With Liberty and Justice for Some: How the Law Is Used to Destroy Equality and Protect the Powerful by Glenn Greenwald

Oct 17, 2012 Mariel rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: stewing in the nuances of hooligan law

Recommended to Mariel by: green is the new green

"The poorest laborer stands on equal ground with the wealthiest millionaire, and generally on a more favored one whenever their rights seem to jar." - Thomas Jefferson

The United States of America was intended to be a nation of laws, not of men. Liberty and justice for all. That was then.

In 1965 six large banks petitioned congress for retroactive immunity after an illegal merger. It was opposed by Senator Robert Kennedy and Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach said their proposal was "nothing mor...more

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Aug 28, 2012 Dale rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction, politics

Greenwald has been writing about the two-tiered US justice system for several years on his blog at salon.com, so for his regular readers there's not much new in this book. But it's worth reading to get a sense of the way in which this system has developed in the past 40 years.

A capsule summary: Ford's pardon of Nixon; the nearly complete absence of penalties for the perpetrators of the Iran-Contra affair; Bush's pardon of Caspar Weinberger in 1992; Clinton's refusal to investigate the very serio...more Greenwald has been writing about the two-tiered US justice system for several years on his blog at salon.com, so for his regular readers there's not much new in this book. But it's worth reading to get a sense of the way in which this system has developed in the past 40 years.

A capsule summary: Ford's pardon of Nixon; the nearly complete absence of penalties for the perpetrators of the Iran-Contra affair; Bush's pardon of Caspar Weinberger in 1992; Clinton's refusal to investigate the very serious allegations of Iraqgate; Bush Jr.'s commuting of Scooter Libby's sentence (a rare case in which a powerful figure was even brought to trial); the many war crimes committed by the Bush administration that Obama has steadfastly refused to investigate; the suppression by the US government of other governments' attempts to seek justice for those illegally detained and tortured by the US; the complete absence of any prosecution of the massive fraud and other illegal behavior that led to the 2008 financial crisis.

Through all of this the media elite have been willing partners in this two-tiered system, treating the idea of prosecuting the powerful as un-serious and harmful, while simultaneously advocating ever harsher punishments for ordinary citizens for ever more petty offenses.

And it's the uniformity of the elite response to elite law breaking, and not the law breaking itself, that makes the past few decades different than before. In decades past there was corruption and criminal behavior by the ruling elite, but the expectation was that, if caught, they would face legal penalties. That expectation no longer exists. Cheney and Bush have boasted in public and in print about how they knowingly violated the convention against torture and US federal statutes against torture. Bush admitted in 2005 that he had knowingly committed felonies by ordering warrantless wiretaps - felonies that carry a 5 year sentence and $10,000 fine per offense - in the certain knowledge that he would never be prosecuted for those crimes. Senior management at the big investment banks have surely lost no sleep worrying that they will be prosecuted for fraud, even for those cases where the evidence of fraud is overwhelming.

Meantime, the prison population for ordinary Americans has risen dramatically. With 5% of the world's population, the US has 25% of the world's prisoners - more prisoners in the US with its population of 300 million than in China with its population of 1.3 billion. The majority of those prisoners are in for non-violent offenses, some for many years because of mandatory minimum sentencing laws passed in the past few decades.(less)

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Nov 06, 2011 Dave Lefevre rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: political

On Face The Nation on October 9, 2011, Newt Gingrich said, to paraphrase, that the President of the United States could ignore Congress and the Courts if he or she feels they have become "dictatorial or arrogant." This breathtaking statement, akin to Nixon's famous statement that "If the president does it then it is not illegal" to Robert Frost, was reported widely by CBS, however all other news outlets just yawned at it.

This type of belief that the President and other political elites are above...more

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Mar 28, 2012 A rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorite-books, politics, nonfiction

We're supposedly (because we're supposed to be) a nation of laws and not men. But that's not really true, as Greenwald more than adequately portrays in this, his latest, book.

It's one thing to understand that fair and equitable treatment within the criminal justice system is not perfect, After all, nothing is. But there is a huge difference between occasional miscarriages of justice and institutional favoritism which quite often gives the rich and powerful very little punishment, if any punishme...more

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Dec 18, 2012 Connie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Like all of Greenwald's books I have read to this point, this is well researched, and well-written. His premise is that justice is only available in the United States for a certain chosen few – – the elite, the politicians, and the wealthy.

He spends many chapters relating how various presidents and people on their staffs have avoided prosecution, even though they committed countless felonies.

As did many of us, Greenwald had high hopes that Pres. Obama would follow through with his pre-2008 elect...more

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Oct 19, 2012 Jessica rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

In 'With Liberty and Justice for Some,' Glenn Greenwald explores many systemic problems that have created an elite class in America. The elite class is comprised of those who write and enforce our laws and most people who write about the laws and how they are enforced. In other words, career politicians, corporate lobbyists, and journalists who cover the charade make up the American elite class. The elite can pay for luxuries that other Americans never will afford. The founding fathers would be...more In 'With Liberty and Justice for Some,' Glenn Greenwald explores many systemic problems that have created an elite class in America. The elite class is comprised of those who write and enforce our laws and most people who write about the laws and how they are enforced. In other words, career politicians, corporate lobbyists, and journalists who cover the charade make up the American elite class. The elite can pay for luxuries that other Americans never will afford. The founding fathers would be embarrassed to know what their money can buy.

Greenwald takes on four major industries to illustrate American inequality. First, he explores the widespread illegal wiretapping of American citizens during the Bush Administration and the ability of the telecommunications sector to retroactively change legislation to ensure their immunity. Second, Greenwald studies torture. He discusses the inconsistency with which the Bush and Obama administrations applauded human rights and accused other countries of abusing war prisoners while regularly directing the American military to violate international treaties that prohibit torture. These stories made me cringe; it is beyond reason how anyone can authorize the manners in which our military tortures other human beings. Third, Greenwald turns to the banking industry and the financial crisis of 2008. Here, he really starts to dig into the inequality of the ruling elite and other Americans, telling stories of Americans whom the banks negligently and fraudulently kicked out of homes and left no remedial measures. Like his section on the telecommunications sector, Greenwald discusses the close relationship of members of Congress with the banking industry lobbyists. The fourth industry he confronts is American prison. With more Americans in jail during the past decade than ever before, the companies who operate our state and federal prisons are extremely well off financially. The common thread among these four industries is the ability with which they avoid any responsibility for wrongdoing. The elite class is immune from responsibility for their crimes, while most poor people in America have seen the inside of a jail cell because of petty crimes and insufficient legal defenses.

Though Greenwald focuses on these four industries and on the last decade in particular, he starts with James Madison, John Jay, and Thomas Jefferson. He cites many examples in the Federalist Papers and the Constitution about our founding fathers' goal to establish a national framework based on a rule of law and not a rule of men. He also points to former President Ford's decision to pardon former President Nixon after Nixon resigned from office. Greenwald uses Ford's pardon of Nixon as a catalyst that solidified the creation of a corrupt elite class that rarely must take responsibility for its crimes. He often repeats the oft-heard political mantra of looking forward instead of looking back as a way in which politicians avoid investigating wrongdoing and enforcing punishments against those who they have replaced.

The following is pretty clear: Glenn Greenwald is cynical about the direction America has been going and appears to be headed. That said, Greenwald is a phenomenal writer who cites all of his research. Despite his cynicism, I believe this book can instill courage in Americans to make this country a better place and I highly recommend that you read it.(less)

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Aug 15, 2012 Colleen Clark rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: politics-terror

Excellent. Brief and clearly written. The title exactly describes the subject of the book. 274pp

The Introduction begins, "As a litigator who practiced for more than a decade in federal and state courts across the country, I've long been aware of the inequities that pervade the American justice system....only when I began regularly writing about politics [Greenwald is a contributor to Salon] did I realize that the problem extends beyond...inequities....Those with political influence and financial...more

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Apr 27, 2012 Clif rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

All Americans should read this cautionary book that describes in detail and chronologically how our country has departed from the rule that John Adams proposed, that we be a nation of laws and not of men.

I was always impressed with the move to impeach Richard Nixon that forced him to resign from office. That event was a high point in American history. As has been said, the strength of democracy is not in electing good people but in removing bad ones.

Much to the dismay of those who value the law,...more All Americans should read this cautionary book that describes in detail and chronologically how our country has departed from the rule that John Adams proposed, that we be a nation of laws and not of men.

I was always impressed with the move to impeach Richard Nixon that forced him to resign from office. That event was a high point in American history. As has been said, the strength of democracy is not in electing good people but in removing bad ones.

Much to the dismay of those who value the law, Nixon's successor, Gerald Ford, promptly pardoned Nixon. This, in Greenwald's view, was the start of the descent into immunity from the law for the powerful culminating in President Obama outrageously saying that we must look forward, not backward, when he decided to ignore the criminal abuses of the Bush administration. This only confirmed Nixon's statement that "if the President does it, it's not illegal"

The Iran/Contra scandal of the Reagan years and letting "Scooter" Libby off the hook are further examples of justice avoided at the top.

Most worrying of all is the failure of the Department of Justice to act independently of the Executive branch as it was designed to do. We saw Attorney General Eric Holder starting out with a public listing of the unlawful activities of the Bush years and then dropping any attempt to hold anyone accountable at the behest of President Obama. The President now finds some lawyer at the DOJ or in the White House Office of Legal Counsel to interpret his activities as legal and, miraculously, they are!

This goes on even as the American citizens at the bottom of the economic ladder are hauled in and locked up for minor drug offenses. Plea bargaining coerces the poor to plead guilty regardless of actual guilt in order to expedite passage of cases through the judicial system. Please read the book Courtroom 302 for documentation of this process.

All of this goes on because of the apathy of the average American who says to him/herself, "it will never happen to me"

Read and then act upon what Greenwald so accurately describes. Write to your people in Congress and tell them you expect the law to be impartial and vigorously applied to the wealthy and powerful along with everyone else. Unless things change, America as conceptualized by the founders is history as we follow the practices of dictatorships that we hypocritically denounce.

You do wonder why there have been no criminal charges in the economic collapse, don't you? Have you considered how the scandal of Abu Ghraib resulted only in the punishment of those at the very bottom of the army? Occupy Wall Street is one way of showing resistance to the immunity of the 1%, but only action by millions of concerned Americans will bring change.

You should check out Greenwald's column written for the online magazine Salon. He stays abreast of the flouting of the laws that it now rampant.(less)

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Nov 20, 2011 Richard rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Though the content of this book is similar to what Glenn Greenwald writes in his blog, it was nice to read something that allowed Greenwald the space to put forward an argument and build upon it.

Greenwald uses his book to provide ample evidence of how the law has been used to, as the title states, destroy equality and protect the powerful. From the bailout of Wall Street to the torture regime, Greenwald certainly isn't lacking in areas to write about. He begins his argument with the pardon of R...more

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Mar 01, 2013 Chris rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book takes a powerful look at how the reaction of our government and country to illegal activity from the most powerful members of government and industry has changed since Watergate. If you follow the news, most of the incidents covered in the book will be familiar, but by bringing them together across time and political party, Greenwald shows clear and continuing erosion of the rule of law for our Country's elite.

Important for a contemporary work, the book remains focused and is a short...more

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May 13, 2012 Lauren rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: educational, dystopians-end-of-the-world, favorites

What a profoundly relevant and necessary book about the two tiered justice system in American politics.
Greenwald's take is that todays gross misconduct to protect the politically powerful started when President Ford pardoned President Nixon. He used the same line about looking forward not backwards that President Obama used to not only condone but retroactively immunize President Bush wiretapping , banking crisis, mortgage crisis and torture crimes and the Obama administrations own crimes. For m...more What a profoundly relevant and necessary book about the two tiered justice system in American politics.
Greenwald's take is that todays gross misconduct to protect the politically powerful started when President Ford pardoned President Nixon. He used the same line about looking forward not backwards that President Obama used to not only condone but retroactively immunize President Bush wiretapping , banking crisis, mortgage crisis and torture crimes and the Obama administrations own crimes. For make no mistake the waterboarding continues.
This chain of events eventually led to how the private banking sector as well as the telecoms received immunity.
The way the auto companies were given strict regulations for bailout money but the banking sector couldn't be stopped giving large bonuses. Why were the auto employees benefits taken then?

Greenwald makes a very strong case in his explanation with direct quotes from Eric Holder, the press and politicians WHY the political and financial elite escape with no attempt of justice. Apparently in the spirit of bipartisanship you don't want the next political office to investigate your own administration.

The hypocrisy doesn't end there as the not looking back but forward doesn't hold true for other nations who give their powerful immunity.
Then you can't move forward without charging criminals.

Greenwald also covers America's vast prison state and increasingly harsher sentencing that is "bipartisan" and the financial sector who runs the prisons which has a hand in shaping our drug laws.

Last but not least the vast disparity in the Obama administration to go after whistleblowers but never the criminals themselves.
If you follow his blog at all you'll be familar with this topic but despite some criticisms that he repeats himself people need to read this. Too many people actually aren't aware of torture convention and really do think torture of non prisoners of war is legal because of the Geneva convention.

I recommend this book to everyone. I'm a regular follower of Greenwald's column at salon.com. He's fair, well researched and never gives over to hyperbole. America never had a problem with a rich class but when the laws don't apply to them and they write the laws with an agenda to lengthen prison sentences then we are no longer a country of laws but rule of man.(less)

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Feb 13, 2012 Barry Eisler rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This superb book is a powerful indictment of America's two-tiered system of "justice" and the perversion of American ideals by the American establishment (better understood as an oligarchy). It could serve as a manifesto of the Occupy movement, which, contrary to variously naive and opportunistic mischaracterizations, has no problem with people winning, and is opposed instead to systemic, institutionalized cheating.

If you think certain classes of people should be above the law, or that the law (...more

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Jan 22, 2012 Joerg Rings rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A very good but depressing account of the state of the rule of law in the US: Non-existent. While the wealthy basically now trade a system of favors for never being held accountable for their crimes (starting with the Nixon pardon, going on and accelerating today under the Obama-administration for the banks), the poorer ranks of the US are locked up in a prison system so strict and large it's in a league of its own in the world. This started in the 60s, when after the civil rights movement the l...more

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Jan 11, 2013 Frank rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The examples used to support the premise of the title are pretty clearly presented. That crimes of monstrous proportion have been committed with impunity is common knowledge. The author offers an explanation of how that can happen, which leads to a grim conclusion.

To quote from his epilogue, "The founders envisioned the law as the bedrock foundation on which American society would be built, the essential guarantor of fairness and justice. But the multitiered justice system of today's America gua...more

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Jan 23, 2012 Schnaucl rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: library, non-fiction, january, read_2012, recommended_reading

This is an excellent and entirely depressing book about the political and financial elites' blanket immunity from the law.

I was a little put off by the introduction which goes on at great length about how the founders prized the rule of law above all else. In general I'm not a huge fan of the theory that says if the founders said/believed it, it must be right. (Especially when they themselves didn't apply an idea equally. Obviously African-Americans, women, and non-property owning whites were t...more

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Jan 21, 2013 Ashley rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Glenn Greenwald's "With Liberty and Justice for Some" is an infuriating look into America's elite immunity against prosecution of criminal activity. While the information contained in the book is nothing new (who among us isn't aware of the corruption in Washington?), Greenwald intertwines all information into a book that opens your eyes to just how bad the situation has gotten. With information on how the telecom agencies and the government got away with warrentless wiretapping, to drone attack...more

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Jan 08, 2012 Brenton Nichol rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: politics-law

Hopefully there aren't that many people out there who don't recognize that there is currently a lot, and I mean a LOT, of unrest and unhappiness in the general US population. Unfortunately, it seems that a lot of that unrest is misunderstood, misattributed, misapplied, or even willfully mischaracterized. The Tea Party may have had some noble goals in the beginning, but those were quickly overshadowed by birthers, extreme libertarians, and loonies who couldn't spell anything on their picket signs...more Hopefully there aren't that many people out there who don't recognize that there is currently a lot, and I mean a LOT, of unrest and unhappiness in the general US population. Unfortunately, it seems that a lot of that unrest is misunderstood, misattributed, misapplied, or even willfully mischaracterized. The Tea Party may have had some noble goals in the beginning, but those were quickly overshadowed by birthers, extreme libertarians, and loonies who couldn't spell anything on their picket signs correctly. Similarly, the Occupy movement has some very legitimate grievances, IF you can dig through the piles of BS that the mainstream media, the mega-rich, and our elected officials have said about OWS. And, to be fair, even a lot of people within Occupy don't seem to really understand why things are shitty, and who's really responsible. They just know that it hurts a lot when they try to sit down, and somebody out there is responsible.

I propose that anyone still wondering should read two books for starters: Griftopia by Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi and With Liberty and Justice for Some by Salon.com's Glenn Greenwald. These seem to me a solid baseline for understanding what all the public outrage is about.

There are two parts to the disease that afflicts us; the first part is the crimes committed by those in power, and the second part is the lack of justice meted out to those in power. Griftopia is the emotion-fueled rant that lays out all the conscienceless ways that the "One Percent" have taken advantage of us time and time again, while With Liberty and Justice For Some is the air-tight, theory-of-law-based clincher that details how those perpetrators never see justice for their crimes and what that means for us as a society.

IF we truly believe in Greenwald's opening chapter arguments about the rule of law, the necessity of law, and the necessity of law being universally distributed for it to mean anything at all, everything that follows in the book should make every US citizen sick to his or her stomach. Our country is not ours, our government is not ours, justice is not ours. Starting with Ford's pardon of Nixon for the Watergate scandal, Washington has developed a rich tradition of pardoning political officials for crimes they have committed, for covering up or ignoring those crimes, and, as of late, for extending this same indemnity to the country's business and financial elite.

This transcends partisan politics; indeed, it is why partisan politics will never do us much of any good, because both major parties are wholly compromised by disregard for the rule of law and a resultant "I'll rub your back, you rub mine" mindset that ensures neither party will ever seek to undo the damage of the other or hold anyone accountable for that damage, no matter how many times the two parties swap control of the White House.

If you read Griftopia, you'll be left wondering "why on earth doesn't anyone in power DO anything about this!?" When you then read With Liberty..., you'll understand exactly why nobody in power ever does anything. Real Estate magnate Leona Helmsley is infamous for stating that "only the little people pay taxes" after being accused of tax fraud. Since then, it is apparent that our entire political construct, and all of their friends in business and finance, have adopted the motto "only the little people pay for their crimes."(less)

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Nov 11, 2011 zerospinboson rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I am still fairly young, and because of that, and because I have had internet access for ages, I (as a Dutch national who has always been somewhat interested by the US) would say that I have grown up with the idea that the US has a class justice system. The first trial I really heard much about was OJ's, and most of the movies I saw about the US legal system were movies that had (usually) black people being treated extremely badly by the police as well as the courts, and who invariably lost thei...more I am still fairly young, and because of that, and because I have had internet access for ages, I (as a Dutch national who has always been somewhat interested by the US) would say that I have grown up with the idea that the US has a class justice system. The first trial I really heard much about was OJ's, and most of the movies I saw about the US legal system were movies that had (usually) black people being treated extremely badly by the police as well as the courts, and who invariably lost their court cases because they couldn't afford a lawyer, while the public defender did nothing for them. (Incidentally, this is why I dislike US detective series so much: they always make it seem as though police abuse is a fringe issue. It's odd how movies tend to emphasize the negative side of the justice system, while TV series largely ignore it.) And while I am very much aware of the fact that those movies were strictly speaking "fiction," I never really got the impression that they were overstating the case.
Because of this, I have to confess that I already started out as being rather skeptical of Greenwald's fundamental claims -- that the US is under the 'rule of law', and that being under a 'the rule of law' rather than a 'rule of men' is necessary for societal stability and legitimacy. Having said that, I was curious to see what kind of arguments Greenwald would present in order to make his case. Having finished, though, I have to say that although I don't really disagree with any of the points Greenwald makes with regards to elite immunity, I am far from convinced that the changes he describes are as game-changing as Greenwald takes them to be.

The focus of the book is the rise of elite immunity, and in particular on the changes in the way elites view themselves -- namely, as deserving of their position above the law -- and on the changes in the way elite immunity is 'sold' to the courts and to the public -- namely, by defenses that explicitly invoke their elite status when defending why they should not be punished for their actions. Now, I certainly agree with him that these are important changes, and important indicators of the US turning into a 'banana republic'. And I think that it is a good thing that Greenwald is trying to make more people aware of this, and of the perversity of this way of reasoning. That said, it seems to me that Greenwald rather underplays the fact that this is basically the only thing that has changed for the elites, since they have always been able to get away with far more than ordinary Americans (primarily because they have access to better lawyers, but also because judges treat them more deferentially, and because DAs are often sympathetic to them). Similarly, he largely ignores the question how broadly his thesis applies: the examples he discusses are about members of the political (and financial) elites getting away with things, not about more 'ordinary' elites doing so.

Another related point that bothered me when reading the book, was that Greenwald says very little about the question how the non-elites view the system, and how it works. Because while he does discuss the question of how the members of the 'second tier' are treated, this discussion is relegated to chapter five. And there, he does little more than to invoke a few polls, and to talk about the macro consequences of the War on Drugs and three-strikes/minimum sentencing. (Though to be fair, he does reference a number of decent books that spend more time on this issue.) Unlike the advocates of the elites, he never lets them speak for themselves, and he never really asks the question what the changes he describes have meant for the way they experience living in the US. In other words, the mistreatment of the "second tier" is largely taken for granted, and their suffering is largely treated instrumentally, in order to make a point, rather than as being important in itself. As such, I did not really get the impression that Greenwald thought their treatment to be as relevant to worry about as the other side of the question, and this struck me as rather a shame. (I have no idea whether or not this would yield insights that readily lend themselves for analysis -- or if that should be a requirement. One problem, I suspect, is that it probably wouldn't have sold, as people are far more likely to accept the idea that the poor are deserving of mistreatment than they are of the idea that the elites are allowed to abuse power.)
Having said that, I do find the book to be something of a disappointment, even while I am unable to say why, since I don't really know what I was expecting to find. What I can say, is that I found it interesting (if depressing) to notice how little in this book managed to rile me up or surprise me. As I read it, I kept alternating between irritation (because I knew nothing would be done about these trends, let alone to punish the people mentioned) and frustration (ditto). And while it may not be quite fair to blame Greenwald for that, it does seem to me that, if anything is to be done about these issues, what is needed is not a simple shift in rhetoric and law away from allowing such outrageous defenses of elite privilege, but a far broader overhaul of the way the judiciary functions. As such, it seems to me that the perspective Greenwald offers on the history of the past 40 years is rather limited, because he takes the judicial system to be both far more important in creating inequality than I would say it is, and far more independent from the rest of society than it really is.
That is, there seems to be a weird imbalance at work in the story he presents. Because while he spends oodles of time on the issue of elite corruption in the executive (and legislative) branches of government, he says next to nothing about the question why the judiciary accepts these arguments. Now, certainly, in the case of presidential decrees or legislative changes, there is fairly little that it can do, but I am hesitant to believe that they are the largely-passive third party that he implicitly presents them to be. In fact, I would argue that ideological judges are a huge part of this, if perhaps not in the specific examples Greenwald has chosen to discuss. He seems to be convinced of the importance of the role the judiciary has played in creating more 'social justice.' Yet with the exception of the Warren court, it seems to me that pretty much all Supreme Courts have been conservative at best, and reactionary at worst. And while I don't know much about what judges are like at the levels below SCOTUS, I imagine it isn't all that different. So why does he ignore this, other than because it would force him to revise his suggestion that the "rule of law" is as procedurally fair as he assumes/presents it to be?
In sum, I would venture that he draws a far stronger separation between the legal, political and social domains than is warranted, and than is helpful when trying to understand the problems facing the US. So while I would recommend this book to people for the discussion on the problem of elite immunity, and what it says about the US legal system, I feel a bit let down otherwise. Because while the emphasis just on the rule of law, legislation and media corruption is fine when he is writing on his blog, its limits become rather more obvious when presented in longer form.(less)

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Feb 24, 2013 Gordon Hilgers rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Greenwald traces America's swirve into a two-tiered justice system--happy results for the financially entitled and the politically ensconced, unhappy results for everyone else, especially the poor or anyone else who happens to make the slightest infraction--to Nixon's infamous pardon by Gerald Ford. The aftermath, as we have all seen, is rife with America as Al Capone: Iran/Contra, unwarranted wiretaps, extraordinary rendition, torture and absolutely no justice at all for the millions victimized...more

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Dec 31, 2012 Adharris rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A very good summary of how the political and social elites have systematically avoided the rule of law in the past 30 or so years. Greenwald focuses on a couple major areas: the Nixon pardon, wiretapping, bailing out the banks, and warcrimes/torture. He then wraps up the book with a chapter about how punitive action has disproportionately increased for the poor and minorities in the same time frame.

The book is extremely well researched and put together. It provides an excellent and thorough reca...more

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Jan 05, 2012 Susan Paxton rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A book I think conservatives would get a lot from as well as liberals, although conservatives may be turned off knowing the author is a liberal blogger. But Greenwald points out in a way I think is thoroughly non-partisan how toxic our legal system has become with its two tiers: an upper tier where the wealthy and the politicians do whatever the hell they want to do while destroying our country, wrecking the economy, and comitting war crimes, and a lower tier where some doofus caught with a join...more

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Jul 01, 2012 Tim rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: law, politics

Although many consider it little more than a holiday with fireworks, July 4 is meant to celebrate the final approval of the Declaration of Independence and its precepts. One of its key elements is epitomized in the phrase "that all men are created equal." Granted, there was an inherent contradiction with the existence of slavery in America, but the concept was a bit more specific. As many contend, the phrase stands for the proposition that there was to be no inequality before the law, that the l...more

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Jul 05, 2012 Adam rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Greenwald is a must-follow and must-read on the internets. Even though he's dedicated several book-length takedowns to the Bushies, he's shown similar tenacity and revulsion in his writings on the Obama administration. When you get hate mail from apologists on both sides of the aisle, you're doing something right.

"With Liberty and Justice for Some" is tough to rate because part of the book's success hinges on how well the reader is acquainted with the thesis (to a degree unprecedented in America...more

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Nov 04, 2012 Ben rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I had to set this one aside for awhile because it's hard for me to read this sort of thing without becoming
"unsettled", to put it lightly. As the sort of person who feels very strongly about the "rule of law", meaning equality under the law, reading this book is an experience of someone not so much pushing my buttons as holding them down for an extended period of time. If there were a book that I could force every American to read and carefully consider, and my goal was to convince people that...more

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Jun 06, 2012 Joseph Harris rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Review

“Greenwald lets no one off the hook in demonstrating the vast differences in legal recourse between rich and poor, powerful and weak… When the executive, judicial and legislative branches collude to avoid enforcement, lawlessness is the end result.”

—Kirkus Reviews

"Glenn Greenwald'slatest book is an absolute must-read. Incredibly persuasive, rigorous and damning." —Christopher Hayes

“Glenn Greenwald is not just the American Left’s most fearless political commentator; his fearlessness i

...more

Review

“Greenwald lets no one off the hook in demonstrating the vast differences in legal recourse between rich and poor, powerful and weak… When the executive, judicial and legislative branches collude to avoid enforcement, lawlessness is the end result.”

—Kirkus Reviews

"Glenn Greenwald's latest book is an absolute must-read. Incredibly persuasive, rigorous and damning." —Christopher Hayes

“Glenn Greenwald is not just the American Left’s most fearless political commentator; his fearlessness is such that he has shifted the expectations for everyone else, too. His rock-ribbed principles and absolute disregard for partisan favor have made U.S. political discourse edgier, more confrontational, and much, much better.”
—Rachel Maddow

“The first thing I do when I turn on the computer in the morning is go to Glenn Greenwald’s blog to see what he said. He is truly one of our greatest writers right now.”
—Michael Moore

“The most important voice to have entered the political discourse in years.”
—Bill Moyers

Product Description

From "the most important voice to have entered the political discourse in years" (Bill Moyers), a scathing critique of the two-tiered system of justice that has emerged in America

From the nation's beginnings, the law was to be the great equalizer in American life, the guarantor of a common set of rules for all. But over the past four decades, the principle of equality before the law has been effectively abolished. Instead, a two-tiered system of justice ensures that the country's political and financial class is virtually immune from prosecution, licensed to act without restraint, while the politically powerless are imprisoned with greater ease and in greater numbers than in any other country in the world.

Starting with Watergate, continuing on through the Iran-Contra scandal, and culminating with Obama's shielding of Bush-era officials from prosecution, Glenn Greenwald lays bare the mechanisms that have come to shield the elite from accountability. He shows how the media, both political parties, and the courts have abetted a process that has produced torture, war crimes, domestic spying, and financial fraud.

Cogent, sharp, and urgent, this is a no-holds-barred indictment of a profoundly un-American system that sanctions immunity at the top and mercilessness for everyone else.

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Feb 25, 2013 Kcatty marked it as could-did-not-finish · review of another edition

Note to self: stop reading Glenn Greenwald.

The two blurbs on the back were from Michael Moore and Rachel Maddow. I should have known from that...

I think Greenwald is one of those radical, paranoid liberty nuts who sees inequality around every corner and any government law as intrusion.
Except he's liberal, so apparently he's accepted by the media.

Yes we know that the media, politicians and people turned a blind eye to Bush's idiocy that was EVERY DAMN THING HE DID. We understand that celebrities...more

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Mar 25, 2012 Glenn rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Glenn Greenwald is one of the preeminent writers on civil liberties, US foreign policy and the intersection of the two. As a former lawyer, Greenwald brings strong rhetorical arguments to readers every day on Salon.com. His success on the Internet and various publications led to his first book, a reaction to the Bush presidency and its damaging effects on the rule of law in our country. The second took a similar track while the third addressed the great hypocrisies of many conservative leaders.

T...more Glenn Greenwald is one of the preeminent writers on civil liberties, US foreign policy and the intersection of the two. As a former lawyer, Greenwald brings strong rhetorical arguments to readers every day on Salon.com. His success on the Internet and various publications led to his first book, a reaction to the Bush presidency and its damaging effects on the rule of law in our country. The second took a similar track while the third addressed the great hypocrisies of many conservative leaders.

The fourth book, With Liberty and Justice For Some, comes as our society might be reaching a tipping point of frustration and anger at growing inequalities. This inequality is usually cast in terms of wealth, but here Greenwald appropriately frames it as a widening justice gap between the rich/powerful and everyone else.

His first example is arguably the most famous in US history: Gerald Ford’s decision to pardon Richard Nixon. Since then, Nixon allies and conservatives have argued that it saved the country from a divisive impeachment trial. Greenwald rightly points out that the same reasons for Nixon’s pardon are used after every attempt to hold high-level political officials responsible for their crimes. One was famously echoed by President Obama in deciding not to hold former Bush officials accountable by saying the country should “look forward, not backward.”

Indeed Greenwald does not just focus on Republicans or the right. The lack of prosecutions after the financial collapse of 2007-2008, the decision to give retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies that broke eavesdropping laws and violations of the Geneva Convention Against Torture are examples that implicate both parties in our corroded political culture

If the book only focused on the most famous examples of the rich and powerful escaping justice, it would still be a valuable read on the inequalities of our legal system. But Greenwald goes further, explaining just how poorly those without connections and wealth suffer under our legal system. He gives both micro and macro displays of this depravity, such as the homeless man who turned himself in after stealing $100 and was sentenced to fifteen years in prison or the much stiffer penalties for possessing cocaine in crack form vs. the more affluent powder version.

The historic Occupy Wall Street protests were rightly directed at the failure to hold banks and the financial sector accountable for their crimes and the increasing influence of money in our democracy. With Liberty and Justice for Some amplifies the rationale for the 99% movement and expands it to the justice system. Not only do we need legislative reform, but a reform of a broken legal system used to protect the powerful.
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Apr 29, 2012 Kristin rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: social-justice, politics, non-fiction, history, legal-studies, economics

The good things about this book:

It is exhaustingly well-researched. If I could describe this book in one word, it would be "thorough."

I like how he he traces the beginning of the problem to Watergate. Today I learned!

Greenwald, as always, has a great voice that is refreshingly unassuming. I love the times when he quotes his own blog to show that he was wrong about something. The world would be a better place with more people like him.

The bad things about this book:

As many other reviewers have po...more

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Oct 24, 2012 Justin rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I love Glenn's work but it does take some adjustment reading him in book format as opposed to his blog, now hosted on the Guardian's web site. While he has more room to state his case and develop his arguments here, it took an awful long time for that argument to get going. He spends a bit too much time discussing things in terms of what the Founding Fathers believed and would have wanted. That may work for strict constructionists and conservatives, but many others outside that camp don't necess...more I love Glenn's work but it does take some adjustment reading him in book format as opposed to his blog, now hosted on the Guardian's web site. While he has more room to state his case and develop his arguments here, it took an awful long time for that argument to get going. He spends a bit too much time discussing things in terms of what the Founding Fathers believed and would have wanted. That may work for strict constructionists and conservatives, but many others outside that camp don't necessarily think 18th Century intentions should be imposed on a contemporary America.

The good news is once he does move into contemporary politics and gets to the meat of this book, it really takes off. He draws an extremely compelling line from Ford's pardon of Nixon through to Obama's present day, ongoing shielding of Bush administration war criminals as the new MO for the elite political class. Even better (and more outrageous), he looks at how this elite immunity complex has been transferred not only to political elites but also corporate ones. The discussion of the infamous retroactive immunity for telecom companies secret wire tapping was particularly strong. The obvious other example of the ongoing financial crisis and relatively few executives who have been made to stand for their alleged crimes, particularly as it relates to mortgage foreclosures was dealt with far too briefly, unfortunately.

Greenwald then moves on to the second tier of justice for how non-elites are increasingly being incarcerated for longer and less serious offenses. The statistics and anecdotes he provides here are sobering and depressing, although it isn't quite as compelling as the rest of the book, namely because he doesn't spend as much time working out a rationale for this development in the same way he does for elite immunity, other than pointing to the rise of "law and order" politics.

This is a great read for those looking for a truly critical perspective on the political class as a whole, rather than an argument that takes partisan sides. Greenwald hammers just about every president from Nixon to Obama, and spends quite a lot of time focusing on the decisions of our current President. There are some flaws, but this is an important, engaging argument that is almost completely ignored by mainstream political reporters. (less)

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Mar 16, 2013 Brandon rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Very thorough and presents a non-partisan view of the facts. You may wonder how much more corruption you can take while trudging through each chapter. Like some other reviews the last chapter on this system's impact on the second class of citizens seems a bit tacked on, but is necessary to provide the contrast. It would be nice to hear Greenwald's ideas on what can fix this situation beyond just getting the facts out there. That sense of helplessness may also contribute to frustration while read...more

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With Liberty and Justice for Some: How the Law Is Used to Destroy Equality and Protect the Powerful

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