Someone on the radio mentioned that, without the Declaration of Independence, there would be no U.S. Constitution. Absent the former document, there would have been no Revolutionary War, Constitution, Louisiana Purchase, Manifest Destiny, Civil War, Bush Doctrine or President Obama.
“But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government.”
In the eloquence of the two sentences above, a new nation was borne – free of the tyranny of cerntralised government; free of the burdensome taxation; free of the oppression of laws benefiting the government at the detriment of the people; free of swarms of officers sent to harass the people and eat out their substance… …and built on the tenant that men and women are the most well equipped to realize their destiny, perform responsibly within as society, and pursue happiness.
Two Hundred Thirty-Four years later America fifty colonies are once again dwarfed by the behemoth that is the Federal Government. Again, America sees those that would call themselves representatives of the people enacting legislation that disregards the people’s true will and desire, and with a complicit Supreme Court, such laws allow the officers to continue to eat from the people’s substance.
The final protectorate of the Constitution, the Supreme Court, will find itself again at the center of attention through the summer of 2010 as a current Justice retires , a new Justice is nominated, and a new Justice is confirmed. This process has been completed 111 times before including the nomination and confirmation of the arguably racist Sonia Sotomayor. The complicit press will again ignore the left-leaning judicial activism of the nominees, and a circus will appear on C-SPAN that would bore you even if your favorite past-time was to watch grass grow.
At times over the past 30 years, various judges, lawyers, and nominees have decreed the Constitution as highly pliable and moldable for the situation at hand. Similarly, judges, lawyers, and nominees have looked to the laws of Europe and the rest of the world for guidance in their decisions.
According to Title 28, Chapter I, Part 453 of the United States Code, each Supreme Court Justice takes the following oath:
“I, [NAME], do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will administer justice without respect to persons, and do equal right to the poor and to the rich, and that I will faithfully and impartially discharge and perform all the duties incumbent upon me as [TITLE] under the Constitution and laws of the United States. So help me God.
When the Supreme Court re-convenes in the Fall of 2010, the new Justice along with the rest of the Court will hear cases of constitutionality that affect every human being in America. They will be asked to reflect on the words of the Constitution, their meaning, and dispense rulings monumental in nature.
Instead of looking to Europe for guidance, instead of looking to the world for direction, and instead of plying and molding the Constitution to the will of the Congress and the President, let us pray that the Justices of the Supreme Court will look back to our most critical founding document, The Declaration of Independence, to determine the veracity and Constitutionality of the law at hand. And, based on their Oath of Office, let us pray that they will protect the true meaning of the Constitution as written.
