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Ability
Should Overrule All Issues
USA/Frank
Salvato, Managing Editor |
November 12, 2004 -
Since the re-election of George W. Bush there has been
quite a bit of talk about potential nominees to the US Supreme Court. Those
of us who live in the land of reality – who aren’t mulling the black
helicopter stolen election conspiracy theories of Greg Palast and US Rep.
John Conyers (D-MI) – know that President Bush will most likely be
nominating more than one jurist to the highest court in the land. Rather
than the nominee’s personal preferences on individual issues we should be
focusing on their ability to safeguard the US Constitution.
Perhaps this subject matter best illustrates the sorry state of our
union-controlled education system, a system that places more emphasis on
political correctness and self-esteem than actual education. When one
believes it is appropriate to use a single-issue litmus test when
contemplating a nominee for the Supreme Court it can be argued that they
don’t understand the function of the third branch of our government. The
NEA-fostered "dumbing down of America” continues.
The US Supreme Court – the pinnacle of the Judicial Branch of our government
– has the daunting task of being the protector and interpreter of the US
Constitution. They do not create laws, at least they are not supposed to.
They are supposed to apply the Constitution to problems brought before them
deeming them constitutional or non-constitutional. Law making is the job of
the Legislative Branch not the judiciary. This notion is progressively
escaping many jurists today. In the case of the Ninth Circuit Court of
Appeals, this notion has been forgotten altogether.
Many among the liberal-left and the radical-right are paralyzed in
ideological tunnel vision. It doesn’t matter what the issue; abortion, gun
owner rights, prayer in schools, using the word "God,” some in our society
believe that issue oriented litmus tests are applicable when it comes to
confirming or rejecting a president’s nominees to the Supreme Court. This
ideological tunnel vision is both shortsighted and dangerous. In fact, it is
limiting and in the end excludes some incredibly talented legal minds from
attaining their rightful place on the bench of the highest court in the
land.
One example of tunnel vision based ideological sabotage occurred during the
confirmation hearings of President Reagan’s nominee Robert Bork. While the
liberal left branded him "anti-abortion” and promoted the idea that he would
single-handedly overturn Roe v. Wade the fact of the matter is that Bork was
– and still is – a proponent of judicial restraint, a concept in direct
opposition to the judicial activism we are experiencing today. He believes
the Supreme Court’s task is to adjudicate from the bench rather than to
legislate from it. But politics being what it is, Bork’s nomination was
rejected and ‘We the People’ were deprived of a brilliant judicial mind in
the roll of sentinel for our Constitution. Justice Anthony Kennedy was
awarded the vacancy and serves dutifully today.
The point here is this, it is infinitely more important to place protectors
of the Constitution on the Supreme Court than it is to load the highest
court in the land with politically acceptable, issue oriented puppets of our
political parties. It is critical that we have jurists on the Supreme Court
who hold the Constitution higher than politics. They must live and breathe
the liberty that sets forth from our Founder’s creation to all the people of
the United States not just those who have the power to get elected or lobby
our political process. Politics should not enter into the realm of our
Constitution.
It is for this reason that "We the People” should demand a level of
excellence for our Constitution’s sentinels, a level of excellence that far
exceeds a one-issue litmus test. We must strive to court and select the most
brilliant constitutional minds within our legal community, minds that will
honor our Founding Fathers and their creation. We need to elevate jurists
who will weigh, with deep contemplation, all the far-reaching implications
of their decisions without deference to pressure from special interests, no
matter how noble the cause.
The phrase, "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” is more than just a
catchy tagline used on national holidays. It is the precept included in the
Declaration of Independence that helped to inspire our Constitution. It is a
phrase that epitomizes the principles employed in the construction of the
"contract” between our government and the governed, the contract that is the
US Constitution – the supreme law of the land.
Let us choose to employ the brilliant mind over the political activist, the
intellectually humble over the issue-oriented narcissist. Let us choose
sentinels to protect our Constitution not political activists. Our nation’s
future may very well depend on decisions made today by those we entrust with
this duty.
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