Courts are the center of self-government

14 January 2015By Andy Ostrowski

We are living in a generation where we are experiencing the incremental destruction of the rights and freedoms upon which America was founded, and we must return to principles that restore these rights.

We need to return government to the people by returning to the principles embodied by our founding documents.

The freedom of the individual to invent, to create, and to innovative is the engine that drove America’s greatness, and that is the freedom we are losing in this world.

Luzerne County Courthouse

Our own government monitors us . . . we need permission to do things that are within our natural rights, and are penalized for living according to the dictates of our consciences, and for questioning our government. We have become servants of our government — and corporations — and the institutions created by man which run this world.

America’s founding documents are the key
We need to return to the principles embodied by our founding documents — to reestablish the bond between man and his creator as the basis of our republic, to return government to the role of servant of man, and to subjugate the rights of the corporations to the rights of man.

We are losing our rights under these founding documents because we are losing the courts. The courts, indeed, are the center of self government, where the rights between men and the relationships between man and his or her government had been determined publicly. The courts used to be open — people would fill the courtrooms and watch justice being administered. Tragically, that is no longer the case.

Today, except for those rare cases that gain wide publicity or national attention — like a George Zimmerman trial, or a Casey Anthony trial . . . an OJ Simpson trial — the courtrooms are mostly empty, occupied only by lawyers, judges, and court staff. People who come into the courtrooms are leered at and watched, and made to feel that they really don’t belong there.

Few checks on the judiciary
Our courts are controlled by lawyers, judges, and bar associations on the surface. In Pennsylvania, we have a constitutional provision, Article V, Section 10(c), which effectively removes the courts from the checks and balances of the other two branches, and gives lawyers and judges exclusive control over all aspects of the judiciary.

Max Rosenn U.S. Courthouse

This provision has allowed for the adoption of rules that are designed to protect the institution of the bar associations and lawyers, such as Rule 1.6 of the ABA Rules of Professional Conduct, and to create a culture and climate of secrecy and control which shields public corruption from being exposed to light through by punishing lawyers and other parties who seek to bring it to light.

These organizations and principles, unchecked, are as venal and oppressive as any tyrant from which we separated nearly 240 years ago.

People are no longer able to go into a court and represent themselves in their own affairs, and they should be able to do so without being trapped into a maze of esoteric rules and procedures that obscure rather than promote access to justice. The abuse of so-called pro se litigants (non-attorneys who represent themselves in court) is a problem that must be immediately addressed. That common mistreatment reflects the control that lawyers and bar associations have over access to justice in this country, and confronting it is a key to returning government to the people.

The hidden controllers
We need to investigate the entities, cabals, and organizations that control access to justice below the surface. Fraternal organizations such as the Freemasons are widely known to have significant control over access to justice. The concept of secrecy is anathema to the administration of justice, and these forces of darkness must be rooted out everywhere they exist, and be eradicated.

William J. Nealon Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in Scranton

The federal courts are where the rights and liberties of the individual under the United States’ founding documents are ultimately protected, and these courts serve as the check on the abuse of state power. They no longer do so, and are subject to the same artifices of control that have corrupted the state courts. It is a core problem in this country, and it is why we are losing our rights and liberties. If the federal courts were doing their job, the abuses of the states and state courts would be brought into line.

More than 50 years have elapsed since the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and we are falling woefully short of the goals of that legislation: creating a free and open society where the rights of all are respected and protected. The recent events in Ferguson, Missouri, demonstrate just how far short we have fallen, and these failings of our society are failings in the courts. Laws are enacted by legislatures and it is up to the courts to see that these laws are fairly administered to effectuate the intention of the legislature, and this is just not happening for all the structural reasons I have touched upon.

Remedies do lie before us
We can return the courts to the people, and return to them their faith in government. There are sound political solutions to these problems, and constitutional provisions such as Article IV of the U.S. Constitution that guarantees us a small-“r” republican form of government — one where the people are recognized as sovereign, and all powers derive from them.

We need to ensure that juries, and not judges, are deciding the most important issues that govern our affairs, with common law grand juries, in particular, derived from the people, and not controlled by the courts, further serving as a check on the abuses of government.