Justice

Why are courtrooms routinely unavailable on public media in a supposed democracy? From the Supreme Court down to municipal courts, judges and lawyers do not wish to make their jobs visible. I believe this is due to their wish to control and manipulate the justice system in favor of vested interests.

 

We live in an age of immediate visibility through technology. However, politics, governance and the judiciary operate under systems devised for the 19th century. This is absurd. This does not persist as some holy tribute to tradition. This persists to prevent the public from having a stronger hand in politics, governance and the judiciary. This is unjust if a truly democratic republic is to exist in the United States.

 

In 2010, there was one attorney per 172 people in the U.S.. In 2010, there was one doctor for approximately 350 people in the U.S.. Twice as many lawyers, relevant to population, than doctors. This may be a clue to the reasons behind the veil of secrecy over the justice system. It may be a case of too many cooks in the kitchen, for example.  It may also be an example of a powerful professional group which does not want transparency.

 

The laughable failure of the criminal justice system in the O.J. Simpson case in 1995 on national TV probably has something to do with the current secrecy in our trial courts. The politicizing of the Supreme Court may also have something to do with it. Whatever the reason, promoting an image of courtroom process with the likes of Judge Wapner does an injustice to the public. A country with the highest prisoner-to-population ratio in the world and one of the highest lawyer-to-population ratios would do well to shed some light on the process in courtrooms as a matter of course. Maybe this would accelerate reform of the our justice system from top to bottom.