With “None Dare Call It Treason” [Feb. 5], an exposé of the crime committed by the Supreme Court when it appointed George W. Bush as President, Vincent Bugliosi drew the largest outpouring of mail in our 136-year history and tapped a deep reservoir of outrage among our readers: “God bless you for printing this! I’m sending it to everyone I know.” “It gave me heart that I am not alone in my outrage.” “Bugliosi has made me angry all over again–and I’m glad he did.” “One of the most important articles I’ve ever seen, up there with the Pentagon Papers.” “Wish it could be air-dropped to every American city.” “One of the most intelligent, bold and straightforward articles I have ever read.” “The most important document to come out of the entire farce called an election.” “How fitting it is that the lowest point in the history of our Supreme Court is the subject of the best article I’ve ever read in The Nation.” “Thank God for Bugliosi. A voice crying out what needs to be heard.” “I cannot express my elation at finding this article.” “Bravo, bravo, bravo, bravo, bravo!” “It’s because I do hold the Court in such high regard that I want to scream out Treason!” A sample follows. Fredonia, N.Y.
Highest honors to Vincent Bugliosi for his courageous indictment of the Supreme Court. Sir John Harington’s epigram scores a bull’s eye on this political crisis: “Treason doth never prosper: what’s the reason?/For if it prosper, none dare call it treason.” The country should honor such courageous patriots as Bugliosi, who would dare to call the wresting of the presidency from Gore and handing it to Bush an act of the most blatant usurpation.
HENRY F. SALERNO
Baltimore
In case Vincent Bugliosi doesn’t get to Washington very often, he might be interested in my observation that some prankster has chiseled a tasteless joke into the pediment of the Supreme Court building. It reads, Equal Justice Under Law.
CARL SCHULTZ
Anchorage
Did you hear the one about the brave attorney who spoke out against five Supreme Court Justices? He was overruled.
SUSAN BRIGHT
Myrtle Beach, S.C.
Bugliosi has hit the nail on the head. I just wish that his reasoning had hit the heads of the supreme court justices. I am an African-American, and I am embarrassed that Uncle Clarence Thomas is on the supreme court. (I type “supreme court” in lowercase because of the lack of respect I now have for that body.)
CHARLES WRIGHT
Dallas, Ore.
Finally someone calls it as it is! I keep telling my friends how furious I am at what happened in the “election,” how the fury only ripens with each passing day. This is Boston Tea Party time! People of America, rouse yourselves and rise! Nothing short of sacking the Heinous Five and an immediate national re-election is morally required. This is not about Bush or Gore or Nader: This is purely about who we are as a people.
CHRISTOPHER DOBSON
Houston
Vincent Bugliosi’s piece was superb. It seems that most of the country is wandering around as if in a mindless fog, filled with media-supplied trivia. Instead of justice being blind, the Justices have blindfolded us and given us, and democracy, a swift kick in the rear.
LINDA S. ANDERSON
West Hollywood, Calif.
Right after the imperial hand of the Supreme Court reached down and slammed the door on the libraries and counting offices across the state of Florida, a bemused Republican election official was interviewed on MSNBC. She pointed out that the best way to get an accurate count was to first run the ballots through the machines several times so they can exfoliate and the count can stabilize. Duh. Instead, those who fear the chad got hysterical when they found the little things in the bottom of counting boxes–you’d think they’d found bugs in the flour. And so we have the final image of Justice Scalia holding up the glimmering ballot…protect its sanctity, keep it safe from harm, defend it against impostors. Don’t count it.
GARY MARKOWITZ
Houston
I applaud you for not letting us go quietly into that dark night of American democracy to which our own Supreme Court was intent on leading us. Those of us who refuse to accept the Court’s outrageous ruling and “just get over it” need a strong voice, and I am thankful that The Nation is there. What the Supreme Court has done is truly frightening. I find equally chilling the apparent ability of so many–including our politicians and judiciary–to passively accept this blatant affront to democracy.
CHRISTINA PHELEY
Phoenix
I am a criminal defense attorney who represents capital defendants in federal court. I have toiled in the field of judicial disingenuousness for a long time, in cases in which a person’s very life is at stake. Heretofore, I have viewed Vincent Bugliosi somewhat suspiciously, as an adversary, if you will (he is, after all, from the prosecutorial side of the courtroom). I must say, however, that his article took my breath away. His passion and his brutal cut-to-the-chase shook even me–jaded and world-weary–from my cynical malaise over the judicial theft of the election. I found myself shouting and cheering out loud for the pithiness of his metaphors and his “cut the bullshit” on-target analysis. I am heartened that he has put words to the outrage that I have difficulty fully articulating about the shabbiness of the Court’s ruling. I am heartened that he has put the lie to the Court’s brazen pedantry, which it used to disguise its plain malfeasance.>
THOMAS J.PHALEN
Ellensburg, Wash.
Your counterinauguration issue looks like a gift from the heaven where dwell the truly righteous and the just, where abide the eternal spirits of the great liberal and progressive beacons of liberty. (I see the face of Adlai Stevenson smiling benevolent approval. I see Robert La Follette, Wayne Morse, Norman Thomas and Reinhold Niebuhr observing with urgent concern the endangered ship of state thrown crazily about by the storm of singular corruption rampant in this election.) I observe how thinly informed is the American public re what really goes on behind the thin veneer touched upon by our mainstream journalists and commentators. For most of my eighty years my hopes for a Jeffersonian-like informed electorate have been sustained by the courage, dedication and service to high ideals of small minority voices like yours.
CLIFFORD P. WOLFSEHR
Sherman Oaks, Calif.
If we mere citizens were to consider pressing charges, how many of us would stand up and say so? Who would represent “We the People”? And to what judicial body would we plead our case? Most of America has already forgotten about their rights being violated, thanks to an apathetic McMedia. Is there anyone else out there who prefers these matters not be forgotten? who thinks there should be televised hearings? Anyone? Hello?
MITCH TRIPLETT
Seattle
There are millions of people wanting some remedy to what has happened, although many of us have no idea where to begin. Can no efforts be made to remove these Justices from the bench? I think such a campaign would be a lightning rod for hopes that the possibility of democracy is not entirely dead.
JEFF WOOD
Eugene, Ore.
Contrary to what most Americans may believe, bringing the five conservative Supreme Court Justices to the bar of justice is very possible. The Constitution expressly authorizes criminal proceedings against judges if they are found guilty of “bad behavior.” Article III, Section 1 states: “The Judges, both of the supreme and inferior Courts, shall hold their offices during good Behavior….” Article II, Section 4 states: “The President, Vice President, and civil officers shall be removed from office on impeachment for conviction of treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.” The five Justices appear to have committed a “high crime.” The issue is whether the five Justices are guilty of criminal “bad behavior” in approving a decision that denied Gore his victory and if they are also impeachable for the “high crime” of judicial conspiracy to fix the election.
CHARLES O. PORTER Atlanta, Ga.
On October 20, 1973, Solicitor General Robert Bork executed what came to be known as the Saturday Night Massacre, following orders to fire Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox after both Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus refused to heed White House orders and resigned in protest. Twenty-seven years later, a Saturday Night Massacre of voting rights occurred when a split Supreme Court ruled to stop the count in Florida, a transparently political decision engineered with Machiavellian calculation by the ignominious “Gang of Five.” In glaring contrast to this ruling of the Rehnquist Court, in 1974 the Burger Court unanimously voted to uphold a lower court ruling and ordered President Nixon to release the tapes of subpoenaed White House conversations. In that heralded 8-0 decision, the Burger Court ruled definitively in favor of the principle that no person is above the law, a decision that upheld the Constitution and caused Nixon irreparable harm. Is there any doubt that this current Supreme Court would have ruled in Nixon’s favor?
BARBARA ALLEN KENNEY
Laredo, Tex.
Your article led to remembrance of things past wherein US self-righteousness condemned other countries for choosing their leaders much as the US Supreme Court Five chose George W. Bush. Russia was the “Evil Empire” because a Central Committee rather than the people chose its leader. Central American and Caribbean countries were invaded–sometimes openly, sometimes not–to teach them our “democratic values,” since they were governed by “dictators” rather than by popularly elected leaders (of course, Washington wanted to choose the dictator).
SAÚL SÁNCHEZ
We all saw it happen and wondered, How can it be?! Then the mind numb-ers went to work: Sam Donaldson dismissed the recounts with “Get over it!” Not in my lifetime, Sam.
ELLEN STEEN
–The Editors
Popular
"swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe →
Member of Congress, 1957-60
