Court tosses discrimination verdict against airline

Sometimes it seems like the judiciary is the only branch of government that still, you know, exists. Congress (the legislative branch) is a do-nothing body, and Bush (the executive branch) spends most of his days finger-painting with this brand of barbecue sauce he likes because the guy who makes it is racist.

That's why so many of the articles on this blog are about the judicial branch. The federal judiciary has essentially become an unelected legislature wearing black robes. Because elections are rigged, the GOP-led Congress from 1995 through 2006 was an unelected legislature wearing white robes, but that's another matter completely.

Now the U.S. Court of Appeals in Boston has tossed out a $400,000 jury award levied against American Airlines stemming from the airline's discriminatory ways. The airline had been sued after it kicked a man off a flight solely because of his perceived ethnicity. A jury composed of members of the public decided the airline must pay $400,000. But now the Court of Appeals has decided to overrule this verdict.

The Court of Appeals said the Air Transportation Security Act lets airlines turn passengers away as long as these decisions aren't "arbitrary or capricious." Well, isn't removing someone from a flight because of his ethnicity "arbitrary or capricious"? Talk about doublespeak. It almost seems as if the court is saying it's not "arbitrary or capricious" just because an airline wouldn't have done it if it was - circular reasoning at its worst.

If ATSA - which incidentally was one of the laws the Bush regime rammed through the rogue Congress just after 9/11 - does indeed permit American Airlines to do what it did, wouldn't that make that part of ATSA illegal to enforce? The government can't be a party to enforcing discriminatory policies by corporations or other private organizations.

While the other branches of government often seem nonexistent, they do exist. Even if the law stands, the results of the law are enough to show once again how much of an effect Bush has had on the average person. If not for Bush, the airline wouldn't have been able to turn the passenger away. State police even concluded the man was no security risk - but the airline still didn't let him get back on the plane.

But clearly the Court of Appeals put a greater emphasis on ideology than on the rule of law provided by the jury in the lower court. There's a prevailing ideology in today's system called corporatism that puts every action against a corporation at risk. Courts often conform to this dogma almost by reflex. They consider holding a corporation liable for anything to be taboo, for Big Business is considered perfect.

Congress needs to see if they can pass a law to put limits on the ability of corporations who lose a lawsuit to have the judgments against them thrown out by the higher courts that are so eager to second-guess juries. Activist courts have already slashed the judgment against Exxon in the Valdez oil spill case, and vacating the judgment against American Airlines for practicing ethnic profiling is no better.

(Source: http://www.kypost.com/content/wcposhared/story.aspx?content_id=f4380364-c52d-4239-9aa1-b30de3a35405)