My dear daughter,
Here’s an introduction to our judiciary:
It’s a caste which exists to keep the privileges of its members. Membership is often hereditary.
It’s the least republican state branch. Not just because its members are not elected; they believe it’s their god-given right to amass privileges and millionaire paychecks, well beyond the limits in the Constitution.
This has lots of explanations. Ever since colonial times authority was a gift from the crown to those close to it. It was never exercised by the people, for the people. It remains mostly that way. Usually the judiciary is only afraid of the military.
Especially in this country, Law is meant to serve economic power. Therefore, the judiciary will trump laws or even invent their own laws to meddle in politics and serve the rich and powerful.
This unsanctioned meddling goes hand in hand with a banalization of law education. We don’t teach law anymore, but whatever passes for law to keep students from questioning the system, while feeding false hopes they may someday join the higher ups.
Public exams to select members of the judiciary are a joke. They throw a ton of questions about obscure facts one could easily answer by checking google on their smartphones. They’re forbidden from using smartphones during the test, however. People study by memorizing every article of every law and every supreme court decision, even though they change their understanding constantly according to personal feelings . There’s actually very little law knowledge involved.
The system keeps feeding itself while throwing money out of the window. Almost all of the budget goes to pay the judges, who are among the most well paid employees on the face of the Earth. Also the most incompetent and ineffective. We have the highest spread on the planet between the minimum wage and a supreme court member’s wage. Not to mention judges in State Courts who get paid way beyond the salary of supreme court members.
Almost none of the duties attributed to judges in the Constitution are satisfactorily fulfilled. They don’t seem worried about keeping and protecting the Constitution authority, the criminal system is a mess, human rights are violated everywhere with little or no consequence and there is absolutely no accountability.
They’re excellent in framing poor people for traffic and imprisoning them in medieval dungeons for years without a trial, though. They’re also good at keeping a system which sustains poverty and inequality.
Love,
Dad
Aspergers Dad 