Listening to Chuck Colson's BreakPoint Commentary, entitled "Is the Supreme Court Really Supreme? Lincoln and Judicial Activism" got me to thinking, and as we all know that can be a most dangerous thing.
But consider for just a moment the absolute firestorm of protest and criticism if the President and the Congress would flatly reject a ruling of the Supreme Court. Such behavior is unprecedented, one would think, but it did indeed happen.
Specifically, in 1857, the President, Abraham Lincoln refused to recognize the infamous Dred Scott decision. In the "wisdom" of the Supreme Court, they concluded that the Congress lacked the authority to abolish slavery in federal territories. But clearly there is a larger question to be addressed here.
Both Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson believed that it was possible for the Supreme Court, although a supposed co-equal branch of the Federal Government, to be capable of not only violating the Constitution but also undermining our very form of government by usurping powers that the Charter Document does not confer upon them, a practice that we are all to accustomed to in the present day in which we live.
The issues of 2006 are dramatically different from those of 1857, but the problem is the same--Activist Judges making laws rather then interpreting them, as our Constitution provides.
Maybe--just maybe with the confirmation of John Roberts and Samuel Alito we can one again have three separate but co-equal branches of the Federal Government as our Founding Fathers had originally intended. The key word in all of this is MAYBE!!!!
But consider for just a moment the absolute firestorm of protest and criticism if the President and the Congress would flatly reject a ruling of the Supreme Court. Such behavior is unprecedented, one would think, but it did indeed happen.
Specifically, in 1857, the President, Abraham Lincoln refused to recognize the infamous Dred Scott decision. In the "wisdom" of the Supreme Court, they concluded that the Congress lacked the authority to abolish slavery in federal territories. But clearly there is a larger question to be addressed here.
Both Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson believed that it was possible for the Supreme Court, although a supposed co-equal branch of the Federal Government, to be capable of not only violating the Constitution but also undermining our very form of government by usurping powers that the Charter Document does not confer upon them, a practice that we are all to accustomed to in the present day in which we live.
The issues of 2006 are dramatically different from those of 1857, but the problem is the same--Activist Judges making laws rather then interpreting them, as our Constitution provides.
Maybe--just maybe with the confirmation of John Roberts and Samuel Alito we can one again have three separate but co-equal branches of the Federal Government as our Founding Fathers had originally intended. The key word in all of this is MAYBE!!!!
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