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Politics & Religion / Re: The Administrative State Walks a Mile in Our Shoes
« on: Today at 05:51:40 AM »
Great post, exposing a terrible situation. The Harry Browne quote makes you wonder, who doesn't want "a government so small it could fit inside the constitution"? The answer of course is all liberal leftists including 3 sure votes on the Supreme Court.
I've been inside the administrative trial system twice and seen the problem first-hand. The first one was a mock trial, where by the end you realize the prosecutor, the judge, the jury (there isn't one) all go to lunch together when it's over, they all work in the same office for the same agency. The second time was during covid and so the mock trial was held over the phone. I submitted time stamped photographic evidence proving my innocence. A guy listened to my story and then a decision comes in the mail, guilty. These were both relating to housing inspections in the City of Minneapolis. The preponderance of evidence to their co-worker, the judge, was simply that the inspector said so. In the second case, his error was as simple as putting the wrong house number down on an alleged violation of sidewalk shoveling. Sounds like a small matter, but having a ticket against a rental property in Minneapolis can lead to losing what they call Tier 1 status and cost thousands of dollars more in future license fees and lead to greater scrutiny, more false charges, down the road on all your properties.
Because the cases are administrative, not criminal, the defendant has no rights and the prosecution needs no proof. But what is the difference? I'm accused of breaking the law. If this was this was a criminal case, I would be subject to fines, if guilty. This is an administrative case so they can issue same fines plus take away my entire livelihood and net worth.
If they find a way of striking this system down, that would be great. Imagine if people in this country had rights, like the right to defend yourself against false charges.
I've been inside the administrative trial system twice and seen the problem first-hand. The first one was a mock trial, where by the end you realize the prosecutor, the judge, the jury (there isn't one) all go to lunch together when it's over, they all work in the same office for the same agency. The second time was during covid and so the mock trial was held over the phone. I submitted time stamped photographic evidence proving my innocence. A guy listened to my story and then a decision comes in the mail, guilty. These were both relating to housing inspections in the City of Minneapolis. The preponderance of evidence to their co-worker, the judge, was simply that the inspector said so. In the second case, his error was as simple as putting the wrong house number down on an alleged violation of sidewalk shoveling. Sounds like a small matter, but having a ticket against a rental property in Minneapolis can lead to losing what they call Tier 1 status and cost thousands of dollars more in future license fees and lead to greater scrutiny, more false charges, down the road on all your properties.
Because the cases are administrative, not criminal, the defendant has no rights and the prosecution needs no proof. But what is the difference? I'm accused of breaking the law. If this was this was a criminal case, I would be subject to fines, if guilty. This is an administrative case so they can issue same fines plus take away my entire livelihood and net worth.
If they find a way of striking this system down, that would be great. Imagine if people in this country had rights, like the right to defend yourself against false charges.