“And justice for all.” Boy, did I believe that as a child, when I placed my hand on my chest and recited the Pledge of Allegiance with fellow grade-school classmates. Although I grew up and smelled the coffee, that ideal is still implanted in my psyche.
Dan Gustafson also grew up not only believing in it but walking the talk as a trial lawyer. On Monday, the former high school dropout, twice named a “super lawyer” in Minnesota by a prestigious legal magazine, will go to bat in a federal courtroom in St. Paul for a group of people who have put the justice-for-all concept to perhaps one of its greatest tests.
I’m talking here about the 720 males and one woman civilly committed and undergoing treatment at secure facilities in Moose Lake and St. Peter as part of the Minnesota Sex Offender Program. Full Opinion Piece
Related: Constitutional Test for Minnesota Sex Offender Program
The motivation, behind all sex offender laws are hate, which is, getting harder to conceal by the public safety lie.
“But it’s really important that our system of justice doesn’t decide things on whether we think the people are hateful or awful. Defending the due-process rights of the people society loves to hate is the most important thing a lawyer can do.”
Dan Gustafson sounds like an amazing man with the same true American morals and ideals as Janice. Since I stumbled upon this site I have been waiting for another freedom fighter to step forward; could this be the person? We’ll see and should be able to tell by what he does after this case; win or lose.
I’m having a hard time comprehending the logic of the below statement. How can indefinitely incarcerating people after they have completed their sentences be construed as anything other than punishment? I know the people that set on this court are called honorable (BARF!) and many other things, and they may very well be in the eyes of some, but to me I see quite the opposite of honorable when such a clear cut inability to see and acknowledge the obvious truth is seemingly absent. And let us not forget their lack of consideration of how the victims of this injustice think and feel.
“The U.S. Supreme Court ruled such civil commitment laws are constitutional because of compelling state interests in keeping the public safe from people judged to be a serious danger to society, as long as “there is no object or purpose to punish.” “
Sure, justice for all – except the ones deemed unworthy of a second chance!
America is a joke to the rest of the world.
“The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals.
Well, when there aren’t enough criminals, one makes them.
One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for man to live without breaking laws.”
– Ayn Rand, 1957