Posted on 03/16/2004 12:36:59 PM PST by hardhead
Who has the last word when it comes to the meaning of the Constitution? Who ultimately decides whether a state can regulate or outlaw abortion? Or whether Congress can legislate to protect the elderly or the disabled? Who decides the winner in a contested presidential election? On these and countless other matters of fundamental interest to society, the answer in recent years has been the Supreme Court. And most Americans seem willing, even happy, to leave it at that. Indeed, if recent surveys are to be believed, most think this is how our Founding Fathers meant it to be. What lawyers call "judicial supremacy"—the idea that judges decide finally and for everyone what the Constitution means—has found wide public acceptance. Other actors get to have their say, of course. The president, Congress, the states, and ordinary citizens can all express opinions about the meaning of the Constitution. But the Justices decide whether those opinions are right or wrong, and the Justices' judgments are supposed to settle matters for everyone, subject only to the practically impossible process of formal amendment.
(Excerpt) Read more at bostonreview.net ...
Contrary to what tyrants have tried to tell us... we have never been a 'nation' ...we are and have always been a "confederation" of equal and sovereign states. The enemy's problem is that some of us refuse to be ruled by tyrants.
At the state level jusges are appointed for 10 years. That provides a degree of stability while allowing for the electorate to vote a judge out of office. Why this was not also done for the USSC in the beginning is a mystery, maybe because people didn't usually live so long then.
It was carefully explained to me in law school (Univ. of Connecticut) just after the handing down of Roe v. Wade (we all read the decision and it didn't make a bit of sense, historically or any other way) that, at the beginning of every term, five justices are given Magic Glasses to read the Constitution with. This enables them to see things in the Constitution that lowly mortals can't, and to render invisible things in the Constitution that the rest of us can plainly see. And furthermore, if you doubted the existence of the Magic Glasses, you were a right-wing troglodite and heretic, and will never wear wingtips in this town again.
I confess I doubted the Magic Glasses theory, and publicly, too. But thirty years post-graduation, I see it as the only rational explanation for what has happened to the Supreme Court, and a boatload of others, for that matter.
God!... God is the last word.. For thats unique in the world in any Constitution. God is the guarantor of ALL our rights not our governemnt.. Says so in the Constitution, just like that.. Not the people, God is the last word as many almost all the founders echoed.. Thats what makes our rights permanent and not priveliges granted by our government.. like in Canada, England, France , Germany and other "democracy"(mob rule) which we are NOT.. Thats also why the 2nd amendment makes revolution LEGAL.. so the people can legally destroy any morphed democracy that would steal our God given RIGHTS..
as it rears its head,, Like NOW..
No, God is the first word. If we don't bother to read the directions, that's our problem.
Thanks! Also a good read.
Bump on all accounts. The people of the several states are sovereign (on this earthly plane).
The power has always been with the people but the people willingly exchanged that power for favors from the public treasury. The Sixteenth and Seventeenth Amendments virtually ended any chance for the Constitution to succeed as envisioned by the founders.
We should look forward to potential battle grounds and nail those issues down now by ammendment, while they are not "hot" topics.
The last Cat Herder in the Senate was LBJ, and I doubt we will see his like again any time soon (especially on the Right side of the isle.
The crucial question for all nations that desire to remain self governing is how to tame and limit the antidemocratic aggressions of their judiciaries and of the international tribunals and forums we are so blithely and thoughtlessly creating.Robert H. Bork
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