Who has the most power in the country over political issues? Everyone focuses on the president and Congress when they talk about reforming the system and taking control back from the left, but they overlook the real power broker. Federal courts have been deciding the most contentious issues for years now, taking the final say away from both the president and Congress.
The final straw for many conservatives came recently with the Supreme Court’s decisions on Obamacare and same-sex marriage. In response to this massive judicial power grab, the Empower the States project was launched, which aims to have Congress use its power under Article III, section 2 of the Constitution to remove jurisdiction from the federal courts over these kinds of issues. Instead, serious, controversial political decisions would be left up to the states and people where they belong.
The effort has begun gaining momentum in Arizona, where conservatives remain frustrated over a federal district court judge gutting most of SB1070, the state’s tough anti-illegal immigration initiative that passed in 2010. Andrew Thomas, a former Maricopa County Attorney who was instrumental in getting SB1070 passed (who I worked for several years ago), is heading up the project with the Selous Foundation for Public Policy Research.
Over 100 conservative grassroots leaders in Arizona have already endorsed the project.
The courts were never intended to have all this power. Writing in The Federalist Papers, Alexander Hamilton said the courts were designed to be the “least dangerous” and “weakest” branch of government. Today, they are the exact opposite. In his white paper published by the Selous Foundation, titled "Overruling the Courts: How We End the Reign of Liberal Judges in 2016," Thomas observes, “Unelected federal judges, not elected officials, now have the final say on every national policy issue.”
Thomas advises against other proposed solutions. An amendment to the Constitution would be extraordinarily difficult to get if not impossible. Legislation reversing bad court decisions would just end up back in court, where the judges would have final say. Trying to get conservative judges appointed to the bench is extremely difficult, as their nominations are held up and filibustered. The legal profession is overwhelmingly left-leaning due to years of indoctrination in law schools by progressive professors.
Under the Empower the States Act, jurisdiction would be taken back from the federal courts in four areas where they have committed the worst abuses: illegal immigration, same-sex marriage, abortion, and certain aspects of the death penalty. Legislation is already being drafted to tackle the first prong, the “Illegal Immigrant Trespass Act of 2015.”
No longer subject to the whims of a handful of unelected, left-leaning judges, conservative states and clusters of like-minded states would form into “Faith and Freedom Networks.” At the same time, the project calls to hold candidates for office and politicians accountable, insisting that they take a position on the project.