A New Low In American Jurisprudence
So, US law is no longer satisfied with looking to "International Law" or "Higher Law" for inspiration. We now have at least one Federal Judge who apparently considers John Ford to be the very Moses of law concerning the slaughter of horses. One assumes John Wayne is also properly deified. Judge Benavides was appointed the bench in 1994 by William Jefferson Clinton. The law of the West, as filmed by Hollywood, now stands as the law of the land in the United States. Paging Eugene Volokh.
HOUSTON – A federal appeals court says slaughtering horses for meat is illegal in Texas, where the animals symbolize the Old West and where two of the nation's three processing plants are located.
The decision, issued Friday by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, overturns a lower court's ruling last year on a 1949 Texas law that banned horse slaughter for the purpose of selling the meat for food.
The lower court said the Texas law was invalid because it had been repealed by another statute and was pre-empted by federal law.
However, a panel of three judges on the 5th Circuit disagreed, saying the law still stood and was still enforceable.
The 5th Circuit decision also cited more than the law.
"The lone cowboy riding his horse on a Texas trail is a cinematic icon. Not once in memory did the cowboy eat his horse," wrote Judge Fortunato Benavides.
The ruling involves the Dallas Crown Inc. slaughter mill in Kaufman and Beltex Corp. in nearby Forth Worth. The nation's third plant is in Illinois, run by Cavel International Inc. at DeKalb. All three operations are foreign-owned.
A bill pending before Congress would shutter all three operations.
The plants ship the meat overseas, since it is considered a delicacy in parts of Europe and Asia.
Contrary to Judge Benavides' sanitized Hollywood version of history, there are many, many, many examples of people in the old West eating their horses when necessity arose. Say here, here, here and an example of native Americans doing so (a common practice) Here; all found in about three seconds on Google. But it is instructive to search the phrase "eat their horses" and see what comes up on the first page. The top ones would be, shall we say, left-leaning blogs.
And now judges who use Hollywood movies as a basis for American law.
By Uncle Pinky, January 20, 2007 @ 10:40 pm
Egad. I’ve eaten horse, and I wasn’t even hungry. Wasn’t bad. Protein is protein.
By TC@LeatherPenguin, January 21, 2007 @ 12:40 am
Does this mean i can’t shoot stray pit bulls and leave them in front of Korean diners?
Really! I need to know, or they’ll just pile up on the corner.
By Gaius, January 21, 2007 @ 7:26 am
Don’t you hate when that happens? Dog drifts are so annoying.