The Rule of Law Unraveled 0
If the law is not the same for everyone, we do not have rule of law.
Keith Olbermann described the importance of the rule of law last night while criticizing the willingness of John McCain (and others) to throw out the liberties of some.
Here is the key part of the transcript. It’s a good description of the importance of the rule of law:
This man — whatever other reprehensible thing he appears to be — is an American citizen!
And if you can decide that he shouldn’t have the same rights we would give to the man who shot President Reagan, or to serial killers, or to Bernie Madoff, then the precedent that you set can some day end thusly:
Some day, for some reason, somebody will be able to arrest you, Mr. McCain, and declare that you are not entitled to your Miranda rights, and that perhaps you should be tried by a military court.
While you pander to a group that tries to dress up its bitching about paying its fair share of taxes as “the government is taking away freedom,” you propose that the government should take away… freedom.
You shame yourself in the eyes of American Patriots, and in the eyes of your fellow veterans who sacrificed, and the honored dead who gave their lives, to protect the freedoms and the laws you have today suggested should be optional!
For practical purposes, the law is not the same for everyone. Shoplifters with public defenders do not face the same odds as Wall Street banksters with $1500-an-hour defense lawyers.
Nevertheless, a thread in the story of America has been the struggle to make the law the same for everyone; now, at least, that shoplifter does get a public defender.
To rip that thread from the fabric of the story for some would be to do so for all.
The portion quoted above starts about 55 seconds into the video:
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