OK, You Can’t Do This, Not Even in Alabama, Not Even to Roger Shuler

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Roger Shuler, Shelby County Jail inmate No. 288928

Let’s be clear: I don’t like Roger Shuler, a dishonest creep who has published defamation against the honest and innocent. A deranged liberal (but I repeat myself) Shuler celebrated last year when Brett Kimberlin had Aaron Walker arrested. When Shuler got himself arrested on a contempt of court charge last month, I was happy, despite Ken White’s First Amendment concerns about “prior restraint.”

Nevertheless, there are limits to schadenfreude, even when it involves the richly deserved woes of a total creep like Roger Shuler, and matters in Alabama have sadly transgressed that limit:

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama — The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a friend of the court brief arguing that a preliminary injunction against a Shelby County blogger was unconstitutional and insisting that the case be opened to the public. . . .
His case has been all but hidden from the public and all records of it on a state database have been sealed, even basic information, such as the docket. . . .
[T]he judge ordered the court records sealed.
When you look for Roger Shuler on the state court database, Alacourt, the search results return several cases, but none of them is the defamation lawsuit in which the Shelby County blogger is being jailed for contempt of court.
If you know the case number, you can type it in, but that only yields a white screen, blank but for four words in big red letters.
“This case in confidential,” it says.
As a result, basic information about the lawsuit, such as the parties involved, hearing dates and the status of the defendant are hidden from public view.
According to Marshall, sealing an entire case is rare and usually happens in cases involving minors. But in this instance, it essentially creates a secret court in Shelby County, he said.
“There is a secret docket,” he said. “That is not common in American courts.”

It is one thing to order that documents and testimony be sealed, but it is another matter entirely to keep the entire case secret. How are reporters supposed to cover the case if even the dates of hearings are confidential? While it is my belief that Roger Shuler deserves a nice long therapeutic vacation at North Alabama Regional Hospital, or perhaps the Taylor Hardin Secure Medical Facility for the criminally insane, I’d enjoy reading news coverage of the proceedings whereby this kook gets committed to the looney bin, where he belongs.

The court is depriving me of that enjoyment. I’m a victim.

Considering the caliber of lawyers representing the innocent and honest people defamed by Roger Shuler, and considering that it is Shuler’s habit to represent himself pro se, I’m certain that he will be utterly humiliated in court, and his humiliation should be public, because the people have a right to know what a dangerous kook he is.

Did I mention he’s a Democrat?

 

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32 comments

  1. Yeah, that whole “speedy and public trial” thing? That kind of matters. It’s a right specified in the U.S. Constitution and I’m pretty sure the federal judiciary considers it applicable to state courts.

    Sealing a civil case like this? Not kosher.

  2. As much as I’m chortling over your take, I’m really not liking where this is leading. I wouldn’t say I’m paranoid about the government or anything, but this smells like a paper mill.

  4. Link updated.

    6th Amendment: In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.

  6. I promise you that we hate this clown as much as you do. He is actually non-partisan in his attacks so long as you are on the wrong side of the intergalactic conspiracy to ruin poor Roger’s life. The problem is that after years of falsely claiming to be a victim, now he really is.

  7. A landmark SCOTUS case from the ’80s was the Richmond Times Dispatch vs someone representing the state courts, over a juvenile’s criminal case being closed to the press. The Court held that all court proceedings are to be public (with only narrow exceptions allowed). There is no reason to seal these Shuler records.

    I suspect the order which jailed him will also eventually be overturned as “prior restraint.” Presumably the purpose of the court’s actions in these matters is to minimize the damage to the objects of Shuler’s false and malicious rantings. Ironically, these actions may end up giving the whole sordid affair more publicity.

    It does raise an unfortunate area for public policy. If a Knight-Ridder newspaper said such things, they would be sued and the libeled could be made whole with monetary damages. Deadbeat scum like Shuler and the Kimberlin-Rauhauser-Schmalfeldt gang have no assets to attach. So they are essentially free to libel anyone, and do as a matter of course.

  13. Yeah, when a guy claims to be the target of a government conspiracy, it doesn’t help if the government acts like they’re hiding something.

  14. Heh, we’re supporting the civil rights of a man who would gladly execute any of us Beria-style. The irony is awesome and totally lost on Shuler and his buds.

  15. I wish I was that farkin’ high-minded. But no, I am supporting the public’s right to know what goes on in its courtrooms, even if it is an evil, crazy man ranting false accusations about innocent public figures.

  16. We knew it would be lost on you. It isn’t a matter of the Public’s right to know. It’s about the man’s rights and, in the end, ours. If the Gov can do it to one man, they can do it to all of us.

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