The U.S. Courts Giveth, The U.S. Courts Taketh Away

Or, Three Strikes And Their Bullshit About “Guaranteed Rights” Is Out.

Of course, by this point in history, there are countless thousands, if not millions, of such strikes. But here are three contemporary cases, the latter two occurring just within the last few weeks:

Strike One: U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Guantanamo Bay permanent prisoners have habeas corpus rights. In practice, every such appeal brought by the prisoners' lawyers under this putative dispensation is quashed by the D.C. circuit Appeals Court and the Supreme Court refuses further review.

Strike Two: A Federal District Court judge issued a permanent injunction against Obama's Law, the one that he claimed to be against, which gives the President the power to brand American citizens “arrested” (seized by the state without charges) anywhere on earth, including inside the U.S., as “terrorists,” and throw them into the U.S.' military gulag without recourse, for as long as “hostilities” last- i.e. until they decide to declare “victory” in the eternal “war on terror.” (Recall that Bush the Younger wanted to call it the War On Evil, but the political branding experts must have figured that would make it too obvious that this state of “emergency” repression was intended to be permanent.)

Well, Obama, who claimed to oppose the law he signed, and promised not to use it (a totally hollow promise, and also hardly binding on him, let alone on his successors, and besides the point in any event, which is about outrageous state power to oppress us) appealed this decision, and the Federal judiciary obligingly threw out the injunction on the appellate level.

Strike Three: Federal judge Shira Scheindlin issued an injunction against the outrageous practice of the New York City Police Department (NYPD) of arresting guests and residents of apartment buildings for no reason at all. (Black ones, of course. What did you think?) Then she canceled it so as not to unduly burden the NYPD by making them stop it (such a complex and expensive process!) and in anticipation that the appeals court would throw it out in an event.

One thing I should note: the courts are constantly cruelly teasing lawyers and plaintiffs who try to fight state repression through the state's own legal system by giving temporary or minor “victories” to them and then pulling the rug out from under them, not enforcing their own rulings, or ignoring the reality on the ground which makes the tiny concessions of no real import and that do not change the power relationship between the government and the populace it rules.