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How in the world could such laws stand up to constitutional scrutiny?

by causi 5y ago

giantg2 5y ago
New to US law? (Just kidding) This sort of stuff is really common. Judicial complaints, discipline, and files are so secret that you can't get access to them even if there's exculpatory evidence in them. They were not made that secret by the legislature in most cases, but rather by the judiciary themselves (conflict of interest much?). The arguments used to support such secrecy don't even stand up to mild scrutiny. The main reason they cite is that disclosing complaints and discipline would undermine trust in the system. However, that would only be true if inappropriate action were being taken on those complaints. How about police holding a charge against you they know is incorrect and carries pretrial restrictions? I feel this violates state and federal protections such as the 8th Ammendment's restriction on unusual punishment (because you can't just publish someone you know is innocent of the charged crime) and violations of the rules of criminal procedure. I've seen this happen, and the state police say that it's within their rights to hold a charge that is incorrect and imposes pretrial restrictions. A civil rights attorney I contacted said it was a violation of our rights, but the courts don't care if your rights are violated unless there was substantial financial damage. I also reported it to the DOJ since they have a division that will sue states to change policies, patterns, or practices that violate constitutional rights. I'm sure my submission went right in the shredder. They have so many important things to look at that they don't even care about this. I had a prosecutor that had the information that it was an incorrect charge and our rights were violated. They also acted outside of the rules of criminal procedure to make sure the court wouldn't talk to us, blocking our ability to secure remote accommodation for our witness (a violation of the Bar's professional standards and an overreach of their authority given the rules of procedures did not allow for this). Guess what. The Bar will not even investigate misconduct claims against prosecutors unless the court declares misconduct occurred. So what are you investigating if you'll only look into after someone else made the determination? Worthless. I had a recording of a magistrate yelling at the defense, showing bias against the defense (magistrate was a retired police chief and showed blatant favoritism for the trooper), and they violated the state constitution that guarantees defendants the right to be heard when he denied the request to hear a valid petition to dismiss, responding simply with "That's not gonna happen". I submitted a complaint for his behavior. I mean, the yelling was actually an example of misconduct given on the disciplinary board's site. You would think that a textbook example would be investigated. The only response I got was that there was not enough evidence to confirm any misconduct, which would include the uncurteous conducted listed in their site (yelling). How much evidence do you need beyond a recording and witnesses? I could go on. The point is, nobody gives a shit about your rights (or mine) - not law enforcement, not the judiciary, none of the agencies/boards that supposedly oversee them. If nobody enforces your rights, them do you actually have any?

How in the world could such laws stand up to constitutional scrutiny?

by causi 5y ago

How in the world could such laws stand up to constitutional scrutiny?

New to US law? (Just kidding) This sort of stuff is really common. Judicial complaints, discipline, and files are so secret that you can't get access to them even if there's exculpatory evidence in them. They were not made that secret by the legislature in most cases, but rather by the judiciary themselves (conflict of interest much?). The arguments used to support such secrecy don't even stand up to mild scrutiny. The main reason they cite is that disclosing complaints and discipline would undermine trust in the system. However, that would only be true if inappropriate action were being taken on those complaints. How about police holding a charge against you they know is incorrect and carries pretrial restrictions? I feel this violates state and federal protections such as the 8th Ammendment's restriction on unusual punishment (because you can't just publish someone you know is innocent of the charged crime) and violations of the rules of criminal procedure. I've seen this happen, and the state police say that it's within their rights to hold a charge that is incorrect and imposes pretrial restrictions. A civil rights attorney I contacted said it was a violation of our rights, but the courts don't care if your rights are violated unless there was substantial financial damage. I also reported it to the DOJ since they have a division that will sue states to change policies, patterns, or practices that violate constitutional rights. I'm sure my submission went right in the shredder. They have so many important things to look at that they don't even care about this. I had a prosecutor that had the information that it was an incorrect charge and our rights were violated. They also acted outside of the rules of criminal procedure to make sure the court wouldn't talk to us, blocking our ability to secure remote accommodation for our witness (a violation of the Bar's professional standards and an overreach of their authority given the rules of procedures did not allow for this). Guess what. The Bar will not even investigate misconduct claims against prosecutors unless the court declares misconduct occurred. So what are you investigating if you'll only look into after someone else made the determination? Worthless. I had a recording of a magistrate yelling at the defense, showing bias against the defense (magistrate was a retired police chief and showed blatant favoritism for the trooper), and they violated the state constitution that guarantees defendants the right to be heard when he denied the request to hear a valid petition to dismiss, responding simply with "That's not gonna happen". I submitted a complaint for his behavior. I mean, the yelling was actually an example of misconduct given on the disciplinary board's site. You would think that a textbook example would be investigated. The only response I got was that there was not enough evidence to confirm any misconduct, which would include the uncurteous conducted listed in their site (yelling). How much evidence do you need beyond a recording and witnesses? I could go on. The point is, nobody gives a shit about your rights (or mine) - not law enforcement, not the judiciary, none of the agencies/boards that supposedly oversee them. If nobody enforces your rights, them do you actually have any?