Hell Hath No Fury Like Liberal Justices Scorned

Letter to Romans: The war between good & bad angels is called the War in Heaven. Another ageless war, if on Earth, is mankind’s belief its judges always make partisan calls. But US Sup Ct’s chief judge says his court’s job is to simply follow the Law, no matter how “unpopular” to the losers.

In remarks at a recent judicial conference, Chief Justice John Robers stopped short of calling the High Court’s critics “cry babies,” but clearly bemoaned how most Americans don’t understand how the Supreme Court operates in interpreting complicated legal issues that are often unpopular with one party or the other … as LAWYERS, NOT POLITICAL ACTORS. Said Justice Roberts: “I think at the very basic level, people think we’re making policy decisions [and] saying we think this is what things should be as opposed to this is what the law provides. I think they view us as truly political actors, which I don’t think is an accurate understanding of what we do.” Not that Roberts wouldn’t agree the Supreme Court’s decisions can have big policy implications. But its legal rulings must try to interpret the policy & impact Congress or the Executive Branch intended. At least, THAT was the way the Founding Fathers wanted the Court under the Constitution.

Yet, since the 1960s this Supreme Court has swung from a majority of Justices leaning progressive left to a majority of Justices leaning conservative right. The former created a theory the Constitution is a “living document” that can be molded by judicial fiat to meet a changing world. The latter, now holding a 6-3 majority, reminds that the Founding Fathers’ “original” intent is what counts today as well as yesterday and if they wanted Justices to make up the Rule of Law as they went along, they would have said so. Case in point was the recent majority’s decision saying the Voting Rights Act was never intended by Congress to trigger race-based gerrymandered voting districts pitting blacks vs whites. The once VRA giddy liberals are now crying foul. But Justice Roberts reminded ANY ruling must be “based on our best effort to figure out what the Constitution means [or Congress meant] & how it applies” in practice.

Davd Soul