A quick history lesson here. When our founding fathers decide to make the laws of our great nation, laws mind you not the constitution, the constitution only provides rights, it does not make laws, in order to provide a smooth transition from a British system of law to an American system of law without undo imposition to the businesses and social aspects of the new found country, decided to import from Britain most of its common law. Common law being those laws arrived at after hundreds of years of judges defining through their judicial pronouncements what the law says. The United States had no quarrel with and was comfortable with laws and so imported the common law of Britain as that of the United States.
The first problem should be immediately apparent, the United States was a democracy while the British were ruled by a monarchy. Along with the wholesale import of British common law came the doctrine of sovereign immunity. Simply put this means that since the queen was ordained by the chosen deity, (God), and that deity is perfect, then the monarch cannot make a mistake since that would indicate that the deity had chosen wrong and therefore was imperfect. So by default monarch could get away with murder, (literally), and often did.
This same doctrine was brought over to the United States with our government in place of the monarch. Not only is it amazing that this piece of common law made it across the pond, but it stayed law until after WWII when in 1946 Congress passed the Federal Tort Claims Act. It wasn’t until 1946 that citizens were allowed to seek compensation from their government in the United States. Even then it was and still is a very limiting structure that allows for suing the federal government. In short, it is not your right to seek compensation for losses caused by the federal government or it’s employees or anyone acting as an employee of the government.
That is not the only way in which the government protects itself. In the rare case of a law suit involving the government being allowed, unlike suits in the civilian world, you will not be allowed to have the case argued in front of a jury. It will be decided purely by a FEDERAL JUDGE. It was decided to legislate the FTCA this way because the government felt it unwise to have it’s actions judged by its citizens. Say what!! Yes folks this is true! All factual.
I’m going to close this for now as it seems to require a lot of explanation, (nice way to keep it hidden don’t you think), and I don’t want to bore you. Perhaps this article is a good starting point for your own research.
Happy Hunting,
Perihelion
The first problem should be immediately apparent, the United States was a democracy while the British were ruled by a monarchy. Along with the wholesale import of British common law came the doctrine of sovereign immunity. Simply put this means that since the queen was ordained by the chosen deity, (God), and that deity is perfect, then the monarch cannot make a mistake since that would indicate that the deity had chosen wrong and therefore was imperfect. So by default monarch could get away with murder, (literally), and often did.
This same doctrine was brought over to the United States with our government in place of the monarch. Not only is it amazing that this piece of common law made it across the pond, but it stayed law until after WWII when in 1946 Congress passed the Federal Tort Claims Act. It wasn’t until 1946 that citizens were allowed to seek compensation from their government in the United States. Even then it was and still is a very limiting structure that allows for suing the federal government. In short, it is not your right to seek compensation for losses caused by the federal government or it’s employees or anyone acting as an employee of the government.
That is not the only way in which the government protects itself. In the rare case of a law suit involving the government being allowed, unlike suits in the civilian world, you will not be allowed to have the case argued in front of a jury. It will be decided purely by a FEDERAL JUDGE. It was decided to legislate the FTCA this way because the government felt it unwise to have it’s actions judged by its citizens. Say what!! Yes folks this is true! All factual.
I’m going to close this for now as it seems to require a lot of explanation, (nice way to keep it hidden don’t you think), and I don’t want to bore you. Perhaps this article is a good starting point for your own research.
Happy Hunting,
Perihelion
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