Of the federal government's three branches, the judiciary inevitably is literally the court of last resort to protect the public from executive and legislative abuses.
But the federal court system isolates itself from people when it is reduced to the same tactics as the Forest Service's fee for public use of public lands.
This week, the federal district court in Idaho implemented a fee system for accessing and reading court documents on the Internet. To the credit of Federal Judge Lynn Winmill, the Idaho court was one of only two resistors to the fee among the entire federal system of 186 courts.
But the fee finally was ordered imposed—8 cents per page. The good news is users are excused from paying if they access less than $10 worth of pages in a calendar year.
Blame for this absurd fee system lies with Congress, as it does with the Forest Service fee. Agencies that are insufficiently funded are forced to impose what amounts to double taxation on taxpayers.
How crazy is that? Consider the bizarre budgeting of President Bush and dutiful congressional supporters who vow the government can afford huge tax cuts, and then tell federal agencies—such as the Forest Service and federal courts—they must create fees to make up what the president and Congress insist is a shortage of funds caused, of course, by tax cuts as well as Congress' predilection for pet pork barrel projects at home.
Furthermore, what happens to the bonanza of fines imposed in federal courts, especially hundreds of millions of dollars paid by miscreant corporations caught fleecing shareholders and the government?
In a recent case, the medical services giant HealthSouth agreed to pay $325 million in damages to the government for overcharges on Medicare. Is any of this windfall returned to the courts system that produced this settlement? Or are these millions returned to the general fund for Congress to fritter away?
A fee system that puts a price on access to court documents is as repugnant as placing a turnstile at a courtroom entrance and charging admission for public attendance at trials or charging for telephone calls to a court clerk.
Mismanagement of public tax revenues by some federal as well as local politicians has created a new scandal in waste.
Waste begins at home in Washington, and no better place to look for it than politicians who point fingers at others, but, in fact, are solely responsible for imposing and cutting taxes and appropriating funds to be spent.
Any shortfalls that force taxpayers to pony up additional taxes amounts to a form of legalized usury. Further, the fees, while relatively small, present a symbolic obstacle to our access to the legal system, which is not trivial.
