The Warren Court is Long Dead -- so is Diallo

[JKSCHW at aol.com]

Well, you might as well sneer at socialist ideals,w hich also seem to remain in the display case. Or perhaps you think that progressive lawyers should just hang it up because there is no way that those ideals can ever be even partially vindicated under capitalism. Or, indeed, as a matter of fact, given what I just said about socialism, under socialism. So maybe we should just hang up the ideals of fairness and due process and equal protection. Ought implies can, after all, and ideals that cannot be realized are no good. Justice is nothing but the will of the stronger. 

But this is not what you mean. You mean that I fail to realize that we live in a deeply racist system where justice is class justice, although I do believe this and have said it. You think that I have all sort of ideological illusions that equal justice under law means something. Presumably this is because I don't say, Death to pig fascist AmeriKKKa, or something like that. Well, I never pretended to be more revolutionary than thou.

In a message dated Mon, 28 Feb 2000  2:05:57 PM Eastern Standard Time, "Carl Remick" <carlremick at hotmail.com> writes:


> >Btw I presume it was me at whom Carl Remnick was sneering under the name of 
> >Jason as the person whose obsequiousness towards the majesty of the law 
> >ought to be given a pause by the Diallo case because the cops got off all 
> >legally and everything.  However, I can recognize injustice because even 
> >though I think that our law embodies ideals worth fighting to realize. The 
> >transfer to Albany and the resulting verdict was a farce, but it's a farce 
> >because it makes a political joke of the idea of equal justice under law.
> 
> But those ideals remain forever in the display case -- they're never 
> actually taken out and used in difficult cases like this.  What confounds me 
> is the way all the intricate legal gears meshed so perfectly during the 
> Diallo case to give the appearance of due process with none of the 
> substance.  Plausibility was delivered; justice denied.
> 
> Carl
> 
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