SocialCurrentSee✅® newsletter in TriloGi® - Issue #80

For nearly two years California has closed public courthouses for “Heath and Safety” reasons. Meanwhile private judges operating in private offices have nev…

“Apparently, judges in California have forgotten what it means to be a public servant and Judges in the Santa Clara Courthouse have forgotten what open and fair proceedings mean by not letting others play in their judicial sandbox,” writes investigative journalist Susan Bassi (SB*) in a post of 488 telling words (a TRILOGI must read).

“The state bar has a rich history of corruption allegations, many of which circle Jim Towery who reportedly protected Thomas Girardi and Walter Lack in the Dole Food Company case. Towery also reportedly protected lawyers working for the Santa Clara County District Attorney Office where Towery’s wife, Karyn Sinunu Towery, worked for nearly 20 years. During her employment for the DAO, Sinunu Towery dealt with the press and HR, which included the hiring of DA Rosen, whom she and her now judge hubby politically and financially supported,” writes investigative journalist SB* in a post of 466 telling words (a TRILOGI must read).

“of ethics and civility in our most cherished institutions. So not hard to imagine a world where there are riots in the nation’s capital and disputes over masks at school board meetings that have pitted parents against teachers in a manner where it often appears the children have been forgotten,” writes investigative journalist SB* in a post of 417 telling words (a TRILOGI must read).

Sandler and Schoenbrod tell how the courts, with the best intentions and often with the approval of elected officials, came to control ordinary policy making through decrees. These court regimes, they assert, impose rigid and often ancient detailed plans that prove ineffective and wasteful. Elected officials cannot respond to changing realities unless attorneys, court-appointed functionaries, and lower-echelon officials agree. The result is neither judicial government nor good government, say Sandler and Schoenbrod, and they offer practical reforms that would set governments free from this stranglehold and allow courts to do their legitimate job of protecting rights.

In this provocative work, Martin Shapiro proposes an original model for the study of courts, one that emphasizes the different modes of decision making and the multiple political roles that characterize the functioning of courts in different political systems.