An Open Letter to Judge McClure Attaining the position of a Superior Court judge can be the hallmark of a legal career and is an envious position. With that position comes respect, power and a duty to the citizens who come before you directly and all of those affected by your position and the decisions that follow. Law cannot be taken lightly. As a civilized society we are bound by the delicate balancing test of fully protecting and advancing our liberties while at the same time ensuring that those do not trample upon the rights of another. Thus, our Founding Fathers established a three branch government having checks upon each other while thrusting upon the judiciary the province and duty to be the arbiter of conflict among people and law. It is the very essence of judicial authority to at times render opinion on the conflict between laws and the constitution. If both the law and the constitution apply to a case then the court must decide if the law shall be rendered a servant of the constitution or shall, as the circumstances of the time and place require that the law triumph over the constitution. This is the tournament played upon the mind of the judicial officer that Thomas Jefferson feared. Jefferson once wrote "You seem to consider the judges the ultimate arbiters of all constitutional questions; a very dangerous doctrine indeed, and one which would place us under the despotism of an oligarchy." The power you hold must be administered with a zest for upholding the fundamental rights of the populace. You should not append these rights to your decisions but must, for the preservation of liberty, make those rights the pinnacle of each decision. Our Declaration of Independence begins - When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. Such cause now exist for the people to dissolve the authority which you possess. Jefferson saw the danger in letting finality rest with the judiciary. When Chief Justice John Marshall in Madison v Maybury said “there must be an ultimate arbiter somewhere.” Jefferson responded with "The ultimate arbiter is the people" In our constitutional republic the power to govern emanates from the people. Saving a few exceptional circumstances it is the people's suffrage that maintains the dominion of the doctrine put forth by John Adams that "we are a nation of laws not of men". The Indiana General Assembly has established a policy that our state shall operate openly and accessible to the people. In doing so they have stated - "A fundamental philosophy of the American constitutional form of representative government is that government is the servant of the people and not their master. Accordingly, it is the public policy of the state that all persons are entitled to full and complete information regarding the affairs of government and the official acts of those who represent them as public officials and employees. Providing persons with the information is an essential function of a representative government and an integral part of the routine duties of public officials and employees, whose duty it is to provide the information." Yet, you operate our courtroom under a veil of secrecy. You shield the eyes of the public from a criminal trial in which you sought the defendant's conviction although our criminal courts are to be open to the public. You maintain a steadfast grasps upon court recordings of a proceeding in which you
were subsequently accused of misconduct. You seal the motion accusing and demonstrating that you showed bias and incompetence in a case so the public may not avail itself to that evidence. You deny to the people their rights for your pleasure. Your removal is imperative to our liberty which shall perish without. We retain the necessary right to remove you and should. An enlightened electorate is fundamental to the preservation of our Republic but a citizenry shielded from the light by your flowing black cloak is left in the dark and, in such a position, risks failing to provide themselves with the best judicial representatives that the light may shine upon. But this is the power upon which you rely. You must refrain from the temptation to usurp the power retained by the people who only grant such to their elected representatives, of which you are one. Your fleeting grasp at retaining your judicial authority is a danger to all freedom loving people and those who respect the rule of law. The great arbiters are not remembered for their will to defy the independence of their position, but rather, for their enduring stance in holding reverence for the Constitution against the popular follies of the time or their personal interest. ~ Stuart Showalter