The Deep State: The Fall of the Constitution and the Rise of a Shadow Government by Mike Lofgren
(Audiobook)
From chapter 08:
THE DEEP STATE, THE LAW, AND THE CONSTITUTION
Equal Justice Under Law?
The motto inscribed on the frieze of the United States Supreme Court Building says, “Equal Justice Under Law.” A stickler for semantics would say that the modifiers
“equal” and “under law” are redundant, since justice by definition is equal treatment under a system of written and publicly accessible rules. It is a noble sentiment in any case. The United States has undeniably made progress in fulfilling that ideal with respect to racial and gender equality over the course of the past century, but the rise of institutions with the power to seize government at its source and operate it for their own benefit is raising questions as to whether the United States is gradually slipping back into a condition that would have been recognizable in antiquity, when the Greek historian Thucydides remarked, “The strong do what they will, the weak suffer what they must.”
The financial meltdown of September 2008 has provided plenty of raw material for the belief that there is one law for the rich and another for the common clay. Practical as opposed to explicit inequality before the law is common in societies all over the world; it usually boils down to how legal procedures are applied as opposed to the letter of the law. Officials who pledged to uphold the law will always protest that they are neutral and unimpeachable executors of justice, and that it is insulting to suggest otherwise. But sometimes the truth slips out.
On March 6, 2013, testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee about the state of banks in the aftermath of the financial crisis, Attorney General Eric Holder stated the following: “I am concerned that the size of some of these institutions becomes so large that it does become difficult for us to prosecute them when we are hit with indications that if you do prosecute, if you do bring a criminal charge, it will have a negative impact on the national economy, perhaps even the world economy.” When banks hold a gun to the head of the economy, the relationship between regulator and regulated becomes a hostage relationship, made more complex in this instance by the fact that the hostage taker indirectly has political influence over the regulator by means of campaign contributions.
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