Support Your Local Judge
The following information is provided by Michigan JAILer
Rose Lear. For purposes of brevity and clarification, some portions may be
redacted and/or edited by comments. Every effort is made to remain true to
original text.
Support Your
Local Judge
The two armed bandit
strikes again. Just as they started working second and third shift back in the
50's and 60's, now the state prisons are going to do the same. Prison
Industries are growing. [It took just
over 200 years in America to acquire the first one-millionth person placed
behind bars, but approximately only 15 years to double that number. Having
passed the two-millionth mark only recently, America is continuing its expanse
at an alarming rate. One of America's greatest and most prosperous industries
today is prison complexes, said to be just behind that of General Motors
which is now laying off. America's incarceration level per capita far
exceeds every communist and fascist dictatorship around the globe by far.
-j4j] We can expect to see more convictions
for petty crimes, misdemeanors and infractions.
01/05/06 AP. Idaho -
Senator suggests prison "hot cots." Senate President Pro Tem Robert Geddes
says Idaho could correct prison overcrowding by requiring inmates to sleep in
shifts.
The so-called "hot
cot" proposal would have two inmates sharing the same bed at different times
of the day. Geddes announced the proposal during the Associated
Press Legislative Preview today. He says inmates could volunteer for
the swing-shift life, and they would have a better shot at scarce prison
jobs because the facilities would be operating around the clock.
What you will read below
doesn't just apply to Idaho and Michigan, it is happening in every state. I
know that here in Michigan, not only do the judges pad their retirement Funds,
but so also do the legislators. Why else would they keep making everything
under the sun against the law?
Michigan Compiled Laws
MCL 600.8381 (1)(b)
(1) Until October 1, 2003, when
fines and costs are assessed by a magistrate, a traffic bureau, or a judge of
the district court, not less than $9.00 shall be assessed as costs and
collected for each conviction or civil infraction determination and each
guilty plea or civil infraction admission except for parking violations. Of
the costs assessed and collected, for each conviction or civil infraction
determination and each guilty plea or civil infraction admission, $9.00 shall
be paid to the clerk of the district court.
(b) Beginning October 1, 2003,
the clerk shall transmit $9.00 of any costs assessed before October 1, 2003 to
the justice system fund created in section 181 of the revised judicature act
of 1961, 1961 PA 236, MCL 600.181.
600.181 Justice system fund;
creation; use; disposition; investment; distributions.
Sec. 181.
(1) .... The money in the fund
shall be used as provided in this section. ...
iv) To the secretary of the
legislative retirement system for deposit with the state treasurer in the
retirement fund created in the Michigan legislative retirement
system act, 1957 PA 261, MCL 38.1001 to 38.1080, 1.2% of the fund
balance.
(vii) To the state
court fund created in section 151a, 14.3%
of the fund balance.
(viii) To the court
equity fund created in section 151b, 25.55% of the fund
balance.
Sec. 151b.
(c) Excess court fees
transmitted by the state treasurer pursuant to section 217 of the
judges' retirement act of 1992, Act No. 234 of the Public Acts of
1992, being section 38.2217 of the Michigan Compiled Laws.
From the April, 2000 Idaho
Observer:
Support your
local judge -- it's the law
For almost anyone who has been
forced to defend himself (family, life, property, business, children, freedom)
from the position of a plaintiff or a defendant in a contemporary court,
judges can be a life form lower than attorneys. Why? Because judges come to
court with the gameboard set up so their actors can lie, cheat, steal and
purchase their way through the justice system.
There is no question among
those who have been in it, the court system, managed and policed by judges, is
a $multibillion litigation racket where justice is only served by accident. It
is of paramount irony that judges, the same ones who have been presiding all
these years and are responsible for the absolute, money-and-misery-making
machine that has become the legal system, are obligated by law to pad their
retirement a little softer with every civil action a citizen files in his
court.
Following is the language that
is law concerning judges. Keep in mind that supreme court judges, as of 1998,
make $90,791 per year with an annual 4 percent increase in pay; district court
judges make $85,095 per year with the same 4 percent annual increase in pay
that most of us cannot claim by law.
The potential for judges to
stack their retirement fund by forcing desperate people to file useless
actions in court is extreme and, considering the nature of some men to be
insatiably greedy, we can imagine that judges and their agents have learned
how to run their court in a manner most likely to produce the maximum of
documents which must be filed for a fee. Add the carrot of modern investment
strategies that have made $billions of (electronic) dollars for pools of
investors, and you have the most illustrative real-life example of the fox
guarding the henhouse that has ever been sanctioned by state statute.
TITLE 1
COURTS AND COURT OFFICIALS
CHAPTER 20
JUDGES' RETIREMENT AND
COMPENSATION
1-2002. JUDGES' RETIREMENT
FUND. For the purpose of paying such retirement compensation, there is hereby
created in the office of the treasurer of the state of Idaho a fund to be
known as the “Judges' Retirement Fund,” which shall consist of all moneys
appropriated from the general fund, and all moneys received from special fees
to be paid by parties to civil actions and proceedings, other than criminal,
commenced in or appealed to the several courts of the state, together with all
contributions out of the salaries and compensation of justices and judges, and
interest received from investment, and reinvestment, of moneys of the judges'
retirement fund, all as hereinafter provided.
All sums of money so accrued
and accruing to the judges' retirement fund, less an amount deemed reasonable
and necessary by the administrative director of the courts to pay for
necessary actuarial studies to assist in administering the judges' retirement
fund, are hereby appropriated to the payment of the annual retirement
compensation of such retired justices and judges, and to payment of the
allowances to surviving spouses.
TITLE 1
COURTS AND COURT OFFICIALS
CHAPTER 20
JUDGES' RETIREMENT AND
COMPENSATION
1-2003. ADDITIONAL FEES IN
CIVIL ACTIONS AND APPEALS.
(a) In addition to the fees and
charges to be collected by the clerks of the district courts of the state and
by other persons authorized by rule or administrative order of the Supreme
Court as now or hereafter provided by law, such clerks and authorized persons
are directed to charge and collect the additional sum of eighteen dollars
($18.00) for filing a civil case or proceeding of any type in the district
court or magistrate's division of the district court including cases involving
the administration of decedents' estates, whether testate or intestate,
conservatorships of the person or of the estate or both and guardianships of
the person or of the estate or both, except that no fee shall be charged or
collected for filing a proceeding under the Summary Administration of Small
Estates Act. The additional sum of eighteen dollars ($18.00) shall also be
collected from any party, except the plaintiff, making an appearance in any
civil action in the district court, but such eighteen dollars ($18.00) fee
shall not be collected from the person making an appearance in civil actions
filed in the small claims departments of the district court.
(b) The sum of eighteen dollars
($18.00) shall also be collected:
(1) from an intervenor in an
action;
(2) from a party who files a
third party claim;
(3) from a party who files a
cross claim;
(4) from a party appealing from
the magistrate's division of the district court to the district court;
(5) from a party appealing the
decision of any commission, board or body to the district court.
(c) The clerk of the Supreme
Court is authorized and directed to charge and collect, in addition to the
fees now prescribed by law and as a part of the cost of filing the transcript
on appeal in any civil case or proceeding, other than criminal, appealed to
the Supreme Court, the additional sum of eighteen dollars ($18.00); for filing
a petition for rehearing, the additional sum of ten dollars ($10.00); for
filing an application for any writ for which a fee is now prescribed, the
additional sum of ten dollars ($10.00); for filing appeals from the industrial
accident board, the additional sum of five dollars ($5.00).
(d) The clerks of the district
courts, persons authorized by rule or administrative order of the Supreme
Court and the clerk of the Supreme Court are directed and required to remit
all additional charges and fees authorized by this section and collected
during a calendar month, to the state treasurer within five (5) days after the
end of the month in which such fees were collected. The state treasurer shall
place all such sums in the judges' retirement fund.
TITLE 1
COURTS AND COURT OFFICIALS
CHAPTER 20
JUDGES' RETIREMENT AND
COMPENSATION
1-2008. INVESTMENT OF JUDGES'
RETIREMENT FUND. The investment board shall at the direction of the supreme
court select and contract with a minimum of one (1) investment manager to
manage the investment of the judges' retirement fund. The investment manager(s)
shall, subject to the direction of the board, exert control over the funds as
though the investment manager(s) were the owner thereof, subject to the
limitation hereinafter provided. The investment manager(s) is hereby
authorized to invest the judges' retirement fund in the following manner and
in the following investments or securities ....
(5) Corporate obligations
designated as corporate convertible debt securities.
(6) Obligations secured by
mortgages constituting a first lien upon real property of the state of Idaho
which are fully insured or guaranteed as to the payment of the principal by
the government of the United States or any agency thereof.
(7) Time certificates of
deposit and savings accounts.
(8) Common or preferred stocks
of corporations.
(9) Commercial paper, which at
the time of purchase, is rated prime 1 by Moody's Investors Service
incorporated or is rated A-1 or higher by Standard and Poor's corporation.
....
As we can plainly see, our
legislature has provided the judicial branch of government with laws that
allow them to prosecute for profit, the most obvious conflict of interest
imaginable: Judges are allowed to run their courts as a vehicle to generate
revenue that allows them to pad their own retirements.
The more appeals the public is
forced to file because lower court rulings were compromised in one way or
another, the more money appears in the account. The worse judges are, the
better their retirement.
One last point: Judges' private
retirement fund from publicly-generated revenues is overflowing with money and
being used to make more money through modern investment strategies while your
public retirement from privately-generated revenue has been spent by the
people we elected to draft, approve, and implement this entire retirement
travesty.
MICHIGAN
JUDGES’ RETIREMENT SYSTEM • 53
Stocks Market Value
Microsoft Corporation
$4,137,766
Citigroup
Incorporated 4,075,380
General Electric
Corporation 3,909,508
Pfizer Incorporated
3,842,305
Wal-Mart Stores
Incorporated 3,322,819
Exxon Mobil
Corporation 2,975,971
Wells Fargo &
Company 2,057,776
Bank of America
Corporation 2,046,585
Intel Corporation
2,046,369
Federal National
Mortgage Association 1,901,433
Largest Stock
Holdings (By Market Value)*
September 30, 2003
(Concluding remarks by Ron Branson):
It becomes obvious from the above statistics
illustrative of the courts around the nation, that the courts and judges of
America are the beneficiaries of huge legacies at the expense of the People.
It should be noted that Constitutionally all appropriate fines imposed by a
court for specified violations must have a reasonable connection to the
damages incurred by the government for the said violation. In other words, the
sentence must fit the crime. However, imposing fines that raises revenue for a
legislative or judicial retirement fund is unconstitutional, because all
revenue-raising ventures must be apportioned equally. In other words, everyone
benefiting from the venture must reasonably pay an equal amount.
The test then is to ask one's self whether the
retirement of judges is a measure to be borne by the community at large, or by
fining violators of a code. If the venture is one of revenue-raising for the
retirement of judges, then it is unconstitutional because it is not uniform,
and a burden shared by all. If it is a legitimate fine, it must be limited
to damages reasonably caused by the violation, and no more.
You are each encouraged to investigate what percentage
of your fines is going toward the support of judges in your state. You are
welcome to report your findings to Rose Lear,
firstrose@verizon.net, who is
researching this project.
Obviously, J.A.I.L. will weigh in on these alleged
violations and the constitutional question involved in a fine
v. revenue-raising.