What would President Lincoln have done?

[David Lockmiller]

"A Green Beret’s cancer changed military malpractice law. His claim still got denied." (Washington Post - By Ian Shapira, March 29, 2023)

Former Congresswoman Jackie Speier, a co-author of the legislation, was quoted in the recent Washington Post article:

“I was convinced that this was going to be a way of getting compensation to the service members and their families expeditiously, without the problems associated with lawsuits, which can go on forever,” said Speier, who retired from Congress in January. “What’s so painful is that the Stayskal Act was a huge win for our service members, but the administrative system that has been created has really sabotaged it.”

The statistics on the medical malpractice claims are appalling according to the Washington Post article:

“Just 17 out of 502 medical malpractice claims filed with the military’s three major branches have yielded financial settlements as of mid-2023, according to the Army, Navy and Air Force. Another 134 have been denied. The rest are being reviewed, are under or eligible for appeal, or have been withdrawn. The claims have sought a total of $3.77 billion in damages, but only $3.95 million has been given out in the 17 settlements.”

[David Lockmiller]

Hint #1:Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln by Distinguished Men of His Time, Edited and Collected by Allen Thorndike Rice, Editor of the North American Review [1888], pages 328-29, Colonel A. H. Markland:

When I delivered the letter [dated June 9, 1864], Mr. Lincoln read it carefully and handed it back to me, saying:

"What is the matter between Blair and Stanton?"

I told him all I knew in reference to the proposed orders. He then said:

"If I understand the case, General Grant wants the orders issued, and Blair wants them issued, and you want them issued, and Stanton won't issue them. Now, don't you see what kind of a fix I will be in if I interfere? I'll tell you what to do: If you and General Grant understand one another, suppose you try to get along without the orders, and if Blair or Stanton make a fuss I may be called in as a referee, and I may decide in your favor."

The orders were never issued, and pleasant relations were maintained on that score all around.

That Abraham Lincoln was favored with a fund of humor and a sense of the ridiculous there can be no question; but as President he used those gifts, if they may be called gifts, for a worthy and laudable purpose. When oppressed with care and anxiety, beset with importunities he could not grant, humor was to him a relief, and an encouragement to his despondent listener. His sympathies were with the people and for the people, and his only ambition was that the Union might be preserved. It is a singular fact that all men who came in official or social relations with Abraham Lincoln while he was President were impressed with unselfish patriotism and unyielding integrity. (Emphasis added.)


What we have here is purposeful non-enforcement of the law -“Sargent First Class Richard Stayskal Military Medical Accountability Act of 2019” - by federal employees in the executive branch of the government.

[David Lockmiller]

Hint #2:

Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court John Marshall wrote the opinion of the Supreme Court in Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. 137, 162-163 (1803):

In the 3d vol. of his Commentaries, p. 23, Blackstone states “it is a general and indisputable rule, that where there is a legal right, there is also a legal remedy by suit or action at law, whenever that right is invaded."

The very essence of civil liberty certainly consists in the right of every individual to claim the protection of the laws, whenever he receives an injury. One of the first duties of government is to afford that protection.

The government of the United States has been emphatically termed a government of laws, and not of men. It will certainly cease to deserve this high appellation, if the laws furnish no remedy for the violation of a vested legal right.