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Dispensing Justice

This post about the protests in the wake of the Roe v. Wade leak (now a reality not just a possibility) reminds of the documentary on the subject I had watched a while ago. The justices at the time did not have to content with protestors demonstrating outside their homes and assassination attempts, but their decision making was influenced by family members. The fact that it is possible to sway the decision at all no matter which way the pressure comes from makes you question if the bedrock of the justice system, It is supposed to be objective, unbiased and unprejudiced. Clearly none of that is true. 

In our neck of the woods a local judge got a grand send-off on his retirement which puzzled many in the community because his record was very far from stellar. His claim to fame was that he dispensed "holistic justice". Some of his decisions ended having terrible outcomes for individuals and families. Reading about these rulings in the local papers back when he was still on the bench always made me wonder why the said judge even needed a law degree to dispense justice as he did. 

The caliber of work was no better than what a group of illiterate village elders in rural India might have doled out a hundred years ago. Like them he looked at the "big picture" and did what "commonsense" dictated - his personal prejudices played a very important role in the whole process. None of that requires a legal education and years of practice and training. Does not seem like things are that much better in the highest seat of justice in the land based on how the decisions are being doled out from there these days.

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