VivaBarnesLaw
Politics • Culture • News
The Barnes Brief: Friday. February 21, 2025
February 21, 2025
post photo preview
Art of the Day

Schedule

Past

  • Live w/ Duran
    placeholder

Future

  • Friday at 9ish pm eastern:  Betting w/ Barnes: SportsPicks Subscribers Exclusive AMA
  • Saturday Night at 9 pm eastern: Movie TBD
  • Sunday at 9 pm eastern: Viva & Barnes, Law for the People
  • Tuesday-Thursday February 25 to 27, Bourbon w/ Barnes at 9ish eastern

Book Recommendation: Lords of Poverty detailing the fraudulent way many “aid” NGOs work. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53331.Lords_of_Poverty

Art of the Day: From one of the meme maker maestros, an elegant image of simply luxuries to end a hard day’s labor – a smooth glass with a big piece of ice draped in the inviting bourbon sharing the space with a lit cigar, against the backdrop of a whiskey cast with the name slipped in Viva/Barnes…very well done!

Wisdom of the Day: “I still remember, 40 years ago, when I was shackled and put in prison…Being an American citizen didn’t mean a thing then.” Fred Korematsu.

The Library: Top 5 Curated Articles of the Week

  1. A new disease: post Covid vaccination syndrome
  2. Language police
  3. Populist left protest
  4. Homeless rise
  5. Left uncovers why young people shifted                                                                                        

*Bonus: King of late night

Top 10 Cases TBD Sunday

  1. SCOTUS: Civil Rights
  2. SCOTUS: No Justice
  3. SCOTUS: Qui Tam Fraud
  4. SCOTUS: Prejudicial evidence
  5. Senseless in Seattle: Benshoof Case
  6. 1st Amendment Prosecutions
  7. Indentured servants
  8. Parental rights undermined
  9. Trans protections in prison
  10. Doge in court

*Bonus: High Seas power.

 

Closing Argument: Politicized Punishment

From my sentencing brief in the Senseless in Seattle case:

  • How much is enough? Mr. Benshoof has lost his car, lost his home, lost the right to contact his son, and lost his liberty for months in jail. He faces another trial on related charges. The Prosecution suggests an 81-year prison sentence, and formally now seeks an unprecedented, harsh, punitive six-year prison sentence with de facto termination of parental rights in a 5-year no contact order with his own son – for what?  A father texting his teenage son. The son often sought out the contact, and never complained about the contacts. Instead of the facts of this case, the government focuses on everything but this case, while ignoring the punishment that has already been imposed on the defendant. A just sentence conforming to Constitutional principles calls for a time served sentence, not a sentence longer than what some rapists get.  
  • Indeed, the entire case is predicated on a serious Constitutional offense – punishing a defendant for asserting his fundamental right to parent. A court cannot circumvent the Constitutional and statutory processes for terminating parental rights with “no contact” orders. The government’s sentence, if imposed, raises additional Constitutional questions, including terminating parental rights without due process of law and punishing defendants based on the individual interest of prosecutors and courts because the defendant brought legal complaints against them. 
  • Few fundamental rights are more important than the parental right to contact, control and custody of their minor children. Indeed, “[a] parent's right to control and to have the custody of his children is a fundamental civil right which may not be interfered with without the complete protection of due process safeguards.” In re Dependency of K.N.J., 171 Wash. 2d 568, 574, 257 P.3d 522, 526 (2011) (quoting Halsted v. Sallee, 31 Wash. App. 193, 195, 639 P.2d 877 (1982)). Mr. Benshoof, as a “natural parent, has a fundamental liberty interest in his custody and care of” his son. Id. (quoting In re Custody of C.C.M., 149 Wash.App. 184, 203, 202 P.3d 971 (2009)).  “Procedures used to terminate the relationship between parent and child must meet the requisites of the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.” Id. at 574 (quoting Lassiter v. Dep't of Soc. Servs., 452 U.S. 18, 24–32 (1981)). Indeed, the Court of Appeals has previously noted that relocation and dependency proceedings are distinguishable from termination proceedings because they do not “sever all contact between the nonresidential parent and child.”  In re Marriage of Wehr, 165 Wash. App. 610, 615, 267 P.3d 1045, 1048 (2011). Here, however, the no-contact order at issue in the case, and the no contact order recommended by the prosecution would sever all contact between Mr. Benshoof and his son: without Due Process or the required statutory termination procedures.
  • None of these steps ever occurred: the prior court order stripped the Defendant of his fundamental rights without conforming to Constitutional or statutory process, and punishing him for asserting that right is as problematic as now seeking to create a new no contact order stripping him of those fundamental rights into the future. The Prosecution seeks to skip right over all of the Due Process protections built into a termination procedure and skip directly to the results of the termination: preventing Mr. Benshoof from seeing or contacting his son ever again. The Prosecution is essentially demanding a constructive termination of the parental relationship. Worse still, they demand this against the wishes of Mr. Benshoof’s son – who has the legal right to choose which parent he wishes to retain custody.
  • The government asks this court to commit the very abuses of power that led to standardizing sentencing in the first place: the need to treat similarly situated people similarly. The government’s punitive sentencing request invites yet another legal error: it demands punishment because the defendant has brought legal action against prosecutors and judges. This demand violates the defendant’s right to petition the government for redress of grievances, a Constitutional policy that prevents people seeking extra-legal remedies. While the government objects to the defendant constantly seeking out the courts for remedy, the government ignores his Constitutional right to do so, including the defendant challenging the service of process of the no-contact order at issue in this case, and challenged its constitutionality and jurisdictional authority as well. No one – until now – has sought to imprison someone for petitioning the court for redress of grievances, a First Amendment protected right. Aside from the Constitutional concerns, the government’s complaints about the defendant’s pro se litigation ignores that this case doesn’t concern those matters and that the defendant had already been punished. Mr. Benshoof has already been penalized with denial of the right to sue without advance court permission, dismissal of his petitions, denial of his complaints and appeals, and financial fines. By contrast, a time served sentence conforms to other comparable cases, Constitutional principles, and just sentencing.
  • It is apparent the legal authorities of the Seattle area dislike Benshoof’s pro se litigant and Covid policy protest past, but that is not the basis for imposing the harshest punishment ever imposed on a middle aged defendant with very little criminal history, who has already lost his ability to seek judicial redress without advance judicial permission, lost his car, lost his residence, and lost custody of his son, when that sentence will undermine confidence in the legal system and not be a truly just sentence. How much is enough? 

 

community logo
Join the VivaBarnesLaw Community
To read more articles like this, sign up and join my community today
25
What else you may like…
Videos
Podcasts
Posts
Articles
Canadian PM Debate Recap

For those who missed it. Enjoy!

00:11:22
Two butterflies hatched

They were very much ahead of schedule… We went out into the backyard where the cocoons were, and two butterflies had hatched. They have now been set free!

The metamorphosis of a caterpillar to a butterfly is truly something spiritual.

00:00:21
Gwen Walz Attacks RFK Jr

She need to be quiet and go away lol

00:08:39
February 17, 2024
Appearance on Richard Syrette

I did a quick hit on Richard Syrette yesterday. Gotta keep Canadians apprised of the U.S. madness.

Appearance on Richard Syrette
The Barnes Brief, Podcast Format: Monday, July 17, 2023

Closing Argument: Birthright citizenship is deeply American, and wholly Constitutional.

The Barnes Brief, Podcast Format: Monday, July 17, 2023
Declaration of Independence

Audio podcast style.

Declaration of Independence
Movie Night: The Patriot

An American-style Easter. Will start watching at 9 pm eastern on the dot. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0187393/

Board Poll: Saturday Movie

Pick your favorite, and we'll watch tonight at 9 pm eastern.

post photo preview
post photo preview
The Barnes Brief: Friday, April 17, 2025

Planned Appearances

Art of the Day: Swiss Master Craft

Patek Phillipe, the Swiss watchmaker whose rare watches can fetch millions at auction. The signature accessory of successful men, and the Swiss tradecraft remains world renowned for a reason. I uncovered the significance after a client gifted me one of their watches years ago, only to uncover I was giving would-be bandits about six-figure reasons to machete my hand off. I generally avoid watches to this day. The artistic rendering of time in the Swiss skill-craft proves an art of its own kind which I leave at home rather than accompany me in public. Indeed, a well-chosen watch can be a valuable asset of a financial freedom plan. My favorite watch I still cherish the most though still recalls my Dad’s favorite watch, a then $49.99 calculator watch he could use to do math in a jam, which he showed off to everybody. It wasn’t Swiss-made, but it represented an equally true form of expression and real wealth.

Book Recommendation

 Wealth & Democracy by Kevin Phillips includes a substantial section dedicated to the economic rise and fall of great powers, with a particular focus on trade and industrial policy.  

Wisdom of the Day

“The fact that hearings are utilized by the Executive to secure an informed basis for the exercise of summary power does not argue the right of courts to retry such hearings not bespeak denial of due process to withhold such power from the courts.” Justice Frankfurter, Ludecke v. Watkins (1948).

 

Only for Supporters
To read the rest of this article and access other paid content, you must be a supporter
Read full Article
post photo preview
The Barnes Brief: Friday, April 4, 2025

Schedule

Past

Future

  • Friday at 9ish pm eastern: Betting w/ Barnes AMA
  • Saturday Movie Night at 9 pm eastern: Val Kilmer Movie TBD
  • Sunday at 6 pm eastern: Viva & Barnes, Law for the People

Book Recommendation: The VBL book list, a humble 568 of them. An example: Kevin Phillips’ biography of President McKinley, a book enjoyed by President Trump.  https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/130921670-robert-barnes?ref=nav_mybooks&shelf=vivabarneslaw

Art of the Day: The effusive ebullience of jazz, the colorful spirit the saxophone sings in its inventive riffs, the chic cool of a jazz club off an alley in Paris or hidden in a cave-like basement in Gotham or enveloped by the memory of history in New Orleans amongst the young folks’ revelry. The explosion of color in the art evinces that echoed memory of jazz clubs on a warm summer night, where everybody is a cool cat. In another life, I’d be a jazz drummer.

Wisdom of the Day: "It was the stage in which they were starting to lose what had been built up by the solid things: industry and physical commerce and agriculture and maritime industries. If we look at what happened to them, it's confirming the dangers of letting yourself get into this posture of thinking that you can provide services and finance to the world and that works. It never has." Kevin Phillips. 

 

Only for Supporters
To read the rest of this article and access other paid content, you must be a supporter
Read full Article
post photo preview
The Barnes Brief: Friday, March 15, 2025

Schedule

Future

  • Friday at 9ish pm eastern: Betting w/ Barnes AMA
  • Saturday Night at 9 pm eastern: Comedy Movie TBD
  • Sunday at 6 pm eastern: Viva & Barnes, Law for the People

Book Recommendation: Framed by John Grisham. Non-fiction work on wrongfully convicted.

 

Art of the Day: Geometric ancient art found on walls, temples, and pottery from centuries ago across civilizations, societies, and geographies around the globe. Recently highlighted by the likes of Graham Hancock and other explorers of ancient civilizations, this unique geometric art depicted here in Greek pottery, represents a kind of collective unconscious across ancient societies. It stood out to me for a different reason: a tattoo artist from Tahiti (where the word tattoo originated) designed an engagement ring tattoo for me a decade+ ago mimicking the same identical design, though I neither requested nor he suggested it. Something deep in the human consciousness calls to this simple symbol of truth in life.

 

Wisdom of the Day: “The power in the judicial will enable them to mould the government into almost any shape they please.” Brutus, Anti-Federalist, 1788.

Closing Argument: Time to Judge the Judges

 

Only for Supporters
To read the rest of this article and access other paid content, you must be a supporter
Read full Article
See More
Available on mobile and TV devices
google store google store app store app store
google store google store app tv store app tv store amazon store amazon store roku store roku store
Powered by Locals