The neocon's "Jail for Judges"

[madmusic]

A Stupid Idea Whose Time May Have Almost Come

Paranoia never sleeps. On Election Day the ballot in South Dakota will include Amendment E, the Judicial Accountability Initiative Law ("JAIL") popularly known as JAIL FOR JUDGES. This breathtakingly moronic initiative is opposed by every informed observer from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to the major unions and everybody in between, but in a Zogby poll released on Sep 21 it had the support of 67% of likely S.D. voters. After oppostion came in floods from every possible source from left to right, a more recent poll conducted OCt 16-17, the numbers have flipped; now 67% say they would oppose it. But they might have sneaked this thing by.

Amendment E would pretty much destroy the notion of judicial immunity by establishing a "Special Grand Jury" made of up of citizens who volunteer for a pool and then are chosen at random. Members of the Special Grand Jury may hear complaints from litigants or criminal defendants who are unhappy with the outcome in their case. The Special Grand Jury may strip the judge, and jurors, of their immunity and expose them to civil and criminal liability for deciding a case adversely to the complaining party, with no requirement even that appeals be exhausted. Arguably, it would create the same exposure for county commissioners, school board members, etc.

Here's another twist - judges, lawyers, law enforcement officers and elected officials would be ineligble to sit on the Special Grand Jury and immunity would be preserved for one group: members of the Special Grand Jury. This idea got nowhere in California where it was first tried, so its backers have taken a break from searching the skies for black helicopters and railing about posse comitatus to move their money to South Dakota where it can have a greater impact. Here is their wacky website and the website of the opponents of Amendment E

The wacky neocon right has been hogging all the attention lately. "Jail for Judges" is a reminder that the wacky paranoid right is still around and making mischief.

http://www.isthatlegal.org/archives/2006/10/a_stupid_idea_w.html

Any DUers interesting in following the money and power on this one? Could be some interesting research.

[madmusic]

1. North Hollywood, California? My gawd, they're everywhere!

We're doomed!