Free Republic

Ten Commandments or Ten Opinions? Pick the former unless you want to wade through nearly 150 pages of dense US Supreme Court legal jargon explaining why a Kentucky courthouse may or may not keep a display of the Ten Commandments ("may not" carried the day, by a 5/4 vote of the justices) and why a Texas statehouse may or may not keep its display of the Ten Commandments ("may" carried the day here, by a different 5/4 vote). That's right. It took the U.S. Supreme Court ten opinions and nearly 150 pages in total to micromanage two state displays of...

In a recent opinion against judicial activism, Alabama Supreme Court Justice Tom Parker reproduces a stunningly precient 200-year-old quote from a former Congressman and judge about the dangers of permitting judges to claim the final authority to interpret the Constitution: "Just before Marbury v. Madison was decided (1803), Congressman Joseph Nicholson, a former judge, warned what might happen if a right of judicial review of constitutional questions was permitted to become a doctrine of judicial supremacy: By what authority are the judges to be raised above the law and above the constitution? Where is the charter which places the sovereignty...

<p>NOTE: According to the contact listed above in the Judge's office who I just got off the phone to, this release was sent out last night via email and fax and will be on the Judge's web site later today.</p>