I find this disturbing. There is no justice in the american judicial system.
James
To: [email protected]
From: [email protected]
Date: Thu, 23 Jul 2009 10:55:54 -0500
Subject: [Libertarian] Supreme Court Guts American System of Justice
http://www.prisonplanet.com/supreme-court-guts-american-system-of-justice.html
Washington's Blog
<http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2009/07/supreme-court-decision-is-assault-on.html>
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
The New York Times
<http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/21/us/21bar.html?_r=3&scp=2&sq=9/11&st=cse>
is providing important coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court's May 18, 2009
decision in the case known as Ashcroft v. Iqbal:
The lower courts have certainly understood the significance of the
decision, Ashcroft v. Iqbal, which makes it much easier for judges
to dismiss civil lawsuits right after they are filed. They have
cited it more than 500 times in just the last two months.
"Iqbal is the most significant Supreme Court decision in a decade
for day-to-day litigation in the federal courts," said Thomas C.
Goldstein, an appellate lawyer with Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld
in Washington.
Why is Iqbal such an important case?
As the Times notes:
For more than half a century, it has been clear that all a plaintiff
had to do to start a lawsuit was to file what the rules call "a
short and plain statement of the claim" in a document called a
complaint. Having filed such a bare-bones complaint, plaintiffs were
entitled to force defendants to open their files and submit to
questioning under oath.
This approach, particularly when coupled with the American
requirement that each side pay its own lawyers no matter who wins,
gave plaintiffs settlement leverage. Just by filing a lawsuit, a
plaintiff could subject a defendant to great cost and inconvenience
in the pre-trial fact-finding process called discovery...
Information about wrongdoing is often secret. Plaintiffs claiming
they were the victims of employment discrimination, a defective
product, an antitrust conspiracy or a policy of harsh treatment in
detention may not know exactly who harmed them and how before filing
suit. But plaintiffs can learn valuable information during discovery.
The Iqbal decision now requires plaintiffs to come forward with
concrete facts at the outset, and it instructs lower court judges to
dismiss lawsuits that strike them as implausible.
"Determining whether a complaint states a plausible claim for
relief," Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote for the five-justice
majority, "requires the reviewing court to draw on its judicial
experience and common sense."
More ...
<http://www.prisonplanet.com/supreme-court-guts-american-system-of-justice.html>
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