(Letter to the Editor - Photo Illustration - MetroCreativeConnection)

What a letter writer of March 30 says about President Trump’s attack on the judiciary is correct for the most part. Trump’s claim that elements of the judiciary were biased against him and for the Biden family may have been true to a certain extent, but are discredited by the massive evidence of his involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021, events, other election interference acts, and other corrupt acts. However, the problem with the letter is that it implies that the sole reason why we are losing Constitutional protections and related civil liberties is Trump’s dictatorial tendencies.

In fact, Trump’s actions along these lines are simply shifting into high gear trends in the legal system which have been building up for decades, at least since the 1980s if not before.

The real problem is that for decades major financial institutions have been putting pressure on the court system to get certain Constitutional rights, such as jury trial rights, suspended in order to get themselves a protected status akin to that of a taxing authority. No-tort arbitration in civil cases, forced plea bargaining in criminal cases — these trends have been undermining democratic processes in the court system for at least the last four decades under Administrations of both parties. The American people need a wake-up call about this ongoing attack on democratic rights. To claim that it is strictly an aberration of a particular individual obscures the systemic nature of the danger.

Thorn C. Roberts

Elizabeth