“You express a great deal of anxiety over our willingness to break laws. This is certainly a legitimate concern. Since we so diligently urge people to obey the Supreme Court’s decision of 1954 outlawing segregation in the public schools, at first glance it may seem rather paradoxical for us consciously to break laws. One may well ask: “How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?” The answer lies in the fact that there are two types of laws: just and unjust. I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that “an unjust law is no law at all.”

Now, what is the difference between the two? How does one determine whether a law is just or unjust? A just law is a man made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas: An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law. Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust.”

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Letter from a Birmingham Jail
April 16, 1963

Today our nation honors what would’ve been this week the eightieth birthday of the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., on the eve of the inauguration of Barack Hussein Obama as the 44th president of these United States.  I was sixty-four days old when an assassin’s bullet cut down Dr. King in the prime of his life.  Today I am six-hundred forty days older than Dr. King when he was killed.  Tomorrow I will see something few people my age and older thought we’d ever see, yet something Dr. King had dreamed from the start.

There remains a grave injustice to be battled, the most unjust of laws to be disobeyed, a law that by its definition is not rooted in eternal law and natural law: the man made code that declares nature itself to be illegal, the prohibition on cannabis.  Yet when I mention marijuana law reform in the context of the great civil rights struggles in America, so many are quick to dismiss me with snickers of derision.  ”You just want pot legal so you can get high!” is a common refrain.

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Even jury hiring is frozen

Financially strapped New Hampshire has become a poster child for the problem. Among other cost-cutting measures, state courts will halt for a month all civil and criminal jury trials early next year to save $73,000 in jurors’ per diems. Officials warn they may add another four-week suspension.

At least 19 other states, including California, have slashed court budgets and other government services as their economies have tanked, said Daniel Hall, vice president of the National Center for State Courts, a nonprofit in Williamsburg, Va.

California cut its judicial branch budget by more than $200 million, or about 10%, in the current fiscal year, and further reductions are almost certain as the state grapples with a projected $40-billion deficit. A Republican proposal unveiled last week, for example, would trim a further $205 million from the judiciary.

After two rounds of budget cuts in Florida, courts have laid off 280 clerks, lawyers and other staff members, and cut funding for a judges’ unit that helps resolve civil disputes. State legislators meeting next month are expected to demand more spending cuts.

An additional 10% reduction would mean “all civil cases in the state of Florida would virtually be suspended,” Belvin Perry Jr., chief judge of Florida’s 9th Judicial Circuit and chairman of a trial court budget commission, warned a legislative committee in Tallahassee this month.

In Vermont, state Supreme Court Chief Justice Paul L. Reiber recently proposed closing as many as seven county courts, as well as laying off employees, to help ease a budget deficit. The state already shuts district and family courts half a day each week to save money.

It’s bad enough that our schoolchildren have to depend on their teachers to buy paper and pencils and sometimes even toilet paper out of their own pockets because there’s just not enough money to throw at the Pentagon.  But how is it that our states will shut down the very mechanism that ensures our social order – our courts – because enough money cannot be found, and yet when we propose ending adult prohibition of cannabis, they look at us as if we’re sprouting horns and eating babies?

New Hampshire is postponing jury trials to save $73,000 a month.  I guess that would be roughly $876,000 a year.  Currently, New Hampshire spends $20,000,000 per year enforcing adult cannabis prohibition (Miron) and could make $3,500,000 to $5,600,000 per year taxing cannabis sales to adults.

California, Florida, Vermont, and our entire country are desperate for revenue.  Taxing and regulating cannabis similar to hard liquid drugs (alcohol) could generate $10-$14 billion per year in revenue and savings.  A productive hemp industry could add even more revenue with the additional benefit of creating new green jobs.  I’m even willing to bet that with legal cannabis, you’ll see less social harm from other drugs and alcohol.

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I will never say that smoking marijuana makes you stupid.  However, some stupid people do smoke marijuana.  You’d think most people wouldn’t need to be told that you shouldn’t bring your stash to a courtroom, but then again, this is a country where we have to place “dramatization” disclaimers on flying cars in TV ads so people won’t sue when their new ride won’t fly.

It’s only an added bonus that this story comes from one of the seventeen or so places in North America named after my ancestors.

Authorities to courthouse’s visitors: Leave drugs at home — – chicagotribune.com
BELLEVILLE, Ill. – Visitors to St. Clair County’s courthouse are being put on notice that bringing drugs into the building isn’t a bright idea.

Three people have been arrested at the Belleville courthouse in less than a week after they allegedly were found to be carrying drugs at a security checkpoint.

Sheriff’s officials say bailiff Josh Pea arrested a man Monday who was carrying marijuana in one of his pockets. The man was charged with misdemeanor marijuana possession.

Last Wednesday, Pea nabbed a man who swallowed a bag of suspected cocaine he refused to turn over the bailiff. That man was charged with obstructing a peace officer.

The next day, Pea arrested another man at the checkpoint who was also carrying marijuana.

The Marijuana Express Card.  Don’t leave home with it!  And for crying out loud, don’t take it to court with you!  Next week, Damon Stoudamire and Michael Vick explain why marijuana and airports usually don’t mix.

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