Posted on 01/19/2009 12:58:23 PM PST by rvoitier
Making an Ass of the Law
Making an Ass of the Law
Posted in Law, 19th January 2009 16:46 GMT
Obama's "regulation czar" Professor Cass Sunstein wants animals to be able to sue.
Animals can't reason or express themselves, naturally, so the litigation would be handled by human lawyers, acting as ventriloquists on behalf of the animal kingdom. Think Mister Ed the talking horse, crossed with Eliot Spitzer.
"Any animals that are entitled to bring suit would be represented by (human) counsel, who would owe guardian-like obligations and make decisions, subject to those obligations, on their clients' behalf," according to Sunstein. The Harvard legal scholar first proposed the argument in 2002.
"This doesnt look good for hunters, ranchers, restaurateurs, biomedical researchers, or ordinary pet owners," says the food industry lobby group The Center for Consumer Freedom, which raised Sunstein's radical "rights" agenda. In Spain, activists have already proposed that apes be granted human rights.
Yet the Professor's proposal is fraught with practical difficulties. Ventriloquists have often seen their "animal" veer out of control: remember Rod Hull and Emu - or Bob Carrolgees and Spit The Dog? There would be chaos in the courtroom.
"Objection!"
The proposal can be seen as part of a trend to fight political battles through the courts by playing clever tricks with the statutes or legal processes. A parallel move is the decision to give life-giving CO2 status as a "pollutant". Where do these perverse ideas come from?
Ever since the New Deal, when Roosevelt packed the Supreme Court to ram home legislation, it's been the preferred route for some US activists. But at bottom, it's fundamentally undemocratic and contemptuous of politics. Instead of taking your argument to the people, and using the powers of persuasion, a bit of semantic clever-dickery is all it takes. The strategy shows little confidence in one's own arguments, and worse, little faith in ordinary people to make rational decisions. It's elitism.
But it comes at a time when private agreements are bypassing and undermining well established public settlements. Last November, Google was handed a monopoly on the future of digital book in a backroom deal that replaces public agreements with private fiat. Authors must now trust Google to do the right thing - a position the medieval citizenry had to adopt with the ruling aristocrats, because it had little other choice.
The law may often be an ass, but it's still an improvement on what came before - the whims of the wise - and we still need it to work.
Cass Sunstein co-wrote the authoritarian pop-policy book Nudge which was compulsory holiday reading for the UK Conservative Party last summer, by order of the Glorious Leader.
Any animal that can walk down to court and file it’s own papers is welcome to sue.
Are you referring to the ACLU, oh, nevermind, they are not animals, they are evil spirits.
LOL
That will be an ACLU lawyer's job. And, since it will be regarded as a "civil rights" case, it is the taxpayers who foot the ACLU lawyer's bill.
Animal rights are probably just another lawyers' enrichment program.
I read the article in the link about “nudging”. Libertarian paternalism? WTF is that supposed to be?!?! (more “the State knows better than the people” crap, which has nothing to do with libertarianism.)Looks like more Marxist corruption of the language!
What? Are the lawyers hard up for clients?
-PJ
Those who won’t sacrifice animals for people will sacrifice people for animals. Two Words: Potatoe Famine!
I ACTUALLY SAW THIS! I am serious. I watched this on a Get Smart episode in either 1965 or 66 where an attorney came in to CONTROL HQ and said he was “representing” a parrot that CONTROL was holding against its will.
The attorney was, of course, working for KAOS - the international organization of evil. BOY do I see a lot of parallels between that show and our situation today. It’s amazing that today’s “KAOS” has mastered brainwashing techniques on maybe 15 or 20% of the US population, yet has been unable to figure out how to censor the Internet. Even China knows how to do that. Maybe a comparison with the Three Stooges is more in order - or “Disorder in the Court” - ‘I’m a victim of circumstance my honor! nuck nuck nuck nuck”
Any animal who would choose a lawyer for counsel has an ass for an advocate.
The first plaintiff should be that poor Bald Eagle who they dragged out on to the stage against its will at the Lincoln Memorial yesterday.
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