Has the Counterrevolution Begun?

WorldNetDaily ^ | July 28, 2004 | Patrick Buchanan

[Convert from ECUSA]

"Has Congress, after 50 years of seeing its power seized by the Supreme Court, begun at long last to recapture its lost constitutional rights?

Don't laugh. It may just be about to happen.

A day before Congress left town for a six-week vacation, the House passed the Marriage Protection Act 233 to 194. This bill would deny "all federal courts, including the Supreme Court, jurisdiction to rule on the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act."

So reports the Washington Post. DOMA is the 1996 law that says no state need recognize same-sex unions established by other states.

What the House is saying is this: Massachusetts may hand out marriage licenses to homosexuals – and these gay couples may sue, under the "full faith and credit" clause of the Constitution, to have their "marriages" recognized in other states. But no state has to recognize such "marriages," and no U.S. judge is permitted to take up these cases.

This law has explosive potential. The House brushed aside, said the Post, "warnings that the measure is unconstitutional and would open the floodgates for efforts to prevent judges from ruling on other issues, from gun-control to abortion." Exactly.

That is the idea. To recapture the lawmaking power from a black-robed judicial elite and restore it to elected legislators. The overthrow of what author-scholars William Quirk and R. Randall Bridwell call our "Judicial Dictatorship" may have just begun."

"The significance of this bill in terms of the balance of power in government is hard to overstate. For years, Congress has been systematically stripped of its power to decide the issues of race, religion and morality by the courts, which have taken to making law by issuing edicts from the bench.

Congress is now dusting off a long-neglected weapon, put in Article III, to restrict the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court and, eventually, to tell it to keep its hands off such issues as abortion, flag-burning, school prayer and gay marriage.

The House is saying: These decisions should not be made dictatorially by judges, but constitutionally by the 50 states and democratically by legislators."

[Convert from ECUSA]

One may hope. But I'll believe it when I see it. I doubt the black-robed "wise ones" will give up forcing their agenda on us easily.

[redgolum]

Still, it is a move in the right direction. While the DOMA didn't pass in the Senate, I have hope.

[Mark in the Old South]

I have hope. Another way is through the power of the purse. Neither the Courts nor the President has the power the Congress has in regard to this.

I say start cutting their budgets, force them into staff reductions, freeze pension and salary increases. If they are feeling really froggy, cut salaries.

Do not fund building expansions and cut benefits. But do it when we have a GOP Congress. Let them scream to the press where those fat salaries can be made public. Use the power of public envy, why not the demoncrats do it.

[Piers-the-Ploughman]

A small bit of good news. Thanks for posting.
Always enjoy reading PJB, too.

[Convert from ECUSA]

Oh yeah! Mark, you preach it, brother! You have an Amen corner up in northern (occupied) Virginia!

[ex-snook]

Thanks for post. Pat is hopeful but Court members are approved by the Legislators who appreciate having the Courts do what they are politically afraid to do. The Legislature and Executive have made a willing delegation to the Courts. Bush did on campaign financing which came back to bite him.