Bennett for Court of Criminal Appeals

If there was ever a place that needed a proponent of limited government it is the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. In no other area is the need to limit the power of the government quite as profound.

The government has the power to take away a man's life - either by force or by time. It is the most frightening power imaginable and it is that power that must be limited. And the most effective way to limit that power is to enforce the right of the people to be left alone by the government.

That right, in turn, is protected by the Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Amendments. The courts have only been too happy to ignore the words in the Constitution and substitute their notion of judicial efficiency and economy in their place. In order to affirm lower court decisions, our appellate courts have looked for every possible way to justify actions of the state that violated the provisions of the Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Amendments.

Into the void must step a person who is willing to stand alone to defend those rights.

Mark Bennett is that person.

Mark can be abrasive. He can be snarky. He can be a tad bit arrogant. But he is also a man of conviction. He is a man who believes that the power of the government must be limited by enforcing our right to be left alone.

Mark Bennett is running for a seat on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals as a Libertarian.

Now if you're happy with the current state of the criminal (in)justice system in Texas, Mark isn't your man. If you think it's okay for the Chief Judge to shut down the clerk's office to prevent a man's attorneys from filing a last minute pleading, then Mark isn't your guy. If you don't understand that when the state takes away the rights of those people, that they are taking away your rights, then Mark isn't for you.

But if you believe that right must trump expediency, then you need to get out and vote for Mark Bennett.

See also:

"Mark Bennett, Court of Criminal Appeals," Simple Justice (March 5, 2012)