Americans of a particular ideological bent would have you believe that the prosecution and conviction of Donald Trump for falsifying business records to conceal money payments to Stormy Daniels and protect his 2016 presidential bid were engineered by the Biden White House, which has “ rigged” to all justice. system for the benefit of the current president. Except, of course, Hunter Biden's conviction, which was appropriate retribution by an honest and independent court of law.
At the other end of the political spectrum, supporters may insist that while President Biden's son technically broke the law when he lied on a form to buy a gun while addicted to cocaine, he was the victim of a prosecutor and a court that They leaned too far. They stepped back to pretend they were free of partisan politics.
It's a real-life version of an old maxim: Every court ruling leaves one party with reinvigorated confidence in our justice system and the other convinced that judges and juries are all incompetent, pro-, or pro- from them.
Another perspective could be that, in general, the courts function independently of the political world.
But that's not quite right either. Although any competent justice system does its best to impose criminal punishments or exonerations free of political leanings, popularity, or personal interests, politics is intimately involved in shaping the criminal justice system.
Most state judges and local prosecutors must campaign for elections. Federal judges are recommended by political cronies, appointed by the president and approved or rejected by a decidedly partisan Senate, just like federal prosecutors.
It is futile to pretend that judges are free of political opinions or connections, or that political interests and popular opinion play no role in the outcome of cases. Clarence Thomas is not the first Supreme Court justice to accept gifts from acquaintances with pecuniary or ideological interests at stake. Samuel A. Alito Jr. is not the first to publicly show his political inclinations or prejudices.
Even the ancient myths that form the literary and philosophical basis of our justice system recognize some degree of political interference from the beginning.
The playwright Aeschylus and other ancient Greek writers recounted what, according to their tradition, was the first trial involving Orestes' murder of his own mother. Was the son going to be eternally punished for the horrible act? Or excused because her mother had killed her father, leaving Orestes forced, under the old system of blood feuds and endless reprisals (and, furthermore, ordered by the god Apollo), to kill her in revenge? Athena appoints the first jury (12 members, of course), but they are divided.
Orestes prevails when Athena votes for him, as had probably been his plan all along. It is possible that the mythical first trial was rigged.
So do we despair of the possibility of impartial justice and see every courtroom as simply another arena for the rule of the most powerful, the richest, the most well-connected, or the most popular?
No. Politics necessarily play a role in the justice system, but the American system is countered and contained, not by Greek gods and goddesses, but by a complex of essential procedures and rituals. We have detailed rules for juries (subpoenas, voir dire, instructions, deliberations) and rules on evidence, witness testimony, public and press observers, appeals, pardons.
The witnesses place their hands on the Bible and swear to tell the truth. Still, courts are human institutions run by imperfect human beings who count only on each other and the law to keep them as honest and fair as possible.
Trump's claim of a “two-tier” justice system is ridiculous only for its absurd implication that, as a pampered, rich, privileged man, he is at the bottom of those tiers. In fact, our system still separates criminal defendants based on their wealth, releasing those (like Trump) who can bail out and locking up those who can't.
Despite laws prohibiting racial discrimination, prosecutors still block jurors based on race, religion or other attributes to gain a strategic advantage. The Supreme Court still functions without any serious check on the ethical misconduct of individual members. The justice system is still more likely to catch a black defendant than a white one for the same crime and is more likely to convict and punish blacks more severely.
Our task should be to continue, step by step, removing politics from the justice system, despite knowing that the job will never truly be complete. And to defend himself against attempts by Trump and others to inject more politics into the system, calling convicted and imprisoned criminals “hostages,” offering pardons to his supporters, insisting on immunity for presidential events (his, of course, not Biden). and frame any ruling against him as the product of a rigged system that only he can dismantle.
