by Robert M. Traxler
Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy is rumored to be contemplating retirement.
I have always been interested in how the Supreme Court came to be the arbitrator, the interpreter of the Constitution of the United States. Is it designated in the Constitution that they can override the laws of the land as passed by the Congress and signed by the President? No, it is not; in Marbury v. Madison in 1803, the Court made themselves the arbiter of what is constitutional and what is not.
The Democrats tossed out the rule in the Senate requiring more than a majority, more than 51 votes to pass legislation or to approve certain appointments. At the time Senator Harry Reid was warned it could come back to haunt them, but he laughed it off.
If Justice Kennedy retires, the complexion of the High Court will change. Kennedy has been the only true moderate on the court; court watchers call him the wild card, as he is not an ideologue and it is difficult to predict his rulings.
Now comes Senator Reid’s decision to change the rules. Fifty-one votes and the Senate and President Donald Trump will be able to replace a true moderate with a right of center moderate. The Court will be changed even more when Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg retires or becomes too ill to serve. At 85 she is sadly in poor health; she may not be able to be effective for many more years. If President Trump replaces justices Kennedy and Ginsberg, Senator Reid’s short-sightedness will haunt the left for decades
My friends on the left tell me the Court is a bastion of narrow-minded right-wing rulings. Well, if they do not like the current court, they will truly detest it with two more President Trump appointed justices.
The process of compromise that worked for our nation for so long was changed by Senator Reid in his short-sighted, selfish move. Our friends on the left only have themselves to blame for the High Court rulings that will come from a center right court of the future.
A word of caution for the left; try the proper channels to change the Constitution. If you wish to save the Supreme Court rulings that are holy grail to the left, now is a good time to start the constitutional amendment process. The governmental back door you have used for so long is in the process of closing; perhaps it is time to go through the front door and follow the constitutional process once again.
As we have seen so many times, the road to hell is paved with good intentions and their unintended consequences. The Congress needs to start playing the long game as well and think beyond the next election and follow the Constitution.
A good question to ask is, if the Constitution can be whatever the Supreme Court wants it to be on any given day, why do we even have the Constitution? Most on the left pursuing a Socialist state will tell us a capitalistic, free enterprise democracy is evil, forgetting that Socialist governments have seen the largest slaughterers of the innocent and poor in the last 100 years. Socialist governments evolved over time into the most authoritative, ineffective and repressive in history.
The Senator Sanders, McGovern, McCarthy (Eugene) left will call for Socialism; this road to hell we sincerely do not want, not if we understand reality as taught to us by history. Never forget our nation was founded on limited government; Socialism is a government that has unlimited power. Unlimited power always, always over time results in tyranny. We need only look to Venezuela as an example.
