Deval Kulshrestha, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
“We are a government of laws, not of men.”
John Adams said that.
“All men are created equal.”
Thomas Jefferson said that—in The Declaration of Independence.
Atticus Finch, in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, said “In this country, our courts are the great levelers.”
These are all fine words and fine ideals, but they just do not ring true—except maybe John Adams’ sentiments. In some circumstances. We do seem to pay more attention to the law than to the citizens to whom they are applied—at least some of the citizens; justice sometimes takes a backseat to special interests. And, in the eyes of the law, not all men are created equal. And courts are not the great levelers—unless you can afford a great lawyer.
By and large, laws are neither conceived nor enforced equally in this country. Like other American institutions, the law is beholden to the power of the dollar. It starts in the Capitol, where bills are written and will—theoretically—become laws.
Dozens of lobbyists representing special interests cajole, beguile, and corrupt our elected officials to pass laws friendly to their causes, including the fossil fuel industry, big pharmacy, the tech industry, and more. The NRA is one of the strongest of these groups. The proof of their effectiveness is seen in recent polls of public opinion. Nearly seventy percent of American citizens want some sort of gun control, including background checks, bans on assault weapons, and stricter age regulations. Yet, with the exception of a recent watered-down bill passed in the wake of the elementary school massacre in Uvalde, effective gun control legislation has not been passed for years. The NRA has effectively blocked gun safety legislation—with big money. Money talks and our legislators listen; so, laws that might improve public safety are rarely proposed, and even if they are, they are shelved and lie moldering in limbo.
Price gouging by drug companies—especially in the case of insulin—have not been addressed by lawmakers. Until recently, legislation encouraging renewable energy has been fought (mostly successfully) by the fossil fuel industries. And eighteen-year-olds can buy AR-15 type weaponry online. With apologies to Mr. Adams, we are a government of men who use the law for their own benefit.
Laws are not enforced equally. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, African Americans arrested for nonfatal violent crimes are strikingly overrepresented: while they constitute 12.5% of the population, they account for 33% of all arrests. The same is true of Hispanics. According to the ACLU, marijuana use among Blacks and Whites is roughly equal, African Americans are 3.73 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than their white counterparts. Apparently, according to the law—or to those who enforce it—not everyone is created equal. Some are less than equal in the eyes of the wall. Minorities are overrepresented in our court systems, in prisons, and as victims of police violence.
According to Mr. Finch, courts are the great levelers. That may be true, theoretically, but in the real world a person of means accused of a serious crime can afford a good attorney. One without means must rely on a public defender, usually a fresh-faced youngster straight out of law school. Good lawyers cost money—a lot of money. A better lawyer means a better defense. A better defense means a lighter sentence—or freedom. Look at O.J. Simpson. Would he have been acquitted if he hadn’t had the means to hire Johnny Cochran, F. Lee Bailey, Robert Shapiro, or Alan Dershowitz? And, of course, if a criminal defendant has the means, his attorney can file all manner of motions and appeals to delay and obfuscate legal action. To most middle-class Americans, the prospect of spending tens of thousands of dollars to take someone or to be taken to court is terrifying. Retainers and unending legal fees can seem like rabbit holes leading to financial ruin.
And now, the country is facing perhaps of the greatest legal inequities of all time. Donald Trump, a former president, is presently being investigated by various federal and state agencies for—among many other things—attempting to elicit election interference, committing tax fraud, and mishandling classified documents. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. This man incited a riot at the Capitol Building in order to halt the certification of the 2020 presidential election. The January 6th House Committee, convened to investigate the riot, has unearthed damning evidence proving that Trump incited what he knew to be an armed mob in the hopes of stealing the presidency.
Yet, even though there seems to be a plethora of irrefutable proof, he has yet to be indicted. He was caught on tape asking the Georgia Secretary of State to find him 11,780 votes. Top secret classified documents containing sensitive intelligence were illegally taken from the White House were found carelessly stored at his residence in Mar-a-Lago. Their very presence in his residence is a felony. Testimony from the January 6th hearings also implicated him in the conspiracy to steal the presidential election.
Any other citizen would have been arrested and indicted by this point, but in this case, true to form, money—and power—have tipped the scales of justice. Donald Trump (according to himself) is immensely wealthy. (In light of recent investigations by the State of New York, apparently, he is not as wealthy as he says.) More pertinently, he is a former president and, while the Department of Justice may eventually indict him, he will use all his resources to stall, postpone, and hamstring any proceedings against him. It’s what he’s always done.
Donald Trump believes he is above the law, and so far, the law has been unable to touch him. The fault is not in the law itself, but in the reluctance of jurists to enforce it. Donald Trump is, by any measure of logic, empirical evidence, and state or federal statute, implicated in some very serious crimes. He is very probably guilty of election interference, sedition, sexual assault, and more, yet he has not, and very likely will never be, brought to justice. He will most definitely not pay for all his sins.
So, we are not a government of laws. Some men seem to be more equal than others. And courts are not levelers. They are mere reflections of the flaws of the society which they serve. Justice is not blind. She just refuses to see.