August 9, 2004
Fall Guy
Martha Stewart was convicted and sentenced for lying. Apparently, it was reported, not so much for why she lied or even that she lied, but for where she lied — in a courtroom at trial before a judge.
The judiciary is one of the three checks and balances in our remarkable constitutional government. It’s comforting to know that there remains at least one of these where truth-telling has some purchase, though I should think our founders had that in mind for all three.
Maybe we’d find a little more efficiency were the practice to catch on. It’s a shame, though, that Martha had to be the fall guy when there are so many others who’d have made such a bigger splash.