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** Is one branch better than the others?
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If it bleeds it leads. The news always seems bad. So if you follow the news you'll feel despair. And despair leads to surrender. But...
You may be tempted to say nothing good happens, but that's not right. Our rulers manage to get some things right. Here are some recent examples…
** Example #1: Courts thwart two attempts to control your internet access
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Bad politicians and activist busybodies want you to prove your age before you can access social networks and porn sites.
These tyrannical souls claim they want to protect children from having their brains destroyed.
But computers and phones already contain filters parents can use. And more filters would surely be added if there was a strong consumer demand. This strongly suggests the real aim is not to protect children from some dubious harm but rather to control your right to be an adult! I mean, the busybodies do the same thing with guns and other adult objects. Yet there's good news...
Courts in Arkansas and Texas have halted these power grabs! ([link removed])
** Example #2: A federal court has blocked Detroit's asset forfeiture policies
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Asset forfeiture was intended to fight organized crime, but asset forfeiture IS organized crime.
Good news: More and more judges are coming to realize that. This Detroit case has four features...
1. The cops were stealing people's cars without filing any charges.
2. They would delay the administrative process that allowed the victims to challenge these seizures.
3. This caused many victims to give up, allowing the cops to keep the cars.
4. Some seizures were used to deny people the resources needed to defend themselves in court.
This last item is a common feature in many seizure cases. Prosecutors cripple people financially so they can't mount a defense, allowing DA's to win by default.
But a federal panel of judges has UNANIMOUSLY ruled ([link removed]) that the Detroit cops have violated the 14th Amendment right to due process.
Please notice something...
** These bits of good news come from the judicial branch
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Judges make a ton of mistakes and even behave quite badly. Yet they still do more to protect your rights than our elected representatives do.
You would expect it to be the other way around, that is if representative government was the wonderful system people proclaim it to be.
You would think that unelected judges would be more tyrannical, and elected politicians less so.
Well, consider the incentives. Unlike politicians, judges have little to gain by oppressing us. But unlike judges…
* Politicians are constantly pressured by special interests to rob us.
* Politicians almost never hear from average citizens opposing the theft.
This suggests two strategic paths to improvement.
1. Be sure that judges hear from us using amicus briefs.
2. Make legislators start hearing from we taxpayers, and not just from special interests.
We're trying to make both things happen.
Now, here's an opportunity for you to participate in making sure your representatives hear from you…
Federal prosecutors will have less unfair leverage to coerce plea bargains if federal parole is restored.
Restoring federal parole helps fulfill a long-term, strategic objective: We must ensure that more cases actually go to trial. And this should happen instead of having people make false confessions because they fear long sentences, or because the cops have seized all the assets they need to defend themselves. If you agree then help us...
Restore Federal Parole ([link removed])
If you've already signed up to be one of The 300 ([link removed]) for Federal Parole, then…
Please contribute or start a monthly pledge. ([link removed])
Set your own agenda,
Jim Babka, President
Agenda Setters by Downsize DC
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** Today's Action: Restore federal parole ([link removed])
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