It may sound strange to read that headline: An American in Manhattan. Clearly a contradiction in terms because Manhattan is in America, but in this post, it has a far greater meaning. With all the government monitoring and controls being imposed upon Americans today, we are looking more like a foreign country every day. From NSA spying for non-defense purposes to IRS targeting of conservative groups to the abrupt dissolution of the Moreland Commission on Public Corruption, we are finding the people losing control and accountability over their own government.

To be sure, we are at the core a self-governing nation. But for that to be the case, free speech, open association and the filing of complaints must be allowed to occur without the kind retributions inflicted upon civil rights advocate Leon Koziol when he exposed public corruption in our family courts. So severe were the threats of contempt and orchestrated support incarceration that Leon was forced to seek protection from human rights agencies in Paris.

Fortunately, a major donation materialized back home to facilitate his return home this past weekend. We would like to thank that donor but she insisted on anonymity. Undaunted by the oppression here, Leon continued his family law reform efforts by delivering copies of his federal mandamus petition to New York City supporters who in turn made them available to reporters for NBC news and the New York Times, among other interested parties. A relevant segment of that petition is provided here:

Extraordinary relief is further justified by an overwhelming public interest in the proper functioning of our court systems and a limit upon escalating state infringements of our parenting liberties and family privacy. Family courts have routinely exceeded federal and state constitutional limits without accountability due to the same deference practices. Analyzed from a functioning standpoint, these courts are operating today as executive enforcement agencies in violation of separation of powers doctrine. At the same time, attorney codes are being legislated to censor all manner of speech with recourse limited to the same entity which legislated them.

Due to lack of meaningful oversight and limits, domestic judges have morphed into super-parents scrutinizing every aspect of private behavior including the lodging of father, fiancée and children at a hotel in contrast with the state’s custodial mother and no support of any kind behind the subject order. They are empowered to jail the violator on a mere preponderance standard of proof with no jury right. Simply because children are asserted as their justification, these investigatory and supervisory tribunals have become more powerful than the NSA, CIA and IRS. It gives pause to reflect upon one state leader who understood this power:

“The state must declare the child to be the most precious treasure of the people. As long as the government is perceived as working for the benefit of children, the people will happily endure almost any curtailment of liberty and almost any deprivation.” Adolph Hitler, Mein Kampf, Publ. Houghton Miflin, 1943, pg. 403.