Making Law

This unusual memoir weaves the stories of six dramatic, very public court cases into the fabric of the American legal system, and shows how lawyers and judges at every level of the court system are our last remaining protection when tyranny threatens to overwhelm us. The author shows how the American system of justice was designed to be the most important check and balance against abuse of powers by the other two branches of government, making new law if established law no longer serves its purpose. The stories are unusual: a little war no reader will likely have heard of is declared on the U.S. Army; three horrifying murders are committed on a secure American military base, but no one will prosecute the probable murderer; a court doesn't realize that it has a chance to stop a little document from helping bring on the 2007-2008 worldwide financial crash, and lets the opportunity slip by -- and other riveting dramas. Significant changes relating to our way of life, including the way we vote, the sanctity of our intimate family decision-making, our rights to associate with anyone we please, and other rights and relationships that we take for granted, are being increasingly examined at the lowest levels of the court systems, where the laws and rules by which we live can be changed, without our knowledge. It is through the stories we tell that we experience such events. This book tells six of them.