Time For a Good Constitutional Amendment

May 10, 2007

Hello, Folks;

In a past article I mentioned the possibility of amending the Constitution to preclude anyone who has ever occupied the office of prosecutor from becoming a judge.

The premises for that suggestion are based upon the strong inference that once an individual has worked for any length of time as a prosecutor, has undergone the precursor training, and made a living being paid to do that job, that person is forever biased toward the prosecution's side of a criminal case in such a way as to make any decision making efforts prejudicial towards the defendant.

Scrutiny of the decisions of judges who have been prosecutors versus those made by judges who have not been prosecutors certainly bears this out. Those judges who have been prosecutors almost always decide in favor of the government on motions, evidence, and questions of law in criminal prosecutions, while those who have not been a prosecutor are much more centrist and/or even occasionally defense oriented in their decisions.

With this in mind, I propose the following Act for Congress:

A BILL TO AMEND THE CONSTITUTION

To provide for the passage and ratification of an Amendment to amend ARTICLE THREE, SECTION 1 OF THE Constitution, and add to the last of the SECTION the following language:

       Be it enacted be the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled....."No person who has at any time held the Office of Prosecutor, District Attorney, Attorney General, or like position in government shall at any time be elected or appointed to the Office of Judge or Magistrate empowered to hear any criminal matter, whatsoever."

Folks, I believe that this is long overdue, and encourage each and all of you to submit this proposed Bill to Senators and Congress-person and pass on to everyone you believe will become involved in accomplishing this worthy pursuit.

We are open to any suggestions as to what, exactly to name this Bill.

Any thoughts on the subject?

D. Tom