Supreme Court Justices shows their activism

All of have heard lawmakers claim that judges on the bench should never be activist and when President Obama attempted to nominated now Justices Sotomayor and Kagan, that was the buzz word from those opposed.  Where are these lawmakers now and why are we not hearing them screaming at the top of their lungs.  Where are the legal watchdog groups or those who say that they care about the legal system?  I know where the media is, they are tied up with lottery winners, low unemployment numbers, Japan’s nuclear crisis, the CIA in Libya, the argument over spring versus Easter, the budget battle and the Tea Party Rally.  It’s especially sad when the news of this happening here in the United States in New Orleans, LA was brought to us by a newspaper in the UK.  If you have not already guessed about which I speak, I’m talking about the article written by David Usborne of the United Kingdom’s The Independent titled Years in jail for murder he didn't commit: 18. Compensation: $0.00.

In it is reported that “John Thompson spent 18 years in a Louisiana prison for a murder he did not commit, coming within weeks of being executed. Yet the US Supreme Court has thrown out a jury verdict awarding $14m (£8.75m) in compensation.  The court ruled by five to four that Mr. Thompson had not demonstrated a pattern of misconduct in the New Orleans district's attorney office, which at the time of his conviction was headed by Harry Connick, the father of the famous singer of the same name, (Harry Connick Jr.), and therefore was not entitled to compensation.  The case against him began to unravel in 1999 when private detectives discovered a blood test carried out during in the car-jacking case which showed Mr. Thompson could not have committed the crime. That test, however, had not been submitted as evidence at the trial. That discovery led to a new trial, during which other new evidence was offered that led to his being cleared in both cases.” 

Need more proof of justice activism how about more of this article “the conservative majority in the Supreme Court found nothing in the case persuaded them to reverse legal precedent protecting prosecutors from being sued for anything they do in the course of their work? The argument that Mr. Connick, who resigned as New Orleans DA in 2003, presided over an office that repeatedly hid exculpatory evidence did not impress the justices. Lawyers for Mr. Thompson say that this man who spent 14 of his 18 years behind bars in virtual isolation on death row, insisted they had demonstrated "multiple constitutional violations by multiple prosecutors", in Mr. Connick's office. In a statement, they said: "If prosecutors' offices cannot be held accountable under the facts of this case it is difficult to imagine when they would be accountable, but “the majority opinion Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that the Thompson case amounted to a "single incident" where mistakes were made in New Orleans and the case did not prove "deliberate indifference" on the part of Mr. Connick. Leading the liberal minority in the court, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, in a rare spoken dissent, accused the majority, and led by Justice Clarence Thomas, of seeking to protect a DA's office from the consequences of "flagrant" misconduct. "

Every since the Supreme Court stepped in and voiced the final decision in the Bush- Gore Decision, they have become even more political than we had known in the past.  I used to think that at least our Supreme Court was beyond politics and all about the law, this one and the Citizen’s United Case leads me to seriously rethink that position.  It’s time to make a stand and change the rules where misconduct or activism on the courts should be worthy of someone losing their job especially when it is so blatant to see that the ruling was wrong.  Justice Clarence Thomas and the other 4 say no "deliberate indifference" and a "single incident" in the shadow of the facts  that this office has "multiple constitutional violations by multiple prosecutors",  I’m sorry but even Ray Charles, Ronnie Millsap and Stevie Wonder could see more clearly than that.

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