If I were Dictator for a Day…
I’d give back some Power to the People.
We live in a nation of laws. Or at least, we once did. Today, I’m not so sure. I’m not talking about the crime rate here. At least, not the way we typically think about crime… murders, rapes, robberies, carjackings.
I’m talking about the laws that are being ignored – violated if you will – by government. Often, ignored with impunity.
Case in point. The Heritage Foundation is suing the Department of Justice for failing to comply with Freedom of Information Act requests that Heritage Foundation submitted to the DOJ earlier this year.
I’m very familiar with the Freedom of Information Act. I spent a couple of decades working as a reporter for two television news operations and from time to time our news organization would use the Freedom of Information Act to get public records when public servants didn’t want to give them up or made them damn near impossible to access in the first place.
FOIA as it is sometimes called has been around since 1967. Go to FOIA.gov and he government will tell you it’s an act that
“…has provided the public the right to request access to records from any public agency. It is often described as the law that keeps citizens in the know about their government. Federal agencies are required to disclose any information requested under the FOIA unless it falls under one of nine exemptions which protect interests such as personal privacy, national security and law enforcement.”
Certain exemptions seem reasonable. It wouldn’t make sense to enable people to, say, access home addresses of federal employees. Even they have a right to privacy.
So, since 1967 we’ve had a federal law that says federal agencies CANNOT withhold information.
But who enforces that law?
Let’s look at FOIA.gov – scroll down to the bottom of the “About page” where we learn FOIA.gov’s contact info is the Office of Information Policy, or OIP, at The U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, D.C.
Hey – isn’t that the same agency The Heritage Foundation is suing – for ignoring the Freedom of Information Act?
Yes! It is! Heritage is suing the outfit that appears to be in charge of the Freedom of Information Act – for violating the act!
So, quick review:
The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requires federal agencies to provide records about just about anything whenever someone requests them. The Justice Department appears to be in charge of enforcement but – oh – wait – Heritage Foundation claims it’s not even following the law it’s supposed to enforce.
Aha!
So if we are a nation of laws… and we depend upon people – and presumably the government – to follow those laws, what do we, the people, do when government does NOT follow the law?
Well, you can sue, like the Heritage Foundation is doing. That’s certainly one way. But lawsuits take time. And even if you win your lawsuit, whomever you sued often gets an opportunity to appeal. And the process of justice grinds ever so slowly onward, sometimes, sideways.
There needs to be a better way.
Storm the Bastille?
No. You can’t very well storm Bastille – or the ramparts – of a federal agency. It’s not civilized. It’s illegal. And it’s not necessary.
I think there is a better way. Not just for Freedom of Information requests. Those are important but not nearly as important as other disregardings of laws by federal agencies.
This is a lot more than catching the game warden hunting out of season or nabbing a city official taking bribes.
Let’s back up for a moment and look at what Heritage Foundation actually wants to know.
The records Heritage Foundation is seeking in its lawsuit are – quoting from the Foundation’s website –
“…documents and communications regarding the recent intimidatory protests carried out by radical abortion supporters outside the homes of Supreme Court justices in the wake of the leaked Dobbs draft decision and later the court’s official ruling in the case.”
In other words… anything at Justice having to do with the pro-abortion mob that spent weeks protesting outside of Supreme Court Justices’ homes once they’d heard the Justices were planning to overturn Rowe V Wade.
The protestors were incensed. But they were also violating the law. Specifically 18 U.S.C. 1507, a federal statute which outlaws protesting outside a Justice’s home to influence their legal decisions.
The Constitution sets up Supreme Court Justices as agents as part of the system of checks and balances that makes our country work. And Section 1507 seeks to protect them… just like we have laws to protect the President, members of the legislature, and so forth.
But the protestors weren’t being arrested. Unlike the protestors in and around the US Capitol on January 6th, who are being arrested, held in jail and tried. Anyone can watch news reports of the protestors in front of the homes of Justices like Samuel Alito, Amy Coney Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh and Chief Justice John Roberts. But they were never prosecuted, and that’s what Heritage Foundation wants to find out: why not?
Peaceful protests were actually encouraged by the White House. But the law doesn’t say peaceful protests are ok. It outlaws protests, period, peaceful or not. And yet while there was much publicity and ado about making sure the January 6th protesters were being prosecuted…. The sum total of prosecutions of protestors at the homes of Supreme Court Justices has been zero. Zilch. Nada. Federal law enforcement and federal prosecutors have ignored those violations of federal law.
Double standard? You decide.
If I were Dictator for a Day I’d remedy the situation by giving the Power to the People.
The Power to the People law (or would it be a Dictum?) could be brought into play whenever a government agency was found to be ignoring an obvious violation of the law.
In the case of the protests outside the homes of Supreme Court Justices, it would enable members of the public to seek out other law enforcement agencies to assume jurisdiction and enforce the law. My Power to the People law would not give people the right to make citizen arrests. It would give them the power to petition another law enforcement agency to take command.
Why not? If I’m running a business and I hire someone to get a job done and that person doesn’t do the job I either don’t pay them or I fire them, and get someone who can do the job.
It’s really pretty simple. In fact, it’s already being done.
In August of 2021 the US Department of Justice announced it was opening an investigation into the city of Phoenix and the Phoenix Police Department over use of force, including deadly force, and to find out if other laws were being violated. Were the police discriminating in their policing, were they violating rights of homeless people, how are they responding to people with disabilities. The feds also planned to look at how Phoenix PD held their officers accountable for their actions.
US Attorney General Merrick Garland said the aim of the investigation would be “…to promote transparency and accountability and to increase public trust…”
But wait a minute. Isn’t Garland the same guy running the DOJ that’s being sued by the Heritage Foundation – essentially for not disclosing why DOJ hadn’t bothered to arrest and prosecute protestors outside of Supreme Court Justices’ homes?
Yea.
Hmm. That’s a really big Hmm.
The irony!
What we have here is one law enforcement agency superimposing itself over another to investigate the possibility that a law enforcement agency wasn’t following the law.
But is it a good thing? You decide.
But it’s certainly an example of extreme irony. The Assistant AG on this chimed in to say it’s all being done to “…to ensure that every person in this country benefits from policing that is lawful, effective, transparent, and free from discrimination.”
Yea, but what about the Supreme Court Justices? Aren’t they persons in this country? Shouldn’t they benefit from lawful, effective, transparent and discrimination free law enforcement. Shouldn’t federal cops be protecting them? Shouldn’t the feds be prosecuting the perpetrators involved in those protests?
Seems like a double standard to me. Merrick Garland’s Justice Department is happy to investigate what MIGHT be happening with the Phoenix Police Department but it’s not willing to enforce what IS happening in front of the homes of Supreme Court Justices.
This is happening within an administration that is entrenched with liberals – many of which have a “defund the police” or anti-police mentality. They also have a pro-abortion mentality. The overturning of Roe V Wade has become a major campaign plank for Democrats as we head to mid-term elections.
Can you say “double standard?”
But the fact is it would not matter if the shoe were on the other foot. If a Republican administration was ignoring violations of laws for causes it likes while prosecuting pretty much everything in sight that it doesn’t like.
Leave the politics out of it. If it’s a double standard, it’s a double standard and it’s wrong.
A double standard is more than a double standard… it’s also a two-edged sword.
What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. It’s a subject of one of my earlier articles and podcasts.
So when government decides not to do its job… I believe the people who are paying for that service should have a right to go elsewhere.
A Power to the People law would, in this instance, allow the public to petition another law enforcement agency to come in, make arrests and seek prosecution.
I have no idea which law enforcement agency it might be… or in fact, if it’s even possible. On the federal level, it probably would never be another federal law enforcement agency because at some point it’s got to go through the Justice Department. So as Dictator for a Day I might have to issue another dictum – or edict - that empowers cross-jurisdictional prosecutions. In other words, give local prosecutors the authority to prosecute any law that’s not being enforced, if the entity that is supposed to enforce it is slacking off.
Could the Power of the People law be used anywhere?
Probably in most places. In Wisconsin the sheriff of Milwaukee County – Sheriff David Clark - once threatened to start patrolling the City of Milwaukee because of increasing crime. While that was a shared jurisdiction (deputies are empowered anywhere in the county) it showed that at least when it comes to law enforcement, there are law enforcement agencies that still believe laws should be enforced, by someone. So Sheriff Clark was willing to step up to the plate.
Could that happen elsewhere?
Actually, with my Power to the People law, it could happen anywhere a government entity is perceived to not be doing its job… basically ignoring what it’s supposed to be doing. But I suspect most of the time we’re not going to see things like the public foaming at the mouth to recruit a different Bureau of Weights and Measures… stuff like that. Most of the time it would be used to right wrongs that are really time sensitive. Like laws being broken as we watch.
So… where else is the law being ignored?
Well, let’s see. (Sound of labored thinking.)
Oh yes – Texas and Arizona, where millions of illegal immigrants have been crossing the border in violation of federal law.
New York and California, where prosecutors either fail to prosecute or local laws enable criminals to be released without bail.
Portland, Oregon, Seattle and Minneapolis, where criminals, in the name of whatever, have decimated entire communities, police have been defunded and average citizens are scared out of their minds.
A Power to the People law would – to work – have of necessity some complexities. You couldn't just use it willy-nilly. You would have to find law enforcement in agreement with you and that – frankly – has the cajones to take the lead. And you would probably need a mechanism to reimburse if there were additional expenses.
I’d suggest yanking salaries of the people responsible for not enforcing the law in the first place.
Garland alone earns more nearly a quarter million dollars a year at $221,400.
Would it be tough to write and enact something like this in the real world? Yes, definitely. Would it be worth it? Certainly.
You wouldn't keep a plumber you called to fix a leaky faucet but ends up flooding your home.
Why should we have to keep government entities or employees that aren’t doing their jobs?
And don’t tell me through the ballot box. By the time we get through the next election, the damage is often long-done. And as we all know, rarely is anyone in government ever held accountable about anything.
At the very least, the development and existence of a Power to the People law could be used as a club to make government do its job.
Now there’s a concept!
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Listen to the dramatized Podcast version with Dennis Dean and sidekick, Sounder at https://dictatorforaday.substack.com/podcast