Elections and Judicial Activism

Posted by johnhouk on Jul 01, 2008
 John R. Houk
© July 1, 2008

As long as Congress allows no checks or balances to the ever growing power of America’s Judicial System (not just the Supreme Court), elected Executive Branch Presidents may shape the rule of law and social rights of years to come.

Notably the Federal Bench has been dominated by Left Wing ignore the Constitution and the will of the people to make up their own extra-Constitutional Rule of Law that is less based on the Constitution and more on a Secular Humanist utopian vision.

This is so evident that eight years of Bush appointees have not been stalled or forced to back down by Democratic Party gridlock on confirmation. The Democrats KNOW that if Conservative Appointees equal or overtake the Left Wing Activist Judges Constitutional Intent will be more the measuring stick than the decision by fiat of Left Wing Judges.

So you Americans that are neither fringe Leftists or fringe Rightists (like I tend to lean toward) had best consider the judicial system in your vote for America.

If you vote for Obama you are definitely voting for change; however I assure you it is not the kind of change that derails politics as usual as Obama implies. A vote for Obama will be a Vote for fringe Leftist Utopianism that will lead America on a path to socialism and multi-cultural diversity (meaning the enfranchisement of illegal aliens and the incorporation of foreign cultural laws –Sharia Law – into our culture).

A vote for McCain will be more of a Center-Right future. I know McCain will not appoint fringe Leftist Judges; however I suspect he will appoint centrist-Right Judges. There is no mystery how a Leftist activist Judge will create by fiat new extra-Constitutional Law. McCain’s Appointees may vote Left or Right but it will be more principled. Sadly a McCain Appointee will probably keep the status quo; however at least a McCain Appointee will not actively create new laws (at least not without a good deal of precedent).

Thomas Sowell has some excellent thoughts on how Judges shape the future based on who is elected.

JRH
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High-Stakes Courts

By Thomas Sowell
July 1, 2008 / 28 Sivan 5768
Jewish World Review

http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Recent landmark court decisions are reminders that elections are not just about putting candidates in office for a few years.

The judges that elected officials put on the bench can remake the legal landscape, change fundamental social policies and even affect the way wars are fought, long after those who appointed them have served their terms and passed from the scene.

The Supreme Court recently created a new "right" out of thin air for captured enemy soldiers and terrorists— the right to seek release in the federal courts, something that neither the Constitution nor the Geneva Convention provided.

The High Court has also struck down gun control laws as violations of the Second Amendment. Whatever the legal merits or the policy merits of that decision, it is a major change, created by judges.

The point here is that federal judges, including Supreme Court justices, wield enormous— and growing— power. What that means is that when we vote for the candidates who will nominate and confirm judges, we are making decisions not only for ourselves but for generations yet unborn.

Recent momentous decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court have been decided by 5 to 4 votes, including the votes of justices appointed by presidents who are no longer living— Justice John Paul Stevens, appointed by President Ford, and Justice Anthony Kennedy, appointed by President Reagan.

Whoever is elected to the White House this November is expected to appoint two or three new members of the Supreme Court— justices who will be making major decisions affecting the future of American society, long after that president is gone.

Your children will be living during the lifetime tenure of those justices, and your grandchildren will be living in a world shaped by the precedents that those justices set.

In a year when dissatisfaction has been expressed by both Democrats and Republicans with the presidential candidates chosen by their own parties, it is worth keeping in mind the high stakes involved in judicial appointments— and therefore in presidential elections.

This is especially important to be kept in mind by voters who are thinking of venting their frustrations by voting for some third-party candidate that they know has no chance of being elected.

There will be a president chosen this November, and he will appoint Supreme Court justices during his term, regardless of whether you stay home or go to the polls.

His choices for the High Court will have a major impact on history, whether you vote after a sober consideration of many facts or vote on the basis of the candidate's rhetoric, style or demographics.

Even more important than the particular issues that courts will decide is the more fundamental issue of what a judge's role is in our system of Constitutional government.

In the gun control decision, for example, there were justices who read the history and meaning of the Second Amendment differently. What was most dangerous, however, was Justice Stephen Breyer's opinion that it was up to judges to weigh and "balance" the pros and cons of gun control laws.

If we have Constitutional rights only when judges like the end results, we may as well not have a Constitution.

Is the right to free speech to be put aside, and a journalist put behind bars, whenever a judge thinks that journalist went "too far" in expressing an opinion about some politician or bureaucrat?

Is someone to be tried over again for the same crime, even after having been acquitted, if judges regard the Constitutional ban on double jeopardy as just a suggestion to be weighed and "balanced?"

We have already seen what happens when a 5 to 4 majority decides that politicians can seize your home and give it to somebody else, if judges don't think your property rights "balance" whatever politicians choose to call "the public interest."

When deciding which candidate you want in the White House for the next 4 years, it is worth considering what kind of judges you want on the federal courts for the next generation.
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 Elections and Judicial Activism
John R. Houk
© July 1, 2008
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High-Stakes Courts

Thomas Sowell Archives
© 2006 [sic], Creators Syndicate

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