Posted on 06/30/2008 7:05:05 PM PDT by jazusamo
Recent landmark court decisions are reminders that elections are not just about putting candidates in office for a few years.
The judges that elected officials put on the bench can remake the legal landscape, change fundamental social policies and even affect the way wars are fought, long after those who appointed them have served their terms and passed from the scene.
The Supreme Court recently created a new "right" out of thin air for captured enemy soldiers and terrorists— the right to seek release in the federal courts, something that neither the Constitution nor the Geneva Convention provided.
The High Court has also struck down gun control laws as violations of the Second Amendment. Whatever the legal merits or the policy merits of that decision, it is a major change, created by judges.
The point here is that federal judges, including Supreme Court justices, wield enormous— and growing— power. What that means is that when we vote for the candidates who will nominate and confirm judges, we are making decisions not only for ourselves but for generations yet unborn.
Recent momentous decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court have been decided by 5 to 4 votes, including the votes of justices appointed by presidents who are no longer living— Justice John Paul Stevens, appointed by President Ford, and Justice Anthony Kennedy, appointed by President Reagan.
Whoever is elected to the White House this November is expected to appoint two or three new members of the Supreme Court— justices who will be making major decisions affecting the future of American society, long after that president is gone.
Your children will be living during the lifetime tenure of those justices, and your grandchildren will be living in a world shaped by the precedents that those justices set.
(Excerpt) Read more at jewishworldreview.com ...
Not in uniform, not part of a recognized state...
” terrorists— the right to seek release in the federal courts, something that neither the Constitution nor the Geneva Convention provided. “
The ACLU is happy destroying America.
BINGO!
Yes, I’m sure the ACLU is still celebrating, just a bunch of Rats.
Interesting... I was just breezing through the Federalist Papers and found this in #78 - author Alexander Hamilton...
“Whoever attentively considers the different departments of power must perceive, that, in a government in which they are separated from each other, the judiciary, from the nature of its functions, will always be the least dangerous to the political rights of the Constitution; because it will be least in a capacity to annoy or injure them. The Executive not only dispenses the honors, but holds the sword of the community. The legislature not only commands the purse, but prescribes the rules by which the duties and rights of every citizen are to be regulated. The judiciary, on the contrary, has no influence over either the sword or the purse; no direction either of the strength or of the wealth of the society; and can take no active resolution whatever. It may truly be said to have neither FORCE nor WILL, but merely judgment; and must ultimately depend upon the aid of the executive arm even for the efficacy of its judgments.”
How ironic, huh?
Should be required reading for every American!
I suppose Congress could one day rein in the Supreme Court's appellate jurisdiction.
Must be spinning in his grave.
A writer at the Chicago Tribune opined today that he thought the founding fathers, while brilliant, "needed an editor". I kid you not.
Congressman Billybob
"At the establishment of our constitutions, the judiciary bodies were supposed to be the most helpless and harmless members of the government. Experience, however, soon showed in what way they were to become the most dangerous; that the insufficiency of the means provided for their removal gave them a freehold and irresponsibility in office; that their decisions, seeming to concern individual suitors only, pass silent and unheeded by the public at large; that these decisions, nevertheless, become law by precedent, sapping, by little and little, the foundations of the constitution, and working its change by construction, before any one has perceived that that invisible and helpless worm has been busily employed in consuming its substance. In truth, man is not made to be trusted for life, if secured against all liability to account." -- Thomas Jefferson (1823)
Yes it is ironic. It seems the judiciary may be functioning in a manner not originally intended.
Thanks for linking your article, I missed it and I always look forward to reading them.
Great. Never saw that one before. Soooo, it took less than 30 years for the problem to surface.
This is very true. A Supreme Court with three Obama appoinees would be very bad for the nation.
Obviously a call to vote for McCain.
My guess, however, is that when a Supreme Court vacancy occurs during a McCain presidency, Harry Reid et. al will send over a memo with a half-dozen names of militant liberals on it, with the message “Nominate one of these, and they’ll be confirmed. Nominate anyone else, and they won’t get out of committee.”
You could be right about that. I’m sure that weasel Reid will do just that if McCain is in office, I just hope he doesn’t cave to the Rats.
What is needed is a constitutional crises where cities, counties and states disobey these judges. They do NOT have the power to make law or control state rights not given to them. We need to start electing local leaders who will tell the federal govt to take a hike and a citizenry who understands and supports their God given rights and freedoms. Unfortunately most of America is a bunch of welfare sucking dumbed down Ritalin addicts. So I guess you can ignore my first sentence.
+1
Congress can cut the SCOTUS off at the knees anytime it so desires. It’s in the Constitution. Amazing how the SCOTUS has evolved into the first among the branches of govt, when the Constitution clearly puts the Congress over it.
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