September 26, 2005
TRY TAKING THIS ISSUE TO THE VOTERS:
Legal railroading disguised as efficiency (Ira Reiner, September 26, 2005, LA Times)
THE SENATE Judiciary Committee is scheduled to take up the Streamlined Procedures Act of 2005 this week. This legislation, ostensibly designed to make the justice system more efficient, is a Trojan horse whose transparent purpose is to strip the federal courts of virtually all of their jurisdiction to review state criminal court proceedings.Essentially, the legislation would eviscerate the role of the federal courts in ensuring that innocent people are not mistakenly convicted of crimes and that state courts do not send people to prison in violation of their constitutional rights. It would restrict habeas corpus rights, which are enshrined in the Constitution, date back to the Magna Carta and guarantee that you can go to a court and tell a judge that you are being held illegally.
Why is this the role of the federal courts?
It isn't. Posted by Orrin Judd at September 26, 2005 8:39 AM
OJ: It wasn't until the 1950's. Not only that, but the writ should not be issued once state legal proceedings have begun, as the prisoner has a remedy at law at that point (i.e. jury trial and acquittal, or appeal), nor after conviction as the prisoner is collaterally estopped from asserting that any element of his conviction is not proved beyond a reasonable doubt. Jurisdiction is an element of the conviction, and is the only thing the writ questions.
Posted by: Robert Schwartz at September 26, 2005 6:38 PMLeaving aside the substantive Question OJ raised...
Who would think that a 'Stream lining act' would "streamline" things?
The Freedom of Information Act locked public documents behind a curtain of procedures.
The Paperwork Reduction Act has leveled entire forests.
Campaign Finance is incumbent protection.
One doesn't need to be a libertarian moonbat to see what's happening.
Posted by: Bruno at September 27, 2005 1:00 AM