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"The Nuremburg excuse
The Supreme Court of the United States has used extraordinarily specious logic to separate those with mental illnesses from civil rights and the standards of justice it would apply to everyone else. Which the lower courts have followed in lock step.
In the movie “Judgment at Nuremburg”, a movie well worth watching, Spencer Tracy’s character, a U.S. jurist, passes judgment on a German judge who worked under the Nazis. You can find his speech here:
http://www.politicalspeeches.net/us-politics/spencer-tracy-delivers-final-verdict-from-judgement-at-nuremburg
In essence, if I remember correctly, the German judge had claimed the defense that he was just administering the laws as written. Now where have I heard that before? Oh, yeah. It was in a Federal District courtroom – here in Tulsa. The judge told me that if I wanted a different result, then I should get the laws changed.
The thing is, he and all his colleagues have sworn an oath to the Constitution of the United States, which stands above the laws. The Supreme Court is not infallible. It occasionally makes stupidly egregious, unconstitutional decisions, based more upon the jerking of ideological knees than upon evidence. A lower court judge who administers them blindly, with no recourse to or consideration of constitutional values, absolves himself or herself with the same excuse as that German judge at Nuremburg.
Occasionally, rather than condemn the innocent to injustice, a lower court judge should stand up and be counted on the side of the Constitution, even if it means his or her career. The judge’s opinion should provide the Supreme Court with the evidence and reasoning necessary to see the error of its ways, even if the Supreme Court, in its not entirely unreliable infinite wisdom, then issues a reversal.
All it takes is courage and integrity, which people with unaccountable, lifetime appointments seem ill-inclined to exercise on behalf of those beneath them, whom they hold in judgment.
“Always tell the truth, even if it means your life.” - from the Knight’s Oath in the movie, The Kingdom of Heaven. "
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