Americans don’t want their country reinvented
by Sen. Jim DeMint
The Washington Times
6/29/2010
When a president and a Congress collude to pass and sign into law unconstitutional power grabs, bailouts and takeovers there is only one immediate backstop: the Supreme Court. Every branch of government has an obligation to preserve, defend and uphold the Constitution, and if the legislative and executive branches overstep their boundaries, the judicial branch can stop then.
On the other hand, if the Supreme Court doesn’t say “no” when the other two branches go too far, there is no tax that can’t be levied, no mandate that can’t be imposed, no regulation that can’t be instituted and no industry that can’t be taken over. The only recourse Americans have is to slowly remove and replace members of Congress and the president through the election process. But when Supreme Court judges, who are unelected and given lifetime appointments, refuse to say “no” when the Constitution says they should, it can take much longer to undo the damage.
Judges who rely on flawed precedent or their own “judgment” instead of the Constitution to justify their rulings can say “yes” to anything. This is precisely how liberal judges have rubber-stamped tyrannical actions by the government in the past and how they will do it in the future.
On these grounds, I feel compelled to oppose Solicitor General Elena Kagan’s nomination to the Supreme Court. During my private meeting with her, I asked Ms. Kagan questions about the limits of federal power. Her answers indicated her judicial philosophy is not grounded in the Constitution, and she would grant too much deference to precedent.
The Senator’s op-ed continues at The Washington Times.
