From the Benton Co. Republicans Newsletter, 5/9/2010: OBAMA’S SUPREME COURT APPOINTEE CAN TURN UP THE HEAT ON OUR CONSTITUTION
As you read this, President Obama is interviewing candidates to replace Justice Stevens on the U.S. Supreme Court. ∴ We do not doubt that he will choose a 21st Century Constitutionalist (who wants to change our Constitution to be a “living, breathing document” that bears no resemblance to our current Constitution), and we will move ever closer to a government by appointed judges, rather than elected representatives. ∴ Stephen Markman, former Justice of the Michigan Supreme Court and Assistant Attorney General under President Ronald Reagan is now a distinguished professor of constitutional law at Hillsdale College. ∴ In the April “Imprimis” Markman warns us: - By 2030 the U.S. Constitution may not bear any resemblance to the Framers’ Constitution of 1787 that has guided our nation for two centuries and has rendered it the freest, most prosperous and most creative nation in the history of the world.
- Proponent of a “21st century constitution” or “living constitution” aim to transform our nation’s supreme law beyond recognition—and with a minimum of public attention and debate. (We’ll be too distracted by all the crises the media bombards us with every day).
- The overarching theme that 21st century constitutionalists are driving for is to replace our system of republican government, in which our Constitution is largely focused to minimize the likelihood of abuse of power. In its place they want a system of judicial government, in which major policy outcomes are increasingly determined by federal judges. Oh, we’ll still have elections, but the legislature will not have the power to make the big decisions. That will be left to the appointed court justices.
- The new constitution would compel specific outcomes. The important decisions would increasingly be undertaken by courts, especially by federal courts. Example: the California courts are already making the important decisions, instead of the millions of voters in the state. Racial quotas, social services funding, and immigration policy in California have been routinely overturned by single judges acting in the name of the Constitution—not the Framers’ Constitution, but a “constitution for our times,” a “living constitution, resembling, sadly, the constitutions of failed and despotic nations across the globe.
TO BE CONTINUED...
Justice Stephen Markman still serves on the Michigan Supreme Court.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the correction. --bc
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