Anthony D'Amato Quotes
Proceeding should be televised. There is nothing secret about a trial. It should always be open. I think the Supreme Court is just a little bit stuffy about televising its proceedings.
Anthony D’Amato, Leighton Professor of Law, Northwestern University School of Law, Quoted in The Long Term View, Fall 2003
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
This was an unusual public chastisement of federal prosecutors by a Senior Federal Judge in a criminal trial. Federal prosecutors meet very high standards to be appointed, but the position of prosecutor has often been a stepping stone to advancement in politics, and sometime the desire to win at almost any cost impinges on the fairness and justice of a case. Of interest in this quote also is the fact that the Judge urged his colleagues to do more publicly to deter these practices.
The executive order to which this statement referred was the then new President’s first—Executive Order 13489. It was enthusiastically received by the public, historians, researchers and the media. However at the end of Obama’s two administrations, the system was a little better than when George W. Bush, blocked much of the Freedom of Information Act from being implemented. However, the agencies who want to operate in secrecy without having to deal with public criticism, had developed even more sophisticated techniques of avoiding transparency and when they must disclose, they have developed techniques to delay the process, sometimes even for years, while they study whether the material should be disclosed. The president personally declassified a few CIA files from decades ago that the agency maintained should be secret, but he did nothing else systemic so solve the problem of declassifying and material and nothing to control the over classification which virtually everyone agrees is a major problem. More material is being classified than ever.
Referring to appearances of impropriety with reference to the Lincoln Savings & Loan scandal:
Wikileaks obtained hundreds of thousands of classified, secret State Department Cables. Assange opened up everything to public view including material that made little or no difference in policies and affected nothing but named and exposed people whose lives could be in danger as a result of the revelations. He left Wikileaks over his differences with Assange.
Anthony D'Amato is an American songwriter and singer signed to New West Records. His latest album is 2016's 'Cold Snap,' produced by Mike Mogis (Bright Eyes, First Aid Kit) and featuring performances by Conor Oberst and members of Bright Eyes, The Faint, and Cursive.
