I have said a lot of pretty strong things about the influence of money on legislative policy and the consequent harm to the middle class. In one sense, that’s unremarkable. I am an academic with lifetime tenure, I have spent a professional lifetime studying middle class legal and economic issues, and if I see a problem and I don’t speak out, then shame on me.
And lots of other good people, including people who disagree strongly with me, have spoken out at well. No surprise. That’s how we shape our collective vision of how the world should be changed.
But last week someone else spoke out: a federal judge called out the whole legislative process. Bankruptcy Judge Frank Monroe spoke openly about the influence of a powerful consumer credit industry on the United States Congress. In a written judicial opinion noted here, he explained that he was stuck interpreting an “inane” amendment. Why? Because the “agenda” of those pushing this legislation was “to make more money off the backs of the consumers in this country.”
The judge’s frustration is palpable. The amendment required dismissing the bankruptcy filing of an otherwise-eligible couple that filed for bankruptcy based on the new amendment. It seems that the wife was willing to go for credit counseling, but she had not sought credit counseling before filing, so the case had to be tossed out, imposing substantial costs and some real legal risks for the couple. Her husband had sought counseling, but that didn’t make them eligible to file together. Judge Monroe had the power to waive the requirement that she be counseled before filing, so long as she sought counseling the day before–not the day after–she filed. The distinction, according to the judge, produces results that are “inane.”
What strikes me about the opinion is that Judge Monroe is no firebrand. I know him. He is a sober, well-respected judge with no particular inclination toward either the showy or the political. And he has finally gagged–right out in public.
Judge Monroe does not have lifetime tenure. At the end of his fourteen-year term as a bankruptcy judge, if he decides to ask for reappointment, his job will be decided by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals–including some judges who have some very strong ties to the current administration. Judge Monroe may plan to retire, or he may just not care whether he has a job if he is asked to enforce inane provisions. Even so, there are real consequences to his speaking out.
So this is what it has come to. It has become so obvious who really runs the show and who really wields the power in Washington, that even the judges whose jobs will be on the line are speaking out about the corruption.
