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Saturday, July 12, 2008
Paul  Weyrich :: Townhall.com Columnist
History and the Judiciary
by Paul Weyrich
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For the sake of this republic I urge my friends, fellow leaders and Americans emphatically to repudiate the devastating myth that judges have the power to make and redefine our laws. We should do so rapidly and forcefully before our republic is replaced by the irresistible tyranny of men and women who believe that nihilist elites should make the rules and pass them to judges for formal announcement when the time is ripe for the latest step into the post-rule of law, post-moral abyss. Otherwise our "conservatism" will continue to be merely the rearguard for subtle left-wing revolution.

The tragedy of how we have reached this point: in our desire for social acceptance and respectability among the anti-constitutional, anti-rule of law, anti-Christian, anti-family nihilist left, "conservative" elites have abandoned the core principles of our Constitution. We have flouted the warnings of the likes of Thomas Jefferson, who wrote:

To consider the judges as the ultimate arbiters of all constitutional questions [is] a very dangerous doctrine indeed, and one which would place us under the despotism of an oligarchy. ...The Constitution has erected no such single tribunal, knowing that to whatever hands confided, with the corruptions of time and party, its members would become despots.

Alexander Hamilton was perhaps the strongest advocate of "judicial review" - the right of judges to opine on our Constitution. But an opinion on the meaning of the Constitution is merely an advisory opinion to the legislative and executive branches of government. Not even Hamilton imagined that the right to opine is a power to rule. Courts, he pointed out, intentionally have been given no means of enforcing their opinions, noting that the executive and legislative branches are not compelled to obey false or dubious opinions. Therefore, he wrote:

...The judiciary, from the nature of its functions, will always be the least dangerous to the political rights of the Constitution. ... [T]he judiciary...has no influence over either the sword or purse; no direction either of the strength or of the wealth of the society; and can take no active resolution whatever. It may truly be said to have neither force nor will....

Abraham Lincoln acknowledged that court opinions were binding upon the specific parties involved and "entitled to very high respect and consideration...by all other departments of the government." But like the Founding Fathers, he utterly rejected the myth that judges' opinions are the law of the land:

...If the policy of the government, upon vital questions, affecting the whole people, is to be irrevocably fixed by decisions of the Supreme Court, the instant they are made, in ordinary litigation between parties, in personal actions, the people will have ceased, to be their own rulers, having, to that extent, practically resigned their government, into the hands of that eminent tribunal.

In the last century cultural elites created an illusion of judicial power that would be unrecognizable to earlier Americans, lawyers and laymen. After the American Revolution, the framers of the Constitution rejected any judicial authority over the other branches of government.

I fear the conservative elites are putting the final nail in our coffin. I know these men. They mean well. They are not pursuing their view out of malice. They believe what they are doing is right. Nor do I associate myself with some of their critics who often are accusatory, judgmental and angry. I look at results, and it seems to me that proponents of the status quo are allowing the legal profession and the courts to impose moral and civil codes which cannot pass federal and state legislatures. They foolishly are handing absolute power to anti-Judeo-Christian, anti-family ideologues.

This is where the trajectory of the post-constitutional pragmatism undergirding the "conservative revolution" has taken us. The story is not yet complete, but if we continue on this trajectory we may reach the point of tyranny and persecution. History reveals this to be true.

Many of those with whom I have worked for years unwittingly are aiding the far left in the destruction of America. It is time for our presidents, governors, legislatures and prominent citizens to call the bluff of impotent judges as Jefferson did and to ask them, as President Andrew Jackson did, how they will enforce their impotent opinions. The myth of judicial supremacy cannot justify governors violating state and federal constitutions, their oaths of office and the sovereignty of the American people. Look at the way so-called gay marriage has been imposed by judicial fiat, running ruthlessly over elected legislatures and the will of the people.

The Massachusetts Constitution contains the quintessential statement of the American form of government: "The power of suspending the laws, or the execution of the laws, ought never to be exercised but by the legislature...." (Part the First, Article XX.) "[T]he people...are not controllable by any other laws than those to which their constitutional representative body have given their consent." (Part the First, Article X.) "The judicial shall never exercise the legislative and executive powers, or either of them: to the end it may be a government of laws and not of men." (Part the First, Article XXX.) "All the laws which have heretofore been adopted, used and approved...shall still remain and be in full force, until altered or repealed by the legislature...." (Part the Second, Article VI.)

Americans must debunk the Orwellian lie that has obliterated self-government in the United States and acknowledge Lincoln's words at Gettysburg in 1863:

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.... It is for us the living...to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us - that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion - that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain - that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom - and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

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About The Author

Paul M. Weyrich is the late Chairman and CEO of the Free Congress Research and Education Foundation.
 
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What now?
So, what now? The judiciary
HAS grabbed power. We've allowed it, thinking that reigning judges have the final say. Liberals have successfully blocked judges from being appointed. Can it be turned around? Can people be convinced that they are not victims, but hold ultimate power? I ask again, WHAT NOW? How do we change things? Where do we start? Liberals have had a long term plan that they've worked long and hard to implement. The nation has been cowed into submission. Where do we start and just what IS OUR plan?

Thanks for Debunking the Lie Mr. Weyrich
Thanks for debunking the lie Mr. Weyrich
Thanks for debunking the lie that...
Paul, thanks for debunking the toxic liberal lie that "courts can make law" iterated far too frequently by too many self styled "conservatives" (Mat Staver, Jay Sekulow, Tony Perkins, Don Wildmon, Hugh Hewitt, David French, Ann Coulter, Laura ingraham, and the Limbaugh Brothers etc...)

As many people as possible must realize that executive tyranny not "judicial activism" is the main threat we face. Governors like Romney and Schwartzenegger enforcing courts opinions as if they were actual law in direct violation of the written statutes and their sworn oahts only to enforce the laws and statutes to which the people have given their consent.

Romney and Schwartzenegger belong behind bars for illegally issuing marriag licences to same sex couples. I hope many of your collegues who are daily repeating this dangerous lie that we just need "more conservative judges" to stop "abortion" and "gay marriage" etc...stop and realize that what we really need are governors and presidents and legislators who uphold their oahts of office to not treat court opinions as if they were law.

Perhaps people will now begin to realize the truth which is that there are many "conservatives" who are to blame for treating court opinions such as Roe and Goodridge as if they were the law.

The conservative "movement" will never reform itself until this truth comes to light.

Thanks for helping reveal the truth Mr. Weyrich.

But organizational "leaders" who have decieved their flocks about the law need to be defrocked. People who enrich themselves by deceiving others are not "well meaning" nor honorable people. And God will not bless our efforts if we fail to expose them.
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