Joel Sogol, former chairman of the American Civil Liberties Union's (ACLU) litigation committee, filed a complaint against Judge Parker with Alabama's Judicial Inquiry Commission. The complaint charges Parker with violating Alabama's judicial ethics standards when he publicly criticized his eight Supreme Court colleagues and the Roper v. Simmons U.S. Supreme Court decision. Sogol says that Judge Parker's criticism breeds contempt for the law.

Sogol has it wrong. It's the court's failure to meet its constitutional duties that breeds contempt for the law. The Judicial Inquiry Commission can send the complaint to Alabama's Court of the Judiciary for trial. If the court finds the complaint is justified, it can reprimand Judge Parker or remove him from office. The ACLU would love the chilling effect of reprimand or removal.

Too many of us accept the notion that judges have a monopoly on the Constitution's interpretation. In an 1820 letter to William C. Jarvis, Thomas Jefferson warned: "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." Judge Tom Parker, and other justices who exhibit true faith and allegiance to their oaths of office, are a rare and disappearing breed. It's men like Judge Parker we should support in our struggle against constitutional contempt by government officials.