On Judgement & Fudgement

Over 170 years ago Alexis de Toqueville observed, “There is hardly a political question in the United States which does not sooner or later turn into a judicial one.” But the philosopher did not simple observe how litigious we are, but he also celebrated the checks and balances of the American political system as a safeguard against the “Tyranny of the Majority.”

Now however, with the unprecedented executive power grab by President Bush, we are quickly losing those systemic protections. Would a Supreme Court tend protect the powers of a lazy and distracted Congress or ally with the Executive Branch? Would a Supreme Court with Roberts and Alito challenge executive power at all? Unlikely. As the New York Times Editorial stated last Monday, “If the far right takes over the Supreme Court, American law and life could change dramatically.”

Last week, on Tuesday, a federal judge ordered the Pentagon to finally release the names and nationalities of hundreds of prisoners detained at Guantánamo Bay. This ruling is in response to a lawsuit brought by the Associated Press in April 2005 to determine whether the detainees at Guantánamo had been properly categorized as "enemy combatants." If the government appeals, however, a new Supreme Court with Judge Alito would be unlikely to question the authority of the President.

At the same time, attorneys for other Guantanamo detainees, Muslim Uighurs who oppose their country's Communist rule, were scheduled to petition the Supreme Court this week. They seek a solution to the problem created last month when U.S. District Judge James Robertson ruled that the Bush administration's "Kafka-esque" indefinite detention of the Uighurs was illegal but that the court lacked the power to overrule the president and free them. "That ruling doesn't simply hit innocent men now in their fifth year of imprisonment," said Sabin Willett, one of the Uighurs' attorneys. "It goes to whether we have a judicial branch at all. This is that rare question so vital that the Supreme Court should immediately intervene to answer." But an Alito court would be unlikely to be disturbed by indefinite detention, surveillance programs or other excesses of the “War on Terror” as they affect more and more of us every day.

So instead, are we going to get used to secret evidence and military justice? What sort of justice is that? For example, on Monday a military jury ordered a reprimand but no jail time for an Army interrogator convicted of murdering an Iraqi general by stuffing him headfirst into a sleeping bag and sitting on his chest. Chief Warrant Officer Lewis Welshofer Jr. had originally been charged with murder and faced up to life in prison. He was only ordered to forfeit $6,000 in salary and was largely restricted to his barracks and workplace for 60 days. I suppose the sleeping bag is optional for him!

But our justice system can and should be fairer. I have seen it work; and once again am expecting to serve jury duty next week. But when court cases become politicized, it becomes unlikely that justice will prevail. When courts are hidden in the bureaucracy of the military industrial complex, no wonder torturers go free!

Nationalism, like religion, can be an “opiate of the people”, that is a powerful, habit forming distraction good for manipulating others. In Turkey, the Justice Ministry finally dropped its absurd charges against writer Orhan Pamuk for “insulting the state” by mentioning the massacres of the Armenians 90 years ago. I wrote about this case 3 weeks ago. But the Ministry was hardly heroic. To avoid annoying the nationalists, the ministry gave the reason as a legal technicality instead of his right to freedom of expression.

Politics, religion, and ideology; though useful in moderation, all can be used as opiates that cloud human reason. Television, fashion, anything may become habit forming and intoxicating. As I write this in a Pakistani restaurant, the Bollywood videos on the TV are both laughable and disturbingly distracting. The dancers seem to have escaped from some crazy zoo; any spiritual content of traditional dance is quite lost in the flashy, aggressive individuality of the performers. They are just low paid actors but I think of a death dance of bugs on a dirty wall! And I think of the evil antics of the Bollywood inspired Bin Laden and his Flying Circus!

But let us not overlook that opiates are the opiates of the people— that is, opium, hashish, and amphetamines-- and yes, even Muslims may find family members addicted to drugs! This is not an issue to deny. Isn’t the main source of heroin Muslim Afghanistan? Is that not a shameful corruption and a horror?

Some drugs are more habit forming than others. Many of us have had our youthful indiscretions and experimentations. But most of us know friends or family lost in the desert of addiction with little hope of return. And one of the more recent drugs to invade the continental United States has been Methamphetamine; there are at least 1.4 million addicts in the USA, mainly in the West, Mid-West and South. The ingredients can be mixed from simple over the counter drugs, but are so volatile that they frequently blow up labs and burn people with toxic chemicals. Children of Meth users may become poisoned as well as abused and abandoned.

In Georgia, operation Meth Merchant has swept up 44 South Asian convenience store merchants who wittingly or unwittingly sold ingredients. The Racial Justice Campaign Against Operation Meth Merchant has denounced law enforcement targeting as racially biased. In any case, now that 30 states are restricting the ingredients that make this terrible drug, new supplies of even stronger drugs (Crystal Ice Meth) are coming over the border from Mexico. This illegal import will just give more motivation to those who would like to close our nation’s borders; more ICE agents against ICE Meth.

Addiction is a terrible prison. Most drugs are like diseases, and self-limiting, since they kill off their addicts; yet Meth use continues to devastate communities and families. Muslim families may imagine it will not affect them! You may never see the signs until it is too late! And as a social problem drug abuse cannot be solved only through law enforcement. Increasingly our government gives up on treatment and education and social services; and social problems grow worse. And the government only hires more police! And gets us deeper into debt through military adventure, making it impossible to pay for social services! A terrible cycle! A train wreck! A Bush Administration! May Allah guide us through such dangers, to forgiveness, to wisdom and balance in all things; when human judgement fails and turns to fudgement, may we remember the standards of our faith, and that our souls will be weighed on the final day. May your good deeds be remembered!