Legal loopholes fuel the politics of political scandals

Legal loopholes fuel the politics of political scandals

By Derek Joy

There is more to autumn than the chill of nature’s seasonal changes. Much more.

Sure. Autumn to some, Fall to others, begins in September. Just as the celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month winds to a close.

And wouldn’t you just know it. U. S. Senator Marco Rubio, Florida’s Junior Senator, did his political grandstanding number by stalling the Judicial Confirmation Hearings of two Black American nominees.

The Miami Republican is the first and only Cuban American in the U. S. Senate. He, as well as anyone, should understand the ramifications of discrimination – be they racial, socio-economic, religious or political.

Rubio should also know that there is no need to publish a manipulated arrival date of his parents in America to appease opponents of an insignificant “Banana Republican Puppet” such as the Castro Clan in Cuba.

Curiously enough, Rubio appears to have underestimated the ramifications or the significance of his scurrilous actions of delaying, hence denying, justice. Might not have seen the link between the stall tactics employed against Circuit William Thomas’ nomination to the Federal Court and what the Florida State Legislature is doing to hide wrong doing under the guise of Legislative Privilege.

Both actions reflect the scurrilous reality of how legal loopholes are legislated to perpetuate discrimination.

It hit me when a group of minority lawyers joined the NAACP and several other groups to point out the injustice of stalling the Senate Confirmation Hearings of Thomas and Nassau County Circuit Judge Brian Davis.

You see, Rubio released his hold Davis’ nomination as those groups met in front of the Wilkie D. Ferguson, Jr. Federal Court-house in Downtown Miami. Ferguson was the first Black American Circuit Judge in Miami Dade County.

His widow, former Miami Dade County Commissioner Betty Ferguson, took the moment to launch a salvo a Rubio and his Republican cohorts.

“Where are the Black Republican lawyers?” Ferguson asked, as the groups finished articulating their demands.  “Senator Rubio must be waiting to nominee a Black Republican.”

Rubio has yet to refute that notion.

But he has forged ahead in raising more than $5-million for his campaign war chest. Really powering a climb up the political ladder to a run at the Republican Presidential or Vice Presidential Nomination in 2016.

Some even see the fight being waged by the Republican Majority in the State Legislature to maintain Legislative Privilege as a smokescreen to conceal facts. Republicans and their staffs don’t want to answer questions regarding how Redistricting Maps were drawn.

What that also shows is how easy it is to perpetuate discrimination maybe even tortuous acts and criminal conduct under the legal loophole of Legislative Privilege.

The obvious question thus becomes: Where is the transparency, government in the sunshine?

So, in a response to the political wrangling going on in Courts to resolve the Legislative Privilege conflict, Attorney Leigh Ann Buchanan, President Elect of the Wilkie D. Ferguson, Jr. Bar Association offered this thought.

“What ought to happen is what the law requires,” said Buchanan.