Constitution unconstitutional?

The people of California, through a direct vote made a law.  Judges of the California Supreme Court decided that the law violated the rights of a small minority.  (It is supposed that the California Constitution spells out what rights the people have, but I don’t know which of those rights were violated.)  The people of California were emphatic, embedding into the Constitution itself what their will is.

And those same “justices” are now going to determine whether the vote that declared their declaration of the law to be unconstitutional is now in the Constitution are going to decide whether or not the Constitution is constitutional.  Arg-g-gh!  Oh, what a tangled web we weave…

The electorate needs to decide that one of two views should predominate in law, both at the federal and state levels.

  1. The words of the Constitution mean exactly what they say, no more and no less.
  2. The words of the Constitution have no intrinsic meaning.  Only the structure does.

In the first instance, we’ll need far fewer lawyers and the judges will be “reduced” to declaring as truth what anyone with an eighth grade education can see with his own eyes.

In the second instance, which is the prevailing one today, judges have the very powerful position of deciding not just what the Constitution says, but what it “implies”.  This case is whether or not judges can decide that the words of the Constitution are in violation of what the feelings of the judges about the Constitution are.  This makes the judges the de-facto rulers of the people.

There is an ongoing contest between these two views.   Can both be implemented within the same country?  The obvious answer is “No.”  Only one can be implemented. One will make the other of no effect.

We are asking the same judges whose power is at stake to decide whether they themselves are all-powerful or not.  I can almost guess how they will decide.

Secession, anyone?

Published in: Politics | on November 14th, 2008 |

You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

One Comment Leave a comment.

  1. On November 21, 2008 at 10:26 pm Beverly Leighton O'Toole Said:

    Alan;

    You would not believe how many times I have heard the word “secession” in the last few weeks. It does sound tempting at times. Many of the “Reds” in this “Blue” state are sick and tired of the judicial side telling us what the law is. In many cases we are sadly outnumbered. Then when we do manage to get our voice heard we are shot down by some out of touch person in a black robe telling us what they think the constitution means and whether or not we have legal standing to change said constitution. I know that was a run-on sentence, but I have so many things going on in my mind right now.

    I have one brother who tells me that we conservatives are narrow minded, bigoted, downright mean people. Then I see videos of those protesting against the passage of Proposition 8. Amazing how narrow minded, bigoted, and downright mean they are. When did Christianity become a bad word?

    Well, enough of my rambling (ranting?)for now. Let me know if there are any classmates you would like to connect with. I can forward your Weblog to them.

Leave a Comment