I TAKE NO COMFORT from the obvious fact that the law is an ass in Australia as it is in the United States, if as much of an ass as the Republican-fascist majority on the U.S. Supreme Court, we'll see. A selfish, conceited, ignorant Serbian tennis star was allowed to break the public safety regulations by an ass of a judge named Anthony Kelley whose knowledge of mathematics and science is something I'd very much like to know. From the NYT.
Novak Djokovic, the Serbian tennis star, moved one step closer to competing for his record 21st Grand Slam title after an Australian judge ordered his release from immigration detention on Monday, the latest turn in a five-day saga over his refusal to be vaccinated for Covid-19.
The judge, Anthony Kelly, found that Djokovic had been treated unfairly after his arrival at a Melbourne airport for the Australian Open, where he had been cleared to play with a vaccination exemption. After detaining Djokovic, the border authorities promised to let him speak with tournament organizers and his lawyers early Thursday morning, only to cancel his visa before he was given a chance.
Restoring the visa does not, however, guarantee that Djokovic will be able to vie for his 10th Open title when the tournament begins next Monday. In court, the government’s lawyers warned that the immigration minister could still cancel his visa, which would lead to an automatic three-year ban on his entering the country.
What's fair about letting someone who could make himself safe for admission into the country by getting vaccinated because he, through his selfishness, conceit and ignorance, chooses not to, putting who knows how many other people at potential risk.
What is clear from the actions of too many judges in the English speaking Peoples is that too many of those hired to administer the law are dangerously ignorant of the risks and consequences of a dangerously contagious infectious disease and, this far into this pandemic, it's clear that just as some members of the U. S. Supreme Court have openly said that their legal training and judicial habits are a sufficient replacement for knowledge, their arrogant ignorance makes the law the engine of danger to all of us. They have absolutely no business making court-bench law on matters they clearly don't understand or take seriously.
Making it impossible for elected officials who have to face the public and, so, the consequences for their decisions and actions in office to do that on the basis of some judge's sense of "fairness" to a pampered elite entity such as this man who is a rich celebrity on the basis of playing a fucking game is not something compatible with public safety. It's clear that too many judges and "justices" have contempt for public safety but not for the whims and preferences of those who want to endanger the public. "Liberty," "freedom" turned from real entities that entail responsibility into libertarian idols being used to do that.
I think judges and "justices" in more than just the United States need to be taken down a few pegs and made a little more humble. Humility through imposing responsibility for their decisions and actions might help a lot, just kow-towing to them when they do what this ass of an Aussie judge and what I have every reason to believe the malicious members of the U. S. Supreme Court will soon do. I don't favor an elected judiciary, the voters hiring them, the vileness of the Supreme Court in a place like Wisconsin or Michigan proves that's no answer. But maybe the voting public should have the ability to directly fire them, since the impeachment process is so broken under Republican-fascist fascism. Having them serve for life, imagined to shield them from the temptations of using their office for gain in their often sleazy profession, has not worked. The U. S. Supreme Court is probably the most open to corruption of any court in the United States through the power of lifetime appointment and their self-given powers of dictatorial fiat. I don't know enough about the Australian system to know if it's true there but I think a lot of the arrogance of a lot of lower level judges might be restrained if we could make the Supreme Court and its members follow some kind of real ethics code instead of what's there now.
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