Litigation

?People?s Duty? to Defend Courts from Budget Axe

By Peter Hardin

In Georgia, a former state legislator delivers an eloquent appeal about the threat to justice posed by possible budget cuts–and the role of citizens in speaking out.

In a commentary published by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, E. Wycliffe Orr, a Gainesville attorney, quotes from a white paper of the Conference of State Court Administrators that discusses the impact of slashing court budgets in difficult fiscal times. The courts serve as “the emergency room for society’s worst ailments,” and cases involve “the cohesion of families, the safety of communities and our most cherished liberties,” the conference said.

The courts’ role in “protecting the delicate balance of our constitutional system is too critical,” Orr paraphrases from the conference, “to allow funding reductions to turn our courts into mere ‘case processing centers.’ ”

These are “the people’s courts,” Orr continues, and  the people ought to protect them:

“In an age where many are heard to complain that they feel powerless to affect their government, it would be strange indeed for the people of Georgia to idly acquiesce in the weakening of the one branch of government most responsive to them.”

To read more about the fiscal crisis and the courts, check out this earlier Gavel Grab post.

Full post as published by The Gavel on January 12, 2010 (boomark / email).