The judiciary is beyond
comparison the weakest of
the three departments of
power. No. 78
“a Bench”
Sir William
Blackstone
(1723-1780)
“Man as a creature must
necessarily be subject to the
laws of his Creator. This will
of his maker is called the law
of nature. No human laws
are of any validity if contrary
to this.”
Sir William Blackstone
Cicero – 65 B.C.
A legislative majority may pass laws that
contradict the natural law, but
“these no more deserve to be called laws
than the rules a band of robbers
might pass in their assembly.”
News Flash: March 23, 2005
•President Bush answered a reporter on
the question of the North American
Union, saying: “As to what kind of union
might there be, I see one based upon…
commitment to…democracy [and]
rule of law.”
Rule of Law
Because the United States is a
constitutional republic, both the
people and their elected leaders
observe the limitations imposed by
a written Constitution which is
solidly founded on “the laws of
Nature and of Natures God”
Rule of Law Makers
Rule of Law makers
• “Because the United States is a
democracy, the majority of the
people decide how our government
will be organized and run. The
people do this by electing representatives, and these men and women then carry out the wishes of
the people.” Department of Army Field Manual June 1952
TNA June 30, 1986
•How did we
evolve from “rule
of law” to the
“rule of law
makers”?
Is that you, Grandma?
“I see no reason for attributing to
man a significance different in kind
from that which belongs to a
baboon or a grain of sand.”
Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes
Beware of smooth talk!
Liberty Forum Spring 2005
“Constitutions are
utterly worthless to
restrain the tyranny
of governments,
unless it be
understood that the
people will, by
force, compel the
government to keep
within the
constitutional limits.”
“Practically
speaking, no
government
knows any limits
to its power,
except the
endurance of the
people.”
Page 19
Reading from “The White Rose”
• “…Why do you allow these
men who are in power to rob
you step by step, openly and in
secret, of one domain of your
rights after another…”
Germany 1942
John Marshall
Chief Justice of the
United States
Supreme Court
1801 to 1835
The Doctrine of Judicial Review
Power assumed by Justice John Marshall
in the 1803 case of Marbury v.
Madison whereby the court could
invalidate statutes of Congress based
upon the courts viewpoint of “original
understanding” of the Constitution
True or False:
“The Supreme Court
has the final authority
to interpret the meaning of the Constitution
and determine if the
law is being applied
correctly and fairly.”
Page 30, January 2006
The Fact of Legislative
Supremacy
Or in other words, the legislature has power over
the executive and judicial branches.
a. Congress controls the purse strings
b. Congress has the power to create federal
courts and hence the power to abolish them.
c. Congress has the power to restrict
appeals to the Supreme Court
d. Congress can impeach rogue justices
On Restricting Appeals to the
Supreme Court
• Article III, Section 2
“The Supreme Court shall have
appellate Jurisdiction… with
such Exceptions, and under
such Regulations as the
Congress shall make.”
Pledge Protection Act of 2004:
HR 2028 (passed 247-173)
• “No court created by Act of
Congress shall have
jurisdiction, and the Supreme
Court shall have no appellate
jurisdiction, to hear or decide”
cases pertaining to the Pledge
of Allegiance.
TNA October 18, 2004 p 44
The Tempting of America:
page 300
• How should a judge go
about finding the law?
What does it mean to “be bound by
oath to support this Constitution?”
Page 174
1996
2003
“the Constitution is
simply gone.”
Lawrence v. Texas
Where did the Constitution go?
As Joseph Sobran put it in his excellent essay,
“How Tyranny Came to America”:
“The United States Constitution
poses no serious threat to our
form of government today.”
ACLU founded 1920
• Roger Baldwin:
– Socialist
– Goals: destroy Christianity and capitalism
– Four Communist on the founding board
– Organizations in league with the ACLU:
• People for the American Way
• National Education Association
TNA February 6, 2006 p31
Felix Frankfurter
Co-founder of the
American Civil
Liberties Union
1920
Supreme Court
Justice 1939-62
Ruth Bader Ginsberg
1993-
• General Counsel of
the ACLU from 19731980
• Served on Board of
Directors
Ruth Bader Ginsberg
1993-
• Director of the
Women’s Rights
Project during the
1970s for the
American Civil
Liberties Union
American Civil Liberties Union
“The pure version of
intellectual class
leftishness…”
Robert Bork, Slouching p. 97
Fourteenth Amendment
1. Designed to constitutionalize the civil rights
act of 1866
Fourteenth Amendment
1. Designed to constitutionalize the civil rights
act of 1866
2. Designed to shield blacks from violence and
oppression, discriminatory laws and law
enforcement
Fourteenth Amendment
1. Designed to constitutionalize the civil rights
act of 1866
2. Designed to shield blacks from violence and
oppression, discriminatory laws and law
enforcement
3. Designed to protect fundamental rights, NOT
to provide political or social equality
Fourteenth Amendment
1. Designed to constitutionalize the civil rights
act of 1866
2. Designed to shield blacks from violence and
oppression, discriminatory laws and law
enforcement
3. Designed to protect fundamental rights, NOT
to provide political or social equality
4. Blacks should be immune from obligations,
duties, pains and penalties from which other
citizens are immune
Fourteenth Amendment
The Warren Court “revised the
Fourteenth Amendment to mean exactly
the opposite of what its framers designed
it to mean, namely to leave suffrage and
segregation beyond federal control, to
leave it with the States. Where control
over internal, domestic matters resided
from the beginning.” R. Berger p. 245
“…a hellish
interpretation of the
Fourteenth Amendment.”
Roe v. Wade
War on the Unborn
1973
Criminalizing abortion violates a
women’s right to privacy as
guaranteed in the “due process
clause” of the 14th amendment
American War Casualties
War on the Unborn
Each cross represents 25,000 babies
murdered since abortion was legalized
Judicial review out of control:
Roe v. Wade is “an improvident and
extravagant exercise of the power of
judicial review.”
Chief Justice William H. Rhenquist 1973
Justice
Antonin
Scalia
“Nothing stands behind
the Court’s assertion
that governmental affirmation of the society’s
belief in God is unconstitutional except the Court’s
own say so, citing as support only the unsubstantiated say-so of earlier
Courts going back no
farther than the mid-20th
century.”
Stormer, page 116
“No person should be
nominated or
confirmed who does
not display both a
grasp of and devotion
to the philosophy of
original
understanding.”
The Tempting of America page 9
Understanding where we once were and
how we have gotten to where we are
today, can be used to bring America
back to again being truly “One nation
under God.”
Know Your Liberty Series
Next Months Class:
• March 3, Salt Lake City County Commission
Chambers, 7:00 pm # 1
• March 24, Layton City Hall, 7:00 pm # 3
• libertyandlearning.com calendar
intermission
For God, Family
and the Republic
Five crucial questions to be asked of all
Supreme Court nominees:
to honor the legacy and memory of
William Rhenquist
1. Do basic human rights come only from
government or are they rooted in
something that transcends government?
Five crucial questions to be asked
of all Supreme Court nominees:
2. Is man’s inherent human nature fixed or
does raw political power determine who
is and is not a member of the human
family?
Five crucial questions to be asked of all
Supreme Court nominees:
3. Is law merely the construct of jurists and
lawmakers or is it based on first
principles of morals and justice?
Five crucial questions to be asked
of all Supreme Court nominees:
4. Is the proper role of the judiciary to
restrain/limit itself to interpreting law or
does it possess de facto legislative
powers?
Five crucial questions to be asked
of all Supreme Court nominees:
5. Should the judiciary share power equally
with the other two branches of
government (the legislative and the
executive) or should its powers
transcend them?
The Doctrine of Interposition
“Interposition is an official
act on the part of a State
government to question the
constitutionality of a policy
established by the central
government.”
Liberty Forum, Winter 2006, Page 9
The Doctrine of Interposition
Interposition is not
Secession – it is sound
contract theory that requires
both parties, the Federal
and the State, to obey the
terms of the contract.”
W. Cleon Skousen
• The Supreme Court
“The courts were to
interpret, not create the
law.”
“The American Supreme
Court has largely
obliterated the
independent authority
of state governments.”
“The public is massively
uninformed about both
law and judges.” 1998