The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Judges [Update: Or Legislators] That Should Be Cashiered

Posted on | December 15, 2011 | 6 Comments

by Smitty

Volokh:

If you buy a card that allows you unlimited access to a city subway system, and you then sell swipes from your card to let others access the subway system on your card, are you guilty of theft? No, says the New York Court of Appeals in People v. Hightower (Dec. 11), because you legitimately own the access that you are selling:

Oh for Crying. Out. Loud. In. The. Dark.

So, one person buys a card, lets everyone else use the system, bankrupting it, and some berobed clown in New York thinks that’s just ducky? Really?

I was called for jury duty, and pled the fact that I was in Afghanistan for not showing. Down the road, if called, I may bluntly tell them during the voir dire that I may have to vote against the legislators, or the judge, if the law or the jurisprudence is sufficiently out to lunch. Isn’t that the point of a trial by jury, to let We The People retain sovereignty in the legal system?

Postmodern silliness is all fine in the privacy of one’s own head. When laws are written or judgements handed down that are utterly stupid, we suddenly discover that the assertion of wisdom on the bench may have been perverted by a pack of godforsaken fools.

Category: Progressivism

Comments

6 Responses to “Judges [Update: Or Legislators] That Should Be Cashiered”

  1. Bob Belvedere
    December 15th, 2011 @ 7:57 am

    John Adams, 11OCT1798:

    But should the people of America once become capable of that deep simulation towards one another, and towards foreign nations, which assumes the language of justice and moderation, while it is practising iniquity and extravagance, and displays in the most captivating manner the charming pictures of candour, frankness, and sincerity, while it is
    rioting in rapine and insolence, this country will be the most miserable habitation in the world. Because we have no government, armed with power, capable of contending with human passions, unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge and licentiousness would break the strongest cords of our Constitution, as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
    http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Adams

  2. Doug Mataconis
    December 15th, 2011 @ 8:34 am

    I read the decision that Volokh linked to and it would appear that this was nothing more than an application of the facts of the case to the NY criminal statute. Since it’s a criminal statute, the words of the legislature must be construed as written. Therefore, the problem lies not with the judge but with a law that has not been written in a way that makes the conduct in question illegal.

  3. smitty
    December 15th, 2011 @ 8:40 am

    This is what I was trying to get at with I may bluntly tell them during thevoir dire that I may have to vote against the legislators, or the judge but I never edited the title.

  4. In This Case, At Least, the Black Robe Was Right | Daily Pundit
    December 15th, 2011 @ 10:29 am

    […] Case, At Least, the Black Robe Was Right Posted on December 15, 2011 7:28 am by Bill Quick Judges [Update: Or Legislators] That Should Be Cashiered : The Other McCain So, one person buys a card, lets everyone else use the system, bankrupting it, and some berobed […]

  5. TrogloPundit
    December 15th, 2011 @ 11:48 am

    Smitty, why do you hate capitalism so?

  6. Charles
    December 15th, 2011 @ 7:27 pm

    It isn’t theft because the money you got from the other person isn’t the government’s money.It’s the  other person’s money and that person, assuming they understood what was going on, hasn’t been robbed. (If they did not know, they have been defrauded.)

    The other person, however, is stealing the subway transportation services without properly paying the subway system. Letting the other person use your card, whether you get paid for that or not, is aiding and abetting in that theft. You may also be guilty of a conspiracy.

    The prosecutor just didn’t charge the right crime, so the prosecutor should be cashiered.