Over the past few years, probably more than a few years, many of us have lost faith in what we call “the justice system.” Some of the loss of faith found its origin in both the disparate treatment of persons arrested, minority group members receiving heavier sentences than their white counterparts; some from the way in which the Supreme Court has overturned certain laws designed to protect us from government overreach.
Yesterday Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson criticized the way her colleagues on the Court jumped into every so-called “emergency” rom the White House, overturning lower court decisions without any explanation. The use of the shadow docket has resulted in many of us losing faith in the Court and its supposed call to stay above the fray of politics.
Faith in both the law and the courts is essential to the functioning of democracy. In some other countries, courts are blatantly used for political purposes. This is not supposed to be the case here, but we have seen the President go to the Supreme Court to get his political will done, always claiming an “emergency.”
Now we have it on third-country deportations where we have deported people who given legal protection in this country from serious harm in their own countries. And to butter up members of the Court, certain justices were invited to the state dinner with a man whose treatment of his own citizens is an abomination.
Prayer for the Day
You who are ever present in our lives, open us to your ways,
Broadening our vision of your work in the world;
You who call us from our preconceived notions of your will,
Shake us from our slumber so we respond to your call for justice.
Clothe us with your Spirit and invest us with your insight,
Knead us into your loaf of life, bread for all to eat.
In the name of him who is your Bread of Life,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen
Thoughts for the Day
The court, “cannot expect the public to have faith in our judicial system if, without clear explanation, we are consistently greenlighting harmful acts” without a full hearing.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson
What’s important in my view is that there has to be at least the perception of some connection — and a judicial appreciation that there must be a connection — between the public and the Court, between what the public expects, broadly speaking, and how the Supreme Court and courts of appeals and the district courts rule, and how we justify or explain our rulings.
Raymond J. Lohler, Jr., Judge Second Circuit Court of Appeals
Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean;
Remove the evil of your doing from before my eyes;
Cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice,
Rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan plead for the widow.
Isaiah 1: 16-17