Greetings Subjects of the Commonwealth:
What vestige of credible legitimacy remained with the state Supreme Judicial Kangaroo Court was surrendered yesterday when six justices unanimously tripped over their robes in a rush to once again grovel at the feet of their masters, the state Legislature, exposing the Court for what it has become despite its once-proud heritage.
Any pretense of judicial independence or moral authority was abandoned yesterday at last, finally proving Dorothea Vitrac, executive director of LIMITS and the leader of the Term Limits movement here in the Peoples Republic since 1990, accurate in her observation:
“The SJC is in bed with the Legislature. They are politically corrupt. We don't have separation of powers in this state, with a legislative branch and a judicial branch. We just have political bodies, except some wear black robes and others wear suits.”
After experiencing first-hand, seeing with my own eyes within the hallowed and stately SJC courtroom, the Court's contortions and machinations last year to find some way— *any* way! -- to serve its masters' whims by murdering our payraise reform initiative, after watching from only feet away as Supreme Court Justice Neil Lynch in desperation arrogantly ignored his responsibility to order Secretary of State Bill Galvin to perform his constitutionally mandated duty and print our second round of petitions—I knew then and there that Term Limits too was dead. It just hadn't stepped into the crosshairs yet.
Said Tobe Berkovitz, communications professor at Boston University, said in a Boston Herald report today:
“In this state, you really do not have a balance of power between the legislative and judicial branches. They all come from the same cast of characters. That to me is a real problem for the citizens of Massachusetts.”
Lest I rant on, venting outrage forever here, and the following Boston Herald report provides a *somewhat* more objective and less cynical analysis, I close with the suggestion I gave Barbara yesterday, not entirely tongue-in-cheek, when she asked what can be done next:
“I think the time has come for a torch-and-pitchfork rally surrounding the State House; the only options now are tar-and-feathers—or servitude.” (“No Barbara, flashlights and lawn rakes aren't a sufficient substitute!”)
Chip Ford
Co-director
PS. Don't forget to tune in to The Jerry Williams Program at
1:00 PM today (WRKO AM-680); Bob Katzen, Barbara and I will be Jerry's guests, just like the “Good Old Days of Talk Radio.”
* * *
Citizen reformers have tried—but failed—since the early 1980s to repeal pay raises for Beacon Hill legislators, set term limits and restructure the way lawmakers set up powerful committees.
But despite the Supreme Judicial Court's continued refusal to legally bless the proposed changes, advocates said yesterday they aren't giving up.
“There is a feeling that you can't battle the castle anymore, but people in Massachusetts better not give up, (otherwise) who will guard those guys down there?” said Dorothea Vitrac, executive director of LIMITS II, the group that sponsored the term limits law struck down as unconstitutional by the SJC yesterday.
“The SJC is in bed with the Legislature. They are politically corrupt. We don't have separation of powers in this state, with a legislative branch and a judicial branch. We just have political bodies, except some wear black robes and others wear suits,” she said.
Vitrac and other advocates said that although they are discouraged that efforts to revamp business on Beacon Hill such as repealing pay raises or passing term limits have failed when presented to the SJC, the reform movement begun in the early 1980s is not dead.
Barbara Anderson, co-director of Citizens for Limited Taxation and Government, said petitions by voters to restructure everything from the way Beacon Hill lawmakers set up legislative committees to their pay scales to the length of their sessions have been struck down by the high court since 1983.
“We are disgusted by the court's response to any petition that directly affects the Legislature,” Anderson said. “We have learned from long experience that the court is not going to allow any law that the Legislature takes personally to stand.”
Anderson said CLT&G is going to change its strategy for legislative reform by filing an income tax bill “so simple even the SJC won't have an excuse to rule it unconstitutional.”
“Our fight is now simply going to shift from what we know the court cannot prevent us from doing, and that is tax legislation,” Anderson said. The measure would reduce the state income tax from 5.95 percent to 5 percent.
Jonathan Ferry, spokesman for U.S. Term Limits in Washington, D.C., said, “The politicians and the judiciary in Massachusetts have closed ranks to protect their own interests but the reform movement will never die as long as there are citizen activists to fight for it.”