i must say, though i was in people's court once trying to get my security deposit back from my landlady, which is by definition the lowest level court in the land, i too have many apprehensions about the "fairness" of the judicial system in america. that's not to say that my 1 incident should be representative of the entire judicial system, as i still believe that there are lots of excellent examples of upstanding individuals, probably more so than bad ones, but the judicial system is powered by people and their interpretation of the law, and though with some checks and balances, people having unconscious biases and tend to work these around the system, just like her example of guns and butter, no one's going to penalize that judge for this and she knows it.<p>my particular case was in quincy, mass, i remember the faces of the judge, deputy, and clerk that waited to put my case towards the very end after about 10 cases and all other people had left, behind closed doors, seemed i didnt understand much about the system back then, but this was an arbitration, under the guise of a court order to reappear for an appeal. the landlady, a chinese national, had lost the claim originally and had ninety days to appeal, she appealed after 138 days, and the court ordered me to show up with an official court summons. in looking back, i should not have showed up, i had no need to show up, this was over a measely 700-900 usd if i recall correctly. and the way the judge, clerk, and deputy nodded their heads in contempt of me as i spoke my case was so planned and orchestrated that in my mind i decided that this was useless and to go ahead and tear up the check that she was asked to pay me for my security deposit after the first decision which i hadnt even cashed because it was never about the money.<p>if these are the shenanigans in the lowest of courts, i wonder what things are like in the upper courts. my lesson from that day was 2 fold, try your best never to go the legal route, and the american system, although perfect in many ways, still cannot provide perfect justice.