Replying to a message of Adam Flinton to Gene McAloon:

 AF> From: Adam Flinton 

 AF> Gene McAloon wrote:

 >> On Mon, 03 Nov 2003 12:36:52 +0000, Adam Flinton
 >>  wrote:  
 >>> The three strikes and you are out is also a state thing and as far as
 >>> I 
 >>>> know only California has it. Moreover, since we don't have that
 >>>> travesty of
 AF> a
 >>>> "democratic" system known as a parliament, such
things are not
 >>>> decided
 AF> solely by
 >>>> elected representatives of a single party.
 >>> 
 >>> ROFL. So if a party hold the majority in a quasi-classical "state
 >>> senate" or similar & the gov is of that party then where's the
 >>> difference.
 >> 
 >> 
 >> The difference of course is an independent judiciary even on the state
 >> level, something you don't have on any level.

 AF> How so? Is your supreme court "independant" or
"appointed"?

In the United States the courts, particularly the Federal courts and
*especially* the Supreme Court, will bend over backwards to give the feds
what they want.  Most judges are flunkies for the administration - and by
that I mean the bureaucracy, not necessarily those at the very top.  My
opinion, of course, YMMV.

---