribd.com/doc/62153608/ Less..
Posted less than a minute ago By HumanRightsAlert
The mechanisms for a constitutional revolution, such as occurred in the English Revolution of 1688-1689, are described in my book, A Constitutional History of Secession, Pelican Pub. Co, Gretna (New Orleans, 1st edition 2002, 2nd edition 2005. It can be ordered online at www.pelicanpub.com. Why not rely on legal tradition as a source of wisdom. -- J. R. G.
ReplyDelete