"The Constitution...is a mere thing of wax in the hands of the judiciary which they may twist and shape into any form they please."
- Thomas Jefferson in 1819 letter to Judge Spencer Roane
It certainly would seem that the last month has been a perfect example of what Jefferson was talking about. The California Supreme Court overruled the will of the people and decided same sex marriages was a Constitutional right protected under that very document. Although 61% of Californians voted to make law the definition of marriage to mean "between a man and a woman", the courts somehow found a "right" for homosexuals to marry. Now I have read the Constitution many times and I have yet to stumble upon that right, or the "right to choose", and whole host of other so-called rights the courts have imposed on the American people.
And just when you thought the courts could not have sunk any lower, the United States Supreme Court voted yesterday to allow alien combatants the "right" to habeas corpus. Habeas corpus is a constitutional right for U.S. citizens, but now that right has been extended to people who have been captured fighting against the United States, fighting and attempting to kill our beloved men and women in uniform, just as if it they were part of the American system. Fred Thompson's opinion sums it up rather well in his latest article at townhall.com when he wrote the courts have created "a new right for our nation’s enemies commiserate with the displeasure that they and the rest of the “enlightened” people have with this “war,” Guantanamo and the Bush Administration." I wonder what the terrorists think of this "right"? They now have the freedom to fight their detention in a system of law they openly abhor and were captured fighting against. Let me remind you that these "detainees", or prisoners of war, have been captured taking up arms against the United States and are not citizens of the U.S..
The American people should know the adherence to legal precedent is the bedrock of the rule of law. And the fact is, the legal precedent concerning combatants captured in times of war had been established. But nevermind the precedent right? Nevermind the U.S. Constitution right? This last month is not the beginning of such decisions by a runaway court. The courts have been bypassing the people's will for decades now. Liberals view the courts as their last best hope for pushing through their agenda without allowing the American people to have a say on such issues. Liberals know the American people would never vote for such radical views so they look to the courts to impose their agendas. And the sad fact is that these courts have put the Constitution last as their guideline to make their decisions and used everything but the Constitution, including global public opinion, to make their rulings. When one branch of government has taken on the Constitutional role of another, we no longer have a democracy.
One alarming point that needs to be brought up is the statement Barack Obama has made concerning his views of the courts and the judges that should be appointed to those courts. "We need somebody who's got the heart … the empathy to recognize what it's like to be a young teenage mom, the empathy to understand what it's like to be poor or African-American or gay or disabled or old. And that's going to be the criteria by which I'm going to be selecting my judges." Really Barack? How about having your criteria be judges who interpret the Constitution? How about those who adhere to the rule of law? How about those who recognize the role of the judiciary as set forth by the Founding Fathers in our Constitution? You might recall Obama voted against the confirmation of Justice Antonin Scalia because his record showed "extraordinarily consistent support for the powerful against the powerless." In other words, a judge should base their decision on an abstract notion of fairness instead of the Constitution.
Never has there been a more important election for America than the one this fall. We cannot afford a president Obama to nominate radical, leftist judges to our courts if we have any hope of restoring the courts to their original Constitutional role. Democrat Senate majority leader Harry Reid has already held up the judges Bush has nominated by not allowing them to be brought to the floor for a vote. Reid is counting on Obama winning and an even larger majority in both houses of Congress after the elections this fall. If he gets his wish, the Bush nominess will disappear, leaving Obama the distinct pleasure of putting his radical judges on the courts. We cannot afford this scenario and its time to act.