Good morning,

Having had some experience with unjust courts, I spent some time recently thinking about the most consequential case of judicial abuse in history.

But first, here is today's Texas Minute.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Friday, April 3, 2020
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• With a population of 28.9 million, Texas has had 70 fatalities from the Chinese coronavirus, as of 12 noon yesterday.
      
• Republican congressional candidate Kathaleen Wall released a television ad accusing the Chinese government of being complicit in the spread of the virus. As Cary Cheshire reports, her point was buttressed this week by U.S. intelligence officials who concluded China has lied about the infection rate and lethality of the disease. Wall is seeking the open Congressional District 22 seat in the Houston area, and has vowed to make sure  China faces repercussions.
        
• “China is a criminal enterprise masquerading as a sovereign nation.” – Kathaleen Wall
       
• Perhaps more devastating than the coronavirus to the world economy has been the mostly-ignored fight between Russia and Saudi Arabia over oil production. The two countries have been flooding the market for weeks, driving down the price of oil in an attempt to break the other’s financial back.
      
• President Trump told CNBC yesterday he spoke with the leaders of Russia and Saudi Arabia, who agreed to scale back oil production. His action, and their response, caused an immediate rally on the stock market and the price of oil.
     
• While the state’s primary runoffs have been delayed by the public health threat of the coronavirus, and local governments have been given permission to push their elections to November, some are refusing to do so. One such entity is Barbers Hill ISD, which wants nearly $300 million in new debt spending. Not everyone is impressed. Brandon Waltens has the details.
       
• “With Texans facing layoffs or pay cuts in recent weeks, all while being forced to stay at home, local governments should not be passing more debt while we tackle this outbreak.” – State Rep. Briscoe Cain (R-Deer Park)
     
• I guess using a pandemic to suppress voter turnout is one way to pass new bond debt.
     
• Meanwhile, several city governments in South Texas’ Rio Grande Valley have begun setting up police checkpoints to enforce coronavirus-prompted stay-at-home orders. In Port Isabel, no one under the age of 14 is allowed to enter grocery stores. David Vasquez has the full story. 
     
• It’s now a crime in Laredo, Texas, to enter a building that isn’t your  home without wearing a mask, punishable by a fine of $1,000.
      
• Remember when the cause du jour was banning single-use plastic bags? Remember how right-thinking people said reusable bags were unsanitary and disease factories? Remember how those concerns were so casually dismissed? I give you Politico’s report on how San Francisco – the Austin of California – is reversing course... and banning reusable bags.

Friday Reflection

by Michael Quinn Sullivan

History is replete with examples of judicial abuse and executive power exercised unjustly. Even in our own Republic, where we say the “law is king,” we find horrible miscarriages of justice.

Yet none in history was more consequential than the trial and execution of Jesus of Nazareth the day before Passover in the 1st century. Led before the Sanhedrin, the ruling council of Jews, Jesus’ so-called trial was an exercise in railroading. The “court” had already decided He was guilty of being a troublemaker – He had healed too many people and even raised some from the dead. Moreover, He had spoken out against religious and political corruption.

The high priest, Caiaphas, told his colleagues before the trial, “it is expedient for us that one man should die.”

Let’s back up. Looking back 2,000 years, most people today think the Sanhedrin – presided over as it was by someone titled “high priest” – was a religious body. It was, but not really. The Sanhedrin was a governing, political body, with enormous power over the daily affairs of life.

It was comprised of elders from the Pharisee and Sadducee political parties, serving functionally as an heir to the priestly judges we see in the Old Testament from the time of Moses until King Saul.

At its core, the Sanhedrin was a political body filled with politicians. As such, they were mostly concerned with protecting the status quo and their own wealth and power. And for whatever else He was, Jesus was (rightly) a threat to their status quo.

The so-called trial violated a vast number of protections guaranteed under Israel’s laws at the time. The trial started with a bribe, was conducted at night in the high priest’s house, involved no valid indictment, excluded members of the Sanhedrin who might have voted no; the list goes on and on.

They wanted Jesus dead, and they broke their own rules to demand the Roman government carry out the execution.

While they were but players in the grand plan of salvation, the Sanhedrin’s actions nonetheless serve as an important reminder that a self-governing people must be vigilant against the creeping cancer of corruption. Left to their own devices, powerful institutions will eventually serve only themselves – including our courts.

Institutions of government will serve the citizenry for only as long as the citizens themselves provide jealous oversight.