California Courts Crushed in Budget Crunch: a More Philosophical Note

Beyond the cash-crunch which is crushing the California State Court System, let us consider two larger issues which should further question the rise and expanse of judicial power in the state in the first place.

The California Court System was implemented to protect and enforce the California Constitution. Yet the California Constitutions dwarfs the United States Constitution in sheer length, in addition to the extensive inane addenda micromanaging county and local facilities. There is so much to contend with. It is inevitable for someone to take exception to something, either between parties are with the state as a whole.

Moreover, what are judges supposed to be defending anyway, when the contents of the Constitution keep changing in one ill-planned statewide referendum after another? Attorneys general and governors dispute amendments supported by popular vote, like Proposition 8. If they refuse to enforce portions of the Constitution, which the People of the State of California have endorsed, then where does that leave the officers of the court throughout the state?

In addition to the question of what the courts are supposed to be upholding, there is the larger problem: what are courts of law for? What is their role in society in general? Most people would understandably respond: to see that justice is done, and to see that those parties who have been wronged are compensated, and those who have done wrong are punished.

Yet do we see justice transpire in courtrooms? The rules of evidence automatically exclude pertinent information in some cases. The deaths, or weak memory, of witnesses compromise prosecution and defence. State officials, from the police officers on the beat to the prosecutors pushing a case to the judges and jurors who apply the law and try the facts, inevitably make mistakes. Who is responsible, and how they are fixed, are two issues that are never adequately resolved.

A courtroom provides a forum for begrudging resolution, nothing more. Full justice will never be meted out in a court of law, no matter how august the judge or impeccable the attorneys who practice.

With the shuttering of courtrooms across the state, the people of the State of California should breathe a sigh of relief, for with fewer outlets for state-sponsored outrage between aggrieved parties, perhaps potential litigants will exercise self-restraint and practice more justice in their daily lives, letting the good comity that follows make up for any loss suffered at the hands of artless neighbors or incompetent business.