Posts Tagged ‘United States Supreme Court’
Does the federal government work for us?
“Politics is the art of making your selfish desires seem like the national interest.” ~ Thomas Sowell, Hoover Institution, Stanford University More than 200 years ago, the states united and wrote a contract, the Constitution, creating an employee, the federal government; and that contract outlined specific tasks the federal government would perform for the states’ […]
Roe v. Wade – Did we get what we wanted?
Recently, parents successfully sued for “wrongful birth” because their child was born with Down syndrome, claiming if it had been accurately diagnosed early in the pregnancy, they would have chosen abortion. With Roe v. Wade, did well-meaning people start us down an unintended path to a child being worthy of birth only if the parents […]
Judicial ‘good Behavior’
We hold Supreme Court Justices in high regard, but should we? The Constitution says they “shall hold their Office during good Behavior?” Well, let’s look at their behavior. The process of confirming a justice leaves little doubt; they are political appointees who serve for life. Although they occasionally surprise their advocates, they usually vote as […]
Reclaiming the Constitution – Part V
In 1804, the United States Supreme Court claimed absolute control over the Constitution, declaring only it could decide the Constitution’s meaning and neither the president nor Congress could overrule it. More than 100 years later, through sheer intimidation, President Franklin Roosevelt got the Supreme Court to use this control to give Congress powers not in […]
Unlimited power – Part IV
“If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bull.” – W. C. Fields Though I hope this quote refers to the following Supreme Court rulings, some might suggest it better refers to my assessment of the rulings. After giving Congress the power to do whatever it determined was for the “general Welfare of […]
The beginning of the end – Part II
Three Supreme Court rulings changed our lives, making our Constitution near irrelevant. One gave the Supreme Court unlimited, unchecked power; the other two gave Congress unlimited power. The first ruling created the concept of judicial review, which is the claimed power by the Supreme Court to have the final voice in all issues concerning the […]
Socialism by force
“The trouble with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.” Margaret Thatcher Former Prime Minister, Great Britain Failing to learn, our government continues unabated towards socialism, convinced it knows best, the Constitution obviously outdated, the people’s wishes obviously wrong. In the 1960s, two radical socialist professors from Columbia University, Richard Andrew […]
Constitutional coup
” . . . the discretion of the judge is the first engine of tyranny.” – Edward Gibbon, “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire” Are we witnessing a non-violent coup of the United States Constitution, methodically carried out by the United States Supreme Court? Has the Court placed itself above […]
The ‘ism’ elixir?
“Bad officials are elected by good citizens who do not vote.” George Jean Nathan American drama critic and newspaper editor I watched a 1948 cartoon produced by Harding College, “Make Mine Freedom,” which tells the story of Ism elixir. If you have already viewed this, my apologies. If not, let me share the tale of […]
It’s our Constitution
Contrary to the wishes of Congress, the Supreme Court and the lower courts, “we the people” in our capacity as jurors and state legislators have the power to nullify laws we find unconstitutional. Did the founding fathers opine on this power? In 1790, James Wilson, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence and […]
The Bill of Prvileges
The Bill of Rights, the first 10 amendments to the United States Constitution, was ratified by three-fourths of the states in 1791. The Constitution was ratified four years earlier in 1787. Our Bill of Rights came into existence amid debate and deliberation. Many anti-federalists who supported it previously opposed ratification of the Constitution because that […]
Guns, the Constitution and Switzerland
A fact regularly ignored in much of the gun debate – the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution. In 2008, the Supreme Court revisited the constitutional meaning of the right of the individual to “keep and bear arms,” and unequivocally affirmed our constitutional right of individual gun ownership. That should end the debate because […]
Robert Gibbs is a verb
The most entertaining moments of this presidency are watching Robert Gibbs explain the ramblings of Vice President Biden. With a straight face, a feigned sincerity and accompanied by the laughter of the press corps Gibbs says, “I understand what he said and I’m telling you what he meant to say.” He invented a new verb […]
Who really has the power?
“The United States Constitution has proved itself the most marvelously elastic compilation of rules of government ever written.” –President Franklin Roosevelt Did the founding fathers create a “marvelously elastic” Constitution as Roosevelt suggested? No, they created the antithesis, granting their new government limited powers, enumerated to prevent it from evolving into another all […]
Who has the power – government or “we the people”
“I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents.” –James Madison, 4th U.S. President father of the United States Constitution How does Congress constitutionally justify spending money on anything it chooses? […]
Abortion – call it what it is
Killing a fellow human being is not new to us. We already accept killing in war, capital punishment and self-defense. Society has made a distinction between murder and killing. So, if we already accept killing a fellow human being, why do we soothe our conscience trying to prove abortion is not murder or killing? […]
How to finance the U.S.S.A.
What did the Founding Fathers design our government to provide? Did they design a limited federal government to provide safety, freedom and opportunity? Or did they design a socialist welfare government to take care of our every need with unending entitlement programs? The Constitution of the United States calls for a limited, subservient federal government, […]
“…equal protection of the laws”
New Haven, Connecticut, discarded a fire department promotion exam when white firefighters outscored minority firefighters. The city did so because it feared lawsuits, not because the exam was unfair. The United States Supreme Court ruled against the city, with Chief Justice John Roberts suggesting that had the scores been reversed the city would not have […]
Role of the Supreme Court?
A Justice of the United States Supreme Court is retiring. A chance to re-shape the court. A chance to change history. Wait a minute. Don’t the above statements suggest the United States Constitution is flexible, open to interpretation, no need to amend it? Dare I suggest the primary role of the United States Supreme Court […]
Who are the ‘real’ terrorists?
The editorial page cartoon in the April 27, 2009, USA Today showed Uncle Sam saying, “Will you ever stop torturing me,” while he is whipping a helpless terrorist strapped on a table. Just last week the oppressed, benevolent Taliban beheaded three more people in Pakistan. On Sept. 11, 2001, they intentionally targeted and murdered over 3,000 […]