« Karl Rove Remains "Confident" | Main | If he Wrote it Today, It Might be called "Sand" »

October 25, 2006

A Stupid Idea Whose Time May Have Almost Come

P
aranoia 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.

Posted by TFW at October 25, 2006 11:07 AM

Comments

I heard about this on an NPR report. Opponents hope for a truly smashing defeat to try to discourage such initiatives in other states. If I recall correctly, jurors would also be subject to attack through this amendment. What an incentive to serve on a jury. Could jurors insist on immunity agreements before serving?

Posted by: Mark at October 26, 2006 10:54 AM

The fact that this affects juries will make it even harder to get people to want to be on juries.

Posted by: Elizabeth at October 27, 2006 11:28 PM

This group was up here in Vermont years ago, they had floats in 4th of July parades and were present almost state-wide. I used to engage them in discussion when I saw them.

Their signage said 'jail4judges' and I would easily confuse them when I would ask, "Which four judges do you want jailed?".

Their basic arguement is that the Judical Branch should be under the control of the Executive. They argue that the Judiciary should not be an independent branch of government, but that the Executive should have authority over all aspects of the Judiciary and be able to imprison anyone in the Judiciary upon complaint of anyone that loses a court hearing.

Posted by: Robin Grant at October 30, 2006 8:19 AM