Actually, the people are the final arbiters.
“I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power.” —Thomas Jefferson to William C. Jarvis, 1820. ME 15:278
“Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves, therefore, are its only safe depositories. And to render even them safe, their minds must be improved to a certain degree.” —Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Virginia Q.XIV, 1782. ME 2:207
“The most effectual means of preventing [the perversion of power into tyranny are] to illuminate, as far as practicable, the minds of the people at large, and more especially to give them knowledge of those facts which history exhibits, that possessed thereby of the experience of other ages and countries, they may be enabled to know ambition under all its shapes, and prompt to exert their natural powers to defeat its purposes.” —Thomas Jefferson: Diffusion of Knowledge Bill, 1779. FE 2:221, Papers 2:526
“The information of the people at large can alone make them safe as they are the sole depository of our political and religious freedom.” —Thomas Jefferson to William Duane, 1810. ME 12:417
You’ve just cited an inconvenient truth. People forget that we fought a bloody civil war to overturn one particular Supreme Court decision.
“the people are the final arbiters”
Read the link. It is a compelling and persuasive argument that the Constitution represents a compact between the states (who had to ratify the Constitution to give it legal life) and the feds. Bypassing the states actually leads to federal tyranny. The people are the masters and in control of their individual states who in turn are the liaison between the people and the feds via the Constitution.
http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/dunkin/150302
Bottom line is this is a solid argument for state nullification of unconstitutional federal acts which is where we stand at this point in time in our history. Even if you disagree with the argument, individual nullification takes you nowhere except the Big House. You need the protection of the state to nullify unconstitutional federal acts. At least with state backing, you have a fighting chance.
If no state does what they should, then we’re all on our own anyway and Jesus will probably come sooner than later. But I think were going to see tyranny turned back for a time here before it all comes crashing down.